West states ghost-town action

Got out with Brian "Cal Cobra" , for a ghost town trek. Some "back-pocket" sites, mixed with a bit of research/reconn's to another.

First stop, was the location of where a few Chinese worker shacks had existed from the late 1870s, to perhaps 1890-ish. Nothing now but a few discernible stone foundations in the desert, if you knew what/where you were looking to.

Scores of period bullets, with a few teaser personal effects: suspender clips, silverware, powder flask top, etc... But alas, no coins. It was a good site to try out the pro's and con's of different machines, since it was a bed of nails, soldered tin, etc.....





Next stop was an old faithful site that has given us many 1850s to 1870s coins in the past. And a $5 gold. And a few pesky barbers and IH's. It was a travel stopping spot, so the coin-ratios there had been nice in the past. But it's getting so worked out, that ...... the only coin we could muster this time, was Brian got a seated dime (he'll chime in later )

I did get one heartstopper copper disc. That I thought was about to be some sort of copper coin. But can't get any discernible lettering off of it. So I am forced to think it's maybe just a slug.



Last stop was another old faithful spot. This spot has only ever given us 2 coins in the past: A seated half and a seated half dime. But we never lack for cool relics. So we still enjoy it.

Carbine Sling buckle matching set (same hole), Two Hardee hat pins, a Riflemen button, etc... etc.... Please chime in on any other Items and ID's please.









Enjoy !



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2019 08:35PM by Tom_in_CA.

Those are some beautiful finds!
What’s the 2 eagle emblems from?
Always dreamed ghost town hunting out there.

Aaron

TARSACCI - “Digging deeper, BEHIND the competition!”
[forums.tarsaccisales.com]

Aaron Wrote:
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>
> What’s the 2 eagle emblems from?
>

Those are Hardee Hat Pins.

Very nice hunts.

Sweet finds! You guys are doing great.

Those hat pins might have made me slobber and drool a little bit. Nice finds!!

Tom_in_CA Wrote:
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> Aaron Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > What’s the 2 eagle emblems from?
> >
>
> Those are Hardee Hat Pins.

Ahh okay, the big tall high officers hats.

Thought those looked familiar. Tom has one in his Ft Meade display case, similar to that, not as big. He found his in 3 pieces but had it professionally repaired.

How deep were those, were they together? Incredible condition...congrats!

Aaron

TARSACCI - “Digging deeper, BEHIND the competition!”
[forums.tarsaccisales.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2019 10:46AM by Aaron.

Wow, great display. Explorer and EQ? or did you break down and get an EQ?

Aaron Wrote:
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.....
>
> How deep were those, were they together?
>

The 2 Hardee hat pins were not deep. And no, they weren't found together. They were at different places during the hunt.

This brings the total to 4 Hardee hat pins found at this site. 3 of them were perfect condition, like these. The 4th one was only partial , and somewhat mangled .

ozzie Wrote:
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> Wow, great display. Explorer and EQ? or did you br
> eak down and get an EQ?

I was using the Explorer II for the entire hunt . Except for the first picture (of the Chinese worker shack location hunt), which was a combination of Tesoro Bandito + Explorer II . But at the location where the hardee hat pins came from, it was totally Exp II. No, I don't have the Nox 800.

At the location where the Hardee hat pins came from, I believe Brian was strictly using the Nox 800. So when he comes on, he can tell how his target count compared to the Exp. II. I believe our counts were about the same. But .... a lot of it depended on who was in the right-zones at the right-time. A few times we ventured off into far-flung areas, to see if any other hot zones existed . But invariably .... found it just got stingy. So we'd "float back" to the zones giving up buttons and such, haha

