Geologyhound

8 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

Ouch, that's happened to me before! As usual you did your best, but that is the fate of many old coppers. 😢

Here's hoping you find another with more detail. 🍀 You're really finding some awesome stuff! 

With all the fantastic stuff I’ve seen you post, that is some compliment!

5 hours ago, Doc Bach said:

Like the bullets i doubt that one would ever become bored digging them.

It was a little surreal. After all these years I couldn’t really believe there were this many.  I had to go back to the car and empty my pouch because the pocket with the bullet pouch was pulling my vest down.

9 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

That's too thin to be a USA Large Cent or one of its planchets.  They are over 2 mm in thickness.  Can you measure its weight?  That would likely provide a final conclusion.

 

That I don't know.  The raised rim was put on the planchet before it entered the press so if never struck it should still have the rim.  Denticles, OTOH, were part of the striking process, coming from the die.

Well, it is only 62 grains.  So about 4.02 g - way too light to be a large cent or just about any other US coin.  So it might be a very worn token.

10 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

That I don't know. 🤔 

Could you get a closer and clearer photo of both sides?

You're definitely in the large cent and early English coin range. My first large copper was a slick one.

I have tried cleaning parts of both sides with my Andres crayon set.  I have gotten it down to the green patina but I still don’t see any detail.
 

4 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Technically those 'spokes' are known as 'denticles'.  According to the Red Book, large cents had diameters as small as 26 mm -- the early ones.  I think the quality control back in the early years was lax enough that the diameters of the planchets (blanks) could be different and still make it into production.  Is it possible yours is a bit larger than 25 mm diameter?

Great hunt you had there!  Hopefully the CW buffs here can help you identify your bullets.

I don’t have a caliper.  After rechecking it multiple directions on a clear ruler, it appears to actually be a little over 25.5 mm, and a shade under 26 mm.  It is about 1 mm thick.

15 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Looks like Tekkna paid off at a virtually un-hunted site! What a haul! 🤯

Congrats on the silver, 25mm coins are always a tough search if you've got no detail. Have you tried sidelighting it? Thought you might have had a 2c piece at first but it's bigger.

That's a place that should keep giving for a while. 👍

I have tried sidelighting, frontlighting, backlighting, you name it.  Parts of it look smooth like a plug from a junction box.  But, that should be a different metal.  Also, I don’t see a break-off point, and a lighted magnifier does make it look like there was a rim which might have had denticles.  I almost wonder if it is another railroad mashed coin, but it seems to have a uniform thickness and circular shape.  Were blank planchets for old style coins a different diameter than the struck coin?

15 hours ago, palzynski said:

42 bullets , then you have reached your objective without any doubt ...  🙂

Congrats this is a very impressive haul , you have both a very good site and a very good detector with a great Tekkna setting ...

 

Thanks!  Someone else was using a program called Forager and seemed to be doing quite well too.  I’ll have to look that one up.

5 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

 

 

Thanks! I wondered what was going on.

Out of curiosity, is it just my device, or does it seem like the reactions to multiple post threads have been reset?  I am certain I thanked or liked multiple responses to some threads, but those posts now show either no reactions, or only 1-2 very recent reactions.

The mica flakes would indicate metamorphic rocks like schist or gneiss.  So you could have some quartzite.  Feldspars would also be common.  It is also possible you might have some marble.  Marble should react (fizz) with dilute acid like hydrochloric.

A gentleman on another website clued me in that the “tree tap” is actually a brass tent rope adjuster.  No idea of the age, but that style was in use during the Civil War.  I will have to examine it closely and see if there is a patent date or any writing.

2 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Excellent hunt, Ghound. 👍 Looks like a campground to me, for hunting and other activities. I've dug those aluminum tent pins before. Is that a big brass bell shard?

I found that brass chunk next to the old kitchen/dining building.  So you are probably exactly right!  

This area is having a celebration later in the year, and my contact was interested in any artifacts which might have historical significance to the site so they could display them.  I will have to ask and see if they had a bell there.  Thanks!

