From the "back field": more buttons and a toasty KG3!

brianc053

Bronze Member
Jan 27, 2015
1,001
3,584
Sussex County, DE
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
Minelab Equinox 800
XP Deus 2
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Hi everyone. This morning I returned again to the location I've started calling the "Back Field" (due to it's location back in the woods behind the owner's home). It's the location that gave up the Half Cent and the 1794 Liberty Cap! (No question about this one!) over the past few weeks.

I kept working from right-to-left across the field, picking up where I left off last week. @pepperj I extended the lengths of my walks to include that darker area you commented on last week; that area did give up one button, and I'm starting to believe that stuff has been strewn all over this field by decades/centuries of plowing.

In total I found six (6) buttons today, including three buttons that are tombac (and one of those has a fancy design on the front). The other three are older English flatbuttons (1st half of 19th century).

I also found a coin, and it was challenging to identify due to its poor condition, but I'm highly confident now that it's a 1767 King George III Hibernia halfpenny! That's the first foreign coin from this site and the oldest so far. I've included annotated photos below that show the outline of the bust on the obverse, and on the revers the crown at the top of the harp and a "67" where the last two digits of the date should be. The coin is 27.6mm, which fits with coins of this variety (which were 28.2mm when minted). The coin is very thin as well as bent and damaged, and for those reasons I think there's a good chance it is a non-regal contemporary counterfeit (i.e. minted illegally in the Colonies or somewhere other than the Royal Mint).

Oh - there are two 1967 dimes in the picture; I found those today too. The first one was a heart-breaker; it was in the "field of finds" and had the right number to be a good find, so I got my hopes up - only to have them dashed when that modern coin popped out of the ground. A few feet away I got a very similar signal, but this time I was skeptical and, sure enough, it was another dime. It's funny that those dimes are exactly 200 years newer than the KG3!

Looking ahead: My first-pass search of this site is nearing completion, so after my next trip I will have to decide how to approach the site and cover the same ground in a new way. So far with the Deus 2 I've been using a variation on the General program and I've been walking up-and-back in rows. I was primarily digging "clean" signals (i.e. no iron grunts, because when I'd dig a questionable signal it was a square nail or similar every time).
When I change it up, should I:
  1. walk left-to-right (90 degrees to the original tracks)
  2. walk in concentric circles from a point in the middle of the field of finds
  3. cover the same ground but with a different program (like "Deep")
  4. dig more questionable signals, hoping there's iron+good target in the same hole
  5. Use my alternate detector (Equinox 800, which can use the 15" coil though it's heavy)
Any input from any of you would be welcome!

Thanks,
- Brian

PS - someone asked me what program I use to track my detecting and finds. It's called "Tect O Trak", but sadly it is not available or supported any longer. I'll keep using it until it stops working...

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Upvote 3
You found some great looking buttons! Thanks for including the image of the map. Always interesting to see how targets are clustered. Too bad the LC is so toasted. That is more often than not the standard for my LC's Excellent hunt!
 

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