Atrus
Greenie
Hi all,
Went out the other day with the still new Minelab E-Trac. Still trying to learn what it is telling me, and I am "startin' to begin to commence" to get the hang of it.
After searching one of the oldest parks in town and digging up several pennies & dimes, a quarter and a gazillion poptop tabs and aluminium screwtops, I decided to call it an evening and head back to the house. On the way back, I passed by a sidewalk which the town had dug up to do some work on the storm drains. I remembered that someone said that whenever they saw this type situation, they always searched it, because that dirt has been sitting undisturbed (and undetected) for YEARS... Ok, Why not. I parked my vehicle & fired the E-Trac up again.
Within minutes I found a wheat penny! Cool! A few aluminum cans, poptops, & screwlids. Well, I guess there's some modern junque thrown in for good measure. Got a nice high pitched tone, solid signal, but the Fe-Co numbers didn't look quite right for a coin. It was a military button. From what I researched, it's a "general service" 2-piece. The design was introduced in 1902. Maybe not so valuable, but, hey, it's my first military button!
I can make out "an Button Co." on the back, but that's about it.
A few more bottlecaps later and I turned up a brass belt buckle. I think it may be a buckle from a leather strap on a pouch or bag, rather than a belt buckle because either the tongue has twisted around to the wrong side, or the curve seems to be wrong for holding up one's trousers.
It is stamped "something-row R.I." at the bottom. Wonder if anyone has any ideas.
Found another wheat penny, and as I continued searching, an older man came by and wanted to talk. He was interested in the detector.
"Is that a Whites?"
"No, It's a Minelab."
"I got a friend who has a Whites."
"So do I. Whites are excellent machines."
"Will that one tell you what you found?
"Nope, It just tells you what it knows about the metal it's locked onto."
"Then how do you know whether it's any good or not?"
"It tells me everything it knows about what it's locked onto. It tells me how ferrous it is, how conductive it is, how deep it is, and it gives me an audible tone, and the pitch helps me determine whether or not to dig. I have to understand what the machine is telling me. It's kinda like Fox News. It reports, I decide..."
About that time I locked onto a really sweet, high pitched tone which registered 12-47 on the Fe-Co display. It was about 6" down. I unplugged the headphone so he could hear.
"Here, listen to this..."
I let him hear how sweet it sounded, how solid and repeatable it was, and where it rang in on the display. I said, "This is most likely a quarter." I pinpointed it, and dug with the small trowel. It turned out to be some small round aluminum container. I said, "Well, lots of times something sounds good, but turns out to be junk. I handed him the small container. He started to rub it a little and handed it back to me.
"There seems to be some writing on the lid. I believe I'd check it out a little closer before tossing it aside..."
When I went out with Mike, (4-H) he advised that I should carry an old toothbrush to gently brush off coins etc. without hurting them. I took out my old toothbrush and started to gently brush.. A Large "W" came into view. "W--i-d-o-w-s" Brushing back, "y--r--r-e---M" "Merry Widows." What the heck was THAT?! I continued brushing. Along the bottom curve of the lid were the words, "SOLD FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES ONLY" Neither of us had a clue what it was, but I tossed it in my bag and decided to take it home with me.
The old man left and I found another wheat penny. In just a little over an hour I bagged three wheat pennies, a military button, a brass belt buckle, and a strange old tin that contained something that was used for "medical" purposes...
When I came home, my wife asked what I found. I showed her all of my "loot" and started running it under the faucet of the kitchen sink to further brush it clean. When I further cleaned the little container, I handed it to her and asked her to Google "Merry Widows" and see if she could find out what it was. She went into the computer room while I continued to brush the rest of my finds. All of a sudden she yelled out that I really need to come here and SEE this! She found the EXACT picture on the internet, and what it originally contained. Now THAT was funny!!! This "tin" will definitely become a treasured find!
Hmmmm.... I wonder what "medical" purposes they used this for?
Anyway, was wondering if anyone might recognize this type belt buckle (remember, the title of this thread) and shed a little more light on it?
P.S. Searching in the dirt piles from dug up sidewalks will DEFINITELY become standard practice for me from now on!