Tom_in_CA Wrote:
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> ozzie Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Wow, great display. Explorer and EQ? or did you break down and get an EQ?
>
> I was using the Explorer II for the entire hunt . Except for the first picture (of the Chinese worker shack location hunt), which was a combination of Tesoro Bandito + Explorer II . But at the location where the hardee hat pins came from, it was totally Exp II. No, I don't have the Nox 800.
>
> At the location where the Hardee hat pins came from, I believe Brian was strictly using the Nox 800. So when he comes on, he can tell how his target count compared to the Exp. II. I believe our counts were about the same. But .... a lot of it depended on who was in the right-zones at the righ
> t-time. A few times we ventured off into far-flung areas, to see if any other hot zones existed .But invariably .... found it just got stingy. So we'd "float back" to the zones giving up buttons and such, haha

I haven't had a chance to clean and photograph my finds yet. I was mostly detecting with my EQ800, at the Chinese shantyville I also tried using the Multi Kruzer with the 9" concentric coil. Soils tough at the sites we were detecting, heavy alkali and other ground minerals. We hunted the army site twice, and the first time I tried different settings on the EQ800, wondered around the first half of the hunt using my tried and true Field2, but found that it was too hot to handle the soil. Half way through the first hunt I switched over the Beach 1 and found it ran far better. Tom bested my target count a bit on that hunt, but on the second hunt there I ended up running Beach 1 in 50 tones, and beat his target count by about 20 period conductors. We also hunted the Chinese shantyville twice, I don't think these people had much, very meager finds. When I was running the Multi Kruzer there, I started off in 4-tone mode and it was just way too hot for the ground there. Switched over to 3-tone @ 89 sens which operates with a hyper reactivity speed and it ran better. Tom was focused on a hot zone full of little bronze nails that I believe they bent into fishing hooks, and I Kruzed around looking for periphery finds. Best find I made there was a powder flask side and a fancy spoon handle, but it was clear these people were either super poor/frugal or simply didn't loose much (or both LOL). I'll try to get my stuff photographed. Although it was a fun hunt, I was kind of disappointed with the finds given the effort we put in, but it was great to get out and it beats the heck out of working

NICE digs, guys! Some really nice relics -- love the buttons, and the Hardee hat pins. REALLY nice! I'm sure you had hoped for more coins, but still a very nice collection in Tom's pics...hope to see yours too, Brian!

Steve

There is a nasty rumor afloat, that cal-cobra Brian's seated dime is an 1860 S.

But if he comes on here flapping his mouth about how his nox got that, and my Explorer II didn't : It's all a case of locker room envy (since my Exp. II is bigger than his feather weight little Nox 800). So you'll have to excuse his blabbering and frothing. ><



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/2019 06:29PM by Tom_in_CA.

Nice finds Tom.
Sounds like the Cobra strikes again.

Not sure why the Explorer 2 didn't get that rare date 1860-S Type 3, Stars Obverse Seated Liberty dime on a previous trip, maybe it's so heavy his arm was too tired to swing over it

Cal_cobra Wrote:
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> Not sure why the Explorer 2 didn't get that rare d
> ate 1860-S Type 3, Stars Obverse Seated Liberty di
> me on a previous trip, maybe it's so heavy his arm
> was too tired to swing over it


As I said: Locker-room envy, 'cuz you wish you had the "big tools" like the "big guys". Oh .... and you're welcome that I left that dime there for you to find .

Tom_in_CA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cal_cobra Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Not sure why the Explorer 2 didn't get that rare
> d
> > ate 1860-S Type 3, Stars Obverse Seated Liberty
> di
> > me on a previous trip, maybe it's so heavy his a
> rm
> > was too tired to swing over it
>
>
> As I said: Locker-room envy, 'cuz you wish you ha
> d the "big tools" like the "big guys". Oh
> .... and you're welcome that I left that dime ther
> e for you to find .


Wait both an Explorer 2 and an Etrac missed that, how is that possible

Very nice Tom,

That’s a lot of digging, ratio was pretty high with old finds.

Congratulations!
Paul

Great FINDS...a lot of work! Well done.

