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Returning to Gascoigne bluff for a short "digspedition" Sunday AM

lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,530 ✭✭✭✭✭
I'm meeting a relic hunting buddy, Billy Ridenour, at Gascoigne Bluff for a short outing today.

Gascoigne is one of "my" sites, not one of his, unfortunately, since he finds the REALLY nice coins and relics.

Still, with 10,000 years of history, the site has potential, eh?

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Here are the last two most "recent" Gascoigne outings, for your reading enjoyment (if you haven't already read them).

DIGS O' THE DAY (2007-09-25): GASCOIGNE BLUFF, OLD POST ROAD, OLD TOWN BRUNSWICK

DIGS O' THE DAY (2007-10-02): AN HOUR AT GASCOIGNE BLUFF

The area we will be hunting is a county park. The northern end of the bluff is the hotspot, where the old Hamilton plantation once stood. I found some really nice coins (and my most valuable find ever- a rare War of 1812 US Light Dragoons belt plate) there in years past, but sadly, that area (private property which I once had exclusive permission to hunt) is now closed to detecting. So I've been focusing a little on the public (park) side of the bluff, which is not as hot, but which definitely has a few goodies left, hiding deep below the dirt. The pulltabs and modern trash are kind of bad in areas, and it will take more work, but at least I can say this part of the bluff is "underexploited". In all those years I was doing the north end of it, I mostly ignored this southern end.

It will be interesting to see what Billy finds at Gascoigne, with his potent, deepseeking detector and his super Jedi detecting skills. He consistently outdoes me when we hunt together, sometimes to a factor of three or four!

Speaking of Billy, and cool finds (though not one from Gascoigne Bluff), check this piece out. He dug it just recently. It is half of a Civil War period "tongue and wreath" belt plate, similar to some worn by Confederate officers. We could not find a match to it in the book on Confederate plates, though. Because it has tiny palmetto trees in the ornamentation (you'd miss 'em at first glance), we suspect it COULD be an unlisted South Carolina variant, which would mean it's potentially worth some long green (?-$$$!) Billy claims to already have a tentative $500 offer on it. (Some of this militaria stuff fetches crazy money).

Any ideas?

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Comments

  • LM....when you get a chance, take a look at the thing I posted that I found on one of the ballast islands...Let me know what you think....Good luck today with Billy!
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Good luck... should be a great day... we await your tale of treasure found. Cheers, RickO
  • laserartlaserart Posts: 2,255
    I was thinking the buckle could be part of the dressage on some horse saddlery or bridle parts. Those horses were known for losing stuff.
    "If I had a nickel for every nickel I ever had, I'd have all my nickels back".
  • KarbKarb Posts: 557 ✭✭✭
    Wow good luck!! Looks like it should be really fun just to wander around there let alone finding cool stuff. LOL
    Robert

    Hoarding silver and collecting history
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