Some Things I've Found While Detecting

[vanursepaul]

Found these Chinese ear rings and silver snuff spoon at an 1850'-1870's mining camp.  Came out of the hole with a couple big scrapes of the pick.  Don't know how I didn't hose them up LOL.

 

Kenny

 

I really like that.!

[Monte]

In Gold Mining Towns or larger active Camps, like other active habitations, I do luck onto some occasional older coins and trade tokens, along with a few interesting 'keepers.'   However, so far I haven't been too excited about man-made finds from the Gold Prospecting areas I have hunted.

Working some old RR ghost towns, homesteads, and dug up areas behind old general stores, however, has produced gold for me.  One was a 1913 $2½ gold coin, and another was a rather large-size gold bridge that held only one tooth.  That one a friend search right over in her earlier days of detecting when she used too much Discrimination.

Maybe 2016 will bring me some surprises when I head out to some1860's/70's gold prospecting areas?  I could sure use a change.

Monte

[Norvic]

 

Some of NQ OZ goldfields targets, Note the horse bell on left and how it was "tuned" to give a xteristic sound. The copper/brass cylinder above it is a match container(I think), still has a sort of sandpaper surface on top, for match striker, for its age and where found is in amazing condition, lid unscrews after cleanup.

 

I think the two small collars at front are carrier pigeon leg collars. They have numbers on them

[vanursepaul]

Either that or someone ate a banded duck!!!!       lolol

 

Nice collection of stuff!

 

Is that a clock key in the front center???

[Steve Herschbach]

Unlike Monte a couple of my favorite "not gold" finds have come about while looking for gold.

In 2002 I was at Ganes Creek, Alaska on a nugget hunt. It was early days before they bulldozed for people and so there was a lot of non-ferrous trash found each day while looking for gold. One day I decided to take a picture of the junk from one day of detecting to show people how many holes got dug for trash. And this is only the non-ferrous. Any bolts, nuts, cans, etc. get dumped in the nearest pond throughout the day.

So I take this picture and before I go to toss it a broken grommet in the upper right catches my eye. It is not a grommet at all, but an 1892 Barber Quarter with a hole shot though it! Large caliber at that, which split the coin. Any normal days I would have just dumped that stuff in the trash bin without looking at it, so my taking the photo was fortuitous indeed. One that really did almost get away. I like to imagine that it was all about. A bet or just somebody showing off? The edges of the coin are pounded also, prior to the coin being shot. Just a really interesting find with a White's MXT.

Then the next year in 2003 I am wandering the tailing piles of Moore Creek, Alaska with my Minelab GP 3000 and Coiltek 24" x 12" mono coil. Nice day in an area just below what we call 5 ounce flats, for a 5 oz nugget found there. Big gold area and I had big dreams for the day, but I was actually just going hours with almost no targets at all. Not even much trash. I work down a steep slope towards the creek, and there is a small tailing pile next to the water. I hunt it and get a strong low tone and I am thinking, this is going to be a big nugget. Instead, I pull up the only silver dollar I have ever found metal detecting, a 1926 "Peace Dollar", in reasonably good shape after cleaning. I enjoyed that more than a nugget actually. Far more rare in my experience.

Even more interesting, a guy named Dennis (buddy of Rob Allison) goes over that pile with a Nugget Finder 25" mono a year or two later, and pulls out a deep 1890's Morgan dollar in great condition. Two silver dollars in one tailing pile makes me think an old miners stash went through the sluice box. Who knows what the riffles actually caught!

[Norvic]

I`d say it is definately a clock key Paul, note towards the rear the two "live" old pin bullets.  Get a fair number of those when hunting near old workings, something I don`t do much now days, prefer to hunt away from workings, in "virgin" areas the results are much better, although sometimes weeks or more between finds.

[deathray]

Cool finds guys! Well, Im kinda the opposite of yall...I like to detect for gold rush relics, sometimes I get a golden surprise,lol. Popped this up, thought it was lead...till I saw glint of gold peeking through.

[deathray]

And heres some of what Im usually after

[goldbrick]

Wowsa Ray! Nice relics. Those will put a smile on your face.

[Norvic]

Steve, just looking through your pan of non-ferrous targets, there are no brass buttons, are they not present in your fields? Over here in NQ OZ they are probably the most non-ferrous targets after bullets around old workings.