Ghost Town Trip

I went on the annual Memorial Day ghost town rendezvous whereas treasure hunters from all over the west (Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, etc) meet up for a fun filled, adventure packed long weekend of thrill seeking and treasure hunting of various types, mainly detecting and sifting some of the ghost town dumps. This annual event has apparently been going on since the 1960's, so one can imagine that finds are definitely thinning out, but on every trip people still make interesting finds.

I both detected with my Impact and did a couple of days of sifting, and here's my results.

Group shot:



Civil war union army camp is still producing, albeit very stingy with coins!



This was a BIG surprise, it's an 1887 British large cent, counter stamped token found sifting in the desert. It was about three feet deep and was in the same hole as the clay Bennington and Agate glass marble. It needs further research to see figure out who the person was counter-stamped on it, and if they were a saloon proprietor or how they fit into western history.





Anyone have any ideas what this is? Almost looks like a belt buckle type of do-dad???



Overall a fun extended weekend to hang out with old and new friends, and good finds were made by all

HH,
Cal



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2017 08:03PM by Cal_cobra.

What ? No gold coins ? How boring !

"Congratulations! Some good interesting finds there!

That English penny, 1887, I've seen hundreds of those but not the color of yours!
Due probably to the arid conditions in which it's been entombed all the years?
Is that 'Vic Mathis' inscribed?
It's extremely difficult to carve into those coins... they're hard!!!"

Great report---luv the assortment of bullets---shows the diversity of firearms.

Cool stuff Cal

Like that blue/green bottle stop too.

Nice Digs!!

That silver coin stamped is SWEET!!

Keith

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

They're cod bottles tops. Very common finds in my neck of the woods.

And, during a hunt in the Karoo a few years ago, they were literally all over the British Army camp sites ( Boer War period 1899-1902 South Africa)

Hi Des,

I was amazed at the condition of the coin. I dug a marble and was waving to my friend to come take a look at it and when he showed up I spied the edge of the British penny and pulled it out why he was there. I was surprised to find it in the condition it is. I did dig an old pill bottle that still has a high percentage of it's original paper label too, so I guess it's the arid desert and being deeper that has preserved them?

To answer your question, that is Vic Mathis that's counter-struck on the front of the coin. A few years ago a friend dug a seated dime that was counter-struck, and after he researched it, it turned out to be a gold rush era druggist store token from Benecia, CA.

-Brian

Des D Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Congratulations! Some good interesting finds ther
> e!
>
> That English penny, 1887, I've seen hundreds of th
> ose but not the color of yours!
> Due probably to the arid conditions in which it's
> been entombed all the years?
> Is that 'Vic Mathis' inscribed?
> It's extremely difficult to carve into those coins
> ... they're hard!!!"

Des D Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They're cod bottles tops. Very common finds in my
> neck of the woods.
>
> And, during a hunt in the Karoo a few years ago, t
> hey were literally all over the British Army camp
> sites ( Boer War period 1899-1902 South Africa)

The site the blue/green stopper came from was c.1902 and was a boom town for many years afterwards, so you generally find late 1800's to 1920's coins, tokens and relics there. In the past we'd find many stoppers there of all colors, shapes and sizes, from all sorts of things ranging from food products, medical products, perfume bottles, etc. Now they're getting harder to find, so I welcome them in my sifter.

These are early 20th century, and all came from the same hole I was sifting that the coin and marbles came from. The paper label on the brown pill bottle is in amazingly good condition for being underground for over 100 years!

There's a straw jar frosted fancy top to the left of the blue/green stopper, an inkwell at the top left, and at the top is a what I believe was a cream bottle? Guess it could be a single glass wine decanter considering the junk in the hole I was sifting appeared to mostly be from a saloon/casino/hotel business.






HH,
Brian


HH,
Brian



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2017 10:59PM by Cal_cobra.

Tom_in_CA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What ? No gold coins ? How boring !


Apparently I'm saving them all for you ><

Great finds! Wtg!

Brian, let's test out your impact, with LF settings (optimize high conductors) at that greenbelt strip where I just got a dozen wheats and several silver . There's still plenty of "classic" fluties there to flag and compare off of. Why oh why oh why would you go to that "certain" ghetto wino-cap park ?? Yuck Leave that for deathray ! haha

Wow!!!! nice

Great finds.

Nice 3-ringers and eagle buttons.

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

Very nice finds, Cal, looks like a fun weekend. Time well spent.
Congrats!

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?

Tom_in_CA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Brian, let's test out your impact, with LF setting
> s (optimize high conductors) at that greenbelt str
> ip where I just got a dozen wheats and several sil
> ver . There's still plenty of "classic" fluties
> there to flag and compare off of. Why oh why oh w
> hy would you go to that "certain" ghetto wino-cap
> park ?? Yuck Leave that for deathray ! haha

Too funny Tommy!

Congrats on some cool finds Brian.

El