So this is where all the buttons go, next mystery...socks.

Last Tuesday evening I went to bed as I usually do on any given weekday. I woke about two hours later with a rather nasty headache that progressed into a what I thought was a migraine and persisted throughout the night. I also noticed on my trips to the toilet that my right calf seemed a little tender like I had a bruise or had strained it. I didn't sleep very well and called into work to say  I was going to try to rest it out and would hopefully be back the following day. Well, that didn't happen, the headache just wouldn't go away and after another bad night, I decided to go to the doctor. It didn't take her long to diagnose me with tick bite fever. In fact, I think I pretty much mentioned that I live on a farm now and I  noticed one of my glands was swollen and she blurted out "Tick bite fever!" like she was competing in a trivia quiz game of some sort.  

I guess what I am trying to say with this long intro is I have not had much time to hunt this past week. I think I pretty much slept for 3 days. There was a late afternoon hunt on Friday and a few short hunts over the weekend and that's pretty much it. I can't remember too many details but I will try string together as much as I can so please accept my apology in advance for the quality of this post as I'm still not 100% better. 

I've been going back to that field below one of the dams where we found the Half-Penny, bird-pendant and heart-shaped lock. I keep going back because it keeps producing the goods. 

On Friday afternoon just before sunset my daughter and I decided to try and get a hunt in. She wielded the shovel and I detected while we wandered around the field chatting. We used the Simplex's built-in speaker so we could both hear what was going on. The field is divided into three by two roads that run along the contour of the lower half of the hill. The top section has provided a few good finds, the middle the majority of finds, and the lower section is very quiet. There seem to be hot-spots scattered around and all of them have a fair amount of iron signals to mark their location. 

We had taken a walk to the side of the field where the dam is and dug a bottle cap and a piece of tin labelled "For a better nights sleep", both modern. Ah, the dam side is the Junkville side, all fields seem to have one. I tried to detect on the road on the way back but the field kept pulling me back onto it and on one of these diversions I got a very questionable 20s-30s signal, but this is the field of dreams, so of course, we dug. What do you know! A Victorian Era Tunic Pocket button. These military buttons are becoming far too common and span too many years to be coincidental, surely. Perhaps the old wagon road was used frequently by troops travelling to Stanger.  

Victorian General Service Button

We strolled down into the middle segment and got another, not so great, signal. We dug a rather messy plug as the soil was soft, and the target came out of the pile of sand. I examined the smashed button closely. No, that wasn't me, that has been like that for a while. It's quite obvious when you hit an old copper or brass item with the shovel, there will be a nice, shiny scratch or the broken bits show the untarnished, original colour of the metal. This was already broken and such a pity, the button is still in excellent shape otherwise.

Broken Victorian General Service Button

 

Now you might wonder how we can confidently say these buttons are "Victorian" and you may have seen me mention "Kings Crown" or "Queens Crown". These are known as the Royal Cipher and are used on letterboxes and Military Insignia and represent the monarch of the Era. The below image shows the basic differences between the two.  

 

Another old find was this knee buckle. I've been told that's what it is by the experts on Facebook. I did recognize the design as being very old. The buckle has a weird black coating that almost looks painted but I remember one of my American buttons coming out like this. The threepence I found was also coated in a shiny black layer that I never managed to get off. Perhaps it was silver-coated, or perhaps that's some sort of resin or Molasses residue from the sugarcane fires. 

 

Possible Knee-Buckle

Knee-Buckle with R1 for scale.

Free image I found of a 3-Pin Knee-Buckle

On the way back when nearing the edge of the field, I got a screamer of a signal in the 90s. I suspected a tin can, was I wrong. A spoon handle. Still looks fairly new other than the bumps and nicks from being lost in a field. I later discovered this is a silver spoon handle. And if I had more of the hallmarks I would be able to tell you the town of origin, the Assay office where the silver was verified and a date of registration, within 2 years accuracy, but more on that later. 

Mappin and Webb silver spoon handle. 

Not a bad hunt and the plans to go back on the Saturday were made, there and then. Saturday was putridly hot but we managed to get a little hunt in before lunch. I dug more buttons and a giant-sized harmonica reed piece. The treasure whisperers found their first button. A four-hole button from...Durban? That's a first, "Simpson and Co. Durban". It was tough to find any information on this company other than a reference on the Architectural website "Artefacts.co.za" to a building at 368-370 West St with the same name, and a medal from the Boer War "Medallion: Lord Roberts Transvaal War Souvenir" in an auction manifest accredited to them. We have a button they made and get the wonderful privilege of saving this little piece of history.. 

