On The Relic Trail

[CPT_GhostLight]

I've been trying to improve my relic hunting chops since I detected my first ghost town a little over a year ago. For a relatively new detectorist, it was a daunting experience, but I managed to make a couple of cool finds and was instantly hooked on relics. Hunting in "machine gun iron" is not for the faint of heart and I was mentally and physically exahausted after my first relic hunt. At that time I was using my Nox 800 with the 11" coil and it was absolute chaos in the headphones. Fortunately I had just received the Coiltek 10x5" coil and put that on and it was like night and day. That combination made the hunt manageable and was my first dip into the concept of separaration. Previously, I had just swung around in parks and would make an occasional good find but was completely oblivious to what I was missing.

As relic hunters know, separation is king. I got the Deus II last Spring largely because of it's reputaion of being able to separate well in iron. Of course the first thing to do was to learn the machine and learn how separating works on it. Learning basic operation of the D2 has been relatively easy, but learning the intricasies is where the learning curve is and I've been working hard on that. While I'm not to the end of that curve, I'm making some progress and it's starting to to show in the field.

Case and point is a hunt I did a little over a week ago when I followed the relic trail far enough to escape some of the frozen ground between the weekly snow storms. The site was pretty clear of snow but the wind was howling, but the hunt must go on! Following a railroad track, I came upon the scattered remains of a foundation. The iron in the ground was intense but I started turning up some personal artifacts and indications that there was a house or possibly hotel or gaming house at the location.

I have been trying to learn how to hunt by ear to be able to hear the differences in target sounds and while it's a work in progress I was able to hear some important differences. The best representaion of that was the 1932 wheat penny I found about 7 inches down in a veritable bed of nails. I was able to distinguish the penny sound mixed in with the nail grunts and falsing high tones. The ID showed a flashing mix of high and low numbers and if I was depending on that I would have passed it by, but I could hear the penny sound so I dug it.

That ended up bing the only coin I found but I did find some other interesting items including a miner's tag, suspender clips, a stocking clip, a small flower desing snap button, a metal 2-hole button, some smaller snap buttons, a couple of ladies brooches (one still has some gilding on the back), ladies face cream jar lids (circa 1890s-1920s), part of a 1936 license plate, and a back of a Victorian ladies watch marked "Neusilber", which is German nickel-silver. Unfortunately nickel silver has no silver in it, it's an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc. So while they're not necessarily jaw dropping finds, to me they're pieces of the history of lives lived long ago and possibly more clues to even bigger finds. 

 

[JCR]

That is some neat finds. I especially like the glass & pottery.   Good scouting.

[GB_Amateur]

Most USA minted coins from 1931-33 are moderate (to low) mintage.  Apparently those early Great Depression years didn't see much need for freshly minted coins.  Your 32-D Lincoln fits that generalization and it appears to have hardly made it out of the mint before it was lost.  A lot of date+mm issues for those three years weren't even produced, especially at the branch mints.  Only cents were produced in all three years, all three in Philly and Denver, with only the semi-key 1931-S coming out of San Francisco for that time period.

Thanks for the report.  Looks like your relics give you a good picture of the living conditions of that site when it was in its populated years.

 

[F350Platinum]

Congrats on a great bunch of relics, Cap'n. 👍 Top picture top left is a Model T valve cover, I find them all the time. The "Neusilber" thing is "German Silver", or nickel silver. I almost misread the "Face Cream" compact or lid. 😀

Doesn't look like you're missing a thing with the Deus 2, truly killing it. Great stuff! That '32 penny does look new.

[CPT_GhostLight]

3 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Most USA minted coins from 1931-33 are moderate (to low) mintage.  Apparently those early Great Depression years didn't see much need for freshly minted coins.  Your 32-D Lincoln fits that generalization and it appears to have hardly made it out of the mint before it was lost.  A lot of date+mm issues for those three years weren't even produced, especially at the branch mints.  Only cents were produced in all three years, all three in Philly and Denver, with only the semi-key 1931-S coming out of San Francisco for that time period.

Thanks for the report.  Looks like your relics give you a good picture of the living conditions of that site when it was in its populated years.

 

Thank you for the information on the coin, GB_A! The rails and ties are long gone from this track and from the looks of the things I was finding, I think it must have been in decline by the time of the depression. 

[CPT_GhostLight]

9 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

Congrats on a great bunch of relics, Cap'n. 👍 Top picture top left is a Model T valve cover, I find them all the time. The "Neusilber" thing is "German Silver", or nickel silver. I almost misread the "Face Cream" compact or lid. 😀

Doesn't look like you're missing a thing with the Deus 2, truly killing it. Great stuff! That '32 penny does look new.

Thanks, F350! I was wondering what that hub looking thing was. It was in the vacinity of the license plate. German  Neusilber was common and cheaper back in the day. My grandpa used to call it "Near Sliver". 😆

Yeah that Face Cream lid made me do a double take too! 🤣

[Doc Bach]

That's not a bad array of finds their Captain.Looks like you have the bug and are on your way to becoming a relic hunting fanatic for certain.Keep digging those big iron targets and you will eventually be rewarded with something outstanding.On the rare occasion iron even leads to surprises and much better things including non metallic items.                                                                                                                                           

[strick]

The life of a relic hunter lol...We get all excited when we see little pieces of glass shining in the dirt...ahh all the possibilities that may turn up 🙂 

good shooting CBT 

strick

[Valens Legacy]

Nice hunt and I know that was a lot of hard work so congrats on the finds.

Great save on the penny and I hope your next hunt brings you more treasure.

[Rick N. MI]

Great relic hunt with a lot of finds.