Good research + permission = 1600s relics and silver coins

[Bill D. (VA)]

Sometimes A + B does not equal C in this hobby, but it did for me today. I took a break from the early colonial site Dan and I have been hitting recently, and resumed working on my little “project” that I’ve been involved with over the last 2-3 years trying to locate a long-lost early-to-mid 1600s site which even the historical folks haven’t been able to find. In the last year or so I’ve been systematically getting permission from local landowners and searching all fields within this area trying to locate the site, but no luck so far. I was able to gain permission to another area yesterday, and made a trip there in the afternoon to give it an initial walk-around. This particular spot caught my eye after checking out the CW era Gilmer map for this part of the county just the other evening. It showed a nice cleared area precisely where this property was located, but no home was shown there. Based on past experience this was a strong clue that an earlier house site might have existed at that spot. It had a beautiful looking knoll in the back of the property which screamed “early homesite” to me. As I started scanning the knoll I was expecting to immediately find an iron patch and see some scattered brick and pottery. But my detector was almost dead quiet and I thought my efforts were going to be a bust. Eventually I got my first hit, and the little intact colonial buckle I dug caught me off guard and really got me going. It was a slow process, but I gradually started recovering early artifacts, many from the 1600s. These mostly took the form of buttons and buckles, but I finally got a nice surprise when a very early silver coin popped out. I didn’t specifically recognize it, but it’s probably an early cob. Part of the date was showing (“xx17”), and I believe it’s from 1617 based on its looks. Later another nice looking cut reale dated 1736 also revealed itself in the sandy soil. Some other interesting early brass items were also dug during the 2 hour hunt plus a 1600s nipple button. Not sure how loaded this site might be, but seeing how I only covered a small fraction of it and found quite a few early relics there’s got to be more waiting to be discovered in this great looking spot. I also do not believe this is the “holy grail” site I’ve been trying to locate for reasons I won’t go into here. But that gives me added incentive to continue my quest for this site.

Sorry for the pics being out of order, but for some reason pics are sometimes placed in different position in a post than the way they were uploaded. This seems to be a common problem on this site.

 

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[Night Stalker]

Some very nice finds you dug! I recently obtained permission to hunt 7000+ acres of cotton & peanut fields (owned by one man)...hope to be posting some pictures in the very near future.

Congrats again

 

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[Bill D. (VA)]

Amazing finds, but that's almost expected now after observing your recent postings. I hope you find the site you're looking for, but this one is no slouch!

Please don't get the idea that finding this stuff is easy. I can't begin to tell you how many hours of research, looking up owners, walking fields, etc, it takes, and many times you strike out. But the law of averages will eventually work in your favor.

 

[birdman]

Bill you have the skills brother.

 

[Goes4ever]

wow killer finds!

 

[KnightQuest]

Nicely done!

 

[Twinkletoes]

If you need help hunting that site I'll meet you there. Call me! H Digging WOW!

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

I KNOW that research is the absolute key to this hobby. But, it appears that as one gets old, they tend to get lazy as well. LOL My taking time for the research part has been sadly lacking until just lately. Working on one right now that once figured may be very fruitful. Maybe colonial.

Anyway, it's wonderful to see the labor come to fruition as yours is doing now. That's a great job all around.

About the pictures in order? I was having the same issue. There's two ways that helped me. If you're just using the attachment function, it seemed to help me to get the pictures in order/sorted on my pc first. But, that doesn't work all the time. The way that does work every time is if you use the "insert image" function of the tool bar on the post window. It lets you better place the pictures where you want them. Just a thought.

Thanks for sharing the wonderful finds and best of luck!

HH!

Thanks for the info on the pics. But I can't seem to find the "insert image" function. Maybe my tool bar isn't showing??

 

[WHADIFIND]

Thanks for the info on the pics. But I can't seem to find the "insert image" function. Maybe my tool bar isn't showing??

I think you need to have java turned on in your browser. It's one of the toolbar icons that show up just above the post window.

HH!

 

[aquachigger]

Beautiful finds. Really enjoyed reading your post!

 

[CASPER-2]

WTG

 

[hogge]

Nice hunt and relics Bill. Hogge

 

[LuckyThirteen08]

Great Job,Thanks for sharing with all of us!!

 

[metalev4]

Your getting closer Bill! Very nice silver and early relics. Maybe the tree coin is at this site.
Evan

 

[BuckleBoy]

True, that equation doesn't always add up--but glad to see you got what you were wanting to find! I am hoping that you hit the "holy grail" soon. We are looking for our own holy grail site here, and haven't found it yet, but after searching the property records I know we are on the right property now, and we should be close. Cheers, Buck

 

[dig kzoo]

Sweet!

 

[Beercanman]

Damn, my first thought was to first stalk you, wait until you left the site, put on my bill d costume, and dig. My second thought was congrats! I can't imagine a site abandoned so early that you don't spend three days digging the modern crap off the top. I think this site is a winner as well as the other.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Damn, my first thought was to first stalk you, wait until you left the site, put on my bill d costume, and dig. My second thought was congrats! I can't imagine a site abandoned so early that you don't spend three days digging the modern crap off the top. I think this site is a winner as well as the other.

LOL, but you're gonna look pretty silly in that Bill D costume. This site was definitely abandoned prior to the CW as none of the later maps or topos show anything there - just that open field cut out of the woods. That certainly explains why I didn't find one piece of modern trash, and only one shotgun shell and one modern bullet. I can't tell ya how much fun it was to dig a site when you know that almost every hit is going to be a pre-1800 relic or coin. Just doesn't get any better than that. Only drawback is I don't think it's gonna be a very big site so the finds may be limited. But I'll take quality over quantity any day. Thanks for the humor.

 

[Digging Deeper]

How deep are most of these items found?

a day without pull tabs is like a day without sunshine.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

How deep are most of these items found?

a day without pull tabs is like a day without sunshine.

Not all that deep - generally between 4 and 10 inches although there is some deeper iron (and potential trash pits). This field had peanuts harvested in the last 2-3 years, and that process turns the ground over pretty nicely which helps keep the artifacts from getting too deep. I'm sure there are some deep buttons and coins in there, but with the benign soil conditions it's easy to hunt with the hottest settings possible to get maximum depth. I may also try a large coil there as well.

 

[Mdbri]

Research and permission, that’s it in a nutshell.im a firm believer in research, permission goes without saying.