Doing a little park hunting with a friend yesterday and I was just blown away with two of the finds I made. I was hunting along the main path when I got a huge overload signal. I know some guys don't like to dig overload signals but I never pass them up. Some of the most interesting finds I have made are from those huge overload signals. I got down on the ground and started to cut a plug when I immediately encountered something solid just one inch below the surface. I cleared a bit of dirt away and saw a nasty mangled piece of rusty metal. Figured I had found another addition for my trash pouch I started to dig it out so I could throw it away. I then felt my digger come into contact with some smooth glass in the hole as well and thought maybe I at least got lucky and found a bottle in the hole as well. I backed the digger up until I found the edge of the item and pried it up and over and out of the ground. When that item hit the ground I think my jaw did as well. I was completely shocked by what I had just found! Lying there on the ground was a gorgeous solid brass 1908 post office box door with the door glass intact. It was awesome! One minute you are figuring you have a piece of trash in the hole and the next minute you are staring at a very unexpected beautiful relic. I quickly called my friend over and the look on his face was priceless when he saw what was in the hole. No idea how it came to rest there for the last 60 years or so but it now has a proud place in my treasure room.
I remember telling my friend that if I did not find anything else my day was already made. Thankfully the detecting gods weren't done with me yet as I resumed hunting and just 15 feet from that hole I got a solid signal in the 12-30's. I'd been digging those signals all day long so I was still thinking about the PO box door while I started digging the plug. I abruptly stopped thinking about that find when I flipped the plug and just two inches down I was staring at a two piece coat button! After digging a lot of 12-30's junk that day I could not believe it when that button ended up being in the hole. I saw that it had some sort of center crest and wording around the edges and after a light brushing I could begin to make out some of the words. We made out the word Alabama and I was hoping I had found a Confederate button. It wasn't Confederate but I was ecstatic none the less. I had just found my first Military Institute button! It turned out to be a post-Civil War Marion Institute Marion, Alabama button circa late 1880's and it cleaned up beautifully.
I'll keep digging those overload signals and those hundreds of pull tabs and shotgun shells because you never know what may end up being in the next hole. Thank God for knee pads.
I remember telling my friend that if I did not find anything else my day was already made. Thankfully the detecting gods weren't done with me yet as I resumed hunting and just 15 feet from that hole I got a solid signal in the 12-30's. I'd been digging those signals all day long so I was still thinking about the PO box door while I started digging the plug. I abruptly stopped thinking about that find when I flipped the plug and just two inches down I was staring at a two piece coat button! After digging a lot of 12-30's junk that day I could not believe it when that button ended up being in the hole. I saw that it had some sort of center crest and wording around the edges and after a light brushing I could begin to make out some of the words. We made out the word Alabama and I was hoping I had found a Confederate button. It wasn't Confederate but I was ecstatic none the less. I had just found my first Military Institute button! It turned out to be a post-Civil War Marion Institute Marion, Alabama button circa late 1880's and it cleaned up beautifully.
I'll keep digging those overload signals and those hundreds of pull tabs and shotgun shells because you never know what may end up being in the next hole. Thank God for knee pads.
