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