Below the Hill of Giants is a field that runs up to the rural area that borders the farm. It's a steep descent and we had to be careful with our footing as the cut sugarcane leaves can turn the hillside into a slip 'n slide in an instant.
With all, new fields, there is a tension and excitement that builds from when you start swinging until you get your first signal and the process is repeated between signals, the end result is either invigorating or disappointing.
This field was no different. I often wonder what the land might have looked like 160 years ago when the farm was first established. (calculate the year, it will come up again later.) I always start on sections of fields that appear conducive to camping or settling for a period of time. One would think nice flat areas would be best but it seems these flat sections may not have been hospitable back then. Perhaps they were covered in trees or rocks that have since been cleared to make a field.
We had already covered a fair portion of the field before I got my first signal. It didn't sound that great and I called my daughter over to swing over it with her Nokta Makro Midi Hoard. "Iron," she said in a rather bored voice. I took another listen, There was something else there in the 40s to 50's mid-tone range, a very "iffy" signal but it had been a very quiet day so far so what did I have to lose. As I dug through the plug my daughter shouted: "It's a coin!" and out popped a coin around the size of a farthing. This was a very confusing find, the numbers were all wrong and a second sweep of the hole showed no further signs of anything iron.
I found a few buckles in the surrounding area and there were quite a lot of iron signals. We would definitely have to return to this field.
The coin was completely smooth and measured 22mm in diameter. I found there was a British Farthing that matched this size, dated between 1819 and 1860. "That's got to be it," I thought. I tried the conservative approaches of using a toothpick and a toothbrush but the smooth brown layer didn't budge. I put it aside for another day.
On subsequent returns, I found more interesting items. A gold guilted brooch or is it a hair clip? Some suspender bits and a few buttons. I did a live-recorded dig of one of the button finds which I will include later. I also found a near perfect condition Martini-Henry bullet which I believe may have been dropped and the casing dislodged and disintegrated over the years. I also found a piece of a copper bracelet in the same design as I found on the button field and Amphitheatre. Interesting finds for such a remote field.
Brooch or Hair Clip?
Some button pieces from the field.
Suspender bits and bobs.
Bullet pieces including Martini-Henry in the middle.
Copper Bracelet Piece
Once again I find myself wondering why this isolated field in the middle of nowhere has this items buried. Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me. I had to know what the coin was. If it was the farthing I thought it might be it would be of significance to the farmer as his wife's family came to the farm in 1860 and it would tie directly into this. I dropped the coin in lemon juice and left it overnight. In the morning I could see a large 6 D on the one side and some writing at the top and the bottom. I put the 6D in to google and there it was. A Durban Club Six Pence from 1860. One of the first "currency" ever to have been minted in South Africa and was only minted in that year. Predating the Zuidafrikaansche Republiek coins of Paul Kruger which only appeared circulation some 30 years later. Technically this is a token but an extremely rare one. A "Very Fine" rated token like this can reach up to $3500 US. Mine has been rendered almost worthless in terms of financial value due to the cleaning process.
An example of how the token would have looked.
The Durban Club Token I dug.
Durban Club Token Closeup
Boy did I get a grilling on Facebook for cleaning it? My response was this, if I had not proceeded to clean it then it would have joined my collection of brown and green discs of nothingness to be forgotten in a cupboard somewhere. Now, at least I get the satisfaction of knowing I found one of the rarest South African artefacts that can be found metal detecting in South Africa today. I will be researching other methods of restoration for future finds, if I ever get the pleasure of topping this one.
We did go back to that field a few times but nothing worth reporting was found. I have since come to think that this field may have been one of the first places the original family settled in, perhaps just passing through on their way to finding a place to build their home site. They probably visited the Durban Club after arriving in Durban by ship in 1860, before heading up to the farm I now have the privilege of detecting. This token ties in beautifully to that timeline.
The field of giants has produced one more find, We had just made it up the steep hill and I started swinging around the base of the pylon. I don't normally do this because of the amount of aluminium cable, copper washers and other remnants from the assembly process that litter the ground near to these monstrosaties. I got a good high-tone an put my shovel in and popped out a little soil to reveal a coin on edge peeping through the wall of the hole. Unfortuantely I didn't live dig this one but here's a short clip showing the coin being recovered.
1912 Penny shortly after being recovered from the ground.
1912 British Penny
Here's the live dig I did where I found a 2-hole button. Excuse the crunching of the dead sugarcane leaves, they do make quite a noise underfoot.
