December hunt to remember

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Sunday was a much needed detecting day after the busy Thanksgiving holiday and I know Donnie B. was chomping at the bit to get out again as well . The plan for this day was to hit some sites that have been choked off by ferns earlier in the year , the continued frosts have killed off the vegetation and made it possible to swing a bit more freely in these areas. I also wanted to do a bit of scouting for new sites (early cabin sites) as the leaves on the trees are down and visibility in the woods is perfect , being able to see hundreds of yards at a time now .

One of the sites we hit was where we took the "Illinois boys " a year or two ago , this place was one of the only ones that produced some good finds and revealed just how old it was . Donnie and I hit it earlier in the year but the green ferns were just out of control , this time around it was better but next spring will be much better after the snows pack everything down again.

At this site I did manage to hit on a great sounding target and as I pulled it up out of the mass of roots I quickly grew familiar with its shape .

This broken in half piece would guard the user's hand and would of looked like this whole just below the blade The timeframe on this piece can vary from the late 1600's to about the mid 1700's era .

The next site was one I was familiar with but never detected as the only other times I've been in the area it was the wrong time of year as the site was very choked off with vegetation , Its also on a well marked trail and very very trashy with early 1900's era dumpings . Its a huge center chimney home site with briars and metal trash guarding its accessibility and secrets . I saw a nice slope on one side and it looked good to me weaving in an out of the thick saplings and dead tree fall , I got a few nice sounding targets ( old brass lantern parts , broken pewter spoon end and then what sounded like a shot gun shell . This one sounded a bit deeper and a little higher in tone and quickly I recovered what I thought was a tombac . As I cleaned off the moist dark dirt I noticed it had something about it ... I yelled to Donnie " I got a button " ... 'it looks like it may have a design on it or around the edges" . With the dark overcast skies above I had to put my glasses on to see it well enough to officially make that call , well , well , well and early looking anchor design . I shouted out to Donnie again to share in my excitement "Hey the button has a Navy anchor on it " , he immediately exclaims "Aw man your kidding , right " This button cleaned up pretty well and despite the wear for it age it still shows off a good amount of gilt . This button has all the tell tale signs of it being an authentic Revolutionary war period military button , the style of the anchor , the right size (24 mm) and the image being "pressed or stamped" into the button and should date from about 1770's to 1780's for a Naval captain or commander . There usually for Royal naval officer's but its possible the continental Navy used these as well for its high ranking officer's . Either way I am thrilled to have found such a beautiful example .

We stuck around for a while more but the finds seems to fizzle out , its very odd how this happens to sites ! they start out great with abundant of targets and then its like a light switch that turns off and no one is digging anything . I don't get it ?

We made a couple of quick scouting missions but they didn't pan out for sites and our daylight was fading in a couple of hours so I suggested a site I hadn't been to in a few years. I wasn't there long and right at the back of the chimney pile of an old cellar I get a "screaming" target (+83) but it only pinpointed at about an inch down . I didn't even call out to Donnie on this one as I figured it was some modern trash as it was in the area on the surface to see . So I "kicked" the leaves out but the target was still reading about a half inch now and as I scraped the dirt away with my boot I see a large green disk slide half way out of the dirt scrapings. When I pick it up I know its an old colonial coin and immediately see "the rings" on the one side ! " Hey I got a coin .... I think its a Fugio" Donnie quickly comes over and we both can't believe its shallow resting place ! I'll show the coin again once I get it cleaned up and attributed to a variety . This makes Fugio number 19 and I hope there are a few more in years to come .

Shortly after the Fugio and about 30 feet away I get a very deep iffy target , sounding decent one way but like a deep nail the other ! I love hearing deep targets like this and the inexperienced detectorists will usually pass or miss these targets as it was in a well traveled pathway just behind the cellar. This somewhat iffy item was about 7 inches deep on edge and turned out to be a cut coin ,a William the III (1696 to 1701) Half penny , What a great day of hunting I had . Thanks for looking and taking the time to read this .



Dan