Scored a white cent, LC, and a nice colonial buckle.

MangoAve

New member
Saturday after being out there for a while, it started getting windy and cold. :bummer:

Earlier in the week I went to another town to ask a permission. The couple are elderly, which I didn't realize from the information. White pages listed them as 55+, but they were unlisted. It was good to get to talk to him and even tho I was somewhat of a stranger it seemed he was happy someone was there to visit. I do also say this, that my reason for going to ask a permission seemed frivolous in his eyes but I explained it was the correct thing to go.
Lucky for me he was expecting a care giver, but had to disappoint him by telling him that wasn't the reason I was there. We talked for an hour or so and as I was leaving he got the call he was expecting for the care giver for his wife.

Saturday I went up to the property a little after noon. The guy mentioned there was an old bus picked apart up there; sure enough the chassis was still there with the name of a nearby farm. The way the old road would lead to a 1780 house, I think it should have been more traveled in it's day, but now there is a section that is over grown with mountain laurels. I had to trek around the hill side just to get by. Eventually I got to the site, trying to find walls or clues to lead me there. I was mistaken that the signs for no trespassing at the top corner of the road mattered and was for his property. There were signs posted by the cellar hole, but guaranteed from old map and parcel map I was on his property which shouldn't have had any signs. He did say someone else put them up without his knowledge. My first target was a nice lapel button. It was green and better shape in when it came out of the ground. It didn't take more than a minute to find. It is frail so maybe some of it broke in my pocket. The center feels really light like plastic, but it has a tiny chip so I think it might be glass. Ornate and has a similar studded design for my avatar brooch. The third target was a nice green copper. I may try to extract a picture from the video of those two items to post, altho this thread already will have many pics.

After a little while things slowed. When I got some easy targets I was quick to think it wasn't hunted, esp being private. When I went around back I see iron pieces on the rock. Prob hit by the same person who put the trespassing signs up on a property that wasn't his. :angry: There were a few random copper spoon handles that were tiny, and a few lantern parts. I saw this formation of rocks out back with a path and barn cut into the hill. Right on the lip of the path I got a white cent. My first Fatty!!! Turns out the first year they were made, too. No shield and a laurel wreath instead of an oak wreath. Seems these are highly sought after being the only year they were minted that way. The back is a little rough but the front is really great shape. There were a few buckles and some large brass items pulled there. Across the way I got a weird rosette like piece. For some reason the back cleaned up much better than the front. In the front yard to the house I pulled an infantry button. It is the normal size buttons, but it looks like it is fragile so I only cleaned in peroxide so far. Idk if I will try a brass brush or not. I pulled about 7 ox shoes from the site, but none ended up in the pics. The LC turned out to be a nice 1853 Matron. The newest one I had of those was an 1839. Now I got an 1853. The back is in great shape. I tried to use a toothpick on the stubborn green spots without any success, so I left them on and put a few coats of renwax and then buffed.
Oyster Shrooms.jpgStork Button.jpgStork Button Size.jpgStork Button Back.jpg1859 IH black.jpg1859 IH back.jpgWhite Cent 1.jpg1853 LC.jpgWhite Cent.jpgMatron Back.jpg1853 LC Black.jpgMatron Back Black.jpgLapel Button.jpgLapel Back.jpgInfantry Front.jpgInfantry Button.jpgPull Opposite Side.jpgDrawer Pull.jpgSpoon Handles.jpgRosette Like piece.jpgRosette Back.jpgOdds King Hunt.jpgBuckles and Hatchet.jpgToy Trains.jpg
Sunday was a club hunt. First was a plates spoon found on a hillside. Dated between 1900 and 1940 by R.W. and Sons. There was a pin I pulled up that three people went over. First the gf didn't wanna dig it. Two heard it; one thought it was a pull tab. None wanted to dig it so I did.
The gf found the tiny toy cannon, but I dug it up. It's neat. We did go around the area, but I told her I wanted to see the old carriage road. She said she was coming but didn't follow. I walked the old road with no success. Only shotgun shells and a few bullet tips. I came to an area with parts of a buried car. Even tho I stopped at an area where I was pulling up what looked like a drier screen, I thought it was a car radiator, I completely missed the cellar hole that was right there. I even noticed how the stone wall had an intentional break, but I figured it was an entry way into a field. A few feet over I do see the radiator mangled and sitting in the ground. I moved on up the road. No luck. I went back to the car. On the way I hit a far area where there were modern wooden platforms. I found my second camera. Lol. Yes there are pics on the SD card. For some reason there was only one battery installed. It was lost in 2012 or 2013.
After getting back to the car I stopped at the top of the hill where I got the spoon. For some odd reason I was getting ridic EMI this time. idk. But I did get a tiny toy cup. Idk whether its pewter. After talking with a member, I went to where the cellar hole is and that's when I realized my earlier mistake. If I just walked a little further In I would have noticed. The site was hit hard. There were recent holes. Nothing but iron. I even checked the cabin site I spotted and moved big rocks. Eventually I scored a nice find. A sweet silver plated colonial buckle. It was in an obvious but overlooked spot. I am glad it was missed, tho. I did see some potential sites on the trip there that I have to look into. It was a good weekend for me. The CT animal tags were found at a distinct location, without giving away info on the site to protect the club's spots. Shrooms.jpgSilver Buckle side.jpgBuckle Back.jpgClub hunt Finds.jpgToy CupCannon.jpgSpoon maker.jpgToys and Button.jpgMy Second Camera.jpg
 