We don't really have any fields available to dig at the moment so there may be a bit of a break before the next post. I wish you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.
Here are some other pictures from those fields.
Looking up at the Field of Giants
A flush of small white mushrooms form a fairy garden in the field.
We found more hotspots and once again my theories have been blown out the water. I had assumed these hotspots were due to people camping near the wagon road on their way through to Stanger but these latest fields are quite a distance from the wagon road. I've started marking them off in Google Earth to see if I can spot a pattern but have found nothing conclusive so far. They do sort of form a line but there is no link in terms of elevation or directions the hillsides face. They are also about 2km's from our home and I did 15kms of walking this past Saturday alone. Nothing wrong with that!
I didn't have high expectations for these fields because they are not near any buildings or propper roads for that matter. We had to figure out how to get there and our first attempt resulted in us traversing a very muddy road on foot and it looked like even tractors had gotten stuck there. The hill is home to two steel giants, their outstretched arms effortlessly supporting the heavy weight of the high-voltage cables that pulse with anywhere up to 750 Kilovolts of electricity. These giants overlook a flattish section of the field about halfway up to the top of a hill. As we got closer to the power lines the detectors started chattering with the electromagnetic interference, as if they were in conversation with the giants. This can be a little off putting when you are trying to listen closely to for those faint, deep, signals. If I recall correctly my first signal was a Victorian General Service button that looks like it got hit pretty hard by something as it has one flat section towards the bottom. I would love to know if this what resulted in it coming off or was it just the result of lying in a field that gets ploughed every few years. It turned out to have a beautiful green patina when I got the dirt off, I could clean it further but this way you can get a feel for how long it was lying in the soil.
Victorian General Service Button - Smith and Wright Backmairk
The second was a mixed-signal that had a lot of iron in it, I guessed it would be a big chunk of iron but dug it to see if we were dealing with tractor parts or something old. Out came a piece of broken cast-iron pot. Experience has taught me to slow down my pace and spiral out when I find these.
Piece of cast iron pot showing the tell-tale parallel horizontal lines.
Less than a meter from the British button was a button I didn't recognise. I cleaned it up when I got home and was quite surprised to find it is an old American General Service button, dating between 1820 and 1850. The Great Seal buttons we usually find are from 1902 through to WW2 but this one is definitely older. It is quite similar in style to the Victorian button. 2 military buttons from different countries less than a meter apart and a piece of broken cast iron pot. Were these soldiers having a meal together or involved in an altercation?
American General Service Button - Backmark Horstmann Philada
1800s General Service button compared with one from 1902
Not much else came up during that session but the interest had been ignited. It was extremely hot that morning and the family was tired, so we headed home for some lunch.
After lunch, I returned to follow the rows of sprouting sugarcane in an attempt to see what else I could find. I found a few nice relics, some small buttons and some, as yet, unidentifiable objects. One looks like it may be part of some sort of paraffin lamp (Edit: This is apparently a cordite flash-unit from an old shell cartridge) and the other a type of bell. The bell reminds me of a desk call-bell type but it is made of rather thick (2mm) copper.
Possible Copper Bell
Possible Cordite Cartridge Flash-Unit
The most interesting item was lying on the surface, under a pile of cut sugarcane leaves. I cleared the leaves in preparation to dig, and saw it just lying there. There lay a very small round object, 15mm in diameter. When I picked it up I could only just make out the lettering on it and initially, I thought I had a coin. It wasn't familiar in size or design and it took me quite a while before I could make out enough of the lettering to get a positive hit on my searches. The lettering read "L.CHR.LAUER*RECH-PFEN" and my search turned up that it is a german counter token minted from 1818-1873. It was minted at the L. Chr. Lauer mint in Nuremberg, Germany. The rech-pfen is the abbreviation for Rechenpfennig that google translates as "arithmetic penny".
Counter tokens were used in the same way as an abacus. There would be a board with lines on, the tokens would be pushed across to the other side when counted.
Before and Cleaning
Partially Cleaned
Fully Cleaned
Here are some of the other finds.
Fini Paris Button
Some of the old buttons from the field of giants.
In the picture above the button on the bottom left is labelled "J.S. Moss & Son Manchester." When I researched it I found this video from the streets of Manchester in 1901. You can see the tailor "Moss and Son" in the background. It's especially clear towards the end of the video.
One of the chattery giants keeping careful watch as we dig up his field.
Hmnn, I wonder what this could be?
On our next adventure we went down to the bottom of the hill and I found the rarest item I have ever found. It could even be the find of a lifetime.