Went out the other day with the still new Minelab E-Trac. Still trying to learn what it is telling me, and I am "startin' to begin to commence" to get the hang of it.
After searching one of the oldest parks in town and digging up several pennies & dimes, a quarter and a gazillion poptop tabs and aluminium screwtops, I decided to call it an evening and head back to the house. On the way back, I passed by a sidewalk which the town had dug up to do some work on the storm drains. I remembered that someone said that whenever they saw this type situation, they always searched it, because that dirt has been sitting undisturbed (and undetected) for YEARS... Ok, Why not. I parked my vehicle & fired the E-Trac up again.
Within minutes I found a wheat penny! Cool! A few aluminum cans, poptops, & screwlids. Well, I guess there's some modern junque thrown in for good measure. Got a nice high pitched tone, solid signal, but the Fe-Co numbers didn't look quite right for a coin. It was a military button. From what I researched, it's a "general service" 2-piece. The design was introduced in 1902. Maybe not so valuable, but, hey, it's my first military button!
I can make out "an Button Co." on the back, but that's about it.
A few more bottlecaps later and I turned up a brass belt buckle. I think it may be a buckle from a leather strap on a pouch or bag, rather than a belt buckle because either the tongue has twisted around to the wrong side, or the curve seems to be wrong for holding up one's trousers.
It is stamped "something-row R.I." at the bottom. Wonder if anyone has any ideas.
Found another wheat penny, and as I continued searching, an older man came by and wanted to talk. He was interested in the detector.
"Is that a Whites?"
"No, It's a Minelab."
"I got a friend who has a Whites."
"So do I. Whites are excellent machines."
"Will that one tell you what you found?
"Nope, It just tells you what it knows about the metal it's locked onto."
"Then how do you know whether it's any good or not?"
"It tells me everything it knows about what it's locked onto. It tells me how ferrous it is, how conductive it is, how deep it is, and it gives me an audible tone, and the pitch helps me determine whether or not to dig. I have to understand what the machine is telling me. It's kinda like Fox News. It reports, I decide..."
About that time I locked onto a really sweet, high pitched tone which registered 12-47 on the Fe-Co display. It was about 6" down. I unplugged the headphone so he could hear.
"Here, listen to this..."
I let him hear how sweet it sounded, how solid and repeatable it was, and where it rang in on the display. I said, "This is most likely a quarter." I pinpointed it, and dug with the small trowel. It turned out to be some small round aluminum container. I said, "Well, lots of times something sounds good, but turns out to be junk. I handed him the small container. He started to rub it a little and handed it back to me.
"There seems to be some writing on the lid. I believe I'd check it out a little closer before tossing it aside..."
When I went out with Mike, (4-H) he advised that I should carry an old toothbrush to gently brush off coins etc. without hurting them. I took out my old toothbrush and started to gently brush.. A Large "W" came into view. "W--i-d-o-w-s" Brushing back, "y--r--r-e---M" "Merry Widows." What the heck was THAT?! I continued brushing. Along the bottom curve of the lid were the words, "SOLD FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES ONLY" Neither of us had a clue what it was, but I tossed it in my bag and decided to take it home with me.
The old man left and I found another wheat penny. In just a little over an hour I bagged three wheat pennies, a military button, a brass belt buckle, and a strange old tin that contained something that was used for "medical" purposes...
When I came home, my wife asked what I found. I showed her all of my "loot" and started running it under the faucet of the kitchen sink to further brush it clean. When I further cleaned the little container, I handed it to her and asked her to Google "Merry Widows" and see if she could find out what it was. She went into the computer room while I continued to brush the rest of my finds. All of a sudden she yelled out that I really need to come here and SEE this! She found the EXACT picture on the internet, and what it originally contained. Now THAT was funny!!! This "tin" will definitely become a treasured find!
Hmmmm.... I wonder what "medical" purposes they used this for?
Anyway, was wondering if anyone might recognize this type belt buckle (remember, the title of this thread) and shed a little more light on it?
P.S. Searching in the dirt piles from dug up sidewalks will DEFINITELY become standard practice for me from now on!
Good finds Jim 
