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View Full Version : Cellar hole gives up 100 buttons and 7 Large Cents



Elad
11-25-2012, 05:05 PM
New to these forums! I have had some amazing luck lately at a nearby cellar hole, and I figured I should share my stories here. :perfect10:

(***The pictures are high resolution so you may need to zoom out the web page to see them properly (Ctrl + mouse wheel)
Quick story about how I found this virgin cellar hole:


This summer, I was driving along an old road and passed by a farm with huge fields. The place looked old. I saw some farmers out in one of the fields. I worked up some courage and turned my car around. I drove back, parked, and approached 2 guys. One turned out to be the farmer's son, and he was more than happy to let me work the fields. He also mentioned he had a detector back in the day and said he knew where an old foundation was. My eyes grew big and without me even asking he offered to show me where it was. He took me there, showed it to me; it was old enough to get me excited, however it was completely infested with huge briar patches. (fyi, this is not the same cellar hole) He pretty much gave me full access to this place, and as it turns out it included vast acres of deep forests. I thanked him again and again and he drove off to continue his work. I was sure glad I turned around!

These fields turned out to be a mini-honey hole. My friend and I worked them several times during the summer and fall and we found 2 Conn coppers, 2 Woods Hibernia halfpennies, several old buttons, a 2 cent piece, a morgan dollar, a barber dime, 2 mercs, several wheaties, some rosies, a KGii halfpenny, and an early unidentifiable large cent. The one field which gave up the colonials is also filled with modern trash. I have been meaning to get back there with my sniper coil.

To continue, one day I stopped by the farmers house and by this time I had met him and had several friendly chats, which included me showing him what I found. He got a real kick out of it. When I told him the date ranges of the colonial coins he was in utter disbelief. This same day his daughter was home. She had just returned from a 15 year ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG IN CRETE. She was fascinated and absolutely impressed with what I showed her from my digs. We talked for a while and I ended up inside the farmer's house surrounded by his wife, 2 of his sons, his daughter, and all their children; which was like 15 people. I entertained them for a bit and on my way out the daughter waved me down and called me over. She wanted to give me a tip on where to search. She said something like You know, there is an old King's Highway going through a large patch of woods over that way. She pointed in a general direction. She seemed to not know exactly where it was, but she knew it was that way somewhere. Even at that moment I had a very good idea of where she was talking about, because I studied aerial photos of the entire area. I did some searching in the deep woods behind the cellar hole (which is where I suspected it was). After several hot hikes through miles and miles of rocky, hilly, brushy mess I gave up and just stuck to the fields. I told myself I would try again in the fall.

A few days later I saw the elder farmer in one of his fields while I was driving by. I stopped to have a chat. He said There's an old place, deep in the woods... He began describing how to get to it, and even drew a little map on a napkin (lol). I drove 1/2 mile up the road, parked my vehicle, and found the marker he mentioned. I started walking into the woods. Eventually I hit a worn and wide dirt trail, and noticed some stone walls here and there. Could this be the king's highway? The elevation rose about 50 feet, and then leveled off. I glanced over to my side... then did a double take and squinted at what I was looking at. I remember thinking is that what I think it is?? It was! That was the first time I had found the button infested, Coronet rich cellar hole. The rest was captured on video.

What I Have Learned from this: I would have never had come to be able to detect the farmer's fields or his cellar holes, had I not stopped by for a friendly chat and to ask permission. Out of all the negative experiences I have had from asking for permission, this one by far was the most pleasant and rewarding out of all of them.

One of the large cents is an 1834 (N2 type) with a doubling error and misaligned die on the obverse. It's worth some decent money, although I won't be selling it. :drool:

Please enjoy! ::usaflag::

First: a Video Series featuring metal detecting at the cellar hole. Please enjoy, I spent many many hours recording and editing everything. :groovy:

http://youtu.be/xF8vpVPgPX0?hd=1
http://youtu.be/B2jeNFBLwQc?hd=1
http://youtu.be/FukropwPaMQ?hd=1
http://youtu.be/xiyi5HGF_Ww?hd=1


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Thiltzy
11-25-2012, 05:59 PM
Great vids and great finds Button Man and welcome to the forum :->

I too love to make videos of my hunts... looking forward to more of your hunts

Elad
11-25-2012, 06:01 PM
Great vids and great finds Button Man and welcome to the forum :->


Thanks! I have been wondering how many more buttons are there... I am going to shoot for 100 by the end of this year. Who knows maybe more! :daydream:

Tony Two-Cent
11-25-2012, 07:22 PM
Welcome to American Detectorist, Elad! I had already watched several of your videos on YouTube and am a subsciber. That 1834 Large Cent is a thing of beauty for sure! :loveit:

Us poor slobs here in the midwest can only dream of finding such wonderful colonial coins and relics. Videos like yours really help us to imagine what it must be like to hunt cellar holes and uncover so much history.

