What have you found more than you should have...and less?

[OxShoeDrew]

I can't seem to find many crotal bells :huh: ...and have found exactly zero large GW buttons :crying01:...but I've found 13 Fatties. :cheesysmile:
How 'bout you?

[Digger_O'Dell]

I can't seem to find many crotal bells :huh: ...and have found exactly zero large GW buttons :crying01:...but I've found 13 Fatties. :cheesysmile:
How 'bout you?

I've noticed crotal bells dont always ring up well on my machine, sort of like chain. I've only found 2, and both were very questionable signals until very close to the coil. No GW buttons for me either, but that's to be expected in Wisconsin! :lol:

For me, it's the unexpected one offs that throw me. CW items for exampls such as CW tokens or the recent pewter signal whistle, or my Dutch bag/bale seal that's not supposed to be found in N. America.
Things I should see a lot more of but dont are: seated coins, buffalo nickles, SLQs, suspender buckles, old 2 pc buttons, and the occasional gold coin-especially in places like tearouts or certain sites with heavy money activity like old beer gardens and fair parks.

[OxShoeDrew]

Chris, remember when Lee found that Roman coin in CT?
You just reminded me...I've yet to find a CW token..people had 'em around here...everyone else has found them.
That bale seal WAS amazing! I wonder if Willems has ever found anything like that.

[Full Metal Digger]

Tony Two-Cent knows my sad tale of my search for an SLQ. 5 years of detecting and I had never found one. I had seated dimes and half dimes and even a seated half but no SLQs. Then one day I found one! Oddly enough, over the next month or so every silver quarter I dug was an SLQ! I found 5 in a row! Go figure.

[del]

I sure find a lot of what I don't really want 65270

[OxShoeDrew]

:lol: Dave, I remember your SLQ issues! Did you get a date on most of them?
Dan, that's the coolest idea for an oxknob display I've ever seen...and the 1st one I've ever seen :lol:
I'm going to our antique store tomorrow to see if I can find one of those type set trays.

[Donnie B]

It's a strange hobby. Some things just elude you no matter how hard you work to find them. I hunted Civil War sites for 10 of my 24 years of detecting and never found a Confederate button. I hunted on fields where my buddies would find them but I never got my coil over one. It also took me 24 years to find my first "fatty" and I found hundreds of Indians in the coal camps I hunted. I have also never found a Capped Bust.

As far as relics I have found that I really don't want I would say it would be brass tack buckles. I have a large glass jar full of them that I found on pastures and farms looking for Civil War relics. Some of them could be period but you really never know.

[Bucknut]

I have found lots of marbles. In the last 7 years I have dug 36 of them. But I hunt lots of old parks and schools so I think the odds are higher in these placing to find them than in private front yards. With that said though there is a field site where 15 or so marbles came from.

the item that eludes me seems to be big silver (although I dug 2 last month to break a 3 year drought). I average over 100 silvers dug per year over the last 7 years but I have only found 9 silver halves total. But this too probably can be explained in where I hunt...the old parks have been detected many many times and it far easier to detect a silver half than a silver dime.

[aloldstuff]

For me a very tough question to answer. As far as relics go, I think I am just very lucky. I never do research, but I get a feeling about a spot and wala items appear. I have more SLQ's than Barber quarters and big silver eludes me. I do have 2 Barber 1/2's both 1894S???
The first week I had my old detector I dug a 1775 1/2 real, then it took about 3 years to get another.
I don't have a complete colonial shoe buckle, someday though.
I could go on and on but as I said, a very tough question to answer.

[Tony Two-Cent]

Things I have never found:

Ox knob
Franklin Half Dollar
Silver thimble


Found more than I should have:

Pull tabs :lol:

[rharris]

Here in upstate NY I have found some amazing civil war items. Plenty of horseshoes, oxen shoes, a few crotal bells, one Conestoga bell. A pretty nice bunch of old coins. I have never found a silver quarter! Or any silver bigger than a dime! isn't it funny how these things work?
I seem to be a magnet for large wads of tin foil. It is everywhere!

[DavidGC]

Nails. Square nails. Round nails. Horse-shoeing nails.
Surely I must be paying penance for some past life indiscretion -- and surely I must have paid back for my sins one-thousand times over!

[OxShoeDrew]

I hunted Civil War sites for 10 of my 24 years of detecting and never found a Confederate button. I hunted on fields where my buddies would find them but I never got my coil over one. It also took me 24 years to find my first "fatty" and I found hundreds of Indians in the coal camps I hunted. I have also never found a Capped Bust.

As far as relics I have found that I really don't want I would say it would be brass tack buckles. I have a large glass jar full of them that I found on pastures and farms looking for Civil War relics. Some of them could be period but you really never know.I know how you feel about confederate buttons, that's how I feel about CW tokens...friends find them with regularity.
Those small tack buckles sound great too, you always think you have a coin.
I think I found my first capped busts this year.