Wow , a great thread on some exciting hunting . Awesome finds , script and photos . A GF that likes detecting ..............PRICELESS :loveit: . Nice going once again Mango .:congrats::perfect10:
 
Nice stuff for sure Jim, you are definitely a ace relic hunter these days !! I know you put in long hours of research to find these sites so you deserve the spoils of victory lol.
 
WoW great hunts. Love the buckle, LC, Indian, I button Who gets to keep the toy cannon?
Thanks, Brian. Happy to continue with some great hunts. Toy cannon just stays with me cuz I got the bigger collection. Lol.

EDIT: Lol. The rounded item is the drawer pull. Idk how I forgot the colonial buckle was in this thread. Umm.. Yeah, that buckle is pretty sweet. Thanks.

Wow , a great thread on some exciting hunting . Awesome finds , script and photos . A GF that likes detecting ..............PRICELESS . Nice going once again Mango .

Thanks CT. Happy to get out there but even happier the fruit of the labor. Lol. The gf, who designates me camera man with events or seasonal pics she wants, actually said I took good pics of the finds when I posted them to FB. Gee, I think I should be fairly good if she expects I be a cameraman. Lol. She somewhat gets into it detecting. I think, tho, she needs the umbilical cord cut. I can't keep going over and checking her signals with my machine to tell if they are worth digging.... and then end up being designated digger too. Hands on, or doing your own, is how you learn better. She likes the hobby because you get outdoors and seeing some of the finds. She prob doesn't like the energy it takes for some hunts. She liked hiking before I met her.

Nice stuff for sure Jim, you are definitely an ace relic hunter these days !! I know you put in long hours of research to find these sites so you deserve the spoils of victory lol.

I wasn't researching, I was working. Lol. Thanks Mike. Just getting luckier with the spots I been choosing so the outcomes have been better.

Love those buttons and coins. Congrats on the fatty. Put your foot down and claim that cannon.

Thanks, Al. Reference the above reply about the cannon. For the contest in the club, it is hers under toy category. But I got the bigger collection so it just goes into there. Hmm. Isn't it the same with the pin, too? Not only did she find it, two others did, and I dug it and It's in my collection.....

Congrats on those great finds, you had one heck of a great hunt!

Thanks DOD. If only it wasn't hit, maybe it would be more great finds. Now, I'm not being greedy. Just going back to the fruit of labor and research. I understand we all get hunts where there isn't much coming up. I've been there quite a few times. So this hunt here might be better than normal. Not whining either. Lol. Maybe this coming weekend I can get out to the place where the guy said he wants to be around. He is retired and knows no one has ever detected there. It shows a no name structure in the 1868 map. So most likely there will be no late 20s/ early 30s trash to deal with like at some of the other sites I have been to. Those other places were used as dumps apparently during prohibition times. This is too far into the woods in an older area. The only modern trash would be dropped by him.
 
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great finds. Looks like you were in a good spot.

