On December 29, 2023, after several hours of detecting at the site of an old lumber town that existed in the late 1800s, I got a signal that seemed promising. Given the amount of trash I’d found below the surface, I expected this to be another piece of scrap aluminum or a shotgun shell. When a small, dirty coin emerged from the hole, I saw vertical lines on it and immediately suspected it was another Lincoln memorial cent. This one looked different, though, and I didn’t immediately see a face on the opposite side. After a moment of cleaning dirt from the coin, I saw the number ‘5’ surrounded by 13 stars and realized that it was a Shield Nickel. I reached my goal with just a few days left in the year.

I continued to lightly remove the dirt from the coin but couldn’t see a date. I took a few pictures with the phone, then zoomed in for a better look. The year 1870 was clearly visible at the bottom. This coin was 153 years old.

When this coin was minted in Philadelphia, Ulysses S. Grant was president. There was no electricity, natural gas or telephone service in the homes. Blacks gained freedom just 10 years earlier but could still not vote. There were no cars – travel was by carriage, steamboat, or railway. Schools were of the one-room variety.

The Shield Nickel was minted from an alloy of 75% copper and 25% nickel – the first US 5-cent piece to use the metal that gave the “nickel” its name. Copper coins tend to degrade in the soil, and this coin has certainly seen some decay, although the sandy soil likely helped to minimize this.

I look forward to Spring, when I’ll return to this site for additiional exploration and digging. Wish me luck!

After a few people asked me about my metal detecting hobby, I grabbed the detector and headed into Daryl’s mosquito-infested backyard. Daryl and I had hunted back there a year ago, with relatively few coins found. This time I got a coin signal within the first 2 minutes. A large copper coin was in the hole, so I immediately suspected that it was a large cent. It certainly was, but what I was not expecting to find was a Canadian large cent.

American large cents were made from 1793 to 1857, after which the Flying Eagle small cent introduced the standard “penny” size we’re familiar with today. Canadian large cents were minted from 1858 through 1920. In 1920, Canada also adopted the same small cent size as the US did to conserve copper.

Like many coins from the 18th and 19th century, this coin has a hole in it. People would sometimes tie their coins to a string to make it more difficult to lose one, or would add them to a necklace or bracelet as a charm. Given the size of the large cent, this was probably tied to a string at some point.

The coin’s condition illustrates how copper can age poorly in contact with moisture. While silver coins like older dimes and quarters often age well, copper oxidizes and degrades more rapidly, depending on soil conditions. At least I was able to identify this coin and get a year from it.

While not in good condition, it was nice to finally get my first 1800s coin with a metal detector. Looking forward to my next coin hunt with Daryl.

Deward is an interesting location for historians and relic hunters, but not as much for metal detectorists. The site is extremely “dirty”, completely saturated with old metal bits from machinery, buildings, and personal items like mason jar lids. These old mason jar lids were made of zinc, and contained a porcelain inner layer. Zinc has similar conductivity as nickel and brass, so the metal detector beeped favorably over these objects. Therefore, I dug a lot of jar lids. At one point I found a distorted old gear from an unknown piece of machinery. My goal, as always, was to find an old coin from the era, but the only coin I found in Deward was a 2000 Washington quarter.

I enjoyed the hours spent at the Deward site, trying to imagine where the buildings once stood and what life must have been like in the tiny isolated town. I didn’t find any old coins, but I enjoyed the hike and exploration.

Since brass shotgun shells appear similar to copper coins to the detector, I always seem to find a dozen of them. Today was no exception, with 17 old shotgun shell casings found in the short 2-hour hunt. A broken aluminum hunting arrow produced a strong signal, and I was happy I remove this dangerously sharp item from the woods. A few aluminum beverage cans, pull tabs, and a random hunk of lead were also unearthed.

