I Wish The Pocket Watch Was Attached!

[Zincoln]

Went hunting a late 1880s to 1920 era park.  Had hopes of finding an old dime, or at least an IHP or Wheat I'd missed.  A few hours into the hunt, I was digging anything that might possibly be a good deep target.  Popped a plug about 6 inches deep, and found an old rusty screw.  Darn it.  But, right next to it I caught a glimmer.  Wiped the dirt away, and there was a bright gold chain.  Ran the detector over the chain, and nothing.  I detected garbage, but found a gold chain by coincidence.  After I separated it from various roots and freed it, it was anywhere from about 5-7 inches deep, but laid out in a line, so very little to hit on with a VLF machine.  

Found examples online w/ the clasp from the Victorian era used to hold fine pocket watches.  This one has a mark that is nearly gone, and not discernable on the clasp.  Test holds 18k acid completely, and 22k very slowly eats away at it.  14.44g!  Someone had a very bad day 100 years ago.

Suffice to say that i checked around the area thoroughly.  All metal, various frequencies, etc....in hopes of the watch.  But no avail!

Made my day.  Even left home this morning imagining finding a gold pocket watch....but didn't expect the chain:-)

All the best,

Zincoln

[JCR]

You were meant to find that. Very nice indeed. A real memory there.

[dsb]

You have my envy😀    Amazing find,  good thing gold is heavy and it was lost so long ago just think of the mowers that been over that.   

[Zincoln]

48 minutes ago, NAGANT said:

You have my envy😀    Amazing find,  good thing gold is heavy and it was lost so long ago just think of the mowers that been over that.   

Fortunately, this hillside was steep enough that I'm sure no mower has ever ventured there.  But yeah, what a mess a rototiller would have made.

[mn90403]

It reminds me of a very fine chain I found at the beach years ago.  I didn't hear it but I dug a coin.  This chain was hanging from my scoop glittering in my flashlight.  The best part of it was that there was a diamond hanging from it.

Later I laid the chain out on the surface, and I could not detect it with my 5000.

[UtahRich]

3 hours ago, Zincoln said:

Went hunting a late 1880s to 1920 era park.  Had hopes of finding an old dime, or at least an IHP or Wheat I'd missed.  A few hours into the hunt, I was digging anything that might possibly be a good deep target.  Popped a plug about 6 inches deep, and found an old rusty screw.  Darn it.  But, right next to it I caught a glimmer.  Wiped the dirt away, and there was a bright gold chain.  Ran the detector over the chain, and nothing.  I detected garbage, but found a gold chain by coincidence.  After I separated it from various roots and freed it, it was anywhere from about 5-7 inches deep, but laid out in a line, so very little to hit on with a VLF machine.  

Found examples online w/ the clasp from the Victorian era used to hold fine pocket watches.  This one has a mark that is nearly gone, and not discernable on the clasp.  Test holds 18k acid completely, and 22k very slowly eats away at it.  14.44g!  Someone had a very bad day 100 years ago.

Suffice to say that i checked around the area thoroughly.  All metal, various frequencies, etc....in hopes of the watch.  But no avail!

Made my day.  Even left home this morning imagining finding a gold pocket watch....but didn't expect the chain:-)

All the best,

Zincoln

 

Brian,

The title should have been, "Zen, And the Art of Metal Detecting."  Congrats on a beautiful find.   Looking forward to 2023.   

Rich

[Valens Legacy]

Amazing fine and I hope you bought a lottery ticket after that.

The pocket watch should still be close to the area so I would be hitting that area more.

Good luck and good hunting.

[strick]

Beautiful chain and it makes it better that it's an old chain. Congratulations on a great find. Last summer I was in a swimming hole up to my chest hunting with the excalibur...got a high tone and after a scoop or two I had it in the scoop. When I lifted the scoop up out of the water I noticed a very fine gold chain dangling out of the side of the scoop...after congratulating my myself on a job well done I then remembered that I had heard a high conductor not a low conductor. Thats when I noticed the dime in the scoop lol 

strick 

[Zincoln]

43 minutes ago, strick said:

Beautiful chain and it makes it better that it's an old chain. Congratulations on a great find. Last summer I was in a swimming hole up to my chest hunting with the excalibur...got a high tone and after a scoop or two I had it in the scoop. When I lifted the scoop up out of the water I noticed a very fine gold chain dangling out of the side of the scoop...after congratulating my myself on a job well done I then remembered that I had heard a high conductor not a low conductor. Thats when I noticed the dime in the scoop lol 

strick 

Better lucky than good, right Strick! I almost felt guilty😁

[Zincoln]

7 hours ago, mn90403 said:

It reminds me of a very fine chain I found at the beach years ago.  I didn't hear it but I dug a coin.  This chain was hanging from my scoop glittering in my flashlight.  The best part of it was that there was a diamond hanging from it.

Later I laid the chain out on the surface, and I could not detect it with my 5000.

Chains are a funny and frustrating thing.  Never have found many.  Almost always the clasp is tell.  Not that you can't get a beep, but when the signals are poor or borderline iron (or not detectable at depth) and mixed in a sea of signals, they don't yell dig me.  At least not among the countless pieces of foil.  

Congrats on the diamond.  I'm sure that was a very pleasant find!