I have been hunting more old home sites in the past month or so and, without realizing it, I haven't taken my detector off of TTF in over a month now and have apparently gotten used to all the noise of hunting heavy iron in that mode. I'm liking it!
We went to visit family over Thanksgiving and hunted an old homestead about a two-minute walk from my parents' house that I've only hunted twice before. There are two homesteads there that were on an 1876 map but have been obsolete since at least the 1940s because my grandfather used the foundation stones from the one house to construct a chimney at his childhood home down the road. There are cellar holes at both places, but the one is an odd layout and I can't quite feel out the lay of the land because it actually gets WAYYYY cleaner toward the road so I focused on the other site across the road toward a filled-in well.
Previously I'd found an 1868 Indian and some miscellaneous old house-stuff there but I did good yesterday morning. A little snow also helped me to check where I had and had not been.
The Indian head I found yesterday was an 1862 that rang up nice and low on my Etrac - this was a first for me as I had previously only dug bronze ones. This one rang in right where shotgun caps ring in at so I'm glad I dug it! The year isn't visible on the picture because I suck at taking clear photos, but it's definitely there. Lots of green on this one when I dug it. About 15 feet from that I hit a good nickel signal and pulled a shield nickel, which was a first for me since I started MDing. I'm a little disappointed that, like a lot of shields, it doesn't appear to have a visible date. I can get 18-- but that's of no help. I scrubbed it with a toothbrush and warm water/dish soap but it hasn't helped. Before I took the dirt off with the toothbrush I thought I got 188-, and my wife still swears it ends in a 7, but they were already done by 1887 so one of us is wrong. If anybody wants to take a stab at it go ahead!
Beyond that, I dug what I have since figured out is a counterstamped LC (a first for me....I think it's a matron head type). It's counterstamped with what appears to be the three rings from the IOOF (Odd Fellows) and from the KKK. The coin itself is WAAAY toasted, but the head is faintly but plainly visible under the stamps (in the same orientation). I'd like to soak it in olive oil for a couple of months to see if it pulls anything out. The R in America is also visible on the reverse, and I doubt I could ever get a year off of it, but it's still cool! I spoke with my grandfather about this and he said that the Klan was apparently real big in that area even into the early 1900s, and that we had even had family members involved in it back at the very beginning before they really "came out" for what they're all about. History isn't always pretty, but it's cool what kinds of stories can unwind from simply unearthing a little piece of metal like this.
Also dug were several buckles, some with leather still attached, a very large spoon, and something that my wife says is/was a spur....I tried arguing that it was a ninja star but was shot down.
I also dug a 6-foot, 2-man saw but did not take any photos of it. My dad is going to see if it can be restored well enough to mount as a decorative piece in their house.
We went to visit family over Thanksgiving and hunted an old homestead about a two-minute walk from my parents' house that I've only hunted twice before. There are two homesteads there that were on an 1876 map but have been obsolete since at least the 1940s because my grandfather used the foundation stones from the one house to construct a chimney at his childhood home down the road. There are cellar holes at both places, but the one is an odd layout and I can't quite feel out the lay of the land because it actually gets WAYYYY cleaner toward the road so I focused on the other site across the road toward a filled-in well.
Previously I'd found an 1868 Indian and some miscellaneous old house-stuff there but I did good yesterday morning. A little snow also helped me to check where I had and had not been.
The Indian head I found yesterday was an 1862 that rang up nice and low on my Etrac - this was a first for me as I had previously only dug bronze ones. This one rang in right where shotgun caps ring in at so I'm glad I dug it! The year isn't visible on the picture because I suck at taking clear photos, but it's definitely there. Lots of green on this one when I dug it. About 15 feet from that I hit a good nickel signal and pulled a shield nickel, which was a first for me since I started MDing. I'm a little disappointed that, like a lot of shields, it doesn't appear to have a visible date. I can get 18-- but that's of no help. I scrubbed it with a toothbrush and warm water/dish soap but it hasn't helped. Before I took the dirt off with the toothbrush I thought I got 188-, and my wife still swears it ends in a 7, but they were already done by 1887 so one of us is wrong. If anybody wants to take a stab at it go ahead!
Beyond that, I dug what I have since figured out is a counterstamped LC (a first for me....I think it's a matron head type). It's counterstamped with what appears to be the three rings from the IOOF (Odd Fellows) and from the KKK. The coin itself is WAAAY toasted, but the head is faintly but plainly visible under the stamps (in the same orientation). I'd like to soak it in olive oil for a couple of months to see if it pulls anything out. The R in America is also visible on the reverse, and I doubt I could ever get a year off of it, but it's still cool! I spoke with my grandfather about this and he said that the Klan was apparently real big in that area even into the early 1900s, and that we had even had family members involved in it back at the very beginning before they really "came out" for what they're all about. History isn't always pretty, but it's cool what kinds of stories can unwind from simply unearthing a little piece of metal like this.
Also dug were several buckles, some with leather still attached, a very large spoon, and something that my wife says is/was a spur....I tried arguing that it was a ninja star but was shot down.
I also dug a 6-foot, 2-man saw but did not take any photos of it. My dad is going to see if it can be restored well enough to mount as a decorative piece in their house.
)
