Sometimes those little bits of scrap, aren't.

 

As a detectorist, I dig a lot of rubbish and I've become increasingly aware of metal objects, from the foil medication is sealed in, to tin cans, even chip packets contain metal these days. The problem is there is so much rubbish out there that sometimes I find myself about to write an item off when something in my gut tells me to clean it and get it under a magnifying glass first. This past week has been an excellent reminder to double-check everything before assuming it's just another random piece of metal or scrunched up jar lid.

On Saturday we decided to check out a new field the farmer suggested. It's near two electrical pylons next to the wagon road, near the edge of our permission. I had been to the field above it the previous day for a short lunchtime hunt with my daughter and found nothing. We walked back to the car and I took a quick swing over the field and got a signal, almost immediately... a piece of harmonica reed, a promising sign.

On Saturday morning we tried our hand at beach detecting and pocketed R4.10 in change and threw away countless bottle caps and other rubbish people seem to think is hidden forever if they just bury it in the sand.  

That afternoon after lunch we headed back to the field, curious to see see how the power lines were going to affect our detectors. I had sprained my left wrist badly using a make-shift sand-scoop at the beach so my daughter was digging for me and my wife was a few rows down going solo. Well, we didn't spend too much time on the field but only my wife got a signal. She pulled out two flat pieces of metal. We checked them briefly and agreed to take a better look when we got home. The two dirty pieces of flat metal didn't look much better at home but I figured seeing as we hadn't found anything else we would give them a rinse. 

Immediately the Victorian crown came through, followed by the initials V.R. and a letter M engraved top right with the number 61 bottom right. A super cool find. The "V.R". is for Victoria Regina and I have since learnt that Regina is a Latin word meaning "the queen". 

The other piece of metal was flat with no real markings except for the faint letter "N". I posted it to the British Military Badge forum and was asked how big it is so I sent an image showing the scale. 

The reply suggested that they were used to track military issued horse tackle and would have been fixed to reigns, bridals, saddles etc. This made sense as we could see the two pieces where once joined and could have been slipped over a strap and crimped into place. 

Unfortunately, that field is a weekend field because it's too far and right on the border of the farm and the rural area, so not somewhere I feel comfortable hanging out at sunrise or sunset. Oh, and our detectors really don't like the powerlines. They chatter like a Fever tree full of Weaver birds on a sunny spring afternoon. 

At some point, during the weekend my wife picked up a piece of metal on my desk I hadn't gotten round to adding to our junk pile yet and said, "This reminds me of my find, you should clean it.". I figured it wouldn't hurt to make sure. Much to my surprise, I could see letters appearing through the dirt and only when I looked at it a little closer did I notice it had been cut in an interesting design on the one side. It has "The Lesmah" printed on it. The only thing close to this that I can find is a place in Scotland called Lesmahagow. 

I have had a fixation with detecting the tops of the hills around the farm but have not had much opportunity to do so as most of them are still covered with sugarcane. I keep thinking that a hilltop would be an excellent place for a fort or military camp. It gives the advantage of being able to see your enemy coming from a distance. I've also been trying to find the link into the field we have been finding all the buttons on but the fields around it all seem to be clean. I decided to go to the one field I haven't checked yet. It is a field I attempted to go to a week or two ago but chickened out because it is on the edge of the rural township, or so I thought. 

I started working my way up the hill from where I had parked. and got a clean 70's signal, a small brass press-stud. I found the other half of the press-stud about a meter further into the field. I then stumbled onto a clear low 80's signal a little further up the hill and dug my first, fully intact, Victorian General Service button. This field has been on my mind for quite a while and it looks like I may have been right about this one. Another interesting snippet of information is the button back-mark is "Smith&Wright  Birmingham". I knew I had seen this somewhere before and a quick search of my blog found it. I had dug a broken back of a button before. I suggested could be British Military when I researched the back-mark. You can read that story in my post titled "Hunting with the Treasure Whisperers"

I zig-zagged my way up to the top. Wow! I didn't expect that it would be so beautiful up there. I could now see that the huts are actually a fair distance off and the hill has a large flat area on top that slowly dipped to the east. From the top, I could see that it's higher than most the other hills on the farm. I started working my way east and got onto another signal. A few items came out the hole that I'm not quite sure of yet. A possible part of a Martini-Henry shell casing and another brass object I can't identify. "At least it's not a bottle-cap!" I said to myself as I continued. Then a sharp 90's signal caught me by surprise. A rather deep hole revealed a crusty South African Penny from 1944.

 

On the way back to the car I picked up another clear signal near the surface and pulled out what appeared at first glance to be a mangled piece of tin or possibly a lid. I paused while I decided whether to discard in my junk bag or slip it into my pouch. A straight edge on the one side made me think it needed further investigation so into the pouch it went. A quick clean and another big surprise. The badge forum says it's not Navy and could be shipping related. 

All of this from a 30-minute hunt, I just had to go back after work to get another 30 mins or so in. First target, a spoon handle. Nickel-plated with Pak-Alam printed on it. Turns out it's a company from Pakistan that was established in 1948, so the spoon probably isn't that old. "Why is it always the handle, where do all the bowls go?" I thought as I hit another signal about 2 meters down the row and dug the bowl. I thought I had the full spoon but it turns out there is a piece missing between the bowl and handle. 

I wandered around and dug two four-hole buttons, a "Best Ring Edge" and another one from Simpson Durban. This time the local button has given me a little more information to help with the research, it has "WH Simpson, Durban" stamped on it. 

On the way back to the car this time I dug a metal badge that reads "Smith&Wesson Fitted Jeans" and has a picture of horses and a wagon on it. I thought Smith&Wesson only made guns, I had no idea they sold clothing as well. I also can't find the badge anywhere online so I'm guessing it's fairly old. 

This field is another one of those fields I can listen to all day. I did dig one bottle cap and a tin can but they were on the side near the road. It's a big field and I really think the flat top area is going to be the place to hunt although there's also that sloping side to the east...hmnn. Oh well, I guess I just need to take it one hole at a time.  

 

Sunset from halfway up the hill.