Check this out, I found this (gold?) tipped dip pen in a Civil War Camp

And I need feedback from the Civil War historians to help me identify it's origin. I took the pic with the very small lettering and if the camera didn't pick it up, I'll try my best at trying to decipher it here:
BA??? AND WILSON
PHILA.
1858
PATENT
That was my best effort. I need to purchase a jewelers loop to see better. Here's the pic:

It came out of the ground as gold as it is now. I looked at some vintage dip pen tips on the internet and they say that they are 14K. Mine could be plated, but wouldn't constantly writing with it, the plating should have worn off. Just like most gilted buttons that I find.......the gilding is almost always wore at the high spots. This dip pen tip is solid metal (I hope and assume that it's gold) Anyway, I have been doing fairly well this year with my Red Racer. Hopefully someone can help me with this dip pen tip so that I can be certain about it's mettalurgy. Thanks, as always, fellers. Good to hear from ya again.

I think Keith found one of these also I may be mistaken but it seems like it was GOLD.

Have you acid tested it? nice find.

Nice!

May have been an officers

Should be solid gold.

very cool

LowBoy

TAKE A LITTLE TIME KICKBACK AND WATCH SOME OF MY DETECTING VIDEO'S BELOW ON YouTube

[www.youtube.com]

If you don’t dig it, then how are you going to know what you’re missing!
How can you have your pudding if you don’t eat your meat!

Should be gold.
I can't imagine something plated holding up that well underground for that length of time.
Very nice find!

Bryan

Excellent piece Kevin..

Once in a lifetime find...

if you digging those Nib's your bearing down for sure!!

To know what it wrote ...MAN JUST THINK....

Here's the one I found ...Yours is alot nicer...I believe mine was discard from being broken..[www.dankowskidetectors.com]

I'm happy for your persistence and dedication ..

many more RARE finds to come for you Kevin!!

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

That is a very cool find, Kevin! Civil war gold! How many can say that?
Mightier than the sword? Don't know about that; but my preferred choice, by far!

Wayne

Pleasant Garden, NC
AT Max, Nokta Impact, MX Sport, Nokta FORS Relic, GPX 4800, Infinium, Racer, Deus, F75SE, Nautilus DMC II (order of acquisition, last to first)

Does an archeologist argue with a plow? A bureaucrat with a bulldozer?

sweet save - congrats

[www.earthscan.co.nz]

Awesome find Kevin!!
Comgrats

Congrats on the gold nib find.

Bard & Wilson patented a gold pen back in 1853. (Edmund Howe Bard and Henry H. Wilson in Philadelphia.)
Couldn’t find the patent for 1858.
Is the date 1853?

Below is a link to Bard’s genealogy.

[freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com]

Detecting since Feb, 2010
E-trac with 18"x15" SEF, 13" Ultimate coil, Pro coil, Minelab 8" coil, 4.5"x7" SEF, Sunray target probe
CTX3030 with 17"x13" DD coil, 11" DD coil

Just a flat out awesome find...

Yes those are very nice and I'm still happy For Kevin..


If anyone Knows what that Civil war Gold sound's like in the soil they would Know Mr. Kevin is bearing down on a site...Mine sounded a little rounder than a nail false in a pile of nails...

there tough...


bet theres lot's of them out there too..YET it takes modern tech to get them!!

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

a little rounder than a nail false? My interpretation of a false signal is one that does not repeat, ie, is intermittent. Is that what you are saying, that it was a non-repeating signal that would only report every once in a while?
And yet, it sounded worth investigating? I dig boocoo iffy signals but an intermittent one way signal? That's beyond iffy IMO.

Wayne

Pleasant Garden, NC
AT Max, Nokta Impact, MX Sport, Nokta FORS Relic, GPX 4800, Infinium, Racer, Deus, F75SE, Nautilus DMC II (order of acquisition, last to first)

Does an archeologist argue with a plow? A bureaucrat with a bulldozer?

Wow....Nice find Kevin...way to go

yes one way hit...say east west swing..it only hits on east approach..BUT has a different report in terms of HOLDING to a ROUND sound..

Lots of stuff in nails will be one way approach hits once the site is worked down...the What's left a VLF can decipher type hits...


Very very TRYING way to hunt a WORTHY site...

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

to put a finer point on it, Keith, I get the one-way hit (one plane, one way only); but is the hit always there, mostly there, or only sometimes there?

And what are your results in digging these type signals? I mean, roughly, % iron, % non-iron, and within those, bonafide targets vs junk.

Thanks.

Wayne

Pleasant Garden, NC
AT Max, Nokta Impact, MX Sport, Nokta FORS Relic, GPX 4800, Infinium, Racer, Deus, F75SE, Nautilus DMC II (order of acquisition, last to first)

Does an archeologist argue with a plow? A bureaucrat with a bulldozer?

Well to be BLUNT....

That type of one way hit is more of a intuition type hit...and mainly will be understood by how well you know the unit your using..and also on site conditions..lIke worked down to nail sites...

play with some surface test scenario targets and you will see some one way reports in some really hard masked target layout scenarios...study those hits...you can never do to much training...I play alot at night in the basement just what I call WORKING OUT ..exercising your ears and skill level to be able to put that skill to use on the RIGHT site...


Take my pin nib for instance...Mine was found in a square nail pit..and I was using the 5x10 coil on the For Gold +..it was a spot I had dug a Coat size R eagle....and I had literally used alot of machines on that patch...I found the highest concentration of nails from the grunt tones and really really started PAYING attention in those high nail areas ..looking for anything out of the ordinary...grunt grunt grunt pip grunt grunt pip then I got a piiiiiiip one way..a little longer a little smoother and a little rounder...

To put it in perspective the piiiiip out of the ground and isolated was just a 42 hit and nice beep ......and iron tone range was up to 40 on FG+ so I think maybe that can give a indicator of severity of what we deal with at times on iron..


When a person is after these SPECIAL hits and yes I've seen even High coins or buttons and other things be a round piiiiip hit you have to use that report for all its worth..

So while its not for every site yuo can isolate areas in the site to choose to CHASE Piiiiip hits...that's one of the truly great advantages of hearing it all with the grunt option...we know how to combat and be selective and if the site is worthy put it to use..


nothing magical just training for the need when it arises..Nothing will ever simulate real world conditions BUT every bit of training will help and lots of time in the field and also understanding of target interaction is of utmost importance..

To be able to see targets without soil just sort of floating in-situ would blow our minds at what we are missing..


percentage wise of one way hits being good?????????? Site specific again and on a good day very high success rates..WHEN YOUR IN THE ZONE...



Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/2017 10:59PM by Keith Southern.

Thanks, Keith. I asked for clarification and your response fit that bill and then some. I liken your explanation to the situation my digging partner and I have faced in our hard worked confederate camp where we now very rarely find a good solid signal that is not highly suspect of being iron. And we continue to dig iron as we have from the beginning. We are exploring one way hits, intermittent signals, squeakers, and anything else in our quest for that one more button, bullet, or whatever it may be. So I think I can very much appreciate your response and understand what you are saying.

Thanks again.

Wayne

Pleasant Garden, NC
AT Max, Nokta Impact, MX Sport, Nokta FORS Relic, GPX 4800, Infinium, Racer, Deus, F75SE, Nautilus DMC II (order of acquisition, last to first)

Does an archeologist argue with a plow? A bureaucrat with a bulldozer?

A beautiful find!