Yesterday found a bizarre mix of stuff in a field. I had hit this field a couple of times before, finding a reale, an old ring, and a button from the 1870s or so.
Yesterday I hit a section where I had found a few musket balls. Found a few more (8 to be exact); are you kidding me?
And that doesn’t count the ones I didn’t dig, which was prolly just as many. These things come in at CO 30-35 on the E-Trac, and nothing good that I’m looking for lives there except half dimes and half reales, and these had a bigger sound, so I felt safe in leaving a few for the next guy. I’ve prolly found about 15 or so myself in this area over the years. Why so many in one spot?
When I posted this pic on Facebook, someone suggested they may be “canister shot”.
Who knew such a thing existed? I sure didn’t.
Anyway, I think he is right, cause they are all sort of in one place, and they do look more that color than lead that has been in the ground, and these were supposedly tin or tin-plated, tho one is definitely lead.
So, this is a Civil War era weapon. Who knew such a weapon would have been fired in Chester County, PA? I wonder under what circumstances? You’d need a pretty big gun to fire off one of these things. I have found no other old relics in the area. Very weird, and kinda cool when you think about it. Problem is, the area where these things are is at the corner of the field, so I’ll never find anything else to help solve this mystery.
Anyway, about 15 feet from this area was the most beautiful deep silver quarter sound you’d ever hear. You think of all the cool things it could be, like bust or seated, and all the lame things it prolly is, like a copper buckle or toasted large cent, and you are digging, digging so carefully not to hit it with the digger, and what you get? A 1962Q. Are you kidding me? It is the last thing I expected to find in an old field near these canister balls.
Yes, you can be disappointed when finding silver. But, silver coins are hard to find, so you always take them.
I then proceeded to find a war nickel, which came in at CO 24 or so on the E-Trac, (usually they come in at 15), and a 15 gram 10K white gold class ring dated 1975. All in the same field. Very bizarre. I will try to return the ring, but in past experience, that has been hard.
Glad to see you back at it again! Always enjoy your blog entries and finds.
Good to see you out finding stuff again! I look forward to reading about it.
Dumb question…..why is it hard to find the person a class ring belongs to? You have the name of the school, the year of graduation, and the persons initials? Just wondering.
It depends. This one was easy. I had their whole life story, in about 2 hours. It was pretty scary what I was able to quickly find out.
OTOH, I had one where I never found the owner. The yearbook was not online, and the school refused to show me a hardcopy. School, year, and initials were not enough in that case.
I heard you interviewed years ago on a podcast. I forgot about it though and it came to mind the other day. (I had kinda gotten away from the hobby for a couple years) I had to go back and find the podcast, which I didn’t remember either, in order to figure out who you were again… I hope you’re still at it. Still swinging the Etrac?
I had a dig like that this weekend. Preface it by saying I was in a 1940’s park, digging wheats and a Merc out of a 50’s/60’s layer, when I got a small piece of what I thought was silver. Threw it in my pocket, took it home, forgot about it, then emptied my pocket an hour later to find myself staring at a Russian wire kopek from the 1500’s. That was amazing! But I go back the next day, thinking for sure some kid probably dropped it from his dad’s coin collection, when I get a beep 8 inches down and dig a flat button. Now I am really excited – there could be some really old dirt here. Next beep was super sweet on the Deus, I mean the type of signal you dream about, perfectly sweet and wide, and about 8 inches down. Down I dig and out pops a silver disc onto my drop cloth. My heart is POUNDING. I pick it up… 1948 washington. Still happy but at the same time boy what a letdown!