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Western Frontier Relic Road Trip With Tomca


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I hope at the right time there is a nice informative video of the trip.

Very nice finds.

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5 hours ago, strick said:

Nice work Brian you and Tom are like two well seasoned coon hounds....always able to sniff out the good stuff...Glad you got out...I've been holed up with work and projects..

strick 

Thanks Chuck!  This was a backup site, we'd planned to work a different site we've been having good luck at for a few years and had planned to recon some areas we've been looking to check out for a few years, but it got rained out so we went to plan "B" haha

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5 hours ago, Againstmywill said:

Could it be that proof of the Knights Templars was uncovered by expert metal detectorsist Cal_Cobra while detecting an ancient site where more happened than appears, or is it part of something bigger... something only more exploration will uncover?

Screenshot_20211222-071327.jpg

I joke with my wife that in any given year since the Oak Island program has aired, that I've found more relics and far more valuable items (not that I ever sell any, but the fact remains) in one year then they've found since the program has aired ha ha  I'd certainly love to have their treasure hunting budget though 🙂

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5 hours ago, Againstmywill said:

Interesting read about the possible origins of the Phoenix buttons on the west coast:

https://mynorthwest.com/1976707/mysterious-phoenix-button-found-puget-sound/amp/

 

Good article.  These buttons were effectively part of the fur trade era, and have been found mostly up and down the west coast where there were trading posts or the Spanish had missions or outposts where they were used as Indian trade items.  You typically only find these at the earliest sites out west, and although a rarity, they've been found at trading sites going all the way to the east coast.  For us out west, it's probably akin to those on the east coast when they dig a Revolutionary War button or something like that. 

I also have a sneaking suspicion that they were used as coinage.   At that time on the west coast, there really wasn't a standard currency in use, arguably Spanish I suppose until Mexico dethroned them.   There weren't any mints out west, so any form of coinage was pretty limited until after the gold rush.

 

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4 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Incredible finds, great photos. 👍 The condition y'all find things in! 🤯 Hope to see what Tom found.

For the most part, the ground is generally kind to non-iron artifacts at this site.  Tom pulled out a 1796 Spanish reale last month, over 200 years old and in beautiful condition. 

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3 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Gotta agree -- that silver button is something special in terms of attractiveness.  I confirm what F350 said -- the condition of your finds is remarkable.  I guess it's the dry climate.

When you can stop counting in decades, replaced with centuries, you know you're in relic detecting Shangri La, at least for North America.

These came from arid sandy soils that were never modern farm lands subjected to corrosive fertilizers or even worse yet, cattle grazing.  At another area we have two good sites that are mere miles apart, one is similar to the one these finds were recovered from and the finds generally come out in beautiful condition.  At the second site just a few miles away there's been a hundred+ years of cattle and a lot of the finds (especially silver coins 😡 come out with some serious environmental damage.   I love these remote sites with neutral sandy soils, they tend to be very kind to the finds, but as you will see shortly, not all of them 🙂

We are lucky to have a few early sites out west, but I do envy the Colonial cellar hole hunters back east, not going to dig any GW buttons out here ha ha  On a more serious not though, I started of mostly detecting parks and demo sites in the beginning.  Once I got into relic sites where you were digging U.S. Seated Liberties and Bust coins and Spanish reales, it really hard to get excited about killing yourself at a park to dig a mercury dime 🙂  Tom still relishes the challenge of detecting a trashy park angling for cherry picking deep oldies, but I am less enthusiastic about it then I was 15 years ago 😉

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1 hour ago, dave_e said:

You are legends. 

 

 

Exactly.  This is why I keep offering to autograph Brian's metal detector.  I mean, gee , After all, it's not every day you get to have a legend autograph your detector.  Right ? 

 

But for some reason, Brian keeps saying "no thank you"  🤨  

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You two are a trip in more ways than one.

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Great finds Brian! I also think your find is part of a Chinese lock. 

PS. Tom sent me a map of your hunt sites so I should be seeing you out there shortly. Thanks again Tom. 

Tom

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