A friend and I have been doing deep dive research and finally got out to check some of the sites from our research.
The first spot my friend snagged a 1" deep 1859S seated quarter, and I got two wheaties (1918 & 1920). Those were the only coins found at that spot, along with buttons, I think we each found an old ring, pistol balls, and relics, but not too many targets. Here's the pics from that hunt (anyone know what the tubular thingy is next to the spoon handle?) :
The next stop was a stage/ghost town type area. It's loaded with iron, and riddled with modern bullet casings. I had over 100 shells in my pouch when I dumped it out, but it's tough to pass up any conductors when you're in these type of spots, as you'd hate to think you're passing up a gold coin, button, or other good find. We hunted it a couple of times, and on the first day we found two coins each. The second day, 45 minutes into the hunt Tom found his gold coin. Only 4-5" deep, he recovered an 1829 British gold sovereign (equivocal to a $5 US gold piece). I found three coins that day, but all three were modern
Considering the previous day only one modern coin was found, and that these three were all within a 40ft radius of where Tom found his gold coin, it felt like the coin gods were playing a cruel trick on me that day 
Here's my period finds from this site - harmonica reeds, rim fire shells, a cuff link, pistol balls, :
This odd piece of lead was cast, but what was it's purpose??
Here's the gold coin my friend found right after he dug it:
Next we hit an area we thought might be a spot where travelers would camp. Targets were sparse, but I finally got a target. It was a deep signal that I almost quit digging, but when I finally wrangled the target out of the hole, I had this black/dirty rectangular piece of metal that I initially though was just some kind of modern metal tag, and tossed it in my pouch. This week when I started going through and cleaning my finds, I took a closer look at it, and was amazed to see engraving on it. I took some baking soda and water to it and low and behold it turned out to be my first piece of indian/fur trade silver :thumber: It's about the thickness of the seated half dime I found. I'm not sure how it got so bent up, but I'm thinking it may have originally been a bracelet that someone tried to flatten out
On our way back, we stopped at one of Tom's sites I've hunted with him before. It was a short hunt, as we needed to get back home, but I did get a few conductors, including a flat button and possibly an indian tinkler at the top:
Thanks for looking,
Brian
The first spot my friend snagged a 1" deep 1859S seated quarter, and I got two wheaties (1918 & 1920). Those were the only coins found at that spot, along with buttons, I think we each found an old ring, pistol balls, and relics, but not too many targets. Here's the pics from that hunt (anyone know what the tubular thingy is next to the spoon handle?) :
The next stop was a stage/ghost town type area. It's loaded with iron, and riddled with modern bullet casings. I had over 100 shells in my pouch when I dumped it out, but it's tough to pass up any conductors when you're in these type of spots, as you'd hate to think you're passing up a gold coin, button, or other good find. We hunted it a couple of times, and on the first day we found two coins each. The second day, 45 minutes into the hunt Tom found his gold coin. Only 4-5" deep, he recovered an 1829 British gold sovereign (equivocal to a $5 US gold piece). I found three coins that day, but all three were modern
Considering the previous day only one modern coin was found, and that these three were all within a 40ft radius of where Tom found his gold coin, it felt like the coin gods were playing a cruel trick on me that day Here's my period finds from this site - harmonica reeds, rim fire shells, a cuff link, pistol balls, :
This odd piece of lead was cast, but what was it's purpose??
Here's the gold coin my friend found right after he dug it:
Next we hit an area we thought might be a spot where travelers would camp. Targets were sparse, but I finally got a target. It was a deep signal that I almost quit digging, but when I finally wrangled the target out of the hole, I had this black/dirty rectangular piece of metal that I initially though was just some kind of modern metal tag, and tossed it in my pouch. This week when I started going through and cleaning my finds, I took a closer look at it, and was amazed to see engraving on it. I took some baking soda and water to it and low and behold it turned out to be my first piece of indian/fur trade silver :thumber: It's about the thickness of the seated half dime I found. I'm not sure how it got so bent up, but I'm thinking it may have originally been a bracelet that someone tried to flatten out
On our way back, we stopped at one of Tom's sites I've hunted with him before. It was a short hunt, as we needed to get back home, but I did get a few conductors, including a flat button and possibly an indian tinkler at the top:
Thanks for looking,
Brian
Research pays off big time for you! What a great post of a great planned hunt, with great results! Just great! That trade silver is sweet. Another gold coin, amazing.