Return to the COB SITE

[Steve in PA]

This past Sunday I was able to get back to the site where I found the cob a few weeks back. No cobs this time, but I did get a nice scribed tombac that will look good in the display. Speaking of the display, here is my display of the better finds from this site, minus my latest finds.


There are three distinct sites on this property. The first one I started hunting almost 20 years ago and it has produced finds from the 1790s to the 1840s, including two Rattlesnake & Stars buttons, two Harrison Campaign buttons, four one piece convex eagle artillery buttons, and a Vermont copper, among other things. It is loaded with broken redware, blue and green feather edge china, and other ceramics. The second site is a late 1800s home site that has produced a few Indian head pennies and suspender clips, but not much else of note. The third site has just recently come to light and is the earliest in terms of finds. It has produced a several tombac buttons, a couple KG III coppers, a part of a shoe buckle, and the cob. The finds from this site are about the same age as the earliest finds from the first site. But they are not concentrated and there is very little in the way of broken pottery and ceramics. I believe this may have been a staging area or temporary shelter when the initial site was under construction. In fact I have found matching silver plated buttons from the first site and the new site.

Anyway I spent my time Sunday in the new area. This was my first signal.


One of the nicer tombacs I have dug in a while.


Here are the other finds. A couple more buttons and a couple badly deteriorated coppers.

 

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[Steve in PA]

Nice work on the tombac, but that pair of rattlesnake buttons has me drooling

I love the rattlesnake buttons. I wanted to dig one ever since reading about a guy finding one in Howard Crouch's book "Relic Hunter" back in the early 1990s. Then about 6 years later I dug my first. If I had the money, I would try to assemble a collection of all the varieties, but so far the only I have purchased is a Chatham Artillery from Savannah with the coiled rattlesnake and "Don't Tread on Me" below the snake..

 

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[metalev4]

Nice tombacs Steve, that has been a killer site. I especially like the snake buttons.

 

[Ahab8]

I would cut off a finger for a nice rattlesnake button!!!!

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Bill,

This is a cow pasture and he has the cows in there year round, so it is always available. I have another stand by site that I have been hunting for just about as long that is another cow pasture. But he takes the cattle out during the winter and doesn't put them back in until about now. The cows should have the grass down far enough in about another month. Don't you have any cow pasture sites?

Haven't had much luck getting permission to dig in cow and horse pastures as the owners are afraid the animals will step in a hole and injure themselves. Outside of the DIV hunts, I've rarely hunted pasture land of any kind.

 

[Steve in PA]

Haven't had much luck getting permission to dig in cow and horse pastures as the owners are afraid the animals will step in a hole and injure themselves. Outside of the DIV hunts, I've rarely hunted pasture land of any kind.

With some of the deep pits you dig, that is a possibility if the filled ground is soft and an animal sinks in. I have one spot where they won't let me in there because of that fear, but the divots and skid trenches I see cattle make as they slip around on wet ground is worse than anything that would result from a filled plug.

 

[BuckleBoy]

Sweet tombac!

 

[BuckleBoy]

Haven't had much luck getting permission to dig in cow and horse pastures as the owners are afraid the animals will step in a hole and injure themselves. Outside of the DIV hunts, I've rarely hunted pasture land of any kind.

Do they crop hay in any areas near you? I've had great luck in Virginia with hay fields and permissions. Been in cow and horse pastures some, and love digging them, but they are more difficult.

 

[jerr-man]

Nice finds and Love the display. Congratulations and Thanks for sharing.

 

[Evolution]

That one tombac is awesome. What a great site. Congrats!

 

[Steve in PA]

Do they crop hay in any areas near you? I've had great luck in Virginia with hay fields and permissions. Been in cow and horse pastures some, and love digging them, but they are more difficult.

I have a few sites that are rotated between hay, beans, and corn.

 

[mangum]

That's a nice old site, love that Tombac!