🥇 BANNER Is Mercury the Detecting God? :) First Ace 250 hunt! LOL

Iron Patch

Gold Member
Sep 28, 2007
19,254
8,732
Dirtyville
🥇 Banner finds
3
Detector(s) used
Deus
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Out today with Ironhorse, didn't think I would be as my Explorer has major issues and will have to hit the repair center. I decided I was done, but as the week went on I decided not to quit and borrow back a Garrett Ace I bought for a friend to use. So not only was this a kind or strange and lucky day, it almost never happened! Interestingly enough, the other 17mm version of this button find I currently have was also dug on a day I probably shouldn't have been out, but plans changed, I got the call, and out the door I went. That coincidence just hit me as I'm writing, but it's actually another connection I'll choose to write about, since I already filled in the subject line. :laughing7:


So IH and I get to a new field to try, him as usual with the Explorer, and me with my Ace. In a stupid way I was almost thinking I hope this is not the day we find a great site feeling that I was heavily outgunned, but those thoughts never stick because I would much rather see good stuff come out regardless of who gets it, then both of us go home with nothing. So we walk around this large field not getting much but some modern trash and the occasional old sign. I then see IH making his way to the other end, so I start to head that way and about half way there I get the famous Garrett belltone, like in the old days when I first started hunting.... dug it up and it was my first Merc dime. 13 years and it took an Ace 250 for me to find it, and at a place there didn't seem like there was much else. We did walk to the end of the field, got nothing, then made our way back towards the car and I dug two more signals and both were large cents! I'm thinking this 250 might not be so bad after all. :laughing7: Still not enough, and not old enough for our taste so we decided to hit an old favorite site and see if there was a keeper or two left. By this time, after 3 coins in a row my confidence was booming and just had that feeling I was going to dig something good.... but even with that feeling I didn't believe it because this particular spot has been hit hard for near 10 years. Anyway, we get to the 2nd site,make our way across the field, I start swinging over the iron patch and am sort of trying to digest what the detector is telling me, and within a few minutes dug a bell tone and the sound vanished once I got the dirt out, and my thinking was.... here we go, digging iron all day with this thing. As I was kicking the dirt back in the hole the detector swung back around and detected another target, this time it wasn't a belltone so I was more confident, dug the dirt and had a sudden flashback to 2001!


In 2001 I dug the best button I have ever found. It was a coat size Rev War King's American Regiment button with near all the gilt. I sent pics to a major collector who's reply was... The Detecting Gods have smiled upon you. Today when I found this button which is cuff size (17mm) seeing the gold gilt and then reading the words gave me a total flashback to 2001. So... it only makes sense that Mercury must be the Detecting God that collector talked about all those years ago. :laughing7: If you've read this far, and have read some of my previous posts you've probably seen me say a couple of times that it seems like history is repeating itself, or I am detecting back to the future. Well yet here is another hunt that has that same weird vibe, and makes me feel after my 2 years away from the hobby it was the right time to come back.


And without further ado.... Here is that awesome 1926 Merc dime! ;) But the button probably pays for the detector about 4 or 5 times over... not bad for the first day!

http://www.royalprovincial.com/military/rhist/kar/karlist.htm
 

Attachments

  • merc.jpg
    merc.jpg
    50.3 KB · Views: 949
  • kingcuff.jpg
    kingcuff.jpg
    75.9 KB · Views: 899
  • king1.jpg
    king1.jpg
    57.1 KB · Views: 828
  • Loyalist Corps_htm_m32673cc1.png
    Loyalist Corps_htm_m32673cc1.png
    28.1 KB · Views: 608
Last edited:
Upvote 49
Congrats on your great find. You have renewed my faith in me Ace 250. It's my first detector. I got it three months ago and found two Merc dimes in one hunt but I have been on a real dry spell lately. Haven't found anything but shallow clad and it's falsing a lot on the iron targets. I was thinking it was time to upgrade or give up. Maybe it's the sites I'm working on lately.

Anyways, your post has shown that I just need to keep at it. It's like a frigging addiction trying to get that rush from a nice find. I'm logging less hours at work because of it :-).
 

IP your explorer would have passed over that little gem without a whimper :laughing9:. Congrats on the banner sir.
 

Last edited:
What a way to relike Garrett detectors! I sure remember that wonderful Belltone sounding off.............Garrett user for almost 20 years before switching to ML Explorer....(In 2000)
 

Definitely go Ace, then grab what you want in the Spring. Rick probably has one there.

