My turn....on a coin first

Went digging early this morning to a Civil War homesite...spent several hours there looking around and didn't find much but odds and ends. I got one fired roundball and that was it. It got hot very quick and I took my buddy back by his house. Saturday he had hunted a newly cut field across from his house and had got into a bunch of iron signals and had dug "a button" he wanted me to look at. He is new to relic hunting so I am his ID guy. He went into his house and brought out a little case...inside was a large Civil War period eagle coat button. He also had some other brass...harmonica reeds, etc. I told him it sounded like he had a Civil War era homesite in the field, or a campsite...or both. So we decided to check it out.

I had the Deus with me and knew it was going to do very well in the iron if there was anything there to find. And boy was I NOT let down. I started digging small brass pieces...little buckles, harmonica reeds, spoon and fork pieces, etc. My buddy has a T2 and he is good with it...but he would hear my Deus beeping and just shake his head as I would start digging another target out.

Well I got a good double blip signal that read decently high in numbers. I almost didn't dig it but it just sounded too good to pass up. I cut a plug with my little shovel...and scanned the hole. Target was in the plug right at the very tip...7" deep. I broke the soft soil apart and saw a round disc. It had been totally on edge in the ground...I mean literally straight down on its edge. Thus the double blip but reading high instead of like a nail. I picked it up and saw it was thick....hmm what have I got? I wiped a little dirt away and started doing a dance liken to someone getting into a nest of ground bees. An 1865 2 cent piece! I have never dug one before...was a first for me. It is holed at the top but that is fine to me....I am extremely happy with it. This has been a great week so far.

I competed in a State level archery tournament this weekend...the Tennessee State Championship and found out yesterday that I got 2nd place in it. That blew me away...2nd place in the State is a very big accomplishment for me. And then the next day, dig a coin that has always been on my WANTED list. I can only see the date on it if I hold it just right in the light. I've only brushed it with water and a soft tooth brush...afraid to do anything else with it. The Deus is making me one happy dude in short order.

Great find. Will you go back to the site??

My buddy also found a 1920ish Merc dime in the field. It's just too hot to be daytime hunting. I raised up from digging one hole and thought I was going to hit the ground from blacking out. That was my last hole of the day when I did that.

I wont go back without my buddy though...it's his property anyway and he found the spot. We're gonna hunt tomorrow night at a couple of my Civil War camps. I only have one property that I have permission to hunt at night on...it's got a few small camps on it but is loaded with iron, as they were winter camps with hut sites. I'm been chomping at the bit to get in there with the Deus...especially after seeing first hand it's ability to pull things from those kind of sites.

Very nice find. That coin is on my wish list. My buddy dug one 30 ft from me Sunday. But I did manage a key date 1885 V nickel with my Deus. I feel no need to go into the great detecting properties of the Deus. I'll just say that it is just plain fun to hunt with. Every time I go out I just have a blast using it. And I've been skunked a few times and still had fun.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2012 01:22AM by goodmore.

Daniel:

Congradulation on the find. Hope you and your friend have a ball hunting togather. ...but be very careful when hunting at night, especially in this heat. I have experienced poisonous snakes out during the nights as it's cooler and many are nocturnal to begin with. I would advise a good bright headlight and a watchful eye! One of the best things I found in my younger days when out at night was a good dog. They can pick up on a snake faster than you can, usually, and let you know that somethings not right.

Good luck.

C.

Wow, that is the same year my two center is!!!!!!! And mine is green too. But without the hole. They say that they would wear them to keep from losing them. Didn't work on that one. It got lost.....and found by ol Daniel. Congrats on a fine coin.

Very Nice Daniel...One of my favorite Coins ..I know the thrill is priceless..Always nice to get one off the list...Hard coin for sure especially in the Southern states..They did not circulate long and the post war South is very stingy to give up the 2 center...I have found one and thats it but its center piece for my coin dig's...right next to the Flying Eagle for Me ....

Happy for you...Glad the DEUS is working for you...Great machine loves round objects in iron...

I played with your Blisstool Last week ..Just for a second...Sure does not airtest very deep....Might of been set up wrong though?

Good dig..

Keith

Right on! Congratulations on placing second in state champs. Oh,and good going on the coin too,haha. I'll probably pm you soon regarding archery. Ray

Keith -- That's dead on the money...don't air test good at all. Its more like a pulse machine in that regard...must have ground matrix to show its muscle.

Coins really aren't my "thing" but they sure are when they have ties to the Civil War. I could care less about digging silver dimes...but if they are 1865 or older...they get my smile going.

Very cool Daniel. So, the Deus is working out for you? Miss the Etrac?

The eTrac never was one of my favorites. If I were coin hunting, I might could appreciate the eTrac platform more for ID purposes. As a relic hunter though, I just ask for one thing as far as ID goes...and that is to tell me whether something is iron or not iron....and hopefully, what SIZE iron. I like digging medium size to big iron...don't like square nails though. The Deus is doing this extremely well for me. The only iron I've dug has been from me KNOWING it was iron before hand, just to see what kind of iron it was...especially if it was bigger.



Not much as far as great finds...but one thing you notice in this pic that is different from most of my other pictures of finds: not much lead. Everybody that hunts with me calls me the "bullet daddy" because I have a knack for finding Civil War lead. I'm running the Deus in 12 khz mode for now...and that seems to be making it have a love for brass. Brass is good...I love seeing that green or brown patina looking at me from the dirt pile. I will take brass over a standard 3 ring bullet any day! These finds have came from just 2 locations...both are homesites that go back to before the Civil War and were there during the war...both are so choked full of iron that most every detector we've had there will be bombarded with signals. I have purposely targeted these areas due to what I've been reading about and seeing on the forums from people (like Kevin and Keith) that have been doing just exactly that, and bringing out the goodies.

The coin beside the 2 cent piece is just a wheat cent. 1917 is the date on it. That makes it my oldest wheat cent. Most of the other stuff is broken or un id'able...just brass misc items.

Dan, I dug my first 2 center about 8 years ago, it was by chance, I got permission to hunt a near by small airport, they were doing another runway, when I dug it I didn't know what it was, I showed it to a guy I was hunting with and he told me I was a son of a ...., beginners luck, I got 6 of them know, I know what they sound like and where they come up, so now that you know you will have many many more, they are cool coins