Simpson and Co. Durban 4 Hole Button

I'm probably getting the sequence of events mixed up as I'm sure my daughter will point out when she reads this but not long after this I heard more squeals of excitement from the mother-daughter duo. 

They had another button, this time a two-piece button of military origin, their first American Great Seal pocket button. Back-marked "AM Button Co, Newark" puts it somewhere from 1902 to 1945. A very cool find indeed.  

Great Seal Pocket Button - AM Button Company, Newark

Well, the buttons kept coming out, one of them was already out, another 4-hole, "Best Ring Edge" button that was literally lying on the surface. I got the signal and was about to dig when I spotted it.

4-hole Button stamped "Best Ring Edge" found on the surface

Best Ring Edge 4-hole Button

Another interesting button I found was this French button with the words "Securite, Paris" stamped on the back. A rather unique style one-piece button. I can't find anything on this one because as soon as I search for "Securite Paris" images of police and police uniforms come up. 

Button stamped with "Securite Paris"

Each hunt was about 30 mins long and we had 2 - 3 over the weekend and each time we found interesting relics, mostly buttons, buckles and harmonica reed pieces of different sizes. I found a nearly identical knee-buckle, it's a little battered so not sure if it's exactly the same. All in all, good hunts for the limited time we could spend. 

Some of the 4-hole buttons we found.

This hobby has really made history come alive for me and my family. I love all the little interesting bits of information we find while researching the items we find. 

On one of the hunts, my daughter and I were exploring some areas of the field we hadn't dug yet when I got a beautiful 90's signal. What came out the ground had me a little puzzled. It seemed a little like some sort of watch casing but a little large for a wristwatch and was threaded like it screwed into something. It was full of hard sand so I dumped it in my pouch and we moved on. When I cleaned it later I noticed it had a hole off-centre and on the inside, it had a bunch of symbols and then I noticed a hand-inscribed date, 20/1/85 and initials "C.P." 

"Okay so not so old then," I thought to myself as I wondered if people in the 1800s shortened dates like we do these days, still clinging to the hopes it could be old. The hole seemed oddly familiar and has a very interesting design engraved with precision around it. I searched the internet for "Pocket Watch winding hole" and there it was. Switching the view to images I found very similar designs

Now, this is where my passion kicks in. If I could find out who C.P, was that would be amazing and what are these interesting symbols stamped on the inside. My mind started racing and I kicked into research mode. What I found is actually quite interesting. You can tell a lot about a silver object, (oh yes I found it it's actually silver), by the hallmarks printed on them. The practice of hallmarking was started by the French in the 1200s and later adopted by the English in the 1300s. Monarchs at the time wanted to know who's head should roll for producing poor quality silver items so a bunch of information is recorded using these symbols. 

So what do these particular hallmarks tel us about my piece of pocket watch?  

Silver Standard Mark - Lion passant (facing left) - Used by London and other  English Assay offices to verify genuine silver goods. 

 

Mark of Origin - Leopards head, uncrowned, means it originated from London.

Date Letter - These tell us the date of registration within a two year period "G" with that shaped shied represents the two year period beginning in 1882.

Makers Mark - The Silversmiths initials. This seems to be "AW.R" with a watch face or possibly "AW.RO"  both still a mystery. I can find AW. but that's as close as I got so I'm not sure it's a match.

So that tells me that 20/1/85 is actually the 20th of January 1885. There is one more mark that my silver piece doesn't have and that's a duty mark. This tells me that this watch was purchased in England and carried here in person rather than being exported out of the country.  

Well if you think that's the end of this post this field has 1 more treasure for you this week. Feeling a little better on Tuesday afternoon I went for a sunset session with my wife. I only found one thing on that trip, you guessed it, another button. A Victorian Scots Guard button in rather bad shape

The button has the below insignia with Queen Victoria's crown above. Oh, remember Firmin House from our trip to the Macadamia plantation? This button is made by Firmin and Son, London. I'm hoping I can clean it up a bit more but it's not looking too promising. 

Scots Guard Insignia

We bumped into the farmer on our sunset session this evening and didn't get much hunting done. I could chat forever about the history of this place. He was telling where the old wagon road ran and that it is quite possible that we are finding items from when people camped over on their way to Stanger. He also gave us some pointers where we should hunt next. He said he's sure his neighbour wouldn't mind, I think I'll get his neighbours number and confirm that just to be sure. 

A field I can listen to all day long.

