paleomaxx
Hero Member
- Aug 14, 2016
- 841
- 6,887
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 6
- Detector(s) used
- Deus XP
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I had my first brand-new yard hunt of this season and I have to say it went pretty well! The ring wasn't very deep, maybe 4", so the signal was solid, but it was ringing in the mid 30's on the Deus which is usually iron chunks or extremely small bits of foil. I actually passed over it and then went back and forced myself to dig it.
It looked like silver out of the ground, but it rang far too low so I thought it was a junker until I cleaned it up and saw the "Platinum" stamp inside the band as well as the vintage engravings. It never occurred to me that I could find Platinum that was this old, but I guess it was popular (albeit expensive) in the 1920's.
The date is clear as day, but I'm not 100% on the rest of the hand-engraved message. It might read "To the top" and then initials, but I could be wrong on that. Unfortunately the family that lives here now has only been at the house since the 60's and doesn't recognize the initials. It's possible that this is from two families before them given its age.
The house is an amazingly historical one that was built in 1816 by a War of 1812 navy captain. I had all sorts of hopes for what would be in the ground here and it had never been detected before so the possibilities were endless, but it seems the ring was going to be the star find. The ground is very moist and clay-like so even modern copper pennies were toasted and I suspect that small older targets sank too deep in the soil to ring up. I did find some larger old relics at 10" or more since they tend to ring up at greater depth than coins. The intact bell is my favorite since I always love digging those.
I did find a few toasty coins though, including what I think is an early 1800's variety KG III, an 1845 large cent, and a decently preserved 1868 shield nickel:
That about sums up the hunt, but what an experience finding vintage platinum! It just goes to show you never know what's inside the next plug.
It looked like silver out of the ground, but it rang far too low so I thought it was a junker until I cleaned it up and saw the "Platinum" stamp inside the band as well as the vintage engravings. It never occurred to me that I could find Platinum that was this old, but I guess it was popular (albeit expensive) in the 1920's.
The date is clear as day, but I'm not 100% on the rest of the hand-engraved message. It might read "To the top" and then initials, but I could be wrong on that. Unfortunately the family that lives here now has only been at the house since the 60's and doesn't recognize the initials. It's possible that this is from two families before them given its age.
The house is an amazingly historical one that was built in 1816 by a War of 1812 navy captain. I had all sorts of hopes for what would be in the ground here and it had never been detected before so the possibilities were endless, but it seems the ring was going to be the star find. The ground is very moist and clay-like so even modern copper pennies were toasted and I suspect that small older targets sank too deep in the soil to ring up. I did find some larger old relics at 10" or more since they tend to ring up at greater depth than coins. The intact bell is my favorite since I always love digging those.
I did find a few toasty coins though, including what I think is an early 1800's variety KG III, an 1845 large cent, and a decently preserved 1868 shield nickel:
That about sums up the hunt, but what an experience finding vintage platinum! It just goes to show you never know what's inside the next plug.
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