My Trip to New England (Pic Heavy)

[Ill Digger]

After years of talking about going to the New England area and detecting the stars finally aligned! So last Friday after work I set out for the Connecticut /Massachusetts area to meet up with a few American Detectorist forum members to try my hand at some of this New England cellar hole hunting. I stopped in Ohio for lunch on Saturday and right across the street from the tavern was the town square....Perfect! So I had the pulled pork BBQ and a couple cocktails, paid my bill and was swinging in no time.
Nothing too much to talk about just a few wheaties.

Then back on the road. I stopped for the night in New York state. In the morning, Sunday, I found a HUGE city park in town.
4 hours and only 2 wheats! Boooring!

Woke up in the morning to find my truck covered in snow!

On the road again....next stop Hartford Connecticut!
Got a room for the night with plans to meet up with Dan (Del) at 7am the next morning for some cellar hole hunting!
This was parked in the hotel parking lot!

Monday morning I meet up with Dan at a McDonald's. Shook hands, said our hellos, and I loaded my gear in his Jeep and off we went to my first cellar hole hunt!

Dan found a sweet little half dime while we were there!

My first colonial find was this sweet complete tombac!

No coins for me. We hunted for 4 or 5 hrs. till Dan had to leave. It was a great first hunt! So I shot Drew (OxShoeDrew) a text, and almost like clockwork we met up at one of Drews cellar hole sites right as he got off work. Drew and I hunted till it was pitch black outside! Drew snagged two LCs, yet still no coins for me. But I didn't come out empty handed either. Amongst other things my favorite find was this 2 piece cuff button!
No one is quite sure what it's from though.

Tuesday morning I drove up to Massachusetts to meet up with Al (Aloldstuff).
Al took me to a field he has permission for that's produced some nice old finds for him. There I plucked another small tombac button, a lead bail seal, and a couple of pieces of lead shot. Then Al treated me to lunch and a new field! He calls it his "seated field". Well no seated for either of us, but as the sun was getting low in the horizon I got a consistent squeaker signal. I dug down a foot+ to find a AAA battery sized piece of iron! So I stuck the pinpointer down in the hole and it was still screaming, checked it with the in line probe and the sweet sound of a 12-44/45 filled my ears! A inch below the iron I pulled out a big copper coin!!!
It was deep!! Around 14 inches or so....

Me and my first New England coppa!

I can't really get any detail off of it but.... we all know what it is,

The other side.

That night Al and his wife insisted on taking me out to dinner. So I graciously accepted (after Al said they were taking me out regardless even though I said he didn't have to do that) And a steak dinner at that!! Thanks again Al! You guys didn't have to do that.

Wednesday and my last day of detecting with the guys from New England before having to head back to Illinois.
Dan said he was going to give TrooperBri (Brian) a invite and MangoAve (James) said he'd be happy to join us. OxShoeDrew (Drew) was ULTRA kind of enough to let us go back to his new found honey hole, the same place he and I hunted the night before, cellar hole.Thanks Drew!
So at 7am the 4 of us met up a Micky D's, had our little meet and greet, and off we went!
We got there around 8ish and the East Coasters started showing this Midwest boy how it's done! Buttons, relics and the calls of "COPPER!!" started flying!!! Dan called me over to listen to a target and then proceed to dig up the most beautiful colonial shoe buckle!!
It was getting towards the end of the day and Dan calls me over to a area that all of us had walked through at least five times and says "I don't know how this signal was missed? This might be the last really good target of the day and your trip." So I ran my detector over it. It was a little jumpy, bouncing between 39 and 42 Co. on the ETrac. But mainly a 41Co. Dan says "Dig it up. It's yours." I told him I couldn't do that, and he insisted that I did. So I dropped down to my knees and proceeded to dig a BIG plug! Right under the surface was a root about 5 or 6 inches around! So I dug down next to the root and around the seven inch mark, right under the root, the pinpointer was locked on and saying it's right here! I carefully pried out a big green disk.... another large cent!!!! I was shaking like a leaf!
Here's the moment.

After a light dusting it was found out to be a KG II!!! We thought it said 1739.
But...

It's a 1731 KG II! ! !


The obverse.


After that I found another small flat button and not too much else. And we started to make our way towards the road.
Here's the last minutes of my 2015 New England trip.
(Left to right)
TrooperBri (Brian) - Del (Dan) - MangoAve (James ) - Ill Digger (Me)


I can't thank all forum members enough for everything they did for me this week!!! Thanks to Dan, Al, Drew, Brian, and Jim!!! It was nice to meet and hunt with each and everyone of ya!

Thanks for lookin' & HH

Here's some more pictures.....











These two bail seals have markings stamped into them.


Three hundred plus years worth of trash.