The week rolled around again, as it usually does after a Sunday, and again, I found myself looking for an area to hunt nearer the house. I headed to Junkville and started exploring the Simplex's "Park Mode" which has better recovery and separation but can't detect as deep. Recovery is basically the amount of time needed before the detector is ready to pick up another target and separation is its ability to single out objects that are close together. I also started to experiment with notching out certain signals so all I hear are the desirable ones. My first attempt at this yielded a pink shell of a toy trucks cab, which I believe was probably red once upon a time. I also picked up a brass, 4-hole button. I was quite chuffed with these 2 finds, I've swung over the same area hundreds of times in the past and had only dug bottle caps. It would appear that Birmingham is the button capital of Britain, the letters stamped on the button read H.A.LTD, B.HAM.

 

4-hole Brass Button

For the rest of the week, I wandered around the perimeter of our yard exploring the various suburbs of Junkville. I turned up another shell of a car and a strange but interestingly shaped piece of metal. This piece of metal once cleaned, had the words "Maserati Bora" and "Made in Hong Kong" on the bottom with a number "1013" and another word "yatming". A little research and I easily found that this was the chassis to another toy car and the number allowed me to find pictures of what this 1970's die-cast toy car would have looked like. Click here to have a look.

 

Recently I have had my eye on a koppie on the south-east border of our permission. This particular koppie falls right at the edge of where the farm ends and the rural area begins. On Saturday morning, we took a trip to the shops, and in the afternoon the family rested. I decided to take a walk to check this area out. When I say walk, it goes without saying that I was fully kitted out, from head to toe with all my gear. I didn't quite make it to the koppie as there were already people milling around and the sun was dropping fairly-low on the horizon. I initiated "Plan B" and headed for a newly cleared area below one of the dams. This area is nowhere near any currently present yards or buildings which meant I had absolutely no idea of what to expect.

View of the field a little later on.

I swung over the field until I hit an iron signal, I slowed down a little and heard another iron signal shortly thereafter. I decided to spiral out and see if I could pick up something a little bit better. Iron means people have been there and is often used to gauge if you are still close to a home site, of course on a farm it can also mean any number of activities had taken place there.

It wasn't long before I had my ear chewed off by a screaming 70s signal. "Yes! There's stuff here" I whispered to the stumps of sugarcane.  I dug down to reveal something that resembled a pocket watch cover made of copper and sporting a beautiful green patina. A few more steps and another good signal in the 60s grabbed my attention. Out came what I believe to be a suspender or braces clip, or at least part of one. The sun was starting to fade and it was time to wrap it up. I cut back towards the road and got another good-sounding high-tone that had me delaying my trip home a little longer.  I retrieved a ribbon-like piece of metal with some fancy on the edges. I took a look at the few items I had just found, smiled and said, "Yup, there is stuff here indeed, and it's OLD stuff". I do love finding old stuff, and it's a good indication that we should be able to find coins and other, interesting items from the same time frame.

 

Some items from the reconnaissance mission.

 

Suspender-clip thingy-ma-bob

Sunday was bitterly cold and it had been raining on and off during the night. The day met us with a dreary grey sky and an icy wind that cut through our clothes as the 3 of us marched in an easterly direction towards the newly cleared field. The whole way there I kept wondering if this field was going to continue dishing out good finds or had I snatched the few items it was hiding. 

When we got there we decided to start detecting at the top of the cleared area and work our way down to where I had found those few items the previous day. It wasn't long before I was onto a signal, a crisp 76 high tone and I was digging. My wife and daughter, working their way down the hill, eager to test the new pin-pointer we bought off Amazon. Interestingly it had been shipped all the way from Las Vegas and took only one day longer than our orders took from a Cape Town supplier.

My first find looked like a rivet or possibly a button from a pair of Jeans. When I got it home and cleaned it the word "Suspender" appeared. I wonder if this button went with the clip piece I found the day before?  

 

Suspender Button

Not far from the first signal I got another sweet-sounding tone and pulled out what I first thought was a wingnut, but on closer inspection, it looked more like a key. A watch or clock-winder I suspect, I have seen pictures of these from other detectorists on online.
 
 

Possible clock-winder

A little further down I hit a softish 90's signal and, I started thinking that surely this one has to be junk, I haven't had this many interesting items come out in a row. My target was about 10 inches deep. I was so busy digging and barely noticed the Treasure Whisperers, down on the ground, with their new pin-pointer in hand, searching for their target. "Hey, Dad, we've got a coin!" my daughter screamed. I stopped digging immediately and started walking down to them. "Is it a good one?" I shouted back as I picked up the pace. When I got there, I was handed one of those lovely green crusty sugarcane field coins. I could tell from the size that this was either a Half-Cent or Half-Penny. I was guessing it's a Penny from the condition and colour. A little cleaning revealed the date coming through at the bottom and a King George the 5th portrait, facing left. Another British Penny, and from the looks of it a 1920 or 1921 but it's in extremely, bad shape so we are not 100% certain. It looks like the Treasure Whisperers might now hold the record for the oldest coin

1920/1 British Half-Penny

 

In case you can't see it, I superimposed a non-dug example over it to show you what it would look like. 

