🥇 BANNER The One We Have Waited For, Privy Heaven!!!!

[jgas]

Hello all treasure freaks this is the one we have waited for. The one I gave a little teaser trailer on with the previous digs that I posted. This one took a bit to get it all together and all cleaned up after the fantastic dig that we had just unearthed. I suppose it all started a few years ago with the first pit that we had dug and discovered what a great hobby it was to actually dig up history. Several hundred pits later and we finally hit a privy that I think will go down as one of the best experiences I have had treasure hunting.
It started out with some luck, then we added just a little bit more luck and topped it off with a whole lot of luck! The timing was crazy too. Started off by just driving around to see where the excavators were digging up a bit of a parking lot. Found one pretty close to the city center so we thought we had a good chance to check it out. So we waited for the workers to stop for the day, then Gary had to probe it for the pits. It was late and he actually found a good one. But it was too late to dig with no lights. Kinda dangerous. So the next day came around and the excavators were back at it. So we waited for our time to pounce on it after he stopped pushing dirt around. He was so close to the privy that I just had to say something to the dozer driver. Usually I hate to interrupt their work but this one we had to take a chance. As luck would have it he said that he was almost done for the day and that he would leave the pit area alone, but just for one day. So all or nothing for tonight. One chance to dig this pit that we knew would be great. Gary had found a pontil Canker Balsam bottle right on top. Figuring everything below would be just as old or older. So at a feverish pitch we began to excavate what would be an unbelievable evening.

So it was Don, myself and Gary going at it. You have to be super careful because pontil bottles are fragile. Down about 5 feet we hit the top of the "Use Layer". Pontil Heaven!! We started to hit Scroll Flasks like it was the factory for them. One after another after another. Aqua, then the great site of an amber one. What a great day to be a digger. The amber one alone is huge. I'm sure it would bring a pretty penny all by itself. Then a kinda heart breaker one. A true Sapphire color scroll flask with the top knocked off. But still an incredible find. Then more aqua scrolls, pints and half pint. Then we hot a streak of medicines, cures and bitters bottles. All iron or open pontil bottles. All dating to around 1850. Crazy time had by all. The medicines saw the light of day for the first time in over 150 years. Radway RRR pontils, Dr. Bakers Pain Panacea, Dr. Wrights Indian Vegetable Syrup, Budd's Bone Wound Liniment, Ayers Cherry Pectoral all pontiled. Then a great looking C.T. Hughes & Co pepper sauce with an open pontil. Some miscellaneous unmarked tubular bottles and 4 Iron Pontil Udolpho Wolfe's Aromatic Schnapps that were iron pontil. Then 9 John Moffat Phoenix Bitters showed their faces after a century of slumber. Unbelievable. That's all we could say to each other.

Then to finish the pit Gary found a great Ravina Glass Company Travelers Companion flask in amber. And a nice ale tri mold bottle was picked out as well. Everything we pulled out was either Iron Pontil or open pontil. I could not believe the privy that we had all just experienced and captured forever on film. All tallied we pulled over 50 pontil bottles from the pit that just might surpass the $5,000 mark. But no matter what the price we eventually get for them it will never pass the amount of fun and great times we had spent just wondering how very lucky we were to get to dig this pit. Once in a few hundred privies we may get the chance, but we know reality, this may never ever happen again. A once in a lifetime chance really, but it sure paid off in good times and the fact that we can be treasure hunters in this great country and share this history with everyone! Thanks for looking everyone, be safe out there and we hope to do some more digging real soon. Until next time, jgas

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Breezie]

OUTSTANDING dig! Congratulations on finding some of the most beautiful bottles I've seen in a long while! Way to go a making a great BANNER find! Breezie

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[myfantasia1]

congrats that is so amazing. So happy for all of you

 

[gleaner1]

Jgas you popped a hella pit on this one I am gobsmacked.

