Multiple Finds in One Area

[villival]

Okay, here we go. Here are the best of what I found in one area. I am still getting hits so there is more to find. Because of the arrowheads, I assumed all the items sort of belong together, but I am not sure. The arrowheads look like stone but read metal. Not pictured but also found is a buffalo nickel (no date). I also did not take a photo of some of the smaller, misc. items. At first I thought most of the items were some kind of Indian inscribing tools, but I am not sure. I am on pins and needles with this stuff. Especially strange is the horseshoe looking thing, which looks black where it is not rusted, with some kind of lines inscribed in it. The star or sun thing has a silver color peeking through. At first I thought it may be a badge, but bades are five pointed. I am stumped.

Not connected to the above find, but pictured seperately, is a very, very heavy piece. It looks like stone but is not. It is metal and the mass is incredibly dense. The closest thing I can find to it is a coin from the Jewish Revolt of 67AD or 70AD. Don't know if it is lead, silver or bronze. The pictured side is the worst (I don't have a camera). The inscriptions on it on the other side are much better.

As I said the other day, I am hopelessly addicted. In addition, I have found many stone looking objects that are metal, but don't attract a magnet. Most of them have what looks like silverr flakes on them. They are not melted aluminum. I have found some of those and they are different.

Any ideas on the "indian" stuff would be most appreciated. I am baffled.

 

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[villival]

Almostt forgot. There are two old marbles, two beads, some type of button (looks old and is metal) and that stone that clearly looks like it has been modified.

 

[pepperj]

The first picture looks very much like a lead seal, the group picture id too small to ID anything, is it possible to enlarge the photo?

 

[villival]

Here is a better photo for identification.

 

[mical66]

most of those long pointed things are nails , i have found a few old cut nails that were built up with so much rust and corrosion that they had lost their square shape . thats a large horse shoe like the type you would see on a draft horse or welsh,
i really like those 3 hatchet shaped items, no idea what they are but its neat looking,, good luck on the ID of the items .

 

[villival]

I am really familiar with horses and all items connected to them. The "horseshoe" is black, with lines inscribed on it. It also has a break on the middle top part and does not go "in" at the bottom.

 

[mical66]

yea i grew up around horses , granted not any draft horses but here is a quick google find,, see the cleft in the middlle .. alot like yours and also yours has the grooves where the nail holes are .

again i am not saying 100% draft horse shoe,, just for sure a horse shoe for a large horse.

 

[villival]

Thank you Mical. I guess what doesn't make sense to me is I am not referring to the normal grooves where the nails go, but up at the top where the rust is missing, the metal is black and has lines drawn, indented into it. It is difficult to explain and I can't draw it. I have just never seen a horseshoe made of black metal with drawing on it. I guess it's possible. I really appreciate you looking into that. Thee other thing is that though the photo doesn't show it well, the ends do not curve inward at all. It is made like a rainbow if that makes sense. And there are no projections at the ends. Perhaps it was a horsehoe someone messed up on when they were making it, but it is also very short in relation to the size, if that makes sense. I am trying to get the rust off of a couple of items to see what they are; the horseshoe, one of the axes and the star. I am also bemused by the big, heavy squarish piece. It weighs a ton. The star is kind of a head scratcher, too. The nails are what I thought also. Is there an easy way to get rust off?

 

[Erik in NJ]

Looks like a horse shoe, a bunch of old pulled rusted nails, and a key. I'm not sure what the star-like item is. I think your "iron arrowheads" are just scraps of broken iron. The top pic is a seal (not a coin) as stated by someone above. The coins you mentioned in your other post probably give the best approximate date of all of these items: early 20th century.

 

[nomad1]

The star looks like a Star of David. Some of the older sheriff badges were six pointed.

 

[pepperj]

The three items along the top could very well be the rusted remains to a farming implement like a hoe that the pointed part goes up into the handle and the rest has just broken off and it has rusted away.

 

[mical66]

Villival, i noticed the same thing that you mentioned , there are no tabs on the horse shoe, but there is a couple explanations for that , 1 that being the weakest point due to the bend , they have rusted and seperated from the shoe. or ( and i think this is the case ) the shoe never had tabs , horse shoes were like tires where they were made a little different for different jobs , the Tabs were made for horses doing heavy pulling so the tab would go down for added traction , i have also seen some that had tabs up in the front and down in the back , so the one in front would help the shoe from being ripped off the hoof from the pressure they put when pulling. i think the shoe you have found was not made for heavy pulling, just traveling.

 

[nhbenz]

The star looks like a Star of David. Some of the older sheriff badges were six pointed.

Not the Star of David (which has 6 points). But there were plenty of 8-point sheriff badges (as well as kids badges toy badges).

 

[villival]

Well, live and learn. I really appreciate all the help. On two points, I believe I am right. One is the "seal" and or "coin". It is exactly like a Jewish Revolt coin from 67AD to 70AD. They are made of lead, bronze or silver. That was found by a river in another area.

The arrowheads are of stone that is metallic. We have iron ore, lead and galena here. I am speaking of the middle two on the top row. The one on the left on the top is the same stone, but I wasn't sure because of the shape. It is stone as the other two are. The other's are rusted iron.

