There’s Gold in Them Fields!!

I went out to one of my well-worn farm field permissions on Monday for a couple hours - I’ve hit the site pretty hard over the last year and finds are slow to come by anymore. But thanks to the lack of rain for the last couple of weeks, homes and parks aren’t an option, so this has been my go-to spot - the field never got planted this year because of the crazy wet first half of the year we had.

For the first couple hours, I wasn’t getting much...a couple shotshell headstamps and miscellaneous old brass/copper. Somewhere in the first hour I got over a clear 20-21 signal which I expected was an Indian, but turned out to be a ‘41 Wheatie...enough to encourage me and keep me going though!

After a little over 2 hours, I hadn’t added anything too interesting to the pouch, and I knew I had to start wrapping up to get ready for work. I started going in a straight line toward the car, hoping to get “just one more good signal”...and never got one. I found myself steps from the car and a little discouraged. So, I did what any self-respecting MDer would do - checked my watch, convinced myself it won’t hurt to go “just a little longer”, turned 90° to my right, and kept right on detecting!

My delay tactics paid off nicely this time - after maybe 10 more minutes I got over another 20-21 signal, this time dipping to 19 and rising to 22 sporadically. The numbers were similar to those darn copper roof tacks I often dig at this site, but the tones were smoother. Digging the target out, I was pleased to find a holed Indian - my first holed coin! Someone went to a lot of trouble to place the hole just right - to my eye it looks to be centered perfectly on the opposite side of the date, and nicely avoids all the lettering in “US of A”. Maybe this was once someone’s pendant?? Interesting coincidence - it turned out to be an 1892 Indian Head, the same year the ghost town I was hunting was founded!





A few feet away, I swung over a “no-doubt-about it” nickel tone. I mean absolute text book sound and numbers - for my machine that’s a mellow 13 with smooth blips down to 12, nice and compact. My only doubt was whether it would turn out to be a Buffalo or V! Fully expecting a coin as I turned the dirt over, I was ecstatic to instead see a small ring - and despite the dirt clinging to it, I could see some fine detail, perfect corrosion free shine, and that beautiful gold color!! My second gold ring, and both have come out of farm fields a few weeks apart! This one appears to be a child’s ring - it fits perfectly on my 5-year-olds middle finger, or my wife’s pinky. The detail work is simple, but quite pretty and well done. There’s no purity stamp on the band, but there’s no doubt it’s gold based on the lack of corrosion and the ease of cleaning (running water and it was good as new!). Anyone know when stamping the gold purity into the ring became common?





After the ring, I again turned to detect straight back to the car, and this time I was more than content to pack up when I got there!

Picks below show the coins before and after cleaning, the ring cleaned, plus the rest of the finds from the hunt, including headstamps, a rivet that still has a chunk of the leather straps still sandwiched into it, and an odd turreted hose nipple. The shotshells are both Winchester, a Blue Rival (1894-1904) and a Ranger (1937-1962). Also a shot of a parsley worm caterpillar I found hanging out near where I dug the Indian...he’ll be turning into an Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly fairly soon