I have found lots of marbles. In the last 7 years I have dug 36 of them. But I hunt lots of old parks and schools so I think the odds are higher in these placing to find them than in private front yards. With that said though there is a field site where 15 or so marbles came from.

the item that eludes me seems to be big silver (although I dug 2 last month to break a 3 year drought). I average over 100 silvers dug per year over the last 7 years but I have only found 9 silver halves total. But this too probably can be explained in where I hunt...the old parks have been detected many many times and it far easier to detect a silver half than a silver dime.I've never found an arrow head, and my first of two marbles were only a few years ago...I was starting to think my eyes were bad :)..oh and never a clay marble. 36 is off the charts!
I was going to say 9 silver halves is pretty good...but then I saw you average 100 silvers a year.


For me a very tough question to answer. As far as relics go, I think I am just very lucky. I never do research, but I get a feeling about a spot and wala items appear. I have more SLQ's than Barber quarters and big silver eludes me. I do have 2 Barber 1/2's both 1894S???
The first week I had my old detector I dug a 1775 1/2 real, then it took about 3 years to get another.
I don't have a complete colonial shoe buckle, someday though.
I could go on and on but as I said, a very tough question to answer. "I could go on and on" :lol: me too, Al :lol:


Things I have never found:

Ox knob
Franklin Half Dollar
Silver thimble


Found more than I should have:

Pull tabs :lol::lol: I've never dug a Franklin either.. but when George (Cheap Thrills) heard about my Franklin drought he actually sent me one!!! So I consider that one of best "finds" ever! Isn't it funny how we fondly remember finds more when associated with people?! That could be another thread :lol: Your ox knob situation seems to be because when Illinois was settled they were using horses. I wonder if unicorns have knobs? That might be your best shot :lol:
I can't guess as to why you haven't found a silver thimble...seems like you would have with your etrac.


Here in upstate NY I have found some amazing civil war items. Plenty of horseshoes, oxen shoes, a few crotal bells, one Conestoga bell. A pretty nice bunch of old coins. I have never found a silver quarter! Or any silver bigger than a dime! isn't it funny how these things work?
I seem to be a magnet for large wads of tin foil. It is everywhere!My 1st year detecting I dug 100 ox shoes...hence the name...but I rarely dig them now as I DON'T WANT TO. :lol:


Nails. Square nails. Round nails. Horse-shoeing nails.
Surely I must be paying penance for some past life indiscretion -- and surely I must have paid back for my sins one-thousand times over!OMG I dig more deep oxshoe/horse nails than anyone on the face of the Earth. They sound like deep coins...so I can't pass them up. I'll still dig a bent square nail on every hunt. What detector do you swing, David?

[Oneil1979]

the revolutionary war buttons elude me, for me I hunt almost exclusively in the Philadelphia area, I’ve dug numerous civil war items and items from both great wars ( WW1 & 2) I have even a dug a Roman coin a Constantine the great circa 200-300 AD probably brought back from one of the wars as a souvenir but not a single rev war button, The item that has been haunting me the last few years is the aluminum milk tops from the glass milk jugs they ring from mid to high tone depending on how they are folded, I even located one after hiking 2 hours into the woods!

[DavidGC]

I know how you feel about confederate buttons, that's how I feel about CW tokens...friends find them with regularity.
Those small tack buckles sound great too, you always think you have a coin.
I think I found my first capped busts this year.

I've never found an arrow head, and my first of two marbles were only a few years ago...I was starting to think my eyes were bad :)..oh and never a clay marble. 36 is off the charts!
I was going to say 9 silver halves is pretty good...but then I saw you average 100 silvers a year.

"I could go on and on" :lol: me too, Al :lol:

:lol: I've never dug a Franklin either.. but when George (Cheap Thrills) heard about my Franklin drought he actually sent me one!!! So I consider that one of best "finds" ever! Isn't it funny how we fondly remember finds more when associated with people?! That could be another thread :lol: Your ox knob situation seems to be because when Illinois was settled they were using horses. I wonder if unicorns have knobs? That might be your best shot :lol:
I can't guess as to why you haven't found a silver thimble...seems like you would have with your etrac.

My 1st year detecting I dug 100 ox shoes...hence the name...but I rarely dig them now as I DON'T WANT TO. :lol:

OMG I dig more deep oxshoe/horse nails than anyone on the face of the Earth. They sound like deep coins...so I can't pass them up. I'll still dig a bent square nail on every hunt. What detector do you swing, David?

AT Pro - but I don't swing it as often as I'd like.

[Lodge Scent]

4 Rosas but not 1 MA copper. Same as you Drew, few crotals, zero ANY GWs. I don't have nearly as many complete shoe buckles as I would expect....but that's because Dan hogs them all. Half cents.....last one I found was more than 100 coppers ago.

[del]

I don't have nearly as many complete shoe buckles as I would expect....but that's because Dan hogs them all.

lmfao !!!!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[badgers325]

What has been strange for me getting back into this hobby 4 years ago (detected for many years as a kid and found way more silver than I do now) is that I found a half dollar before any other of that variety. i.e. Found a Barber Half before the quarter and dime. Found a Standing Walker before a Merc and a Franklin before a Rosie. The only exception has been the clad. Found plenty of that before Kennedy half. Now I just want a seated anything or maybe just a Flowing Hair.

[Noah]

Just can't seem to find any gold pieces. Finally just bought a few on EBay. Finally got a store card. Too many croatal bells.