How do you know junk from real stuff?

Sand87 · Jul 22, 2014

I know most on this site are from the US but anyone from the UK ever watched Time Team? Now I know they know their stuff and are extremely experienced but I still can't see how even experience tells them when they pull something out of a trench that to anyone else looks like a piece of junk or a twisted piece of lead/iron/!!!! they can go "Aaha, a womans brooch from the 1300's".

I dread to think how many times I've pulled something up gone "this is !!!!" and thrown it in to the bushes so I don't dig it again and it's actually been a Roman axe head or an Anglo-Saxon button or something.

See, I look for coins. Unfortunately with an Ace 250, although I *know* there have been people in the area since before the Romans, everything is probably too deep for the 250 to get to.

But I dig a lot of what I think is junk and when I throw it away I always think of that guy on Time Team with the hat going "that was a 300 year old button".

How do you guys deal with junk like that? Surely nobody has the time to clean everything and research everything they find? Do you?

Me? I get the coins, clean them and generally know exactly what I've got.

I've found dozens upon dozens of things that could be a pretty little button, a brooch, a this or a that or...a twisted piece of metal gone over by a plow a few times.

I am lucky enough to live in an area surrounded with fields and history going back as long as you'd care to imagine.

Advice guys, advice!! Oh, and discussion! Your solutions. Your theories?

p.s the oldes thing I've found with my 250 that I can accurately date was a very small silver coin with the date 1856 on it.

matmit · Jul 22, 2014

I always try to bring the item home, rather than discard it in the field.
This way, I can wash it and get a better look at it.
Just last week I found what I believe is a Native American axe head.
Got one opinion affirmative so far

Cherry Picker · Jul 22, 2014

I know what you mean. I've seen pictures of stuff I would have called junk and I see it posted as some 12th century candle base or some sword blunt?. I've got boxes and boxes of stuff I would consider junk but I just kept it anyway.

airscapes · Jul 22, 2014

Wish I had your problems! My trash is trash and it goes in a different part of the bag and gets put in a big box when I get home.. You spend time digging up the litter (even old litter), why would you toss it back on the ground, that is no different than tossing a tin can out the window of your car..
At least if you take it home and dump it in a bucket or bin you can look at it before you recycle or put it out in the rubbish..
Never saw that show but if is like most of the reality MD shows, there is a lot of BS going on to make it interesting to the general public that is clueless. "WOW look at this!".. and they pull out a necklace that has no dirt on it.. Or take a rusty rifle barrel to the antique dealer and he gives them $500 for, the exact amount they guy is claiming it is worth when he pulls it from the ground.. lots and lots of BS!

Sand87 · Jul 22, 2014

airscapes said:
Never saw that show but if is like most of the reality MD shows, there is a lot of BS going on to make it interesting to the general public that is clueless. "WOW look at this!".. and they pull out a necklace that has no dirt on it.. Or take a rusty rifle barrel to the antique dealer and he gives them $500 for, the exact amount they guy is claiming it is worth when he pulls it from the ground.. lots and lots of BS!

It is *nothing* like American Diggers or any of those things. Youtube "Time Team" - They do it properly and the focus isn't really metal detecting, you almost never see them using them and they never put a value on anything.

Sand87 · Jul 22, 2014

Detector said:
I know what you mean. I've seen pictures of stuff I would have called junk and I see it posted as some 12th century candle base or some sword blunt?. I've got boxes and boxes of stuff I would consider junk but I just kept it anyway.

So It looks like we all do the same...

Dig it up, think "Aaah, this could be hundreds of years old"...and then sort of just leave it lying around?

I was considering putting an add up to pay someone with the experience to look at all my "junk" and advice me. Most of it looks like steel or lead that's just been plowed but then you look again and think it could also be a small lead flower lapel or something....aargh!

Sand87 · Jul 22, 2014

airscapes said:
Wish I had your problems! My trash is trash and it goes in a different part of the bag and gets put in a big box when I get home.. You spend time digging up the litter (even old litter), why would you toss it back on the ground, that is no different than tossing a tin can out the window of your car..
At least if you take it home and dump it in a bucket or bin you can look at it before you recycle or put it out in the rubbish..

