I finally got out this past weekend with Ron Yingling and we were lucky the area we went only had about an inch at most of snow on the ground .we hiked a good ways over half frozen streams and through mountain laurel thickets to reach a remote area with a old cellar and barn . these two areas were practically devoid of any real targets except some very good sounding iron .
Ron started off with a buffalo nickel and then the "find of the day" far from the cellar ,the silver Luckenbooth brooch was near a low rock that looked perfect for sitting . These are known as good luck or sweetheart brooches and his coin silver example is in amazing shape and easily dates mid to late 1700's .
we hunted this homesite area until noonish and this was his only good find there while mine was just one small tombac , amazing the lack of non ferrous targets here! we decided to move on to some fields and stonework about a quarter mile eastward . anticipating we would find a collapsed cellar or cabin and we got lucky and did , it was small and didn't look like much but almost immediately Ron pulled a very old buckle (small shoe or knee) then he got an even older onethis is a tine one with what looks like a "stud type" chape pre 1690 era !! I finally got on board with what i thought was a button with a hole but turned out to be a nickel sized French liard coin (mid to late 1600's era ) , unfortunately its in rough shape and after tumbling it i could just make out a bust outline to confirm it . Next about a foot or two away i get a nice sounding target and pull up a lock plate to an early musket. the day for me finished up with a nice complete knee buckle and a 1906 Barber half .
Barber and Liard
lockplate blasted and painted with barber
and finally the knee buckle after a tumble
get out there if you can !
Dan
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