Winter research pays off with big opportunity

[JimmyCT]

Hi Ism,
I thought in a post this past summer you were in Upstate NY. hmm oh well. I can't believe your ground is like mush in Michigan. I am in CT and the ground is frozen. Maybe because you are nearly surrounded by water? Any how, I am glad you ground is "diggable" Yes, these are beautiful conditions. I actually took a pause here and went outside with my lesche digger and digger slid right right up to the handle! Amazing, just a couple days ago, I couldn't even get the tip of the lesche digger in the ground lol crazy weather lol Thanks Ism, I will have to get out and do a little hunting today! Wish you the best with your new hunting spot. HH - Jim

Critter, thats really interresting. I didn't know that they used a hole in the coin to sew it in....makes sense!
EP, I'm in SE Michigan. The ground is more than soft here. For a couple days I wouldn't have gotten out of my gravel drive without the F250 4x4.
It has been so wet that some roads have been closed because they are impassible due to their breakup.
For early Feb in Michigan....these are beautiful conditions. Who am I to complain?...grin

 

[Ism]

Hey Jim,
Since this warm spell is supposed to be caused by greenhouse gasses, I have been driving my 12mpg F-250 4x4.
Just doing my part to improve conditions for my fellow detectorists in the colder climates!
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Hi all

Ok, here's the deal. I went back to my second site next to the old school that no longer exists. I jokingly touched on the shallow grave idea in an earlier post but now I think I may be on to something. Besides asking in another forum about the copper round, I thought I would continue the thread and see if anybody here has experienced the same type of discovery on this forum.

Yesterday (2-4-12) it got into the mid 40's with sunshine so I had to go back and see what else I could find. I thought to myself, if this is a grave site I should find at least two Large cents that capped the eyes of the deceased. Well I started out finding buttons again. Except for the occasional small shard of copper or can slaw, the only signal I got was from buttons and large iron. Mostly all I heard was a null under the coil from time to time. What a nice clean area to hunt!

I got a deep high signal and took the usual relic shovel full of earth and turned it. My pinpointer found a cut nail but as I re-swept the hole I got an even better signal. It was an 1835LC....just what I was expecting from a shallow grave. I should find at least one more so the search continued. I dug just about everything that broke the disc. because the area was so clean. I found a couple buttons that must have been on edge (the signals were badly broken). After another 1/2-1 hr of searching I got a really sweet signal close to the surface. It was an unidentifiable copper round almost the same size as the Large Cent.....eye cap #2?

After a little more time I found a badly corroded copper religious medallion..looks like an angel is represented. So all in all I have found 17 flat buttons scattered in an area about 1/2 acre of the plowed field. The interesting thing is any other artifacts I've found aren't personal. They all seem to be for farm usage or blown trash.

One other observation, the lead bullets or round balls were found in the same area and are badly deformed.
I wonder if the cause of death was lead poisoning.....shrug

 

[JimmyCT]

Wow Ran you are making some really nice finds out of this field. That 1835 is a beauty! The research is literally paying off very nicely for you too! Was it custom to find the coin year as the year of death, or did they place any year coin on the eyes? Man you found yourself a real sweet spot! Charge up the battery and get back out there lol


Hey Jim,
Since this warm spell is "supposed" to be caused by greenhouse gasses, I have been driving my 12mpg F-250 4x4.
Just doing my part to improve conditions for my fellow detectorists in the colder climates!

Ran, if this is truly the case, I can't thank you enough lol.

I also want to thank you for posting. It has encouraged me to go out and realize the ground is nice and soft! So off to a local park where I found a few wheat cents and a 1940 merc. Thanks Ran - HH - Jim

 

[boog]

Hi guys,

This year I decided to do more research in my area to find promising sites to hunt. I want to capitalize on farm fields as they aren't grown over with weeds like the old vacant rural lots are.
Well in my search I found a particular town that existed in 1875 but is no longer identified on maps IE, ghost town. Centered at a crossroads, the southwest corner is now a farm field. The map shows a blacksmith and 3 other buildings along the south roadside. Further down the road is a fifth house that is still standing.

