Mentor Day (silver)

[F350Platinum]

I've been pretty busy since I did my last post, "Sometimes you have to mow". Been getting the house ready for Christmas, but I did go metal detecting a few times. I mowed another permission, an old farmhouse site that looks promising:

I believe these are cannon carriages, but I'm not sure.

there are 3 old buildings here, and a fourth with two silos behind it.

Hunting this place before I mowed it was rather difficult, Chase was with me the first time and we really didn't find much in the tall grass. It was kinda interesting though, I dug what I think might be an old Chinese coin, but it has no identifying marks other than the square hole.

a couple of buckles, remains of a small pocketknife, one no date wheat, a memorial and a clad quarter. Dug a small pistol ball, brass finial, a small nozzle and another one of those grommets that look like a ring. 😵 Chase had a similar experience.

Went back and mowed the place and only searched the area in front of the truck barn and the silos, not much there but it was interesting as well:

3 clad dimes, one 1971 memorial, 4 Zincolns. Nice all brass buckle and a chrome plated peace sign. 😀

Which all brings me to today, I thought I was gonna write "Sometimes you need to mow 2", but nope. Today, Chase came and brought his mentor, I'll call her "Deb". She is a long time detectorist who had helped him along over the years with places to hunt, and a wealth of historical knowledge. We all met at the farm, but we quickly found that she was having a time with digging there because the ground is dry now. We decided to visit a farm we only scouted a while ago, it's pretty big but we didn't find much there the last time except for this little guy:

"Deb" read the field, found some musket balls and then moved on to a bit of higher ground, and got us both going finding buttons and all sorts of interesting stuff. Chase knocked out the first coin of the day, a nice green IHP, and one of the most interesting Dandy buttons I have ever seen with a sunburst pattern on it. He generously gave it to "Deb" as a memento of the trip.

I wasn't finding much myself:

A couple of overall buttons, an interesting front of a two-piece with circles in a triangle, some buckle fragments and a copper nail washer.

"Deb" left as she had a long ride home, and Chase and I continued to search the high ground. Finally we headed out across the farm to check out another spot which didn't have much of anything, so we headed back toward our vehicles to call it a day. I veered off to explore another bit of high ground, and I'm glad I did, as the find of the day hit me as a 25/26 on the Equinox, I thought I'd finally found an IHP:

I realize this is a long story but the end was worth it if I didn't bore you to death above.

1690 Bolivia or Peruvian mint silver Spanish 1 Real Cob. It's a "pillars and waves" type only minted in one of those countries, the mint mark is not there. 331 years old! Officially the oldest thing I have found.

I dragged Chase over to that spot but we didn't get to hunt it long, the farmer came out and told us the area we were standing in was a trading post. 😀 It's literally his front yard. We talked for a long time about the history of the place and ended up with 3 new permissions, but I'm pretty sure we will be back here soon!

[GB_Amateur]

Way cool 300+ year old coin, F350P!  17th Century -- did you blow past the 18th Century?

Private permissions seem to be hit-or-miss (mostly miss) when it comes to quantity, but hopefully make up for that in quality.  Quantity really comes down to number of human-hours a site was frequented.  But old sites with fewer human-hours can have those occasional wow! moments and your Spanish Colonial early silver proved that.  You'll never forget this one!

[Kodiak]

Great pictures.  Congratulations on the peruvian real cob, it looks like you found a spot with hundreds of years of history.  Good luck and thanks for sharing.

[F350Platinum]

21 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Way cool 300+ year old coin, F350P!  17th Century -- did you blow past the 18th Century?

Private permissions seem to be hit-or-miss (mostly miss) when it comes to quantity, but hopefully make up for that in quality.  Quantity really comes down to number of human-hours a site was frequented.  But old sites with fewer human-hours can have those occasional wow! moments and your Spanish Colonial early silver proved that.  You'll never forget this one!

I was just enjoying the day hosting my mentor and his mentor. I was really humbled by this find, I was feeding the kitten water and some roast beef "Deb" had and hoping they'd find cool stuff. I was totally impressed by her knowledge of land and history. Very fascinating and informative visit. She has a tough time getting around and I admire her steadfastness and the Deus she was swinging. 😀 Maybe it was divine intervention... 🤔 😅

[F350Platinum]

4 minutes ago, Kodiak said:

Great pictures.  Congratulations on the peruvian real cob, it looks like you found a spot with hundreds of years of history.  Good luck and thanks for sharing.

Thank you! The farmer and his family are probably the nicest and most generous people I have ever met. I sort of offered him the coin, he told me to keep it and enjoy. I am one lucky noob. 😀

[GB_Amateur]

8 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

I was just enjoying the day hosting my mentor and his mentor.

I guess that makes you a 3rd generation detectorist.  Cherish those experiences -- they are educational, but so much more.

[Chase Goldman]

Bob knocked it out of the park with a walk off home run.  I was very happy for him with the cob save - he has a Spanish silver magnet for a detector - and for us because it means that field which started to begrudgingly give up it treasures has a lot more to potentially give us.  That plus the additional hundreds of acres and no less than 4 home sites in permissions gained are detectorist treasure in and of themselves. Thanks for the invite my friend.  Had a blast.  No silver for me but some nice green patina on old brass, copper. and bronze is almost as good.

[mn90403]

Well done.  You shared a bit of the Farmer's Land history with him which will mean a great deal.  If it can be put together with some 'details' with a local historian it could be that much more interesting.

When I was growing up in Florida we lived on an old Timucuan Indian site.  There were many artifacts found there in the 1950's and before.  It was in a 'trade area' on a river and I wish we could have used a metal detector on that land before it was developed.

Some of the artifacts were so 'interesting' they needed to be donated to a museum for other historians to see and understand.  Now I think you could make a digital gift to the locals if you post that coin picture on a good website.

Mitchel

[Valens Legacy]

Great finds from you and Chase to share with us.

I believe that the item you thought was for a cannon is actually a single plow like our next door neighbor had.

Good luck and pound that area hard to bring back the history.

 

[F350Platinum]

3 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Great finds from you and Chase to share with us.

I believe that the item you thought was for a cannon is actually a single plow like our next door neighbor had.

Good luck and pound that area hard to bring back the history.

 

That's what I thought at first as well, but the top of the carriage has blocks with a rounded scoop out and a strap, leading me to think they are light gun carriages or possibly a "quick detach" for a wagon or buckboard of some sort. I didn't see a plow blade. 🙂