Back to campus, another silver and I got my 2 cents worth out of the hunt

tnt-hunter

Bronze Member
Apr 20, 2018
1,869
9,937
Mountain Maryland
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
9
Detector(s) used
Fisher CZ-21, Minelab Equinix 800, ,Garret AT Pro,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Winter is here for sure. It has snowed the last 4 days off and on and we have 6 or 7 inches of snow on the ground. The scout camp has even more and they won’t see temps above freezing until February so I have to go east to find bare ground that isn’t frozen solid. It might be a little crusty or frozen an inch deep, but at least I can still dig and recover finds. So I went to the college campus to continue gridding some areas to see what was left.

I spent 5 hours swingin the CZ21 in the cold and managed 45 coins with a face value of $2.93, an old knife, a cheapie earring, half a key, a flat button, a silver earring, a drawer pull, a large brass whatzit, tons of can slaw and some tabs.

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The button is from the old farm. No backmark and it is paper thin. I have found several like it at this site. The earring is bent up and was right under the grass. I have others just like it so I should be able to make a pair and sell them at my next yard sale. The broken pull is part of a swan-neck bail drawer pull. It looks old from the style, but they still make some that look very much like this one so no way to date it. I am sure it is from the farm so it would be at least pre 1961 when the school was built, but could be much older.

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The large brass whatzit is bent and broken. It is made of 2 identical pieces held together with rivets with a piece of wood in the middle. It had an edge piece that is mostly missing and the wood has deteriorated so there is only a little rotten bit left. It has a post with a hole for a screw or pin to hold it onto a base of some kind. It has been hit by a plow or earthmoving equipment so it’s in bad shape. If anyone knows what it was used for I would appreciate the input.

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I made a second trip to campus and worked off the last grid with the CZ for 5 more hours. I had a rough start. In the first 2.5 hours I only found 2 pennies, 1 tab and 6 or 7 bits of can slaw. I thought I was doomed for this hunt. Then I hit a target what I though was a big piece of an aluminum can but turned out to be 3 quarters in a tight group and things got better.

I ended up with 24 coins with a face value of $2.15, a round ball (.69 caliber), a modern copper clad bullet, a flat buttton, a 2 cent piece, a mine chit, some tabs and can slaw with a little foil as well. There was not a lot of trash in this section.

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The flat button has a bumpy front and a nice leaf pattern backmark with DOUBLE GILT on it. The shank is gone, but there are a few specks of the gold gilt left on the front.

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The 2 cent piece is an 1864. This is only my third 2 center in 18 years of detecting and my last one was over 5 years ago. Unfortunately it is a large motto so not worth a lot like the small motto would be. The dirt on it is very stubborn. I spent some time using warm peroxide on it and it did improve, but it still has not cleaned up like it should. I guess I will try the ultra sonic jewelry cleaner next.

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I did another hunt at a local state park spending a few hours detecting the dry edge of the lake bed. I got a pile of sinkers and a nice bit of clad, (also some trash and can slaw) but nothing else noteworthy.

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So more gas cash, a few more oldies, a tiny silver, a whatzit and more trash removed from the ground to be recycled. I will be out again tomorrow to see if I can find any more goodies to dig up. Here’s hoping the snow stops soon and it warms up so I can get back to the scout camp. Thanks for looking, stay safe and may your coil lead you to good things.
 

Upvote 18
tnt-hunter very nice hunts congratulations thanks for sharing and how do you like the cz
 

Congrats on the Two Center and your perserverance in this weather!
 

Your results say you had a great hunt! Congratulations on the interesting finds! Thank you for sharing with us.
 

tnt-hunter very nice hunts congratulations thanks for sharing and how do you like the cz

Thanks for the comments. I like the CZ a lot. It is my go to machine. I do use an ATPro for most of my water hunts these days and an older Excalibur for final sweeps of yards I do. But the CZ is still my favorite and has served me well for 12 years. Thanks again, stay safe and keep swingin.
 

Nice report and 2 cent piece. Whats up with the mine chit? What was it used for? mines in MD?
 

Nice report and 2 cent piece. Whats up with the mine chit? What was it used for? mines in MD?
Thanks for your reply. Mine chits were used in the coal mines here in western Maryland. A miner was assigned a number and he has a bunch of chits with his number stamped on them. He put one on the check in board when he went into the mine so they would know who was in the mine if there was a cave in. He also put one on the hook on the mine car he was filling with coal so he got credit for the coal he dug. If more than one miner worked on the car they all put their chits on the car and the credit was split between them.

Usually the numbers are in large type. These are much smaller than normal so this one may, while made on a mine chit blank, may have been used for another purpose. No mines in this area had that many employees. Thanks again. Stay safe and keep swingin.
 

Nice haul. I just posted an 1864 large motto two center here myself yesterday. Yours has some very nice detail. I really like the two cent coins, especially with the Civil War era date, even if not as valuable as later ones. Congrats!
 

Nice haul. I just posted an 1864 large motto two center here myself yesterday. Yours has some very nice detail. I really like the two cent coins, especially with the Civil War era date, even if not as valuable as later ones. Congrats!

Thanks. I think the 2 cent coins are a beautiful design. My other 2 are both 1865. Finding any of the 2 centers is tough but the mintage of the later more valuable dates are much smaller numbers so finding them is much harder. But you never know what the next plug will bring to light. Thanks again, stay safe and keep swingin.
 

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