One of my favorite places in all the world to hunt, is in the Bahamas Islands. The beaches are white and gold, literally, with tourist jewelry. This year it seemed to be mostly silver, but who cares? The hunting was good.
Pictured, is an 1807 one reale found off Golden Rock Beach, a 22" heavy silver chain and silver pendant (found together) on Taino Beach, a Gold 20" rope-type chain found on Taino Beach, a 14k gold money clip with an inlaid 1/2 oz. silver piece with an eagle image on it, found at Zanadu Beach, a silver pendant with a cartoon skunk, Zanadu, and finally an 18k gold and sterling silver cross found off Zanadu.
Working with the historical society paid off. They let me hunt one of the oldest homes in town, and more importantly let me keep all the finds. This house is on the National Register for Historic Places and is over 150 years old. It has been said the original owner was a personal friend of General Robert E. Lee, who frequently visited and slept there.
For detail and clarity, click on the image.
Superimposed on the picture are a few of my finds: 1897 Indian head penny, 1877 legionnaire's coat button, Civil War .50 cal mini ball.
For this one you will need to click on the image to see the date on the coin. Yes, it is a 1955 Washington quarter and if you look closely you will see the image, too. This is the results when a copper penny is in contact with a silver coin while buried together on a salt beach. The penny was totally deteriorated.
Very unusual is this genuine miniature brass cannon pictured to the left. It is only five inches in length but weighs almost a pound--and I am sure is fully functional given some black powder, a wad, and a mini ball. There is even a small hole at the upper rear of the cannon for a fuse. Wow, what a Find! I looked for the cannon mount, probably made of wood, but could not find it. The miniature cannon is very old and it could be that the wood is deteriorated by now. Anyhow, try finding a piece of wood with a metal detector.
Here is something I found of interest. It is this heavy silver button pictured on the right with the words "Bon Jour." Doesn't Bon Jour mean "Good Day" in French? It certainly was a good day. By the end of it I was not even thinking about the cold I had anymore.
Many parks render buttons of all shapes and sizes, and though I do not show many of them, this one was different.
For not doing any serious metal detecting lately, I sure am finding my share of things, and though they are not exceptional are metal detecting finds. To the right is a mini lock, silver dolphin charm, and a jack. A couple bucks in change, but you've seen change before!
Because of all the rain (April 1989) it has been near impossible to hunt most areas of North Central Florida. The area has been experiencing flooding, and those places not flooded have standing water like giant mud puddles everywhere. I had to pick an area with no water. In this case it was an elementary school in Cross City, Florida.
Pictured are a few clad coins, key, live bullet, hair band, brass buttons, some bangle pieces, and one child's silver ring. Yes, I have managed to keep my record of a ring a week for five weeks in a row . . . Say, a live bullet? Yes, I find them in playgrounds all the time. Go figure.
This is only for the year 1997 and is my jewelry finds up till mid September. Hopefully this pile of jewelry will grow till the end of the year.
The following pictures will depict other finds and also jewelry that in addition, could be added to this pile before the year ends on December 31, 1997.
I often find spoons around old home sites but I only keep the ones I can verify as true silver. These two are both labeled as sterling.
The small spoon to the right has a brand name and date. It says, "Armorwear, 1906." The spoon to the left has no name other than the 925 sterling stamp on the backside of the handle.
This pile of coins was the result of a five day hunt on the beaches of Port Lucaya, Grand Bahamas Island and comprises of several nationalities of coins. There are over 500 coins in this pile!
On this particular hunt, my partner, Dennis Heath of Colorado, did equally well, though, I out hunted him somewhat in the jewelry department.
Here is the results of a typical day's hunt at an old home site. Everything typical, that is, except the 1963 Ben Franklin half dollar. YES! That's silver!
Old home sites are funny. Some days you will load up on old coins, and others you will barely find a single coin.
Just for the heck of it, I stopped by the school yard close to my home while out and about. It has a fenced-off, one-hundred and fifty-year-old school house on the grounds that is listed on the National Historical Register. You cannot hunt inside the fence but you can hunt the outside that is part of the newer school yard. I have been hunting it for several years and have come up with some good finds. About six months ago I invited a whole TH'ing club from Jacksonville, FL to hunt the school yard. Needles to say, the yard has been hunted to death. I thought maybe by the large oak tree where kids congregate, some new clads might be found. To my surprise, I found the one that got away instead.
One of the nice things about hunting old yards, is that you can almost always find wheat pennies even when nothing else. These are what I found today at an old home site in an un-disclosed town in North Central Florida (I'll tell you where later). The old pennies and the below finds are part of an agreement between me and the town's historical society (see below article). I am hunting most of the home sites of historical significance there. In the end, I hope to assemble a display case of worthwhile finds to enhance the town's historical museum.
On the first week of October, 1997, I was looking for a place to hunt in a small town in North Central Florida when I came upon a museum. It was an old railway station in the center of town converted to hold artifacts of the city's pioneering days. I later found out the town's historical society purchased the station and was in the process of filling it.
The reason I stopped at the one-hundred and fifty-year-old station, was to ask permission to hunt the perimeter for old coins. The curator not only gave me permission but tried to help me. While in the middle of hunting, the historical society's president showed up. He, too, started helping. One thing led to another and before I knew it, was recruited into the historical society. Now I am hunting the home sites of most of the one-hundred and twenty-five members who's homes are not less than one-hundred and fifty years old. The deal is that the historical society will give me half of what I find and the rest goes into their museum. Pretty good deal, aye?
I did my very first yard the following week and this is what I found in the front yard alone. I have yet to hunt the rest of the property.
In the picture are:
1st vertical row: 3 Indian heads 1900, 1902, 1908
2nd vertical row: 3 wheat pennies 1923, 1935, 1924
3rd vertical row: 1 wheat penny 1953; 2 merc dimes 1939, 1941
4th vertical row: 1 buffalo nickel 1937; 1 standing liberty quarter 1925; 1 barber dime1915
