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DIGS O' THE DAY (2006-01-18): FIRST SILVER OF 2006
lordmarcovan
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DIGS O' THE DAY (2006-01-18): FIRST SILVER OF 2006
I found myself up moving at 9:30 AM, which is unusually early considering my night-owl lifestyle. I was bound and determined to get silvered today, so out I went, returning to the Squares of Old Town Brunswick. It was a nice sunny day but very windy, and with the temperature in the low 50s or high 40s, the wind soon took its toll on my exposed flesh, particularly my ears.
The first stop of the morning was Hanover Square, which used to be the center of activity in the 19th century and had been the site of the first municipal buildings back in the 1790s. Originally laid out in 1771, it was named for the ancestral homeland of British King George III. While I personally haven't found much better than a Mercury dime or two there over the years, other detectorists had found the whole gamut of US coinage, from Draped Bust silver on up, and earlier colonial-era British and Spanish coins as well. Surely if I went slowly through here with my bigger searchcoil, and pursued some of those fainter signals, I might find some overlooked goodies! However, I was only cautiously optimistic: while this park has been a very hot spot for coins in years past, it is probably one of the most detected pieces of real estate in southeast Georgia. The easier finds were long ago picked clean.
This is the northern half of Hanover Square, showing the Confederate Monument and the fountain. The fountain dates to the late 1800s.
The Confederate Monument was dedicated in 1902. Local legend, at least as I have heard it, says that the monument was carved by stonemasons up north, and Brunswick accidentally got a Northern soldier on top of their Confederate monument! He certainly looks more like a Yankee soldier, since he's wearing a slouch hat. He stands sentinel over the park, facing north. Is he on guard against Yankee invaders, or is he longing for home? Some versions of the story say that Brunswick's statue got mixed up with another (northern) city's intended monument, and that city ended up with a rebel soldier on top of their monument! That's just a story, though. Our monument's obelisk clearly bears the Confederate flag and the letters CSA at the bottom.
I found myself digging after a number of phantom signals, mostly rusty iron. Sometimes the signals would quit after I dug into the ground- these were likely smaller iron targets that had leached into the soil and created the "halo effect", which was dispersed after I broke the halo. I was hoping to find some coins that might have been dropped during the dedication ceremony for the monument, since there had been crowds of people and brass bands and so on. Near the front of the monument, I did unearth what could possibly be a relic of that day: a largish rifle shell, perhaps fired in a salute. But no other noteworthy finds were forthcoming from that spot, except for an untarnished 1988 zinc cent on the surface, just below the leaves. One hole I dug went into a fire ant mound, and before I knew what was happening, swarms of angry fire ants were boiling out of the dirt. Fortunately I spotted them in time and filled in the hole without getting bitten. I don't remember if I ever recovered that target or not. As I recall, it was not a very good sounding signal anyway- it was probably rusty iron. Definitely not worth getting fire-ant-bitten over!
Behind the monument and out into the park, but still in its northern half, I got a clear signal that sounded good and responded positively to the Coin Check feature on my Troy Shadow. It was not too loud, indicating it had some depth to it. I dug but couldn't find anything. Finally, probing the sides of the hole with my Tinytec pinpointer probe, I got a solid probe signal. Carefully inserting my digging knife above the signal, I cut out that side of the hole, about six inches below ground level. Immediately my heart skipped a beat, when I saw the unmistakable flash of a silver dime falling into the hole! Usually a silver dime at six inches in these parks will be a Barber or Seated Liberty dime, so I was understandably excited! Unfortunately, the dime was just a 1962-D Roosevelt, but at least it was silver! I have no idea how a dime that relatively modern got so deep. I hunted more around that area and was encouraged when bits of old pottery came up in the holes I was digging, though the targets associated with those holes were all junk. Old junk, to be sure, but junk, nonetheless. That about did it for Hanover Square that day, though I did return there later, around sunset, and dug a 1951-D Wheat cent at around three and a half to four inches deep. So it might be picked over, but it ain't picked clean.
The next stop for the day was King's Square, where I had hunted on January 10th. Focusing on a strip near the street on the southeastern quadrant of the park, which has produced a number of goodies over the years, I dug several targets. As mentioned previously, this area is contaminated with lots of old coal-like slag that will actually give a low-grade detector signal for some reason. It can be discriminated out, and doesn't necessarily prevent one from detecting in the area, but it does make digging difficult and makes it hard to use a pinpointer probe, since those don't discriminate and beep on multiple pieces of slag and old nails and such that are often in the same hole with the goodies. I didn't find any coins in King's Square, but there were a few interesting items. One was a small brush or spoon handle in the shape of a lady, maybe a geisha girl. It looks Art Nouveau in style and might be pewter. The second item was a gilt brass lid from a snuffbox or pill box or cosmetic compact, with the hinge still on it. What I took to be green patina on it now appears to be green paint- I was surprised to see the bright gold beneath the green. The third item was a small, thin costume jewelry pin or brooch- maybe silver but more likely some base metal. It was found very near where I found the heavily-encrusted 1889 Liberty nickel on January 10th. (Just behind the small oak tree in the center of the picture below). All three of the finds made on this particular day looked to be from the first decade or two of the twentieth century.
