DownNDirty
Bronze Member
A couple of weeks ago I ventured out to try a new very early plantation permission. I had high hopes of finding some quality relics and was not disappointed; I wish all hunts were this good!
As is usually the case with colonial sites I found a couple of buttons and a brass buckle early on, along with plenty of square nails. Things were looking promising. Then I got a 20 something signal on the Equinox that had that alluring "dig me" tone to it. After about 10 minutes of working my way around and underneath a pesky root I finally extracted the target from 5-6 inches deep. To my pleasant surprise it was an annular buckle with a thin, wide layer of applied silver on the top.
For those of you not familiar with annular buckles they date back to medieval times, and Whitehead's buckle book gives a date range of 1350-1720. I did a good bit of searching the 'net, including the UK Portable Antiquities Scheme and was unable to find another example with applied silver so I feel comfortable in saying this is a fairly rare buckle. The thin silver layer is an amazing condition considering the buckle's age.
Needless to say I was pretty pumped and felt like if I didn't dig another relic I would go home happy, but of course I kept swinging the coil (lol). Not twenty minutes later I dug another target that I thought might be a pewter button-but it had an irregular shape to it. After I wiped the dirt off both sides and saw that there was no shank on it I looked closer and saw a very faint outline of a cross. That was when I did my second happy dance of the day-I had just dug my very first COB!
Fast forward to the next day-
The coin had a very stubborn greyish patina/crust on it that was very difficult to remove. I decided to soak it in lemon juice because it was silver and lemon juice wouldn't damage silver. After several soaks I noticed that the silver was disappearing and a distinct copper tint was beginning to show. It was then that I realized that the coin was a contemporary counterfeit instead of a real cob (pun intended). I was disappointed, but at least it was made during the same time period that cobs were minted-so it's still an interesting find.
Now back to the hunt...
Other finds included several buttons-one of which was an interesting square shape-and two other buckles
I also dug this very early lathing hammer/hatchet; here it is before and after electrolysis and preservation
Here are all of my finds from the day's hunt
Last weekend I did some scouting at another promising old site. The finds were few and far between but were enough to make me want to re-visit the spot.
A pewter spoon bowl, a sheet of lead that was folded over twice when I found it, and this interesting lead piece
It looks similar to a bale or bag seal but there are no markings and it is bigger and heavier than any seal that I have found to date. Ideas??
Definitely a fun couple of hunts. Time to get out there and do it again! Good luck to all of y'all-stay hydrated and dig something good.
As is usually the case with colonial sites I found a couple of buttons and a brass buckle early on, along with plenty of square nails. Things were looking promising. Then I got a 20 something signal on the Equinox that had that alluring "dig me" tone to it. After about 10 minutes of working my way around and underneath a pesky root I finally extracted the target from 5-6 inches deep. To my pleasant surprise it was an annular buckle with a thin, wide layer of applied silver on the top.
For those of you not familiar with annular buckles they date back to medieval times, and Whitehead's buckle book gives a date range of 1350-1720. I did a good bit of searching the 'net, including the UK Portable Antiquities Scheme and was unable to find another example with applied silver so I feel comfortable in saying this is a fairly rare buckle. The thin silver layer is an amazing condition considering the buckle's age.
Needless to say I was pretty pumped and felt like if I didn't dig another relic I would go home happy, but of course I kept swinging the coil (lol). Not twenty minutes later I dug another target that I thought might be a pewter button-but it had an irregular shape to it. After I wiped the dirt off both sides and saw that there was no shank on it I looked closer and saw a very faint outline of a cross. That was when I did my second happy dance of the day-I had just dug my very first COB!
Fast forward to the next day-
The coin had a very stubborn greyish patina/crust on it that was very difficult to remove. I decided to soak it in lemon juice because it was silver and lemon juice wouldn't damage silver. After several soaks I noticed that the silver was disappearing and a distinct copper tint was beginning to show. It was then that I realized that the coin was a contemporary counterfeit instead of a real cob (pun intended). I was disappointed, but at least it was made during the same time period that cobs were minted-so it's still an interesting find.
Now back to the hunt...
Other finds included several buttons-one of which was an interesting square shape-and two other buckles
I also dug this very early lathing hammer/hatchet; here it is before and after electrolysis and preservation
Here are all of my finds from the day's hunt
Last weekend I did some scouting at another promising old site. The finds were few and far between but were enough to make me want to re-visit the spot.
A pewter spoon bowl, a sheet of lead that was folded over twice when I found it, and this interesting lead piece
It looks similar to a bale or bag seal but there are no markings and it is bigger and heavier than any seal that I have found to date. Ideas??
Definitely a fun couple of hunts. Time to get out there and do it again! Good luck to all of y'all-stay hydrated and dig something good.
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