Good bye Blue Field (for now) hello Red Field.

If I have been a little quiet recently it's because I finally finished with the Blue Field. The farm owner was going to send me a map of the farm so I don't go digging where I don't have permission but he has been exceptionally busy recently and understandably hadn't gotten round to it . Rule #1 of metal detecting, always get permission. I found some rezoning maps online that had the farm name on so I sent them to him for confirmation. Unfortunately, they were out of date but he replied the following morning  screenshot of a Google Earth Pro map of the farm reaffirming that I have permission to go anywhere within the marked borders. The map has exceeded my expectations, not only is it much bigger than I previously thought, but it also covers some areas I have been eyeing out from a distance for quite some time now. How big you might ask, approximately 240 hectares big. I've been mapping my progress on Google Earth and so far I've detected roughly about 4 hectares so I only have about 236 hectares to go.😊

OK so here's a rough inventory of what I found on, or should I rather say, in the Blue Field. 

3 x Martini-Henry Bullets

1 x Victorian Era British Rifle Regiment Button

1 x Transvaal State Artillery Button

1 x 1926, South African Silver 3 Pence

1 x 1963, Large Format 1/2 Cent. 

3 -4 x 1 and 2 cent coins from the 70s and 80s. 

1 x 1977, 5 cent coin.

1 x 1984, 20 cents

2 x Harmonica Reeds

Well if I tally it up it doesn't look all that bad, although I did spend around 20 solid hours, if not more in that field.

Let's all welcome the Red Field.

So we have named it the red field, not because it has a red marker but because I chose to mark it in red on Google Earth. I detected there on Tuesday for about 30 mins, then yesterday for about 2 hours...nothing. Well not absolutely nothing, I did find an iron loop for a chain they use to load sugarcane onto the trucks with but other than that, nothing. I started thinking I wasn't going to find anything in this extremely quiet field. Was it perhaps too far from any yards or thoroughfares? Anyway, I got up this morning before sunrise to head out, determined to at the very least tick it off the list and move on to another field.

I had detected one lane and was working my way back when I got a solid high tone signal, right next to an old hare's warren. (Food for thought: Do hares have warrens and if so is it still called a warren?) I nearly jumped over the hole and skipped it altogether. At last, "please don't be another random sheet of copper", I said, possibly out loud. 3 inches deep my Bounty Hunter Land Ranger Pro confidently displayed. 

Another Button!!!   

Unfortunately, the shank broke off when I removed it from the sand clod.  "The Red Field is on the board!", I may have also said out loud, with headphones on, who knows. I was super stoked, there may be something to find here after all. 

The button before the cleaning process began

The cleaning begins to reveal...

Another American Great Seal button.

Unfortunately, I dropped it during the cleaning process and the heavily rusted back completely shattered. I had not as yet managed to get the back-mark off it so that disappointed me. The back-mark would have given us the date of manufacture and when it was in use. It does look slightly different from the previous one in that it's not as convex.   

Back to the field for our lunch break, this time with the family. Halfway through the first lane, a 50s to 60s signal, mostly 50s. I guess, "Another Button!", my daughter guesses, "a bullet!". the winner...my daughter.

American buttons and British bullets. All the South African detectorists I know all say the same thing, this is an Anglo-Boer War site. If only I can find some link to this area in the history books.

Map showing the button locations.

Perhaps you too could join in the guessing game of "Bullet, Button, Coin or Spear". What do you think we'll dig up next?

History Underfoot.

The field is littered with potsherds which suggests that it was inhabited before it was a farm. If you have never seen these pieces of clay pot before you would be forgiven for mistaking them for flat stones. I first found these as a young boy exploring the dunes near Pumula beach and more recently at another shell midden between Ballito and the Tongaat River. As I walk more of the field I begin to realize that I come across a piece every 2 -3 steps, there is a lot of it.  Every now and then I flip a piece over to see if it has a design on it but nothing spectacular has been revealed as yet.

