Silver Quarter and Trespassers

I am always on the lookout for places to detect.  I found one and went through the land owners to get the proper permission.  Showed up at the site later that day and there are two guys detecting on it.  I didn't talk to them, but they left right after I got there.  I guess they saw an opportunity to detect a newly mowed lot where an old house used to be and decided to see if they could get away with it.  It was also obvious that the site had been detected before, but I still managed to pull two good coins.  A 1919s wheat cent and a 1934 Washington Quarter.   

Civil War General Service Uniform Button

Found this earlier in the summer and just got around to researching what it was.  It's a Civil War era general service uniform button.  Just never got around to posting a picture of it.  It's dented, but complete.  Even has the loop on the back.

Good finds - 1893 Indian Head, 1884 Coal Company Script, 1912 Barber Dime

Found some really cool things at an old house in a historic area in Knoxville the other day.

1) Several Wheat Cents - The oldest was 1925.
2) WWI era great seal button
3) 1893 Indian Head Cent
4) 1884 Coal Creek Coal Company 25 cents in merchandise script.
5) 1912 Barber Dime
6) Clay Marble
7) Lead - post civil war bullet, small lead shot (shot gun/small pistol), and a hunk of lead (Camp Lead?).
8) Couple of dollars in clad change and "Stinkin Lincolns".

Looking for sites that we can metal detect

We are looking for sites to metal detect in the East TN/SW VA area.  If you have some land, an old house, or an old house site that you would allow us to access we would appreciate it.  Email me at outdoorswithbill@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Bill

Metal Detected in An Old Trash Pit Area

Metal detected in an old trash pit area the other day and picked out some good targets.  We fond 4 tokens, a 1948 rabies vaccination tag, a 308 round, 4 buttons, 3 mercury dimes (1945, 2 - 1942), two wheat cents (1919, 1927), and some clad change.

Two of the larger tokens.  The one on the left says "Joe Leonard Pea Wee" and the other says "Keep Me and you will have Good Luck" .

The 1948 Vaccination tag

The wheat cents and mercury dimes

The 308 round and the buttons

Cool Token - 5 Cents in Trade at Perry Gastineau's Bar & Barber Shop

Found a cool token the other day for 5 Cents of Trade at Perry Gastineau's  Bar and Barber Shop.  Sounds like a cool place to me.

1923 D Peace Dollar

Found a 1923 Peace Dollar today!

Got a great hit and when I turned the plug over I saw the edge of a big coin!

 Here is me getting it out of the plug.

 Once I got it out of the plug I saw it was a Peace Dollar

 1923 D Peace Dollar!

I also found a silver nickel - 1943 P, several wheat cents, a nice knife, ball bearing, lead soldier,  religious medal, a dog tag, and a bunch of change.

 

Metal Detecting - We found SILVER!

It finally happened.  We found a 1913 Barber 1/2 Dollar using our AT Pro.  The initial hit was in the high 80s, but when we turned the plug over and scanned it it went into the 90s.  Here is the coin in the plug. 

We also found an 1892 Greek Lepta coin, second from the left with the hole in the top, and several 1940s wheat pennies and a couple of tokens.  The token with the hole in the middle is for a dry cleaner the other is for shoes.  I hit the one for shoes with the shovel a couple of time and really messed it up.

We got some other strong signals that we tried to dig, but the ground was frozen.  We will go back and dig those when it warms up.
 

Metal Detecting

We recently started metal detecting.  It has turned out to be a great outdoor hobby that we can do as a family.  We started with the Garrett ACE 350.

The first place we started looking for things was in our own yard.  We found tons of buried rusty nails, soda and beer cans, a trash can lid, paint cans, and other assorted trash left by the guys that built the house.  They must of just brought some dirt in an threw it over the trash that was scattered throughout the yard.  We did find a few coins and an old shotgun shell in one part of the yard that hadn't been graded when the house was built.

We quickly figured out we needed a pinpointer.  We got one that came with the detector, but it didn't work very well.  We had a hard time finding things.  We dug a lot of holes where we didn't find anything.  Our neighbor loaned us his pinpointer, a Garrett Pro-Pointer, and we decided that we needed to pick one up and we did.  A pinpointer really helps in locating small objects, coins, etc.  We found that if something is close to the surface you can sweep the pinpointer over the area and locate it.   

After we go proficient with the ACE 350 we asked Santa for the Garrett AT Pro and he brought it to us.  It's a much more complicated machine, but I think once we master it we will find more items.

To date, we have found some interesting items including lost house keys, lots of current coins, shotgun shells (the brass ends from the old paper type),  horse shoes, railroad spikes and other railroad iron.  We found 53 coins at the end of a neighbor's driveway in a gravel area.  The oldest was a 1950 wheat penny.  The rough looking coins are actually newer pennies.  Those things pretty much rot in the ground.  We have also found a few coin spills where we have found 5 - 10 coins in one spot.  We haven't found anything silver yet.

We found a 30+ Pound Lead Block - We think this is a counter weight for something.  Maybe a hay lift?

We found several railroad spikes and they look like new knives or tomahawks to me.  I just need a forge.  We also found several other pieces of railroad iron.  I think the pieces to the left of the spike are used to hold the tracks down.  I am sure I can figure out something to do with them also.

We also "found" some old window weights.  We really didn't find these with the metal detectors.  They were at a house we went to metal detect at and they were stacked in several places around the yard.  We asked for them and the owner of the house let us have them.  These things look like large knives and tomahawks to me.  That is 4 pounds of iron.  We have several that are 7 pounds. Again, I just need that forge.

I will post some pictures of the other things that we found once I take pictures and get them uploaded.