Metal Detector’s Blog

Last summer a friend and I were detecting a site when I found this 1773 Spanish reale in shockingly good shape. It was about 4 inches down. This was at a site along the El Camino Reale trail in central CA. We knew that there was a small and short lived trading post on the spot in the mid 1800’s and there were a lot of corresponding seated coins found. However, we also knew that it was in the area of one of D’Anza’a camps as he mapped the inland trail of California in the spring of 1776.

In those days there was really no such thing as coin collecting and therefor the reales that we did find were extremely worn and very thin. I know that the same night I found this one my friend found an 1812 reale but like the other reales found, it was extremely slick and you could barely read it. Being as the reales weren’t made very well to begin with, we can say with almost certainly that there is no way this coin could have been carried around for the 80 years necessary to make it to the era of the trading post and still look so detailed. The picture doesn’t even do it justice. The fact that it was most likely dropped from one of D’Anza’s party makes sense perfectly with the amount of wear it has. Further excursions found other relics from that earlier time period but we didn’t find anymore coins.

That’s not surprising however, as we know from the journal entries that they only camped there for 1 night and there were only around 12 men in the entire party at this point in the trail. It’s just soooo cool knowing almost without a doubt that in all likelyhood this coin was dropped less than a year after our country existed. And the possibilty that this coin travelled with D’Anza as he was the first to map the inland trail of California just overwhelms me. I purchased this Musketeer Advantage detector in December of 2001.

Thanks for letting me share my story.

Carraig

I have had my new Fisher Coin Strike for about 3 weeks now, and I continue to learn more about it each time I take it out. It is a bit different to operate than any detector I have used in my 35 years of detecting. That said, I do like a challenge!

For the past few years, my brother and I have spent most of our coin hunting time at old home sites and old fair grounds in a four county area. With high gas prices, limited time, and extreme hot temperature, I decided “why not learn my new Coin Strike close to home”? The city park where I live is only about 3 blocks from my house. Spending most of my recent detecting time in open spaces, detecting in a park setting with modern trash would require some getting use to.

I’ve detected this park several times over the past 20 years and have found quite a few old coins. But I’ve been at this hobby long enough to know that the possibility of finding an oldie or two still exists. The first outing with the Coin Strike was a real eye opener as I wasn’t in the habit of digging bottle caps.

Digging them made me realize why there are still could be old coins there. The trash and bottle caps are doing a fine job of masking some good targets. Not wanting to leave any old coins behind, I decided to dig bottle caps as well. That evening, I dug a few wheaties and memorials and several bottle caps. Being a persistent individual, I went back a few days later with the small coil on my Coin Strike. I set the machine with full discriminate for iron 99. I notched out foil, nickels, and tabs, set the threshold at -5 and sensitivity at 3. Within 15 minutes I dug a 1897 O Barber dime and a 1891 Indian Head. I continued to detect, being a bit more excited (and optimistic) now. I continued for about another 45 minute and recovered some modern clad dimes, 2 more wheaties and 10 memorials. A couple days later I got to thinking about that dime and decided to look up the value in the Red Book. Lo and behold it was a RARE dime I had found with only 666,000 minted!!

I must admit that after the first time using the Coin Strike I was a little disappointed, but each and every time out I learn something new.I would be willing to bet that by fall, when the crops get out of the fields, the Coin Strike and I will be out there in some of our old favorite spots finding some goodies we’ve missed in the past.

Bill

I was searching in a small patch of a garden that’s not far from where the old garrison once stood on the original farm in 1650. The owner of the property often drives his tractor along the side of the corn garden to access his field, and by chance I decided to go over the area with my Minelab Explorer II. . .
“I’ve considered myself a Metal Detectorist for about 30 years. On and off since the 1970’s, I had given the hobby up for several years and started getting back out there in 2003. About a mile from my house, in beautiful New Hampshire, there is a farm owned by wonderful folks. It’s run full-time, ‘round year – they grow produce in the summer and Christmas trees in the winter.

Last fall they gave me permission to hunt their property and I’ve spent a lot of time out there. I’ve even found many large coppers and some really old 1700’s pewter spoons. But my best find was something all together different and very, very old.

I got a strong signal and after digging about 5” deep a silver buckle popped out. I didn’t even clean the mud off until I got home, but when I did I recognized it right away. I cleaned it under running water and saw a beautiful, small silver shoe buckle that was used from 1650 to 1720. The chape and tongue design are noted in several reference books as those of the Tudor-Georgian period.

I showed the owners and they were really happy to see that piece. They’ve encouraged me to hunt the farm as often as I would like and as a gift to them I hand-painted a beautiful 1800’s bottle to display in their shop. This is the only silver buckle I have ever found there, but it is also one of the oldest pieces in my collection.

Ed in New Hampshire