Clay Potsherds

Further evidence of this little community are the pieces of melted iron I find as well as bits of something I believe to be slag. Slag is what’s left over from the process of smelting iron ore. 

It looks a little like a shiny bubbled rock but triggers the detector which results in a little game of hide and seek as I normally kick anything on the surface away before I dig a hole, only to reveal.. "tadaa!" ...nothing. 

Pieces of melted iron and slag

On one of my hunts I got an iron signal towards the middle of the field, I had already dug up 2 bolts and a piece of melted iron so I didn’t expect this to be any different. I pulled out 2 pieces of the rusted metal from the hole and studied them. Could these pieces be the remains of a spearhead? It’s definitely the closest thing to resemble a spearhead that I have found so far. When I worked my way back on an adjacent row I found another piece about a meter from the first hole and it seems to fit quite nicely. I would imagine the damage would have been caused by a plough.

The piece on the left is flat and tapered going into a cylindrical  stem, the other 2 pieces are  cylindrical and rod shaped. If you are battling to see it I put it all together with a little artistic license. The photos unfortunately don’t really do the pieces justice.

The more time I spend detecting the field, deep in thought, the more I start to see multiple stories taking shape, rather than just a single event. A sort of historical collage if you like. The scenes that play in my mind remind me of the type of footage you get from a "Trail-Cam". A Trail-Cam is an all-weather video or still camera that you can place in the wild and leave running for extended periods of time. The camera only records footage when it senses movement so you get these short clips of animals and people who happen to wander in front of the lens.

A Minds-Eye,“Histo-Cam”, use your imagination.
The following events are fictional from my imagination. 😊


In my mind I can see a small kraal with people going about their daily routines, smelting iron to make spears..Children are playing to the one side. The little boys are competing, trying to see who could throw their wooden spear the furthest. A small group of people are arriving back from a walk to the nearby Tete River, carrying clay pots filled with water.

The next scene shows a grass covered field, the huts are gone. A small regiment of British soldiers passing through on a reconnaissance mission are deciding on a good place to set up camp. The top of the hill will provide a good lookout.

Skip forward a few years, houses start to appear in the distance and I can see a farmer and farm workers preparing the fields, growing crops and harvesting.

Yet another scene shows a group of Boer and American soldiers running some training exercises. The American volunteers had sailed into Port Natal where they met up with the Boers. They traveled by train to Umhlali, then on horseback to the farm on the outskirts of the then Victoria County. After spending some time in training they headed off to the front lines of the 2nd Anglo-Boer war.

Or perhaps…

[Place your own scenarios here.]

As the light fades...

I had an early morning meeting this particular morning so I didn't get to hunt before work. It was a pretty hectic day and I only managed to get onto the field after 17:00, which meant just enough time to detect one row. 

I had just finished the row with a few minutes of light to spare so I thought I'd do a little test. I would speed detect another row and then come back some other time and go over the row again, more methodically.

So off I went swinging the detector in a sort of zig-zag pattern between the now almost waist high sugarcane, man this stuff grows fast. About three-quarters of the way down the row I got a signal, not a great signal, a sort of half iron half tin signal but a solid tone so I decided to dig it.

Now I have no idea what it is about this time of day, but the number of times I dig something up as the light fades and have to quickly put it in my pocket and head off home is uncanny. Once home I get to see if it was worth fumbling around in the dark, trying to find a small dirt covered object, or was it just another junker.

This time it was this random domed shaped rusty thing.

I was tempted to throw it into the junk box but there was something about the "x" shape that I could see coming through the dirt. I decided to drop it in some lemon juice to see if it was trash or treasure.

Transvaal State Artillery Button

It may not be very clear due to the condition but the "x" shape is 2 crossed cannons. Another Military button, this time it's an Artillery button. According to the  "British and Commonwealth Military Badge Forum" it's a Transvaal State's Artillery button. Now that together with the American Great Seal Button and the British button is really making a strong case for it being Boer War related although the area is not known for or near any Boer War sites.