 

[coinshooter]

Ok, from a non-bottle digger.
How do you determine who digs and how much?
When you find bottles, do you mark them or seperate them per the one who dug it, or do you just dig like hell and split it all at the end?
Not sure sitting in a dusty pit with a cigarette smoker is my kinda fun, but hell, if you're sucking up cigarette smoke, whats the difference with sucking dirt?
Still, those bottles are pretty cool.

How much is that John Moffat bottle worth?
Does that have any relation to the same folks who created
the "Moffat and Co." gold piece?

 

[jgas]

We usually take turns in the pit and whatever we get when it's our turn is what we each get. Although with this pit we pretty much shared the finds and of course several of them are worth quite a bit. The Moffat bottles go for $150 to $280 a piece. The colored scroll flasks can sometimes skyrocket to the thousands. Oh and yes, I've been trying to get Gary to stop smoking for years. Bad habit! Bottle digging, Good Habit! Lol. Thanks for the replies. Jgas

 

[OBN]

I love my Gold but that is a Beautiful collection of treasure you guys have found, Congrads on all and Good Luck on the next Dig.

 

[sliverofsilver]

wow! great finds and great looking bottles
love em
HH

 

[moff347]

So, I am not a artifact treasure hunter. I am just a small scale coin collector who does not know much about this stuff. However I clicked on this link as it was on the banner and started looking through the pics. On one of the bottles it says John Moffat. Well my name is Blake MOFFAT. So, I am just wondering if anybody knows the history behind this bottle. As a share the same last name. ?

 

[surf]

Here ya' go, moff,

John Moffat Phoenix Bitters Support | Peachridge Glass

​

 

[Chuxter]

Glad all of your hard work paid off! Love to see ya preserving so much history!

 

[halfdime]

I tend to get on TNet sporadically these days and I was delighted to find a jgas post on the Banner! What an awesome dig! I need to get on the stick and find myself a few good privies again. I was offered an old mansion to detect this week and it still has an old six seater. Looks like it may have been used recently, though. Congratulations on the Banner and keep on digging! One question, and I may have asked in the past: do you guys do any sifting? You mentioned a $5 gold piece that came out of a pit recently; could you have missed more over the years?

 

[jgas]

Nice to hear from you Halfdime. We occasionally metal detect the soil and ash after we dig. Most of the time though the coins would be at the very bottom of the pit and most of the time the sidewalls fall in and we don't tend to remove that dirt. I'm sure we have missed numerous coins along the way. I will detect it more and more now after seeing that gold coin pop out. Thanks for the great replies everyone. Jgas

 

[skateandcreate]

Sweet sweet dig!

 

[chkn]

Those are beautiful! Don't spend it all in one place!!!

 

[Col.Philo95thNY]

Great Finds... I always enjoy seeing these type bottles come to light...

Philo

 

[{Sentinel}]

Yeah you definitely hit the Jackpot with that one, congratulations guys

 

[RelicDude]

Holy moly you guys have found some of the most beautiful glass I have ever seen come out of the ground. I could only dream of digging one of those flasks coming out whole one day.

 

[Detect History]

Oh my GOD!!! That is absolutely spectacular!!! Incredible finds.

You guys should take a professional shot of all those bottle with a bit of backlight and get a group shot of the hunters with dirty faces and a pic of the privvy. Title it "perseverance".

Incredible and thanks so much for sharing

 

[metalev4]

One for the books. That amber scroll is killer. Bottles are my favorite finds and that was one hole.

 

[saksall1935]

wow a great find, take it from an old digger since 1968, i would like to tell you about my first find,i was going through an old abandoned house,i was upstairs looking at some old picture frames, when i found a crawl space, i noticed 3 old wood boxes, had to look to see what was in them they were full of bottles very old they all had lables and in very good shape even the two warner safes,witch i have never seen again not even in books, also in one box was an old gorge washington flask there was about 30 bottles in all and in good condition, that was my first find back in 1968, went right home and washed and cleaned those old dirty lables off.