 

 

Back to my target, I eventually got down a third of a broken harmonica reed. I started moving along the contour toward the road and straight into a blasting signal at 4 inches. The fired bullet casing I pulled out had me a little puzzled. It looks like a .303, but it seems to have been extended, where the lead bullet would have been. Research showed the Head-stamp as being British Military issue, manufactured by Royal Laboratories 1901 -1902. The reason it looks so strange is it has a "dummy" bullet that is made out of the same material as the casing in place of the expected, lead-bullet. This fired round was a blank..

 

.303 MK VI Blank Fired Casing

 

I decided to show my wife and daughter how close we were to the dam, so we started swinging in that direction. I picked up a clear-sounding, 21 tone. Usually, these come out as foil but seeing as this field seemed to have a never-ending supply of intriguing finds I decided to dig, and I was pleasantly surprised. Out came a bird, a swallow looking ornament with large fake diamonds. Possibly, a pendant, or charm of some sort. This hobby never ceases to amaze me, what were all these items doing out here? Perhaps the family liked to camp on the flattish area below the dam, or maybe the old wagon trail the farmer once mentioned, ran nearby.

 

Bird pendant or charm.

 

 

We called it a day, and none of us had dug a single bottle-cap or tin can, it was a little surreal. I also found it refreshing to wander semi-randomly across the field and pick up items like these, not overly concerned with covering the area in detail.

Later that afternoon, I headed back to the field. I had to give it another go even though the day was nearly over. I dug a strange cylindrical object that looks like a pipe with another smaller pipe inside and sealed on both ends. I am a little nervous to push or pull it, in case it explodes. The other item I found is a heart-shaped lock. I believe it to be a diary lock and it has a beautiful green patina. Not sure how old it is, but I still love digging personal items

 

 

Heart-Shaped Diary Lock

I'm curious about this beautifully sounding field of fascinating treasures. There is still sugarcane growing above the cleared area, and I can't help but wonder if there used to be a home up there? All I know is we barely scratched the surface, and I will most certainly be back to see what else there is to find. I still need to break through to the 1800s with coins and who knows, perhaps this field is the field that will help me do just that.

 

Crepuscular rays shine down on the field of dreams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Metal Detecting, a hobby of many emotions.

 

Well this metal detecting hobby has taken me on an emotional roller-coaster this week. After having such a good weekend last weekend, then going back into the work-week and having to hunt the trashy grounds nearer home, I was left feeling a little lost. I wondered where I could go when time is limited and new ground is too far to walk to in a lunch hour or before the sun sets after work. 

It was during one such lunchtime that I wandered back to the farmhouse at the top of the hill and over the other side to an area, that in my mind seemed like a good idea and, I hadn't hunted there before. This area turned out to be far too steep and experience has taught me that when the ground gets steep the detector goes quiet. I headed along the contour of the hill until I found a more inviting area to begin my hunt.

 It was a very quiet lunch until it was nearly time to go and I got a rather soft 40's to 50's signal. I figured I'd dig this bullet so I could at least go home with something. The ground was extremely hard which always gives me hope that whatever I am about to unearth has been there for a quite some time. After digging a bit of the soil out I re-checked the signal as I have found that signals can change after removing the topsoil, and it had. The numbers climbed and the signal sounded better and better each time I rechecked while digging down, until it was in the high 70's. I was running out of lunch-hour and the hard ground was causing my shovel to slip towards the center of the hole with every kick. Then suddenly I saw it, and heard it too unfortunately.  my shovel grazed it on the way past. "That's a big coin" I muttered to myself as I bent down to pick it up. I assumed it was a Penny by the size but at this point it looked like a round disc of green, crusty nothingness. The signal was soft but easily heard. The Simplex had done well to pick this coin up on edge and about 25cm deep.

On the way home I wondered whether this Penny was a George or an Elizabeth. I started brushing the coin and was surprised when the date started appearing at the bottom, the pennies I'm used to finding have the date at the top. 1921, my oldest coin to date. There was a feint image of a person seated coming through. 

 

My latest Penny after a little brushing.

Could this be one of the bucket list coins I have been looking for? Yes! This is one coin I have had my eye on for a while now. A picture of a seated Britannia holding a trident and shield on the reverse with King George the 5th on the obverse, a British Penny. 

