AirmetTango
Forum Supporter
Got out to detect an interesting permission on Monday – it’s an existing home built in 1879, originally owned by the town’s doctor. The site was actually used as a home/doctor’s office up until at least the 1940’s, as the owners mentioned that their neighbor across the street who passed away several years ago had his tonsils removed in the house! Even more exciting is it’s position relative to a small garrison from the War of 1812 – at one point while gardening, the owners dredged up a small cannonball 
To add to the interest, the owners contacted me about detecting the property – not the other way around. They’ve lived at the property for over 40 years, and claim they never gave permission for anyone to hunt before – I take that with a grain of salt, but encouraging if true since it covers pretty much the entire time frame that detecting has been prevalent.
Anywho, with all that glorious intro out of the way, I definitely didn’t find anymore cannonballs! In fact, I was genuinely worried when my first signal turned out to be a canning jar lid – firmly entrenched about 10 inches down! Last thing I expected or wanted would be to dig 10 inch + holes all day just to reach stuff from the early to mid 1900s! Thankfully that turned out to be an oddity, and after a couple hours on-site, I ended up with a cool variety of finds (even the canning jar was pretty slick in my book – the “milk glass” liner was still intact and apparently the Consolidated Fruit Jar Company stopped making lids in 1907
).
But my flat out favorite was a lead mold for a horse mounted toy soldier. It just about blew my ears off – it was about 4” down, and pegged the Ace at a full 99 on the TID. It was the first time I ever dug a full-scale signal that turned out to be something other than trash. I'm not convinced on how much age it might have on it though - the copyright symbol and serial number marking on the back seems suspiciously modern. But the overall design pretty well matches this antique set, minus the handles: Antique Lead Soldier Mold on Pinterest. Very cool nonetheless!
I also found an awesome old Master Lock “Walking Lion” key – a little bent, but the design makes it one of the coolest keys I’ve dug yet! Some initial research revealed that the “Walking Lion” was only on the keys until 1941. I went ahead and used my set of Andre’s Pencils to clean the key up – I think it cleaned up really nicely.
The various other keepers are a Great Seal Army button (probably pretty modern), a 1959 Rosie that lost a fight with a lawnmower, a pair of tokens from a 1969 Shell Oil promotional game (one also tussled with that same lawn mower), the squashed neck of an old oil lamp with the adjustment toggle still attached, and a couple of pieces of what I think is silver – one is definitely the handle of a spoon or something, maybe from an old tea set, but no idea what the other piece is from. Both rang like silver, and they cleaned pretty well – plus they just have that look/feel of old dug silver. The spoon handle has “Made in USA” on the back, but no indication of silver. I even like the old roller handle from the manual car window crank – took me a little while to realize what it was, it’s been so long since I’ve seen one!
I only had time to hunt about 20% of the 1 acre property, so there's certainly more to be found there. I may have to wait until spring to go back though - not only is the cold weather likely setting in for good, but my pin pointer has been acting up again and getting worse. My 2017 hunting season is definitely winding down
Here’s a pic of the full hunt, pre-cleaning (oil lamp part is in the center):
And a shot of most of the keepers, post-cleaning:
Detail of the lead mold, front and back (Lots of cool detail is still visible in person, like the piping on the officers cap, etc. Do you guys think it might be safe to try the mold in some of my daughter’s Play-Doh??):
“Walking Lion” Master Lock key, after cleaning with just soap, water, & toothbrush, then after cleaning with Andre's Pencils:
US Army Great Seal button - I finally cleaned the back enough to make out a backmark, which reads "* Waterbury Cos. Conn. * 21". Most likely fairly modern, since Waterbury changed to "Companies" sometime after 1945, and the button was only about 2" down:
Shell Oil game piece tokens. The promotion was pretty cool – apparently you could win a full set of state coins struck in bronze…I wouldn’t mind finding some of those while detecting!
It’s a shame one got dinged – being from NJ originally, I can understand why the lawnmower might want to take a shot at the state though!
Thanks for looking!
To add to the interest, the owners contacted me about detecting the property – not the other way around. They’ve lived at the property for over 40 years, and claim they never gave permission for anyone to hunt before – I take that with a grain of salt, but encouraging if true since it covers pretty much the entire time frame that detecting has been prevalent.Anywho, with all that glorious intro out of the way, I definitely didn’t find anymore cannonballs! In fact, I was genuinely worried when my first signal turned out to be a canning jar lid – firmly entrenched about 10 inches down! Last thing I expected or wanted would be to dig 10 inch + holes all day just to reach stuff from the early to mid 1900s! Thankfully that turned out to be an oddity, and after a couple hours on-site, I ended up with a cool variety of finds (even the canning jar was pretty slick in my book – the “milk glass” liner was still intact and apparently the Consolidated Fruit Jar Company stopped making lids in 1907
). But my flat out favorite was a lead mold for a horse mounted toy soldier. It just about blew my ears off – it was about 4” down, and pegged the Ace at a full 99 on the TID. It was the first time I ever dug a full-scale signal that turned out to be something other than trash. I'm not convinced on how much age it might have on it though - the copyright symbol and serial number marking on the back seems suspiciously modern. But the overall design pretty well matches this antique set, minus the handles: Antique Lead Soldier Mold on Pinterest. Very cool nonetheless!
I also found an awesome old Master Lock “Walking Lion” key – a little bent, but the design makes it one of the coolest keys I’ve dug yet! Some initial research revealed that the “Walking Lion” was only on the keys until 1941. I went ahead and used my set of Andre’s Pencils to clean the key up – I think it cleaned up really nicely.
The various other keepers are a Great Seal Army button (probably pretty modern), a 1959 Rosie that lost a fight with a lawnmower, a pair of tokens from a 1969 Shell Oil promotional game (one also tussled with that same lawn mower), the squashed neck of an old oil lamp with the adjustment toggle still attached, and a couple of pieces of what I think is silver – one is definitely the handle of a spoon or something, maybe from an old tea set, but no idea what the other piece is from. Both rang like silver, and they cleaned pretty well – plus they just have that look/feel of old dug silver. The spoon handle has “Made in USA” on the back, but no indication of silver. I even like the old roller handle from the manual car window crank – took me a little while to realize what it was, it’s been so long since I’ve seen one!
I only had time to hunt about 20% of the 1 acre property, so there's certainly more to be found there. I may have to wait until spring to go back though - not only is the cold weather likely setting in for good, but my pin pointer has been acting up again and getting worse. My 2017 hunting season is definitely winding down
Here’s a pic of the full hunt, pre-cleaning (oil lamp part is in the center):
And a shot of most of the keepers, post-cleaning:
Detail of the lead mold, front and back (Lots of cool detail is still visible in person, like the piping on the officers cap, etc. Do you guys think it might be safe to try the mold in some of my daughter’s Play-Doh??):
“Walking Lion” Master Lock key, after cleaning with just soap, water, & toothbrush, then after cleaning with Andre's Pencils:
US Army Great Seal button - I finally cleaned the back enough to make out a backmark, which reads "* Waterbury Cos. Conn. * 21". Most likely fairly modern, since Waterbury changed to "Companies" sometime after 1945, and the button was only about 2" down:
Shell Oil game piece tokens. The promotion was pretty cool – apparently you could win a full set of state coins struck in bronze…I wouldn’t mind finding some of those while detecting!
It’s a shame one got dinged – being from NJ originally, I can understand why the lawnmower might want to take a shot at the state though!
Thanks for looking!