Since the items are junk, it won't hurt for me to get all the rust off and see what they really are. The badge had me stumped. I didn't play sherrif when I was a young girl. And the horseshoe's dimensions just were not right. The other stuff, your guess is as good as mine. I do know they are rusted iron something.

Your time and opinions are awesome. I can't thank you all enough. On the bright side, one of the marbles is old and may be worth something.

Erik, I laughed when I read your post!

 

[mical66]

i know the horse shoe and shape threw you off but it happens, i am guessing the horse shoe may have been pulled out of shape at some time.
after you clean up the other items post some more pictures and lets see them.
i recently found out how to use electric to clean some items , and have only used it on 4 coins, 3 pennies which cleaned up pretty good, and 1 large coin so rusted it did nothing , i think that coin is steel and not sure it works on steel.

basically you take a AC to DC converter like you get for at radio shack for a phone , cut the adaptor part off and attach 2 small alligator clips, again i got from radio shack .
take a glass of water ( use a clear glass so you can watch the progress ) add 2 tablespoons of salt around 1 table spoon of lemon juice.
then take stailness steel item liek a spoon or fork and place in the glass attach the positive wire/clip to the SS item ( usually if you look at the 2 wires on the power converters the one with writing is the positive ) and attach the negative wire/clip to the coin or item you want cleaned , then dip it in the water and plug up the converter ( i read 12v or higher is best ) let the items sit for a few minutes and you should be able to see the water getting dirty around the object ,, oh and a small amount of bubbles coming off the object ,, if the bubbles are coming off the SS item and not the object just swap the wires.

i let my first coin sit for15 min the first time but the others i actually let sit for a hour and they seemed to get cleaner . i am sure you can find some info that will be better and from a more experienced person then me.. good luck and keep posting the pictures.

 

[Erik in NJ]

Hi, You can soak the rusted iron in apple cider vinegar for several days and it will eat away the rust gently. Like I said most are nails and the thicker items are either bolts or pins from a door hinge I believe. The star is very interesting and you should clean it up with some soap and water. It may be a toy badge or possibly a real one--this is probably your best find in the lot. You might want to thrown the star in some vinegar too and keep an eye on it till you can see some detail. I'm almost certain that your top picture is a lead seal and NOT a coin, but those seals are nice finds for sure.

Anyway, you are doing well in the hobby--stay enthusiastic. You found better items than I did on my first outing You might want to crank up the discrimination a bit and dig more non-ferrous items. Best wishes on your next outing!

 

[villival]

Ya'll are extremely helpful and sweet. Thank you. Actually, that was not my first outing. I have been detecting for about two weeks. The items of "value" i have found so far are 1) russian knife/dagger with cloisonne handle. It is absolutely beautiful 2) 1904 Indian Head penny 3) buffalo nickel 4) coin/seal (pretty sure it's a coin; the shape is not flat at all; it's very rounded. Take a look at the jewish revolt coins. I studied the seals first because I, too, thought it was one. It isn't but I realize it is hard to tell from the photos 5) a metal frog with holes in his back. I am not sure what the holes are for. Really well made and detailed. 6) tons of wheat pennies and regular coinage 7) a metal astronaut toy in great shape (and about six metal toy cars)7) a copper garden shell (decoration) 8) a microsoft game badge from 2006 Halo something 8) a beautiful disk from an old stove that I am going to hang up 9) a piece of wrought iron work

Erik, I deliberately turned the metal on in my yard because I felt I was missing things. Should the star turn black when cleaning? It looks like it might be. Again, thank you and Mical for your help. I am going back to the plantation this weekend. I am hooked. This hobby isn't going away. I am going to N.O. soon and surrounding ares. There is a ton of history in that dirt.

 

[Erik in NJ]

Hi, I'm not sure what kind of metal it's made of. You might want to get yourself a cheap scanner at Staples (I like the Epson ones) so you can get better pics of your items for posting. I usually scan all of my finds to post here. If you are using soap and water it should only turn black if it was painted or colored black to begin with. Even the apple cider vinegar (ACV) should not turn it black. Depending on the condition, you might want to try a light scrubbing with a brass brush as well. There are lots of cleaning tricks such as brushing it with toothpaste, brushing it with a slurry of baking soda and water, and dropping it in some boiling hydrogen peroxide (use a little Pyrex bowl for this), applying short repeated coats of aluminum jelly just to name a few of the techniques I use.

Good luck with the detecting in N.O.!

 

[villival]

The star is pretty rusted. I am not worried about cleaning the nails. But I did get one of the "axe's" pretty clean and the "horseshoe". They are both black and really quite interesting looking. Beautiful in fact. I'll post them so you all can offer your opinions. I am only interested in getting the "big" stuff clean. That square looking thing is really, really heavy. The ax still looks like a tiny ax cleaned, but all black iron. The horseshoe has lines all over it on both sides; don't know if that was done for traction, but I can't imagine it would have been okay to put on the hoof like that. Plus, it's not straight. I was putting naval jelly on the star. Parts look silver and parts look look blackish. Have to use something strong initially because it is so rusted. When I get the heavy stuff off, I'll switch to one of the two methods you both offered. I'll keep you posted.

Again, thank you both so much for all your good advice. I thought the second photo was okay. It could be enlarged, etc and you can see the stuff pretty well couldn't you?