Un-dug Example from 1936 (that's what I'm after)

I decided to attempt to clean it as I didn't have much to lose seeing that it was so badly crusted. I'm learning slowly that sometimes patience pays off and I'm going to need to be more patient cleaning these going forward. There is a technique of soaking coins in Olive oil and removing them occasionally to brush them, that can have excellent results, if you are willing to wait up to 6 months. I'm still too impatient and hurried this one along a little. 

I hunted that area round the hill, weaving my way down over the next few days. I did get this broken key that turned out to be quite interesting. It has the words Willy Overland stamped on it and seeing as I had no idea what that was I jumped on to the internet to find out. Turns out it's a motor vehicle manufacturer and they manufactured vehicles for the Military in WW2. Their MB model was the original go anywhere vehicle that later became known by it's nickname, "Jeep". Their name changed to "Willys Motor Company" in 1963 so this key must have predated that. It also has a serial number engraved on it "WI 370". They did also manufacture other vehicles but I found the Jeep reference quite interesting.

 

Willys Overlander Key Piece

I had been waiting all week to get back to the promised land of buttons and bullets to try find some more pieces to this puzzle. The Boer War forum let me down. I only got 2 answers to my post on the American buttons. The first suggested that local tribes may have stolen the uniforms from soldiers and all my buttons could even be from the same tunic. The other referenced a very interesting book written by an American Irishman who came in search of gold and ended up supporting the Boer cause, suggesting a link to American soldiers that fought here.

The thing that bothers me most about the buttons is that their manufacture date starts from 1902 and the timing doesn't seem to fit. The British General Service button follows the same pattern. I put it forward to the British Military badge forum and senior member responded saying, "It has a kings crown so from 1902 - 1957, probably too late to get to South Africa for the Boer War." It looks like this mystery is just getting more mysterious as the days go by and I am going round in circles looking for my next big break in the story.

Back to fields and my daughter was first on the board with a very old spoon handle. No identifying marks but if you squint your eyes just right and imagine really hard you might see the initials JG on it. Wait, the light just shifted, nah, I don't see it anymore. 

Old broken spoon handle

 

Well we hunted and hunted. My wife got some bits of broken harmonica reed and I got a 1c coin and a button that turned out to be a rivet when I cleaned it. 

I was super disappointed, our new land of possibility turned into a land of not that much. I started wondering if perhaps the farmer back then wore military uniforms purchased from an army surplus store because they are high quality and designed to last in tough environments. Just one of my many theories.

On Sunday we decided to hike to the southern end of our permission, through the Macedonia plantation, towards the 3rd dam we hadn't been to yet. It was a blistering 31 degrees Celsius and we made the mistake of climbing a steep hill to patch of cleared sugarcane first. We quickly headed down to the plantation to escape the heat in the shade of some big trees that form its border. Here we found signals a plenty and I discovered my "coin sense". "This ones a coin" and out came a 1c, "Here's another" and out came a 2c and so it went on until I had two of each. My wife had stumbled onto a shooting range, or so it seemed as she was digging bullet casing after bullet casing for a modern 9mm pistol. We rested for a while and then decided to head along the the trees towards the dam. I got a screaming 80's signal that was only 4 inches or so deep and shouted "Here's a spendy" as I thought I was about to dig a R2 or R5 coin when much to my surprise out popped a very crusty 1952 Penny. What a beautiful surprise it was and tears of sweat ran down my brow. 

 

1952 South African George the 6th Penny

 I soon realized that there shouldn't be sugarcane where we were and for the first time since speaking to the farm owner, we had wandered off our permission. We called it a day started the grueling walk home.

Monday came and we had another go at getting to the dam, a little wiser after reviewing our designated area on Google Earth. First stop, the plantation, to see what else we could find. We found mostly modern bullet casings but I did dig this old button from Firmin House. They are the oldest manufacturing company in Europe and have supplied buttons to every monarch since Charles II (r. 1649 – 1685). Boasting an impressive three and a half centuries of experience. 

 

The dam provided shade and a beautiful location for lunch. I also got to find 2 more coins from the 70's while fine tuning my coin sense. 

View of the dam from the wall.

 

On the way back I dug a rivet that turned out to be a button, hows that for a turn around? Later that afternoon during the sunset session in Junkville I added another button to the list.

 

The other more modern button.

 

All in all not a bad week and although there were many ups and downs it has left me feeling particularly optimistic about our future hunts here. I heard the crackling of burning sugarcane again this morning and I couldn't help but wonder if a new field of possibility has just opened up. 

The sunset as seen from Junkville.