Yes Rick has both of those on hand, I'm sure.
And I'd agree with OXbow in that the 350 is pretty much a 250 with a bigger coil, OK a bit more depth, but in the Iron Patch bigger isn't always better. That is just one reason why I like my Omega so much, it's coil is very eliptical, 6 X 10 I think, and I can really pick the goods out of the iron with it. Ask Dave.

Anyway I have found a quite a bit of old stuff now, and a few coins in the 10 to 12 inch range, but the vast majority is within range of such machines as Ace 250 of 6 to 8 inches. In fact all of my old Silvers this year have all been less than 6 inches.
Opps I'm rambling...happens, sorry.

Again, super awesome Button find.
Hope you do get out again.
Good Luck out there, and to Mr. Horse.
 

That's a blast from the past and what a beauty it is for sure. I really thought you just posting up the old beauty once again, and had to reread the post again, then I realized you weren't kidding you did go with an Ace an you nailed another one! Congrats on the awesome condition of the button.:hello2:
 

Congrats on your great find. You have renewed my faith in me Ace 250. It's my first detector. I got it three months ago and found two Merc dimes in one hunt but I have been on a real dry spell lately. Haven't found anything but shallow clad and it's falsing a lot on the iron targets. I was thinking it was time to upgrade or give up. Maybe it's the sites I'm working on lately.

Anyways, your post has shown that I just need to keep at it. It's like a frigging addiction trying to get that rush from a nice find. I'm logging less hours at work because of it :-).

Just so you know almost all detectors will make good tones on larger iron, some like mine will give the tell tale ID number of 99, but again things like ox shoes, or ring shaped objects, a link of chain for example, can fool almost all machines, and operators.

I'm putting in a banner vote too for this "gem", you just don't see them, and if you did...would they be this nice ?
 

Man. I haven't got to read every thread on here yet but will. I gotta say I was looking to buy a second detector and was gonna stick with Whites but I really have to rethink this now. You make a hard case for Garett.
Absolutely amazing finds.
HH
WH
 

IP, what are some other items you have found at the site where you found the button? Do most of them date to the Revolutionary War era?
 

Awesome find and one I haven't managed to score yet! Fantastic gilt on that one! Banner vote is in!
 

Man. I haven't got to read every thread on here yet but will. I gotta say I was looking to buy a second detector and was gonna stick with Whites but I really have to rethink this now. You make a hard case for Garett.
Absolutely amazing finds.
HH
WH


I wouldn't really base what to buy on my post. There's no question the Ace is a great value and good one for someone to start out with, but it still has the same issues all the Garretts have, and that's trouble with heavily concentrated and deep iron. It was really just my choice because it was cheap, and being a former GTI user I thought it would be the easiest one for my friend to use, and me be able to explain it. For the record I dug very little else, mostly because that is the nature of detecting there, and literally any detector would have found the button. This is a case of a great site with a good find left and not so much a detector story.
 

IP, what are some other items you have found at the site where you found the button? Do most of them date to the Revolutionary War era?


Most sites we find these buttons the losses likely happened in the first few years after the house was built so often times there's many years of other stuff mixed in. Something like 1780s to 1810 or 1820 would be a fairly normal date range. That's fine by me though, because if the house only stood a few years there's not going to be much there, although it probably would be the best stuff.... and it's not uncommon for the sons of the Loyalists to be 1812 era soldiers so we can find their buttons too, and we do.
 

So...you're gonna sell that crappy Minelab now, right? :laughing7:

Banner nomination sent.

That is a killer button for condition and rarity. Looks like we both got a BIG find this year!

Cheers and Congrats,

Buck
 

So...you're gonna sell that crappy Minelab now, right? :laughing7:

Banner nomination sent.

That is a killer button for condition and rarity. Looks like we both got a BIG find this year!

Cheers and Congrats,

Buck


You must have a lot of banner cred here. :laughing7: (it just went up around the time you posted)


Yeah, I think we should trade.
 

THAT is a absolutely fantastic ! Congrats on your return and luck! May there be more! HH!
 

Missed this yesterday. BIG CONGRATS on a nice looking button.
 

Great write up and find. It looks nice on top. It made it fast and deserves it!
 

WOW!!! Thats an awesome find.................HH
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top