Metal Detecting the fields beyond nowhere.

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. 

A closeup of the fairy garden

Metal Detecting in the presence of giants.

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.

Detecting the Amphitheater.

"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)

I'm really fascinated with how there seem to be "hotspots' in fields. Areas, that for some reason, hold a concentration of desirable targets. There are obvious explanations such as fields that surround old farmhouses but even these fields have patches of signals while the rest of the field seems to have almost none. The Button Field is a good example of this. There is a definite section of the field that had almost all the items we have found there so far.  I've come up with few theories and just when I think I have it figured out, I find a hotspot that breaks all the rules. It's these little mysteries that keep me glued to the hobby. 

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. 

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!!!

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. 

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. 

The sun setting over the Amphitheatre.

Fields burn in the sunset on farms I do not have permission to dig on...yet!

 

A Field of Queens.

I feel really privileged to live in such beautiful surroundings. Thanks to this amazing hobby I have seen stunning sunrises and breath-taking sunsets, awe-inspiring landscapes and wild animals, as they are supposed to be, roaming free.

Recently I have been reminded that I don't have to find cool relics all the time. The experience of being out in such a beautiful place is the greatest treasure of all. 

Last week I took a lunch break, hopped in my car and took a drive to that field where my wife found that Victorian horse-tack piece. It was a lovely spring day that took me back to my school days and reminded of walking home from the bus stop on the last day of school at the start of the summer holidays.

I arrived at the field convinced that there must be more to be found here. This field is located right next to the old wagon road and is nice and level, the perfect place to set up camp. 

I zig-zagged across the field and only got signals when I got near the road. These, unfortunately, turned out to be bottle-tops and cans, typical modern roadside junk. I worked my way all the way until I neared the two electrical Pylons, towards the side where the rural township begins. I was just thinking I can't be more than a few meters from where my wife found that horse tac tag when my detector sang a sweet high 70s tones into my ear. "That sounds better," I said to myself as I checked the depth.  The target was deep and the ground was really hard so I had a good feeling from the start. When I saw the size and shape of the target I immediately knew I had just dug my own British Cavalry horse-tack tag. On the way home my mind raced. Was each item serialized or was a number issued to a rider or regiment? The tag was dirty and I could only just make out the crown on it.  What I found when I cleaned it took me totally by surprise. It was indeed a queens crown but the initials that came through were not those of Queen Victoria but rather those of Queen Elizabeth. 

Elizabethan horse-tack serial number tag. 

Surely there must be more to this area if we can find two of these tags, so close together on the same field. The tags could be up to 100 years apart in age. The farmer did describe the field as "The field with the two pylons where they dumped the horse manure." He may have been referring to the old days as we didn't see any horse manure. Perhaps these items ended up getting dumped with the horse manure.

While on the subject of horse-tack, I often see detectorists posting these brass rivets and for the most part, no one seems to know what they were from. 

Brass rivets often dug on old sites.

One of the uses I have discovered was for horse-tack. Occasionally, I dig up items that still have bits of leather attached. Below you can see how leather was attached using those brass rivets. 

Brass rivets hold leather to buckles.

On the weekend we spent some more time beach hunting and found more ruined coins and a few "spendies" for our jar. I also dug a live 9mm round which is not the type of target you expect or would like to find on the beach. As a parent, I could just imagine finding a child playing with the bullet while building their sand-castle. I'm just glad I could find it first and dispose of it properly. 

Live bullet found on the beach.

We bumped into another couple who were detecting on the beach and it was really awesome being able to chat about the hobby. Of course, we exchanged phone numbers so we can arrange some hunts sometime in the future when this Corona madness is behind us. 

On Sunday we decided to check out a field that has been cleared recently. Why we choose the hottest days to go to fields you can only get to on foot is beyond me. It reached 35 degrees celsius and we must have lost a  few kilo's that day. The field was super... super quiet that is. We did find a ton of smashed up modern bullets on the one side I assume someone had been doing some target practice. I also found a random piece of metal I decided to clean up and discovered part of a word or name, "ARC", stamped on it. Once again proving that it's always a good idea to clean those random pieces of metal before disposing of them.

Random piece of metal which turned out to have letters stamped on it.

The cane fires have been raging and more fields are being cleared, so I have plenty of ground to cover. 

Freshly burnt sugarcane. This field will just be sand in a few days.

Oh, and of course I made some trips to the Field of Buttons, and yes, there are still finds being made there.  I'm still convinced I'm going find a silver coin there, or a coin from the 1800s.

Here are some of the latest finds from the field of buttons...

 

A buckle and a piece of a possible bracelet. 

This appears to have been the front cover to a pocket watch.

This is a French suspender buckle. stamped "Solide", "Paris"

Some harmonica reed pieces, a good sign there

is still more to be found.

Badge  or Pin,  possibly a decorative "V" or "W"

We drive past some of the other farms in the area on our way to town and they have also been busy clearing fields. Looks like it's time to pluck up the courage to ask some strangers if I can wander around on their land looking for treasure. I think the conversation will be easier now that I can use their neighbour as a reference.