Glad to have you here on the forum and congrats on your finds! |:cheering:

Elad
11-25-2012, 07:25 PM
Welcome to American Detectorist, Elad! I had already watched several of your videos on YouTube and am a subsciber. That 1834 Large Cent is a thing of beauty for sure! :loveit:

Us poor slobs here in the midwest can only dream of finding such wonderful colonial coins and relics. Videos like yours really help us to imagine what it must be like to hunt cellar holes and uncover so much history.

Glad to have you here on the forum and congrats on your finds! |:cheering:


Thanks! I am happy to share my good times with you all. I will be sure to continue to do so. I am heading back to the cellar hole tomorrow for a quick 4 hour hunt. Hopefully will have more to share!

dalewestaby
11-25-2012, 07:42 PM
wow you are a digging machine. Those are some amazing finds. Do you just dig everything metal to get to the good signals?

Elad
11-25-2012, 08:18 PM
I started hunting the site with the 11 stock pro-coil, but then after a while I swapped over to the 5 sunray. The small coils really help when you are hunting close to the cellar foundation.

I use 22 for an iron mask when I hunt, so I have dug tons of nails and other old junk at the site, but that's what you want - because once all that stuff is gone it allows the better targets to be heard - and trust me it works!

del
11-26-2012, 12:39 AM
welcome to the forum Elad and congrats on all the buttons and coppers , sounds like a great area . nothing older than matron heads at this particular cellar site ?? how deep was the average one ??

Dan

Elad
11-26-2012, 01:02 AM
welcome to the forum Elad and congrats on all the buttons and coppers , sounds like a great area . nothing older than matron heads at this particular cellar site ?? how deep was the average one ??

Dan


Nothing older... yet. A few of the buttons may be older. On average each copper was 2 down, one being only 1 down. The 1826 was about 7 inches down, the deepest one yet.

jkress
11-27-2012, 10:33 PM
Oh my goodness. :perfect10:

As Tony said, we can only but dream of such coins and relics here in the middle of the country. :daydream:

I can only imagine how exciting it is to search the ground there. :smitten: Sooo much history.

Awesome videos by the way. Keep posting your finds. :->

dave in iowa
11-28-2012, 12:25 AM
wow

lee
11-28-2012, 08:13 AM
im wondering if that site may have been a dress makers house judging by the amount of buttons and thimbals youve dug ?
anyway, great hunt mate.
i also found a site last year in ct that had not been dug before and so far have pulled 21 coppers/large cents from there.
keep up the good work matey.

docbars
11-28-2012, 10:58 AM
Very sweet..

aloldstuff
11-28-2012, 08:17 PM
Sweet site, that is an awful lot of buttons to be digging. :congrats: on finally hitting on some coins. In one day you got more thimbles than I have in years of detecting.

Elad
04-04-2013, 08:24 PM
I've been back since I posted this and I am up to around 100 buttons and 7 large cents. One hole had 8 buttons in it! Still searching for some old silver.... :detecting:

Also, I found out more about the site, although I don't think the history really matches up with what I have been finding. I have been told by 2 people that a carved stone was once near the site and read H.M.H. Toll, 1775 or something like that. His Majesty's Highway = King's Highway. (Charles the II I believe). So I have been told that this cellar hole was actually a colonial toll station. This rock would date the site nearly 30-35 years earlier, but all the archaeological evidence points towards later occupation. Note the rock with the arrow pointed at it. This rock was placed here on purpose. I think it was part of the gate.

Also, if it truly were a toll station, wouldn't there be more currency to be found? Why only large cents? The massive amounts of buttons I found at this site tells me that this was occupied by a large family who took care of their land with crops and livestock - not really your typical toll booth. On the other hand, many of the buttons were definitely made in Britain, and I have found a couple of 2 prong forks, which is indicative of earlier times. I guess I need to collect more data before a conclusion is met.

Lodge Scent
04-04-2013, 09:11 PM
Nice hunts! Great job on the videos.

JdsCoins
04-04-2013, 09:33 PM
Congrats on your finds! That 1834 is beauty! Makes my mouth water! :drool:

Keep swinging! :grin:

JD

CODY
04-05-2013, 01:47 AM
:wow: The condition of those large cents is unreal. Congrats on a great place and sweet hunts. Nothing like that here in Mississippi. Again, :congrats:

Elad
04-06-2013, 10:43 PM
Thanks all. I have never before found large cents that look like these, and I have found lots down in NJ. I consider myself VERY FORTUNATE because you simply don't see them come out of the ground very often.