There is a slight difference in that I didn't leave it there in the first place but I get what you mean.
But what I'm saying is who here honestly has the time to clean and research every piece of twisted looking iron/steel/lead in the hope it's something special?
I don't and I know I don't so unless there's something that makes it stand out, it stays where it is unfortunately.

Laggy · Jul 22, 2014

I don't care what o dig up, it goes home with me. I have 5gallon buckets I toss the trash items in. I want a clean planet for my kids and their kids to grow up in :-)

Ziggen · Jul 22, 2014

I keep everything. From the smallest piece of scrap, to tabs, to big hunks of iron. What if someone came behind you and wasted time searching for something you threw 10 feet from where you found it? It's a courtesy thing and a general rule of detecting.

Sand87 · Jul 22, 2014

Laggy said:
I don't care what o dig up, it goes home with me. I have 5gallon buckets I toss the trash items in. I want a clean planet for my kids and their kids to grow up in :-)

I get your belief but lets look at the bigger picture and ask where does that metal end up again...eventually?

And is having it in a house, built using fossil fuel energy and upkept using the same energy really creating a clean planet for your kids? Those 5 gallon buckets were made using fossil fuel.

Sand87 · Jul 22, 2014

Ziggen said:
I keep everything. From the smallest piece of scrap, to tabs, to big hunks of iron. What if someone came behind you and wasted time searching for something you threw 10 feet from where you found it? It's a courtesy thing and a general rule of detecting.

Ok, I sort of understand that, although I don't think you understand the level of old iron etc we have here compared to the US, but again - what do you do with it> # surely nobody can clean all those clumps of crud? And then keep them but not try and find out what they were?

So you dig a clump of what looks like a reddish brownish sheet of twisted metal giving off an iron signal, and leave it in a big bucket?

piper247 · Jul 22, 2014

Don't know bout the UK but here we have (in most areas) what we call scrap yards where we can take those buckets of scrap metal (after you get enough) and sell it to them, they recycle it. It doesn't pay much but helps the environment.

Sand87 · Jul 22, 2014

Hey!

We most certainly have scrap yards...I'm guessing the ones close by me would laugh me out the door with anything less than a few tons

OleSarge · Jul 23, 2014

An old flywheel or a cool square nail doesn't have to be assessed by a archeologist to be of value to me.
A old beat up Match Box car is a keeper and has a well earned place in my line up of cast out Tootsitoys.
Bottle caps, pull tabs, tin foil, can lids and whatever else, or should I say everything else I find is removed from the site even if it is just to the local trash can for disposal.
First it is etiquette to others who metal detect the area at a later date. You hate digging loads of junk targets and so do they.
Secondly I consider it to be "scrubbing the area to make it more easily searched at later dates. By removing all the junk targets as I find them, over a period of time the area starts revealing its good targets quickly and without a lot of wasted digging.
Some of the most interesting things I find could be considered worthless junk by some but to me it has a value simply because I found it...and they lost it :lol:

AT Pro w/8.5X11" and 5X8" coils/GPP/Fiskars Diggers/BH Outback

Mntnclmbr · Jul 23, 2014

Sand87 said:
I get your belief but lets look at the bigger picture and ask where does that metal end up again...eventually?

And is having it in a house, built using fossil fuel energy and upkept using the same energy really creating a clean planet for your kids? Those 5 gallon buckets were made using fossil fuel.

You haven't convinced me. :roll:

Probably only yourself.

Justdigginit · Jul 25, 2014

Dig it, bring it ALL home,, clean it the best you can,, and if you can't identify it post a picture on here, someone will know what it is (or might be) and if all else fails,, I'll ask my wife, she knows everything !! :lol:

How do you know junk from real stuff?

Sand87

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matmit

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Cherry Picker

airscapes

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Sand87

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Sand87

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Sand87

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Laggy

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Sand87

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Sand87

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piper247

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OleSarge

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Mntnclmbr

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