Well, there you have it, this mysterious little field is being all..well, mysterious again. I'm nearly finished going over this field and can't wait for the adjacent fields to be cleared. This area definitely has some interesting history.

Sunrise over the Blue Field.

First Silver!

I had spent many hours working the field one weekend with very little to show for it other than some wisdom gained. I'd been trying to systematically work through the field to ensure I'd covered everywhere at least once but sometimes the detector doesn't make a sound for what seems like hours and I would wander off and lose my place.Other times I would start detecting somewhere else hoping it would be better there and as a result I ended up repeating certain areas to make sure I hadn't missed anything.

This particular morning I finally got my first silver and currently my oldest coin. Silver as in the metal not the colour. The find? Another bucket-Lister, a Three Pence. I didn't realize how small they are. Unfortunately I didn't do too well cleaning it but who knows how long this 1926 "Ticky" had been sitting in a cane field and subjected to cane fires at least once a year.

1926 Silver Three Pence

I often wonder what else lies beneath the soil in these sugarcane fields. Would a more powerful detector uncover more hidden treasure? Each adventure teaches me new things and I get the feeling that experience will prove more valuable than a bigger and better machine.

It seems sunset is also a good time for "Dirt Fishing"

The Blue Field is the name we have given the field where I found the button and Martini-Henry bullets. We call it that because it has a piece of angle iron that has been painted blue and placed in a very central and noticeable position. I suspect this serves as some sort of marker. There was not too much to report from this short sunset session. No mysterious military items or seemingly out of place artifacts but one of the things I enjoy most about metal detecting is getting out of the house into nature.

The Blue Field from a detectorists point of view.

Now this is not the easiest place but to swing a metal detector and I was focused on my footing while periodically looking at the detectors screen to ensure I hadn't missed anything. I noticed the light starting to fade as it does relatively early these days and something told me to look up.

I took a few minutes to appreciate this quickly fading spectacular before continuing with the task at hand. Life Lesson: There is always time to stop and appreciate the beauty and wonder there is to behold in nature.  

The hunt was not altogether wasted as I did find one of the coins on my bucket list. A 1963 larger format 1/2 cent. This is now in the same series as my 1 cent I found a few weeks ago. I learnt something interesting when I started looking these coins up, the side with the head on it is the "Obverse" or front of the coin, the side with the nice design and the date is the "Reverse"

1963 South African 1/2 Cent

1963 1/2 cent.Still needs a little cleaning but I've also learnt not to clean them too much or you lose the patina, the green layer that copper/brass coins get with age.

1962 South African 1 Cent

And while we are on the topic of coins, these are my Pennies.

1952 South African George 6th 1 Penny

1956 South African Queen Elizabeth the 2nd 1 Penny

The above Queen Elizabeth coin that taught me the lesson that too much cleaning is a bad thing.It's brown and ugly now. We live and learn and I still have a long way to go but if I pay attention there are new lessons to be learnt everyday.

It might be time to go "All Metal Mode!!!"

Well it looks like the painfully quiet (the metal detector hardly ever makes a sound) and monotonous field (walking between the rows and rows of baby sugarcane where everything looks the same) deserves further investigation.

Currently cleared sugarcane field.

I had only found 3 noteworthy items after hours and hours of detecting. 2 lead bullets and 1 Victorian Era British Military button. I found one of the lead bullets a few weeks prior and since finding the button have had a renewed interest in the field. Further searching lead me to find the other bullet.

Something about these bullets got me thinking. They don't look like conventional modern bullets. At first, I thought perhaps they were homemade but then I started wondering what bullets the British soldiers would have used in Victorian times. I  think of musket balls when I think of those filmed, recreations I have seen of Anglo-Zulu war scenes. The ones with the Zulu impi's rushing the soldiers while they were frantically trying to shove gunpowder and a lead ball down the barrel of their gun.

