Always Check Out Those Dug Targets!

[stumpr]

Sometimes it is better to be very lucky than good. So I am working this beaten slope of a hill in Stafford, VA off of a period CW road. It's thick as snot and getting the coil to the ground was a struggle. I get this nice 22-23 signal with the Nox down 11". I dig up the target and it is s deep knap sack hook. Scan the hole and I am still hearing that 22-26 signal. One more shovel full and it is in my dirt pile. Usually a IH or a trime will ring up that high but not brass unless it is big. In the dirt pile is this half inch by half inch piece of folded brass. So how does a knap sack hook and a piece of folded brass read so high? I look at the folded brass and see some silver plating where the two pieces meet. I very GENTLEY pry it open and see my surprise.

Soldier looks to have made an ID tag from possibly a tin-type picture case. The tag reads: SERGt J. Brown

             Com C. 7th Reg

The tag belonged to Sergeant Joseph Brown, Company C, 7th Rhode Island.

 

[Tometusns]

Very cool find!!

[flakmagnet]

That is truly an amazing find. Good for you for not being rough with it. 

[Cal_Cobra]

Very nice recovery!!

I had a similar experience, I dug a DEEEEP rectangular piece of metal at an early stage stop/trading post site.  It was dirty and simply looked like a junk metal tag from something.  Got it home, and on a whim I decided to clean it and low and behold it was a piece of engraved Indian trade silver. Turned out to be one of my best finds on the trip. 

[Jackpine]

Awesome find!!!

[relicmeister]

Very nice find and a lesson to us all. I’ve misidentified pewter buttons as shot miniball , and spoonstem as a square nail. Engraving can be hard to see against old tin or any old metal sheet   Hold onto everything until you can carefully inspect it. 

[GB_Amateur]

I've even wondered about highly corroded 'Zincolns'.  Given that corroded Indian Heads read similarly in TID, I'm going to go back through my Zincolns (I don't throw them out and no one will redeem them) to verify.  One easy way is to check the weight.  IH's when freshly minted (since 1864+ when they switched from copper-nickel to bronze) have a mass of 3.11 grams.  Zincolns, on the other hand, 2.5 grams.

If the coin is partly missing, then it's almost surely a Zincoln due to the galvanic process of zinc-copper interaction eating away at it while in the moist ground.  But if it's just so highly surface scaled that you can't see details, either is a candidate and weight will reveal the identity.

 

[Dubious]

Yeah, that galvanic process (acting as battery) of 3-slice modern coins (US) used to be my pet peeve.  But lately I have become aware that future generations won't even have clad and Zincolns to hunt.  We're quickly heading toward a cashless society.  Not a good thing for individual freedom IMHO, and definitely not a good thing for detectorists.