Thanks Nalc. Maybe I will try there either with a small coil by the cellar sometime in the future. Who knows. Just before Spring I might finally get around to selling the 8" CC for the TRanger, but also the 4"nugget coil and the 10"DD for the whites, and then turn around to get a 5" DD sharp for the TRanger and a Hunter DD for the TPro. Need a new approach for hunting these sites again without buying machine #4. Granted the winter frost might move some targets.
 
Congrats in the infantry eagle Jim , i wouldn't do any more to it if it were mine , they are pretty fragile to begin with . the Silver plated colonial knee buckle is a stunning find :bananadance:keep hitting the area where you found that as the family had some wealth .

Dan
 
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Congrats in the infantry eagle Jim , i wouldn't do any more to it if it were mine , they are pretty fragile to begin with . the Silver plated colonial knee buckle is a stunning find :bananadance:keep hitting the area where you found that as the family had some wealth .

Dan

I did see how fragile it was as right around the shield in the eagle is a bit eaten away. I could foresee pressing too hard with a brass brush and pushing that piece inward.

Thanks, Dan. Ugh...the part that was disappointing was that when it came out of the ground the bottom looked black. I was hoping the black was just really tarnished silver and it was solid, or at minimum still fully plated. I was disappointed when I cleaned it and saw the green patina. If that's the part of disappointment, someone on here prob thinks my outlook is a spoiled one. Lol. It made the swinging worth it because there was nothing but iron there. I was even taking up the fallen foundation rocks from the cabin site and stacking them back up just so I could cover right up to the foundation and try the deeper signals; still to no avail. So to hear a nice tone a little further away was like magic to my ears. Umm... The spot where I got the buckle is the club spot. So I will have to wait until next year to hit it. Maybe by then I will change the coils around so I can get those hidden tones I can't get to yet.
 
Oh my gosh, that knee buckle is amazing....never saw one so decorative! ...and infantry button too? WOW:notworthy:
 
Nice Finds. That knee buckle is awesome! Also nice infantry button, those don't come out of the ground every single day :congrats:
 
Those are some awesome finds! I bet that memory card still works, they are pretty hard to destroy.

Thanks, Ryan. Yup. The memory card still works. Same with the first camera I found. The first camera I never got a word back from the tenant's ex who lost the camera but now lives in France. They were some pretty weird pics on the first camera. This one worked but the pictures were normal. It looks like it belonged to a Latin family with a son and a daughter. Mexican or Puerto Rican family. Now I gotta try and take the covers off and clean camera to see if it will work. I haven't tried yet.

Oh my gosh, that knee buckle is amazing....never saw one so decorative! ...and infantry button too? WOW:notworthy:

Yup. I mean finding the spoon and a few clad and a pin didn't quite fit the bill. And the few shotgun shells added nothing to the equation either. Once that buckle came up I was happy. Sure I still put more effort forth afterward: "If I was still able to squeak this out, what else might be hiding here?" but at that point I felt the trip was worth it (for me at least. Some others had luck early on.) Thanks Drew. Maybe soon I will get an infantry button with some gilt left.

Nice Finds. That knee buckle is awesome! Also nice infantry button, those don't come out of the ground every single day :congrats:

Thanks, Jim. 'Tis pretty sweet. Display worthy at least. Yeah, not many infantry buttons come up. I think they are pre-CW around the same age as the excelsior items. Too bad there is no back mark, altho I think there was one maker that didn't put a back mark. Same with the Cavalry buttons.
 
Sweet buckle man this is my first post and it caught my eye on the top for sure:congrats:

I must say i believe the ID is wrong and believe it to be a hat buckle..Knee buckles were not really decor at all they seldom are seen...

Fast forward this vid to 5 minutes and see what looks to be the same one almost..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaqmBOyNCuE
 
Sweet buckle man this is my first post and it caught my eye on the top for sure:congrats:

I must say i believe the ID is wrong and believe it to be a hat buckle..Knee buckles were not really decor at all they seldom are seen...

Fast forward this vid to 5 minutes and see what looks to be the same one almost..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaqmBOyNCuE

Welcome to the forum, Cinchsac! :waving:

I did watch the video you linked to and I must say that the hat buckle does match in appearance. I think the best clue, however, is in the position of the pin terminals. Looking at the back of MangoAve's buckle we can see that the pin terminals are in the short sides of the buckle, therefore it was worn vertically. Given this, I would guess that it's probably a knee buckle, but I am open to other possibilities.
 

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