So I consulted that distant relative that seems to know a lot about all things old, Uncle Google. I asked what "Boer war bullets" and "Anglo-Zulu war bullets" looked like and found this image.

Click to view Wikipedia article containing this image

I do believe the second from the left is the bullet I found. If you look at the picture below you can see the lines where the shell was crimped onto the bullet.

This bullet belongs to a round of ammunition used in a Martini-Henry rifle. This rifle was used by the British military from 1871 until about 1918. It has been listed as being used in the Anglo-Zulu war as well as the second Boer war.

Now the only 3 items of interest to come out of that field seem to be directly linked. A button and 2 bullets. British military issued items that date somewhere from 1871+. Slowly but surely we start uncovering the mystery and already we have a clearer date range.

What happened on this field all those years ago? Was that soldier in some sort of skirmish where shots were fired and somehow he lost a button? Or was the field used for training exercises? Time to go all metal mode on the detector and stop discriminating out iron signals. The discovery of a Zulu spearhead or other iron artifacts might shed some light on this random field in the farmlands of the once Victoria County back when it was under British rule and known as the Natal Colony.

The gift of a beautiful sunset is well received after a long day metal detecting.

There seems to be some history here!

In February this year, I went through the stressful experience of buying a second-hand metal detector from someone on Facebook. I remember getting him to record a short clip of him using the detector and showing it powering on etc. Thankfully it arrived in one piece and in perfect working order. 

For months prior to this my daughter and I watched videos from YouTubers such as The Hoover Boys and Nuggetnoggin. Coins and Jewelry, as always, are a big attraction when first getting into this hobby but something started to happen to me during those first few hunts. Don't get me wrong I still love finding coins and jewellery but I found myself asking questions like, "I wonder how this got here?" or "I wonder who this belonged to?" and slowly the bug starts getting under your skin and causing an insatiable hunger to know more about the history and people of the place you are detecting. 

I recall one of my first experiences of this phenomenon. We have 3 exceptionally tall old trees on our property and I had read somewhere that old trees are good places to hunt.  After digging one or two square nails I hit a nice repeatable mid-tone. Coin shooters love the high tones but I've learnt that some interesting relics can come from digging mid-tones. This was one such lesson. 

I dug down to reveal a rusty looking two-piece button and this is where it gets interesting. So here I am on a farm on the east coast of South Africa and what do I find?

American Great Seal General Service button 1902 - 1917.

I assumed it belonged to a previous resident of the property or perhaps a visitor, it seemed so out of place. I posted it to a metal detecting group and got a comment back saying of "Nice Boer war relic from the American soldiers that came to fight in the war." Boer war? As far as I know, this area isn't known for any Boer War activity.

A month or so later I was methodically detecting one of the cleared cane fields, which are super quiet with almost nothing to detect except the odd bullet or bottle top when I suddenly got another one of those mid-tone signals. By now I had also realised that these can often be "junkers" but as the sun was nearly down I decided to dig it.

British Victorian Era Rifle Regiment Button

Another military button. These take hours of soaking in lemon juice and brushing with a toothbrush before you get to anything that you can take to Google. Even Google couldn't help me with this one. I joined a British militaria collectors forum where I was told that this is just a regular Victorian era " generic other ranks tunic button for any Rifle Regiment". This was for sure my oldest find and most certainly not boring to me.

These military buttons were found about 300m apart on a sugarcane farm on the Kwazulu-Natal, one dates somewhere between 1837 and 1901 and is British, the other is American dating between 1902 and 1945 (it was in use to the end of the second world war I believe).

I also find a lot of harmonica reeds, I only know what these are from watching YouTube videos of people detecting civil war campsites in America.

Harmonica Reed remnants. 

A few items like these and I'm hooked! Who played the harmonica? Are the buttons related somehow? With every hole dug a new question arises.

I wonder what the next find will tell us about this place?

I often get back home after the sun has gone down but at least I get to experience some spectacular sunsets.