My first swing on the flea market site this year turned up a beautiful bronze Civil War veteran lapel pin. The text says: "GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC - 1866 VETERAN 1866". The back is fixed:
Since I'm not a collector by nature, I put it on eBay and it sold for $20!
I keep getting the feeling that the flea market site was a mustering ground for civil war soldiers as it is right next to the train tracks. Perhaps they were boarding the train to head south to the war from here in midcoast Maine?
Other finds include a rusty old Firebird lighter:
Later that afternoon I also visited a friends field that abuts a small graveyard and found some rusty bits of farm equipment, a file and a few modern coins (not shown).
It has been wet, cold and overcast for weeks here in Maine, but finally I saw a little sun late this afternoon and decided to wander off into the 50 acre hay field across from my home. I started by going around the edge, following the tree line and that's where I turned up the big horse shoe. And I found some other assorted bit of farm equipment as I wandered across the field. It was really muddy!
Here's the view from the far side of the field looking back at my home.
And a couple of closer views of the horseshoe right after I hosed it off.
I don't know anything about horseshoes, but this seems really old. The field has probably been in active use for well over 200 years. I welcome any comments about this style of horse shoe. Thanks to a knowledgeable Facebook friend, it appears to be from a draft horse with 3 screw type calks remaining on it.
I spent a couple of hours digging a friend's yard in Brunswick, Maine this afternoon. It was a lovely sunny spring day and I had been helping her clear brush and other yard work beforehand. The neighborhood was built in the 1970's so I didn't expect old coins or relics. I did find a lot of modern coins along the road frontage: 10 pennies, 3 dimes and a quarter. It's funny how you find coins along the frontages of residential neighborhoods. An elderly neighbor stopped by and observed that I wouldn't find anything in the front yard because there had not been any kids living there. Well, 38 cents begs to differ. Then I wandered into the back yard and kept finding big iron signals that when dug up looked like old farm equipment parts. My friend explained that her elderly widower neighbor that I had met earlier had lived next door for 65 years, and his house was the original farm house in the neighborhood. So that explains the old farm parts! I'll have to get permission to dig his property next! The dirt was all dark moist loam - perfect for detecting, and it was a really enjoyable start to the season for me.
The crocus are just pushing up here in Maine and we have had several days of wet weather, so the ground is quite muddy which is great for detecting. Finally, the sun came out in the afternoon and I went for a quick dig around my property to "get back in the swing" of detecting.
The lawn is just greening in a bit and I wandered back into the woods and around the side of the house and found a few neat items.
The bolt is huge! 1 inch diameter - no idea what it is from - maybe farm equipment? There was a young boy living here 20 years ago and I have found a number of toy cars like the Viper Van pictured. It is interesting to see that they become filled with dirt that is really hard to get out even with my ultrasonic cleaner. It was a nice start to the year though. I have lined up some great permissions on rural and suburban properties and will have more to share soon.
It has been months since the ground froze hard here in Maine, and I'll have to wait until April before I can dig again. So All I can do is look at all my "treasure", and enjoy the memories.
Last year I found a number of keys, mostly on the flea market site that I was detecting on throughout the year.
Among the modern keys were some from out of state like this one from Chicago:
I looked up the address, and that location is now the site of the Wintrust Arena.
The other interesting out of state key is this "Handy Harry" from 54 6th AVE N.Y.:
The address appears to be a brownstone in Brooklyn now. I imagine it may have been a small key shop a while back.
Here's one Made by Hudson Key from New Rochelle NY:
Then there is this USPS box box key that could be from anywhere:
I also particularly like this tiny keyhole that may have been from a jewelry box:
I can't imagine how tiny the key would have been!
And here are a couple of regular brass keyholes:
And finally a few skeleton keys that may be from relatively recent boxes:
I'm wrapping up my digging season today (December 1, 2018). This ends my first year of detecting and it has been a great journey. I think I have logged over 200 hours of detecting, recovered 2 gold rings, and found amazing relics and coins. I'll let the video take it from here:
I haven't been out digging for a month now, mostly because I have been busy with work (I design electronic products for a living, mostly). But also because it snowed several inches before Thanksgiving and the ground froze, so I mothballed my equipment. Today however, the snow all melted and the ground thawed to the point of being muddy. I decided to go out in the hay field across from my home. I have not had high expectations for this field, but then I watch Jocelyn (Relic Recoverist) and Drew's (Naughty Dog Treasures) YouTube videos and realize that they always find cool stuff way out in open fields along the East Coast. So I figured "Why not" today and roamed out in the fields going with the vibe of what felt right.
My first finds were some old square nails and a big steel chunk that looks like it was part of haying equipment. But then as I worked out farther I got a strong signal that read as long an narrow. It was part of an aluminum hunting arrow. I found parts of 3 arrows all broken up in the same area. They were angled down ranging from a few inches to over 9" deep. Maybe they were lost to target practice, or someone trying to bag a deer and missing? A little further on I came across this dead mole. It looks quite large and hopefully died of old age. It looks very peaceful.
I worked my way up to the top of the rise at the highest point in the field where I had found rifle shells, can slaw and lots of pull tabs in the past - this was a picnic spot at some point. I took the picture below looking back across the field to my house that is hidden in the woods.
Shortly after I took this picture, I got a good strong silver signal and pulled up this silver ring. It is junk jewelry that tests as 80% silver. It was made from a strip and bent around and joined and the pattern does not match. There is no makers mark.
A little later I found this steel ring that was probably from horse tack.
It was great to get out on a relatively warm, sunny day, even though it was rather muddy! This is the latest in the season that I have dug since I don't like digging in cold or snow. I'll be doing a season wrap-up next that highlights my favorite finds of the year.
