"Apologies for the long break in posts. Life started spinning up again, my wife went back to working from the office, schools reopened, I had an exam to prepare for and so on. My rhythm was completely broken and my treasure hunting time significantly reduced, not to mention finding gaps to write. So let's try this again shall we!"
Detecting the Amphitheater. (From somewhere back in October)
Speaking of the Button Field, you may recall me, on more than one occasion, writing that I was convinced I would find either a silver coin there or finally break through to the 1800s. As I had just upgraded the software on my Simplex to version 2.78, which provides a more stable target ID, I decided to head out one late Friday afternoon to test it out. They had just cleared a field higher up the hill so my wife and I had intended to swing over the Button Field for a few minutes and then march up the hill to see what it sounded like up there.
As expected we weren't getting any signals so I decided to head over to investigate an out of place object before we started up the hill. "It's just a packet," I shouted to her as I head back towards her. Just then I heard her detector giving a solid high tone and at almost the same moment mine did as well. I checked the numbers. I was getting a constant 91 with an occasional 92. I was so impressed by the stability of the numbers that I didn't really register where on the scale they were coming in and what that could represent. The soft sandy soil caused the plug to collapse when I removed it revealing an unfamiliar coin.
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| And there it is!!! |
"Yes!" I shout-whispered on seeing silver showing through the dirt. I could just make out the word "Shilling." coming through the dirty coin so I did a little "silver" jig in the field. On closer inspection at home, I could see the date was 1900, my oldest coin so far. "Come on!" I shouted, "One year! Can it not be just one year older. " I've never dug a coin from the 1800s and have been hunting one for some time but at least I had dug an awesome "silver", a Victorian Shilling from a time when they still used 925 graded silver. Nice!!!
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| 1900 One Shilling |
My wife's target turned out to a cone-shaped button. I had also dug one of these a few months back so it was interesting to find another one and it made me wonder if it was part of some uniform or other. We never did get to the top of the hill that evening and over the course of the next few days, they burnt more fields in that area. We stayed clear for a few days not wanting to interfere or get too close to the workers while they cut down the sugarcane and put it in large piles for the tractors to fetch and carry off the to the collection points.
One of the fields they cleared was in front of the original 1860's farmhouse. It's a curved field at the top of a shallow valley. I have had a good feeling about this one and turns out I was right. This field has surpassed the Button Field in targets.
The one thing we seem to find a lot of there are harmonica reeds. We must have found over 30 - 40 pieces so far. That, together with the sloped, curved field, inspired me to name this field the Amphitheatre. I can picture crowds of people sitting around watching musicians and singers on a small stage, entertaining the crowds...and, I'm daydreaming again.
The items found in this field definitely give the impression that we are onto the older part of the farm. I could feel the excitement building with every hunt. We had found such a wide variety of relics ranging from military buttons, spoon, musket balls, already, there just had to be a coin in there somewhere.
On one of the hunts, I found rather a peculiar item that gave me, even more hope of finding the elusive 1800s coin. The piece looks like two coins welded together only one of them is cut in half. I cleaned it up as much as I could and can only just make out the words "Zuid Afrik Republiek" so of course, I started researching coins with that exact wording. Interestingly there are only two coins that I could find with the exact wording, one was a silver 2 Shilling and the other a bronze 1 Penny from the Zuid Afrikansche Republiek at the time Paul Kruger was president. The words surround a bust of Paul Kruger on the coins and I can just make this out on this item. There is just one problem though, the bronze penny is around 30mm in diameter and my bronze item is only about 20mm. So it looks like it might be a replica of some sort. A fellow detectorist suggested the item may have been a coin brooch which would explain the loop on the other side for the needle to clip into. This really got me excited as the coin this was based on was from the 1890s.
I returned to this field on numerous occasions and I have yet to return with an empty finds case. It's been a field of many firsts. The first field to contain 5 Victorian General service buttons, two of which came out of the same hole. It has also produced the most Martini-Henry bullets (4). While on the topic of bullets I came across my first musket ball or bullet from an old muzzle loader just lying on the surface.
I think there were definitely people camping there at some point, we found a few remnants of spoons and broken pieces of cast iron pot. Interestingly we often find cast iron pot pieces in these relic hotspots.
This field, like the Button Field, is divided horizontally by a small road. The target filled top portion of this field containing buttons, harmonica reeds and all sorts of old treasures. The bottom, flatter section is very quiet in terms of targets and is where we found the bullets and spoons.
Well after I had hunted the top section repeatedly for about a week and was getting a little tired of digging up harmonica reeds, I decided I had exhausted that section and there were no coins to be found there. We had a few days of heavy rain and my detecting gear and clothes could have been mistaken for official camouflage with all the different shades of mud that coated everything. This being the result of having a waterproof detector and a rain suit, I can still hunt in the pouring rain. There are other benefits to it raining for a few days, the ground gets soft which makes it easier to dig and my detector gets a little added depth from increased conductivity in the ground which allows it to hit targets that were previously out of range.
I prepared myself mentally for tacking the quiet portion of the field slowly and methodically in search of that 1800's coin. First target...a modern bullet. Hmnn, okay, moving on. The second target, a full 30 silent minutes later, a piece of harmonica reed. Alright, that's heading in the right direction. 3rd target, another monotonously quiet 30 minutes or so later, a solid 65 and not budging. Something sounded really good about this one but then again so did the modern bullet and 65 isn't really the kind of numbers I'm used to for old copper or silver coins.
I plunged my shovel deeper than the length of the blade to cut a square plug about 9 inches deep and popped it out and placed it about 30cm from the hole. I swung over the hole again and got a double signal just on the outside edge, which told me the target was now lying on the surface. There lay a large muddy coin that about Penny size. I took a brief look in the fading light and for some reason, I just knew I had done it, I just knew this was the coin I had been hunting for many months. I also got the feeling I would never be able to prove it as it looked at this stage, to be another crusty disc of nothingness.
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| I took this photo of the coin as it came out the ground. I had to use a flash as it was already fairly dark. |
I packed up and raced off home.
"I've done it!!!" I exclaimed as I opened the front door, "But I don't think I'm going to get a date off it." Much to my surprise, I did get a date off it and it has fairly decent detail for a coin that's possibly been lying in a farm field for anywhere up to 133 years. I waited for the mud to dry and gently scratched in the area of the date. As it slowly started to appear my daughter shouted: "I see 80 something." A little more cleaning and we could see it, 1887. A Victorian 1 Penny and I am not going to be cleaning this one any more than the little tooth picking I've already done. I'm not going to risk it.
And there it is, another bucket-lister ticked off. So what's next, let's see?
- 1800s Silver Coin
- 1700s coin (that's a tough one in South Africa, especially in Kwazulu-Natal)
- Gold (Anything)
- Snake buckle
- Military belt buckle
- Military cap badge
To name a few... The fields have been getting cleared and we are out looking for the next hotspot. We are slowly running out of options and it's starting to become evident that I am going to have to step out of my comfort zone once more and approach a complete stranger for permission to wander around on their farm armed with a shovel and a metal detector, digging holes everywhere. I must admit I dread making that phone call, I mean who would allow a stranger to dig holes in their fields. I am however encouraged by the friendliness and wonderful generosity of the people we have met in the area so so far. It truly has been and continues to be, an amazing experience.
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| The sun setting over the Amphitheatre. |
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| Fields burn in the sunset on farms I do not have permission to dig on...yet! |
