Cartridge spill dug up at the flea market

June 15, 2018
I was focusing on digging UNDER the tables at the flea market this evening.  The ground there has not been walked on in over 30 years so it is soft and easy to dig.  I find a lot of objects dropped from the tables including coins.  Recently I have found several cartridges, including a spill of 6 .22 cartridges shown standing up below:

I'll be taking these to the local county sherriff's office for safe disposal next week.  I cleaned them up a bit in my rock tumbler since I was running a batch of clad pennies anyway.

I also came across a novelty this week - a 1940 Canadian cent stamped to form a keepsake.  A Facebook friend said these were made at county fairs quite often.  Clearly 40's vintage pennies were solid copper back then.

I often hunt the flea market in the late afternoon and there is always an old guy with a full white beard there who takes hours to pack up.  The market is open from 8 to noon and he can still be there after 5:00pm.  He takes up 3 or 4 tables and as I watch him, he slowly crams all of it into his already filled vehicle for the 1 hour drive back to Augusta.  He does this 3 days a week and clearly loves every piece of junk as he fondles it and carefully packs each piece.  There are 2 tires strapped to the roof of his vehicle that have been there for years according to Randy the grounds keeper.

The flea market world is interesting to say the least.  I have found an old dear who makes great pies for $7 each.  I'm getting a blueberry pie almost every week now.  It's great to support my local economy.

My first crotal bell find

June 9, 2018

I had a great day detecting the flea market.  By 2:30 there were still some stragglers packing up their tables, and Randy who maintains the property was going round picking up trash and recyclables.  We talked a bit and guessed that they get around $100 a year in redeemable bottles and cans.  (Maine has a 5 cent per bottle redemption system).  

While we were chatting he pulled this vase out of the trash and offered it to me.  Nice! It does not have any makers marks, so it's probably not at all valuable, but I like it. It shows 2 peacocks in gold and colors on one side only:

So then I showed him my favorite find of the day, the crotal bell.  I have seen Facebook detectorists showing many crotal bells that have been found in England and down the East Coast but I never expected to find one myself.  They stopped making them and using them in the late 1800s.  It is bronze and cleaned up nicely in my rock tumbler in about 1.5 hours.  For those that don't know what a crotal bell is, here's a link to the Wikipedia entry.

The other cool finds include this nice pewter(?) heart pendant:

A small sterling ring:

 

And a sterling holly/bell pendant:

I'm told this is a mid 1800s (?) #3 Elgin pocket watch winder.

Other bits (literally!) and pieces include the dual Phillips screw driver bit that I can really use, and some brass screws and bits that go in my brass recycling bin.

Bits and bobs found at the Flea Market site

June 8, 2018

We have had several days of cold gloomy weather here in Maine.  Lows in the 40s and highs in the 50s.  Brr! I had to turn the heating back on!  This is almost summer and we are all complaining.  But today the sun finally came out and it got up to 72F with a nice breeze so I dug the flea market site for an hour or so and came back with lots of bits of jewelry.

The nicest find is this sterling rifle brooch. 3 words that don't come together often!

It's a bit dinged up and the clasp pin broke off, but I'll take it!

A few nice mounted stones.  The clear one is housed in sterling:

This piece of junk jewelry came out in 3 pieces:

And my first thimble.  I was hoping it would be a silver one from the civil war, but it's aluminum and pretty thrashed:

It's always fun seeing what comes out of the dirt!  

That reminds me, I have an idea for a detectorist bumper sticker:
"DETECTORISTS DO IT IN THE DIRT". 😀

Sterling anniversary pendant and more

June 2, 2018
It was another perfect day in the high 70's and very breezy.  I spent an hour poking around the historical museum grounds and just found lead flashing and other scrap metal.  So I went back  to the the flea market for a few hours this afternoon.  I keep going over the same areas and finding more cool things.  Today I got $1.20 in change and a 1996 Canadian penny.  And another square piece of lead - I find these often and this one is actually thin lead folded in half.  Maybe the sellers use these as weights?

I like this little brass(?) bear pin:

 A Facebook friend told me that: " The bear pin is a rank badge for the Webelos, which is the phase between cub scouts and Boy Scouts."

And a military button front (the back is missing):

The best find is the sterling anniversary(?) pendant with the initials: "D.E.G." engraved on one side and: "June 22-'57" on the other.  Stamped WINARD STERLING.

1872 shield nickel and more!

May 30, 2018

It was a perfect day for metal detecting, temps around 70F and clear and sunny with a light breeze.  Lots of good signals like the padlock and keys that got me excited.  The flea market closes around noon, but there is this one old guy who takes HOURS to pack up his 3-table booth, so he's often still there well after 4:00pm.  He's quite a character with a full white beard and clearly not in any hurry.  He fills every inch of his SUV and straps things on the roof, I hope he does not have to drive far.

My best find is the 1872 shield nickel.  I looked it up and it is worth $25-30 in "good" condition.  I found it close to the property owner's house.  She told me that her family have been on the property for at least 3 generations.  Not sure how old the house itself is, but given that I find civil war stuff it might go back to the early 1800s.

Also interesting is this 1980-1985 vintage brass New York City Transit (subway) token.

And finally this peacock pendant that might be made of pewter.

A good day of hunting that included many pennies and some quarters.

More Siam Silver

May 29, 2018

This morning I went on a quick hunt before it got too hot.  Day time temperatures here in Maine have been bouncing from the mid 50s one day to the 80s the next and it makes it hard to adjust to summer.  You have to start the day with a long sleeve flannel shirt and remove it by 10:00am on days like today.

I'm not showing the coins, just the other odd stuff.  Bits of brass hardware, and that square of lead at top right.  I find a lot of those that the flea market for some reason.  All the good metals get sorted into bins to be recycled eventually.

The interesting finds include a "Siam Sterling" (aka Nielloware) pendant, this is my 3rd Siam silver piece and they all seem to show Hindu gods:

 This heart shaped item does not test as precious metal.  It's not a pendant, so I don't know what it was for other than some kind of "love token".

Stinkin' Lincolns galore

May 25, 2018
So I said I would stop showing coins because I find so many of them, but lately that is all I have found of any value at my flea market site.  Lincoln pennies rot pretty fast and the owner said that the last time the property had been detected was in the 90's.  A penny can rot to the point of having no value in 10-15 years in this location and soil.  

I have only found a couple of wheat pennies so far (they were made from 1909 to 1958 and were solid copper back then).  Detectorists call them "wheaties".  Modern ones have a thin copper plating over zinc, detectorists call them "clad" coins and once the plating rots through the coin turns black and lumpy.

So here's what I found yesterday:

Coins, a bullet and pull tabs - boooring.  But at least it was a pleasant day in the high 70's with a light breeze and a few light rain squalls.  I remember watching YouTube videos over the winter of people down south or in England (Addictedtobleeps) detecting in the rain and thinking they must be cold.  But it is actually quite pleasant to work in a light warm rain.

Today was much the same, except I found more odd bits of copper and brass.  I am collecting brass, copper, lead, silver and gold for recycling.  So far I have quite a lot of lead from fishing weights and roof flashing etc. 

Most of these pennies are too far gone and get trashed.  But I did run the viable coins I have collected over the last few weeks through the Coinstar machine and got over $7.00.  Not bad.