Well the first few hunts of the new year have been good ! The temps here in Connecticut have been well above average (with the exceptions of the last week or so) and have been out three times already !
January 1st Donnie and I got out with a couple good friends (twin brothers Rick & Ron) and their wives ( Melissa & Jessica) who also detect , we had a small site to re visit and a few to get permission by some land owners . The first site was good to most of us I got my first copper of the year (a 1787 Fugio) and its the 21st Fugio in my career of colonial detecting , my only other finds at this site was an oxknob and a tombac button . Later on we had found a small site behind an existing home that had a very long driveway , I was hesitant on driving up these but Donnie wanted to ask (He's the man with the southern charm ) and he immediately worked his magic . The lady was pretty receptive and we both were blown away by "Bentley" their pet pig who greeted us , The homeowner and her husband didn't even know they had an old homesite on their property and were very interested in seeing it and what we might find . Rick and Melissa both had found a very cool old military buttons I found an old iron file and iron shoe buckle plus a handful of buttons . Ricks button was a nice war of 1812 artillery cannon with eagle button while Melissa got a hold of a very early Navy 1795 to 1805 eagle with anchor type (truly the find of the day)
Jan 5th had us going back to the last site that produced the military buttons and the targets were very scarce I almost got skunked save for a small silver plated button with leaves and acorn motifs imprinted on it .
Jan 11th Donnie got a very unexpected and pleasant invite from Thiltzy (Todd) who hasn't been detecting lately since his bout with Lymes disease . Todd looked great and it was just like old times again in the woods , we hit a couple of pounded cellars one was huge ! an unfortunately I was the only one to score a couple of finds after the hour or more we were there , a very smashed up copper and a shoe buckle frame . Todd wanted to hit another one a few miles away that he and Dave did very well at , it was a small site surrounded by mountain laurel (did I ever mention I hate mountain laurel) . Well Dave and Todd did a pretty good job at hammering it and others by the recent dig holes that were filled in but I got my coin over a copper which turned out to be a 1803 draped bust that was pretty roughand an early 1 piece eagle artillery button that dates from 1821 to 1827but is pretty rough do to the soil conditions but does resemble this type and looked like this when newer, I also got a dandy button that didn't look like much at first when I started cleaning but certainly surprised me with the gold sparkles and flowers . the shoe buckle cleaned up and the rest of the buttons and finds for that day . Todd did get a very nice old war of 1812 era artillery corps button that was in much better shape than mine , so glad he got one and it was great to see him out again .
Thanks for reading.
Dan