The final square visited (except for a brief return to Hanover around twilight) was Halifax Square, where I'd hunted on my last two outings. It didn't produce much, but I noticed the neck of an old patent medicine bottle in one hole when I was digging up a rusty nail. It's not uncommon to find old glass and pottery sherds in holes on some of these sites, and it's another reason I always wear a glove on my digging hand! There's a big oak tree in the northeastern corner of the park, and I have tried and tried to find something around that tree repeatedly, since it has that "aura"- y'know- it just gives me a feeling.
Sure enough, near the curb and not far from that tree, I dug a signal, checked the hole, and found the signal very loud, in the dirt I had already removed- it was up, whatever it was! Looking down, I saw the glint of what appeared to be a small silver coin! Oh, man! It looked like a half dime, though if it was, it was a well-worn half dime- I couldn't make out any details on either side. Before long, I realized it probably wasn't a coin at all- it had a plain edge, but was a little too thick to have been a silver three-cent piece. Dangit! It was just some stupid little metal slug! It sure had me going, there. It wasn't light, like aluminum. It looked and felt like a small silver coin, albeit a worn-out silver coin. Upon examining it closer, under a loupe, it is obviously just a slug, though. Oh, well.
Right near the slug I found a piece of an old brass harmonica reed, which is a very common find on 19th century sites. Every citizen must have carried a harmonica back then!
The sun was low in the sky, the shadows were getting longer, and I decided to spend the last few minutes of daylight back in Hanover Square, where I'd begun the day. I dug the previously mentioned Wheat cent and several pieces of trash, and called it a day. I was thoroughly exhausted.
I'd worked hard and really, really had been hoping to go home with a piece of 19th century silver, but I can't complain, since I did get "silvered" for the first time since last spring.
~RWS
INDEX OF DIG STORIES
I found myself up moving at 9:30 AM, which is unusually early considering my night-owl lifestyle. I was bound and determined to get silvered today, so out I went, returning to the Squares of Old Town Brunswick. It was a nice sunny day but very windy, and with the temperature in the low 50s or high 40s, the wind soon took its toll on my exposed flesh, particularly my ears.
The first stop of the morning was Hanover Square, which used to be the center of activity in the 19th century and had been the site of the first municipal buildings back in the 1790s. Originally laid out in 1771, it was named for the ancestral homeland of British King George III. While I personally haven't found much better than a Mercury dime or two there over the years, other detectorists had found the whole gamut of US coinage, from Draped Bust silver on up, and earlier colonial-era British and Spanish coins as well. Surely if I went slowly through here with my bigger searchcoil, and pursued some of those fainter signals, I might find some overlooked goodies! However, I was only cautiously optimistic: while this park has been a very hot spot for coins in years past, it is probably one of the most detected pieces of real estate in southeast Georgia. The easier finds were long ago picked clean.
This is the northern half of Hanover Square, showing the Confederate Monument and the fountain. The fountain dates to the late 1800s.
The Confederate Monument was dedicated in 1902. Local legend, at least as I have heard it, says that the monument was carved by stonemasons up north, and Brunswick accidentally got a Northern soldier on top of their Confederate monument! He certainly looks more like a Yankee soldier, since he's wearing a slouch hat. He stands sentinel over the park, facing north. Is he on guard against Yankee invaders, or is he longing for home? Some versions of the story say that Brunswick's statue got mixed up with another (northern) city's intended monument, and that city ended up with a rebel soldier on top of their monument! That's just a story, though. Our monument's obelisk clearly bears the Confederate flag and the letters CSA at the bottom.
I found myself digging after a number of phantom signals, mostly rusty iron. Sometimes the signals would quit after I dug into the ground- these were likely smaller iron targets that had leached into the soil and created the "halo effect", which was dispersed after I broke the halo. I was hoping to find some coins that might have been dropped during the dedication ceremony for the monument, since there had been crowds of people and brass bands and so on. Near the front of the monument, I did unearth what could possibly be a relic of that day: a largish rifle shell, perhaps fired in a salute. But no other noteworthy finds were forthcoming from that spot, except for an untarnished 1988 zinc cent on the surface, just below the leaves. One hole I dug went into a fire ant mound, and before I knew what was happening, swarms of angry fire ants were boiling out of the dirt. Fortunately I spotted them in time and filled in the hole without getting bitten. I don't remember if I ever recovered that target or not. As I recall, it was not a very good sounding signal anyway- it was probably rusty iron. Definitely not worth getting fire-ant-bitten over!
