I Had To Take A Few Bullets For What I Got

[F350Platinum]

Wasn't planning on going detecting today, it was cold and windy yesterday, and today was colder. Not much wind. It was supposed to start raining in the afternoon and rain all the way through Monday, windy on Tuesday. The next good day will probably be next Thursday, so I figured I'd try to brave the cold.

It was in the mid 30s when I got out here, a farm close to my house. It's 200+ acres. If you've been following me it was also a horse racing track that was pounded by other detectorists. I've only found two spots they didn't know about or find, I've done pretty well there, and there was sort of a third today. One was a house that was there a long time ago, another a barn. This spot may well have been where some betting occurred, you'll see why.

I was only out for 6 hours today before it started raining, but all things considered it was a great day. At one point I had to go back to the house to get my heated socks and gloves, they really helped.

Unfortunately one of my neighbors tests his hunting rifles here, so at a certain distance there are a lot of bullets, mostly deer slugs that hit the Deus 2 in the high 80's and even low 90's.

Dug a fair amount of trash today, even a couple bits of large iron. The green shotgun shell is a live round.

Digging a lot of bullets is never fun, but you hope they caused someone to miss something, and today they sure did.

I had just got out there, searched about 20 feet from my cart, and got a really nice 84/85 that I thought was either a bullet or a penny.

I was surprised when this popped out of the plug:

A totally beat up Spanish half Reale, I think the date is 1775, but it's really hard to read. It's off center, kind of normal for these.

This is what it looks like in good shape:

And the reverse:

I'll probably never find one that nice! My first Spanish silver of the year 🥳 At least the were enough marks to ID it.

I searched around that area, Chase found another coin there recently. Got another 85 and thought it was a bullet. Again a surprise, and something very interesting:

This appears to be a large cent that was used as a "cutting board" for cutting other coins into "change". It has no identifiable marks of its own, but the knife cuts tell a story. Here's the other side:

It's 28mm so it's probably a large cent that broke on one of the knife cuts.

Didn't find much else but bullets in this area, so I decided to walk along about 20 feet in from the road that bisects this field. Got a 93, and thought I'd found another silver, but got this instead:

It's brass and does not appear to have been crushed or damaged. I have no idea what it is.

Got another 85 and got this silver plated medium button:

It was a bit taco'ed so I flattened it.

A little further down the road, after digging a few bullets, all in the 80s and 90s, I got a 91 that turned into a 94, and dug this, my last find of the day:

It's a little mangled but hey it's silver!

I looked around a bit longer, and decided to call it a day, it started raining as I drove back to my house.

For a hunt that I almost didn't go on, it was a good one. 🙂

[jim tn]

Some nice finds! Probably not, but at first glance your oval piece looked like a lever to a carbine rifle. HH jim tn

[F350Platinum]

10 hours ago, jim tn said:

Some nice finds! Probably not, but at first glance your oval piece looked like a lever to a carbine rifle. HH jim tn

Thanks Jim,

I was thinking scissors or something but it doesn't appear to be broken. The three nubs on it make me think it was centered in something. Some obscure tool maybe 🤔 

There have been a few mentions about scale in this forum, maybe I should make good 🤔

[NCtoad]

Man, you are on a roll this year!

[matt]

Fantastic finds 350! Congrats.

[Jim Hemmingway]

Nice relics and older coins F350!!! That is a very good afternoon's hunt, and silver....especially old silver dating back to a time when Daniel Boone was settling in Kentucky... is always welcome.

This made a very interesting read and your photos are excellent. 🙂 Thank you... Jim.

[Valens Legacy]

Just when you think it couldn't get any better for you, you hit it out of the park again.

Great hunt once again.

Good luck on your next outing.

[F350Platinum]

7 hours ago, NCtoad said:

Man, you are on a roll this year!

Thanks NC, it seems like it. I hope I'm not making this look easy, Chase mentioned that I need to somehow illustrate the amount of walking and "dead time" it takes in large fields like this to find anything of value, the trash only tells part of the story. 😵 You pay for it in shoes and anti-inflammatory medicine 😀

The golf cart only gets you there. 😁 Saved about a mile of walking.

What was going on here about 200 years ago is really beginning to gel in my mind, so yeah, the finds seem to be getting better. I wish I could find photos that tell the story in a more detailed way.

[F350Platinum]

6 hours ago, matt said:

Fantastic finds 350! Congrats.

Thanks Matt, this is one of the first places I got permission to hunt, it's nice that it keeps on giving. 🙂

[F350Platinum]

5 hours ago, Jim Hemmingway said:

Nice relics and older coins F350!!! That is a very good afternoon's hunt, and silver....especially old silver dating back to a time when Daniel Boone was settling in Kentucky... is always welcome.

This made a very interesting read and your photos are excellent. 🙂 Thank you... Jim.

Thanks Jim!

This time I found the "cutting board" for coins, probably the most interesting thing I've found to date, but not the oldest. Most folks don't know that Spanish currency was used right up to the 1850s, and the only way to make change was to cut it. That old large cent saw a few silvers, shame the parts weren't everywhere. 😀 The first coins I ever found detecting were cut 1 Reale pistareens.

I'll probably never beat the half coin I dug in another field a while back (1607), lost very early in this countries' history, but it sure is interesting to try.