Kinda Slow Few Days, But Picked Up

[F350Platinum]

Back from a few days away at a campground, almost got them to let me detect the lake beach and an old farm, but someone made a snap judgement and said "we don't want you digging". 😵 Oh well.

Got a few hours in on the river, the tides weren't low at all so I stayed closer to shore. Couldn't get to the area where I found the Brown Bess buttplate, and really didn't find much of interest. I tried a lot of the suggestions I got such as digging negative numbers, one-way positives, and faint signals but pretty much got what I expected from this place:

Iron, copper nails and screws, and junk. Went the other way up river and got fishing gear, and old boat copper plate. 😀

It's a beautiful place, I park my cart and walk 10 feet to the water. At high tide there's no beach, most low tides have about 3 feet. Once it was about 6 -10'. During the week I don't have to worry about boaters even in the summer, most of the boaters have weekend cottages. Today I saw a kayaker and one boat, but I wasn't in the river, I was on the landing.

Dug a ton of junk but came away with two interesting relics before the deerflies got too troublesome.

Nice 1800s silver thimble, a 17/18. It is inscribed "Forget Me Not", a common gift for a woman in the Victorian era. Too bad it's a bit mangled.

Got a 15/16, thought oh great, another pull tab, and dug this, it made my day:

1930s Cracker Jack Tootsietoy "Zephyr". 90 years and it still has its paint.

You just never know what's out there.

[Chase Goldman]

Love those last two keepers.  Great stuff.

[F350Platinum]

14 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

Love those last two keepers.  Great stuff.

Thanks Chase. I thought I'd already put too many photos up, but this is what I pulled out of the ground today, I was in a "dig it all" mood:

[CVISChris]

I like digging thimbles and have never dug one made silver.  Pretty cool find.  

[F350Platinum]

12 minutes ago, CVISChris said:

I like digging thimbles and have never dug one made silver.  Pretty cool find.  

Usually the thimbles I find are brass or some variation and a lot older. This one gave the same ID as one of those reales I dug, and it came out as you see it. I later used a little Wright's silver polish on it and it brightened up a bit, some tarnish came off. It's cracked in one spot and I don't see any copper or brass. Could be nickel silver. I looked them up and some are sterling, but this one has no purity marks.

Victorian era women used to have a belt bag with thimbles, thread, scissors and other stuff in it according to my research. Kinda a quick repair kit for all the buttons that kept popping off, I think by then women were allowed to have them too 🤔

[kac]

I've found tons of squashed brass ones and one silver. Looks like you got tired of digging good stuff 🙂

The toy looks cool. Wonder if that is worth restoring?

Are there any gravel banks there or is it pretty much soft sand/mud?

[Valens Legacy]

Very nice finds and a few good pictures also. I love seeing where people are finding items and read their stories.

Good luck on your next hunt.

[F350Platinum]

7 hours ago, kac said:

I've found tons of squashed brass ones and one silver. Looks like you got tired of digging good stuff 🙂

The toy looks cool. Wonder if that is worth restoring?

Are there any gravel banks there or is it pretty much soft sand/mud?

I think the good stuff got tired of me digging it 😀 Seriously, right now I'm kicked out of the 400 acres of farm waiting on the corn. I've got some other places to go here but haven't got any new permissions. Most of the places other than the river are tough to get to and full of ticks and snakes. I've plucked 3 ticks already.

The toy is probably worth about $20, it's not exceptionally rare. My wife asked me to put it on the kitchen window shelf, so I think it's hers now 😀

The river bottom is all a layer of fine beach sand, then a black oily and smelly layer, then a very sticky and heavy grey silt clay. Some places are risky to stand, if I wasn't wearing waders I'd lose my shoes. Very few rocks and no gravel. Where human habitation was there are oyster shell middens indicating it, either native or colonial. About 5-10 years ago we had a massive flood that took a lot of trees, so you run into natural barriers that force you to walk out into the deeper water. To get to the good stuff I wait until we get a negative tide, happens about once a month. I'm a little leery about going out too far.

There are some remote places I haven't gone to yet but they are tough to get to, the ravines are 30-60 foot drops and the bottoms are marsh. I tried to find a Baptism place but it's so overgrown it's almost impossible to get to except by the river.

Think I'll have to get another boat 🤔

[F350Platinum]

8 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Very nice finds and a few good pictures also. I love seeing where people are finding items and read their stories.

Good luck on your next hunt.

Thanks VL!

I try to give a sense of what I'm going through without giving too much away. I assume some people on this forum live vicariously through others' posts when they can't get out or get skunked. I know I do, and lately I've been getting skunked. 🤪

[schoolofhardNox]

Nice couple of finds. Sometimes the thimbles are marked lightly or deep inside the cap part. It looks like silver to me and is a really nice thimble! Your ratio of iron to non iron is actually quite good for your location. I'd be happy with that ratio. Getting skunked is all part of trying new areas. Without trying, how is anyone ever going to find that 1800's picnic spot that would be a dream hunt? It's all about the hunt and the hope of getting on to something good.