Mudlarking With V1.1, Part Deux

[CPT_GhostLight]

Last week I reported on my soggy adventure at a relic site in town where I found one of my oldest local finds, which was a brass key tag from one of the oldest and the second largest 1800s hotel in the area, the Alamo Hotel. Here's the link if you'd like to read that post:

Well I went back to that site a few days ago to see if I could find any other items related to the era or maybe even ot the hotel itself. It's been the one of the rainest Springs that I can remember, raining or storming almost eveyday for weeks, and it takes strategic timing to squeeze detecting in between one storm passing and the next one starting. I try not to complain about it because we really need the moisture after years of drought and fires, so I look at it as excercises in adapting to your environment. Adapt and overcome! 😏

So when I got back to the "mudlarking" site I noticed that the foliage had really sprung up in the area and weeds that were knee high in spots were now waist high only a few days after. I fired up my D2 with the 9" weed wacker coil and ran the same slightly modified General program and went to work. Once again, the General program was able to pull non-ferrous tones out of the soaked iron. I hit a strong 85-86 that sounded bigger than a modern penny not too far from where I found the hotel tag. I was thinking it was probably a soda can but it turned out to be a silver plated spoon. It looks like a fairly old one to me but it doesn't have any hallmarks on the back so it's hard to say how old it is. I also found an older looking pottery shard and a piece of fancy gold painted china in the same hole.

I ran Silencer at 2 with no Notch and B-Caps at 0 because I want to listen to the iron since not all relics are non-ferrous. This kept the iron falsing down and I dug anything that sounded interesting. A couple of odd iron pieces were what looks like a square nail that has been pounded flat for some reason and a very corroded heavy ball shaped thing on the end of a broken shaft that kind of resembles part of a rifle bolt handle, but I don't know what it is.

I also found a brass knob of some kind and the barrel of a kid's cap gun. The best find was a heavy brass slide with a steer head on it that banged in at 85-86 (just another reason why you have to dig zinc penny signals! 🤨). I think it is probably the end strap holder of a western style cowboy belt, probably from 1920s-50s if I had to guess.

The last find of the day almost ended with a bang... no, nothing to do with the pistol bullet casings found. 😏 As I worked my way down the dirt road next to the site which has been there since the original houses (now long gone) were there, the clouds started moving in fast, the wind picked up, and the skies turned dark. Then I hit a solid 73. I couldn't equate a 73 to anything good in the site as it was usually a pull tab or ring pull, but this sounded really solid. It was more than a couple of inches down in the compacted dirt road so I had to chip my way around the target to get down to it. As I was working on it the first large raindrops fell and thunder began sounding closer. That's when I noticed a sporatic crackling static sound in the head phones. As I freed the target a clap of loud thunder boomed nearby. I took off my headphones and could now hear the crackling sound in the clouds directly overhead. I glanced at the crusty looking copper disk and thought, "Great, my tombstone will say- Killed by Lightning while digging a Zincoln!" So I threw it in the trash pouch and ran for the car!

When I got safely got home, I went through the trash as I always do and noticed that the copper disc didn't look or feel like a zincoln at all. I can't make out any details, but my gut feeling is that it is what's left of an older penny, maybe a Wheatie or maybe even and Indian Head penny that had been repeatedly crushed by cars while under the dirt road.

So there's my "Mudlarking, Part Deux" experience, and this experience has also taught me that the D2 makes a great Lightning Detector. Be careful out there! 😎

The Trash:

[JCR]

That was a good hunt.

Remember the scene in the movie "Caddy Shack" where the Priest waves his golf club at the storm?  Best to remain humble.

[TJ Jeepguy]

9” weedwhacker 😂😂

[F350Platinum]

Well good on ya for getting out there and braving the elements! 👍 That belt slide is so cool it hurts. 😎 Looks like it could use a polish and be put back to service. Might even be a tie clasp?

My first experience with hearing lightning with the D2 was in Emerald Isle last year, even miles away over the ocean it crackled. Better than a 1965 quarter to signal the end of the hunt. 😀

If you can, try to get an estimate in mm of the coin you dug last. That helps identify them sometimes, but many of the memorials I dug this past week had been eaten away enough that they looked like dimes. I'm going to tumble the lot for my recap 😀

Just looked at your photo, and i can clearly make out the letters "LIBE" circled in the photo. 😀

Methinks it a Memorial or wheat.

[ColonelDan]

Good report Captain!  You have much more gumption that I have. I prefer beach sand over mud.  🤣

[CPT_GhostLight]

16 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

...

Just looked at your photo, and i can clearly make out the letters "LIBE" circled in the photo. 😀

Methinks it a Memorial or wheat.

Man, you have good eyes, F350! I think you're spot on... a copper Memorial.

[TJ Jeepguy]

I know who I’m sending all my wiped out coins to

[Lodge Scent]

Well CPT, a worse epitaph would have been "killed while digging can slaw".

I like that bull motif thingy. Got to give eagle-eye F350 credit for IDing that featureless blob of nothing!