Silly Q. (I am allowed at least one...) Did you ever see a 'ghost' in/close to/around/ a ghost town?

Wow great finds Tom! Very nice. Cal let's see the 1860 S

Des D Wrote:
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> Great FINDS...a lot of work! Well done.
>
> Silly Q. (I am allowed at least one...) Did you ever see a 'ghost' in/close to/around/ a ghost town?

Lot's of ghosts in those old sites

Kickindirt Wrote:
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> Wow great finds Tom! Very nice. Cal let's see the 1860 S

I'll work on a photo, but she ain't pretty

It's a frustrating aspect of this particular site, you kill yourself to make the find and 99% of the time the heavy alkali soil has eaten the coin up, so at the end of the day, you're really hoping for a gold coin because all the silver, copper and nickle coins come out with environmental damage. For example, I dug an 1860-S seated quarter there, when it was lost it was easily in XF-40 or better condition. I was able to clean it (yes clean it with ezest) and did as good of a job as likely possible, but for sure that coin would come back both with environmental damage and cleaned in XF-40+ condition, Check the price on PCGS, it's enough to make one cry. So to be honest, I'm not sure why we're killing ourselves out there, because although I did dig one gold coin there (and a rare one at that, an 1865-S $5, less than 100 known), the odds are so stacked against you, you'd think we were crazy for going to all the trouble and work to go there. I guess the history of the site and the fact that it was a virgin site when we found it is mainly what keeps us coming back for more

I feel your pain buddy. I have the same issue with the heavy alkali soils on a lot of sites. I found a 1859 S $5 gold coin and it wasn't worth much cause of heavy damage. A matter of fact, most people thought it was a fake cause of the damage and people said gold won't tarnish like that. lol yes it will

Des D Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great FINDS...a lot of work! Well done.
>
> Silly Q. (I am allowed at least o
> ne...) Did you ever see a 'ghost' in/cl
> ose to/around/ a ghost town?

Haven't seen any ghosts. But I have seen Cal Cobra Brian, and he's pretty durned scary !

As for the "kissed" coins at this site, it was just mother-nature's luck of the draw. Because other ghost-townsy sites, within 100 miles of this spot, give up perfect silver (no "kisses"). Kind of aggravating, since, as Brian says, there's some super cool nice S mint early rare coins that are coming from this site. Such that if ANY of them weren't so kissed, they'd command nice numismatic premiums .

It's still fun to hunt, even if all we get is relics. Some of the coins are kissed less than others. And gold, of course, isn't kissed at all. Trouble is: Gold coins are extremely rare . Doh !

Kickindirt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I feel your pain buddy. I have the same issue with
> the heavy alkali soils on a lot of sites. I found
> a 1859 S $5 gold coin and it wasn't worth much cau
> se of heavy damage. A matter of fact, most people
> thought it was a fake cause of the damage and peop
> le said gold won't tarnish like that. lol yes it w
> ill


Just looked that one up on PCGS, ouch

Luckily my $5 coin didn't have environmental damage, hoping there's another one, or two out there.

Yeah man, I’m still looking for my first gold coin, I’ll take one in ANY condition!

Aaron

TARSACCI - “Digging deeper, BEHIND the competition!”
[forums.tarsaccisales.com]

The backmark of the Rifleman button is: 1843-1863. The front of the button (Eagle style) appears to be Mfr'd around 1847/1848.

NASA-Tom Wrote:
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> The backmark of the Rifleman button is: 1843-1863.
> The front of the button (Eagle style) appears to b
> e Mfr'd around 1847/1848.


Thanx !

KD here's the 1860-S Type 3, Stars Obverse Seated Liberty dime I dug, still has a full Liberty on the shield, looks like it *was* in nice condition when dropped.

Trick question - Might I ask the viewers to notice how many coins that Tom dug?

That's awesome Cal. Good or bad shape still a amazing find. Key date to boot