I got the property records for the field. It is owned by an LLC land company over 1000 miles away. The internet showed the primary operators, one resided locally. All I had was an address so today I drove to the owner's residence and knocked on the door. Once I apologized for intruding, we struck up a nice conversation. He gave me blanket permission and I appear to be the first to detect the area....(with permission at least).
BTW the fifth house is also his and I have permission to hunt the property as long as it remains unoccupied.
WooHoo...... They're still out there guys!

This is a prime example of how to approach getting permission to hunt private property. Permission will be denied at times but when you score a nice place like that--it is well worth the effort. Now be prepared--over the next few years word of mouth will get out to this property owners friends etc...!!! Be sure to keep him informed of a few goodies you find---He will appreciate it to the max. HH and good job

 

[Ism]

Good advice Boog,

When I asked permission for the current property I have been searching, the owner told me he gets half of what I find. I said that it was OK by me, to which he responded that he was just joking. Well, I priced the going rate for coins I found so far and on Monday when I returned to his house he met me at the door. I told him my hypothesis and showed him the finds from the last time. Then I handed him his half of the value of the coins. I think he was taken aback that I would even admit to the finds as much as give him his share. He thanked me but refused the money. He said "only if you find a lot of money, then I gets half".

Jim, I did a search about coins used in burial ceremonies, I found the following;
The corpse was thoroughly washed and clothed. Sometimes a shroud was used to cover the corpse, but most often it was dressed in regular clothing. Pennies or other coins were placed over the eyes to keep them closed. In the days prior to embalming, burial had to take place within twenty-four hours, especially in the summer, because the body decayed rapidly and the odor was unbearable.
I didn't find anything that indicated that using a coin dated for the year of death was a tradition, but may have been practiced.


So the day was sunny and it was already above 40 deg. at 10am. I walked deep into the field and started a cursory search of other areas I hadn't hunted. I swung my coil for about 20 minutes and barely got a peep and it was only the occasional iron falsing from having my sensitivity at about 1 o'clock position. I decided I was wasting valuable time and I should methodically cover the front 50' x 300' of the field. As I walked in that direction swinging my coil, the Sovereign GT sang out. I retrieved a penny an inch under the muddy dirt. My most recent coin find from the field, an 1880 Indian head. I scanned the area but found nothing else.

At the front of the field, I dug a lot of trash, everything that wasn't iron, I dug. As I neared the center of the 300ft road frontage I got a deep high tone signal that seemed to have a big footprint. The hole got fairly deep (about 15") before I didn't get the signal when I swung the coil over the hole. I checked the dirt pile and found an 1828 large cent...that's #2.

I didn't find any other coins and was really tired by the time I got 3/4 of the area covered. I get sloppy when tired so I quit the search and will pick it back up either today or tomorrow before the cold front gets here. Here's a pic of the finds and the two nails I pulled out of the hole when retrieving the LC. I don't know what the square chunk is but its heavy and rings up at around zinc.

Thanks for sharing my adventure.

 

[JimmyCT]

Ran,


Nice score on your 2nd large cent - 1828! Another nice beauty to add to your collection. Nice IH cent too! Man you are finding some really nice coins at this place. Thanks for sharing your conversation that you had with the land owner. I will keep that line in mind....

Thanks for the info burial ceremonies - interesting - and yes, they had to bury quick - no refrigeration - wheeeew lol

I look forward to viewing a seated coin next time ( I can wish for you right ? ) lol - HH - Jim

 

[Critterhunter]

Nice job on finding those large cents. They are one of my favorite coins to find. I always go by the rule that if you are finding large cents or silver quarters then the site has probably never been hunted or wasn't hunted well because those size coins are easier to detect.