Bill D. (VA)
Silver Member
My good buddy Dan and I got out yesterday with a plan in mind. But it didn’t quite work out that way as sometimes happens. Between the first site being inaccessible due to an impassible road, and another being overrun with hunters we were struggling to find a place to swing. On the way to another possible location we happened to drive by a place that we had been interested in previously, but had never been able to contact the owners. We decided to make a quick stop there, and got lucky as they were home for a change. After Dan chatted with them for about 20 min we had secured permission to hunt their expansive property. Starting out in the general area where we believed a 1600s house used to exist we came up with a big goose egg. Then we checked out another one of their fields just down the street, and again nothing. So the day was looking like a total bust at that point. Our last chance was to walk a large adjacent field, and we split up to cover more territory. We were both heading for the 2 nice looking knolls in the very back of the field when I finally got a signal, and it was a large, early button. By that time Dan was back in my vicinity telling me about an early house site he thought he’d found on the other side of the field. But just before Dan got over near me I lucked out and just happened to walk over a random cut silver piece not far from where the button was found. We hit that area for a bit longer without too much success and then moved on to check out the 2 knolls. The first knoll had a great look, but the couple of musketballs Dan dug were the only finds. We crossed over a low, wooded spot between the 2 knolls, and as soon as we entered the next field we heard that sweet sound of heavy iron. We started finding a button here and there, and when we got up to the top of the knoll we decided to grid it due to all the brick and iron present. Well, we quickly realized we had put ourselves on quite an early (and apparently unhunted) site as finds were coming out at a regular pace. It was also almost completely free of modern trash, and basically every target was a pre-1820 relic or coin. It was funny as I had just mentioned to Dan that I’d love to see how nice an old copper would look coming out of this sandy soil, and then within 30 seconds I dug a nice Va halfpenny. And then Dan dug one near that spot a short time later. Later in the day Dan would make a similar statement about wanting to dig a flowing hair copper, and soon afterward missed that by just 3 years with a nice 1810 LC. Dan was also able to find a broad, shallow trash pit and made some awesome early finds there as he elaborated in his post. Just a short distance from the pit I was scanning a shallow, eroded ditch and got a really nice high tone which was reading low 80s on my F75. At first I thought it might be a piece of junk, but I got thinking that we had almost no modern trash at this site so just maybe this would be something nice. I was thinking colonial copper, but was absolutely floored when this gigantic, very thick cut piece flopped out of the plug. It ended up being a ¼ of an 8 reale. I’ve dug a bunch of cut pieces in my day, but this one takes the prize. It had a beautiful edge design as well. Not long after I was randomly wandering on the very back of the knoll and something told me to zig instead of zag, and next thing you know I had another cut piece in my hand which completed the colonial silver hat trick. Not long after that we decided to call it a day, and were already plotting our return visit. We believe the area Dan found earlier in the hunt may actually be where the main house stood, and the area we hunted was just a secondary site. That would be awesome if that was the case. Anyway, this will be remembered as was one of our most enjoyable hunts ever, and the return trip can’t come soon enough. Had a ball Dan!!
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