I recently obtained permission for my club to hunt a sizable piece of property with historical group usage going back over 100 years.  Over 40 of us showed up on the designated day.  I heard several people say their first signal of the day was a silver dime!  By the afternoon, I was getting a little discouraged with a wheat or two, some bullets, a fishing weight and a couple modern coins.  I had also found a 12 pound section of an old brass pot or urn.  Based on the radius of curvature, that thing must have been huge, not to mention extremely heavy!  I had to make a special trip back to the car for that thing, as it was too heavy to carry with me all day.

I finally broke the silver drought with a 64 Rosie after lunch.  A while after that, another club member hunting near me found a beautiful Ben Franklin silver half.  I told him it was gorgeous, and mentioned I had never found a half outside a seeded hunt - let alone a silver one.  He encouraged me and said I will find one sooner or later and it might be a Walker or even a Barber.

As he moved on, I hit a nail patch and decided to slow down and go over it.  I was using my Deus 2 with the 11x13 coil - not optimum for dense nails, but I wasn’t going back to the car for the 9” that late in the day.  After a little comparison, I switched to the Tekkna program.  From what I have read, it might not be the best program for a large coil and dense ferrous targets, but it was more stable and much quieter in the dense nails than my custom program.  After walking two lines through the nails, I had recovered four wheats and a worn cuff link (?), and figured there may be more hiding.  Sure enough, I hit a nice mid-90’s signal that was so strong it had to be a can lid or the like.  But, with multiple nearby wheats, I was digging it anyway.  About three inches down, I caught my breath as I saw a silver disk emerge.  Surely, it was an aluminum punch like another one I had found, but then I saw the reeding on the edge.  I was flabbergasted to see Lady Liberty emerge from the dirt!

Despite the dense iron (based on the stain, it would appear the coin was actually in contact with iron) using Tekkna and the 11x13 worked well.  I would say this is the best coin I have ever found!  In hindsight, I wonder what would have happened if my club member had said I would find a $20 gold piece…🤪

I also found a maple tree tap and what I think is a musket ball. The wheats range from 1911 through the 1950’s, with only the 1920’s not represented.  We are working on permission to go back again!

I’d say keep hunting there but I don’t think you need the encouragement…😊

Can’t knock that!

Still, one Barber is a good day for me.  Two is great!  Congrats!

Is it magnetic? If you scrap it across an unglazed porcelain plate, does it leave a streak of a particular color?

Can you scratch any of these with a knife blade?  My second question would be if you drip any dilute hydrochloric acid on them will it fizz?  Most carbonate rocks will react with acid and fizz and can be scratched with a knife blade.  If they won’t fizz and can scratch a knife blade, then I would guess at quartzite.

Almost looks like an old mile marker post. Do you happen to have a picture of a fresh broken - not cut surface?

1 hour ago, Rattlehead said:

Thanks! It’s something I came up with several years ago. I like to keep a hand free while detecting so that I can answer my phone, grab a drink or whatever else. Tried one of those holsters for long handled shovels, but it never really worked well for me due to the T handle being hung at belt level. With the full length of the shovel hanging below the belt line, it would start swinging and banging against my ankles as I walked. Since the hip clip can be mounted further down the shaft, it eliminates that problem.

Hope you patented it!

Looks like vein agate (cryptocrystalline silicon dioxide).  I suspect some of the  coloration may be due to surface iron staining, but yellow coloration is fairly common in agate.

It looks a little like carborundum (silicon carbide).  Still industrial byproduct or discarded product, but it would explain the color and the hardness.

On 4/1/2024 at 12:27 PM, rvpopeye said:

Edit by clicking on the 3 dots upper right of your post.

I did manage to edit the reply posts, or else there would’ve been three duplicates.   The real problem is I can’t figure out how to delete a duplicate post.

On 3/31/2024 at 8:51 PM, Rattlehead said:

More like a clip you’d see on an ink pen, but bigger. 🙂

Looks like a nifty design!  Is this something you developed or something you found somewhere?