Behind the monument and out into the park, but still in its northern half, I got a clear signal that sounded good and responded positively to the Coin Check feature on my Troy Shadow. It was not too loud, indicating it had some depth to it. I dug but couldn't find anything. Finally, probing the sides of the hole with my Tinytec pinpointer probe, I got a solid probe signal. Carefully inserting my digging knife above the signal, I cut out that side of the hole, about six inches below ground level. Immediately my heart skipped a beat, when I saw the unmistakable flash of a silver dime falling into the hole! Usually a silver dime at six inches in these parks will be a Barber or Seated Liberty dime, so I was understandably excited! Unfortunately, the dime was just a 1962-D Roosevelt, but at least it was silver! I have no idea how a dime that relatively modern got so deep. I hunted more around that area and was encouraged when bits of old pottery came up in the holes I was digging, though the targets associated with those holes were all junk. Old junk, to be sure, but junk, nonetheless. That about did it for Hanover Square that day, though I did return there later, around sunset, and dug a 1951-D Wheat cent at around three and a half to four inches deep. So it might be picked over, but it ain't picked clean.
The next stop for the day was King's Square, where I had hunted on January 10th. Focusing on a strip near the street on the southeastern quadrant of the park, which has produced a number of goodies over the years, I dug several targets. As mentioned previously, this area is contaminated with lots of old coal-like slag that will actually give a low-grade detector signal for some reason. It can be discriminated out, and doesn't necessarily prevent one from detecting in the area, but it does make digging difficult and makes it hard to use a pinpointer probe, since those don't discriminate and beep on multiple pieces of slag and old nails and such that are often in the same hole with the goodies. I didn't find any coins in King's Square, but there were a few interesting items. One was a small brush or spoon handle in the shape of a lady, maybe a geisha girl. It looks Art Nouveau in style and might be pewter. The second item was a gilt brass lid from a snuffbox or pill box or cosmetic compact, with the hinge still on it. What I took to be green patina on it now appears to be green paint- I was surprised to see the bright gold beneath the green. The third item was a small, thin costume jewelry pin or brooch- maybe silver but more likely some base metal. It was found very near where I found the heavily-encrusted 1889 Liberty nickel on January 10th. (Just behind the small oak tree in the center of the picture below). All three of the finds made on this particular day looked to be from the first decade or two of the twentieth century.
The final square visited (except for a brief return to Hanover around twilight) was Halifax Square, where I'd hunted on my last two outings. It didn't produce much, but I noticed the neck of an old patent medicine bottle in one hole when I was digging up a rusty nail. It's not uncommon to find old glass and pottery sherds in holes on some of these sites, and it's another reason I always wear a glove on my digging hand! There's a big oak tree in the northeastern corner of the park, and I have tried and tried to find something around that tree repeatedly, since it has that "aura"- y'know- it just gives me a feeling.
Sure enough, near the curb and not far from that tree, I dug a signal, checked the hole, and found the signal very loud, in the dirt I had already removed- it was up, whatever it was! Looking down, I saw the glint of what appeared to be a small silver coin! Oh, man! It looked like a half dime, though if it was, it was a well-worn half dime- I couldn't make out any details on either side. Before long, I realized it probably wasn't a coin at all- it had a plain edge, but was a little too thick to have been a silver three-cent piece. Dangit! It was just some stupid little metal slug! It sure had me going, there. It wasn't light, like aluminum. It looked and felt like a small silver coin, albeit a worn-out silver coin. Upon examining it closer, under a loupe, it is obviously just a slug, though. Oh, well.
Right near the slug I found a piece of an old brass harmonica reed, which is a very common find on 19th century sites. Every citizen must have carried a harmonica back then!
The sun was low in the sky, the shadows were getting longer, and I decided to spend the last few minutes of daylight back in Hanover Square, where I'd begun the day. I dug the previously mentioned Wheat cent and several pieces of trash, and called it a day. I was thoroughly exhausted.
I'd worked hard and really, really had been hoping to go home with a piece of 19th century silver, but I can't complain, since I did get "silvered" for the first time since last spring.
~RWS
INDEX OF DIG STORIES
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When I get the master index with links to all the stories finished, there will be a link at the bottom of each of these to hop back to the index.
Again, just ignore me for reposting this musty old stuff right now. I have to do it so there will be URLs to link to in the new index.