I did manage to find 3 coins, all fairly modern ones. A 1941 Lincoln Cent was found in good condition, worth about 18 cents today. I also dug a nice 1964 Roosevelt Dime, the last year that dimes were made with 90% silver content. That silver dime is worth $3 to $4 today. Finally, a modern clad 1993 Lincoln Cent was found. Starting in 1982, Lincoln Cents have been made with 99.2% zinc with thin copper plating. These zinc-based coins don’t fare well in the damp soil, so while it was the newest coin I found today, it was in terrible condition.

No special artifacts or truly old coins were found during this hunt, but it was nice to get out for a hike in the woods regardless.

The first hour of detecting was rather uneventful, with the ground giving up beer cans, pull tabs, and a few lead fishing sinkers. I gradually moved to the northeast side of the pond, along a quiet trail. I dug a few old cans and modern coins before getting an interesting signal I hadn’t heard before. At roughly 12 centimeters deep I found a silver ring embedded in the dirt. Previously, I had only found children’s costume jewelry, so my expectations were low. After gently removing the dirt I could see the S925 stamp inside the ring, indicating that this was 92.5% sterling silver. This ring looked nice.

Around 7 PM I started to head back to the car, but not before digging an old child’s toy truck, which is probably about 60 years old. I packed the afternoon’s treasures into the car and headed home to sort through the mess. After taking the usual photos, I took the ring, coins and toy truck into the house for ultrasonic cleaning in soapy water.

The ring cleaned up wonderfully, revealing what may be a beautiful blue sapphire surrounded by 6 smaller diamonds. The coins were all fairly modern, with the oldest being a 1962 Lincoln penny. Once the ring and coins were cleaned, the little truck received the ultrasonic treatment, freeing any remaining dirt from the little beast.

This outing gave me several more hours of experience with the new detector, which is much more complex than my previous machine. Now, I just need to find some old coins.

I typically do my detecting a few acres to the east, but the woods were under water and the trails were impassable. The good news was that the grounds near the river, which include several former home sites, were fairly dry. The bad news was that the ground was full of old construction materials and aluminum cans that were simply buried when the home sites were bulldozed years ago.

The only coin I found was a relatively modern clad penny. These coins, being made primarily of zinc, tend to fare very poorly in the soil, so I wasn’t even able to get a date from the coin. Aside from the aluminum cans and bottle caps, I pulled up some copper tubing, which went straight into the recycle bin at home. The most interesting piece of garbage I found was a steel rosette of some sort, with a threaded section behind it. Possibly a plumbing piece? I’m not sure.

While this trip yielded nothing of interest, I did manage to get several hours of experience with the settings of this new machine. I plan on using it in northern Michigan within a week or two, so the experience will help.

It always feels good to ride the sidecar bike onto the trails. It goes just about anywhere. After finding only aluminum can pieces and some unidentifiable iron bits, I moved a bit further up the trail. My first signal at the second site turned out to be a 1941 Mercury dime. The Mercs were minted from 1916 to 1945. These were made in large numbers, especially during the World War 2 years, and are not uncommon. This 1941 is a Philadelphia mint version. 175,090,000 dimes were minted at the Philadelphia Mint that year. These dimes had a 90% silver content, so they tend to come out of the ground in good condition.

I’m still looking for an 1800s coin in those woods, but a Mercury Dime is a fun find too.

This foundation is probably early 1900s. It’s a poured concrete foundation with some stones on top. There is nothing left of the structure, but as expected, the area around the foundation is littered with old nails.

After 45 minutes I had only found nails, an old spark plug, and other junk. I moved closer to the foundation’s cellar door and got a strong signal from the detector. I knew it wasn’t a coin, since the signal was over a larger area of the ground. About 8 inches down I found some old chain. The pin pointer continued to beep, so I dug further. I then pulled up an interesting piece of rusty iron.

That hunk of rusty iron turned out to be a buggy whip socket. These would have been mounted on a carriage to hold a buggy whip. A page from an old catalog is below for reference, showing a buggy whip handle in it.

I will de-rust this and keep it with the horse shoes. I’ll have to make a display box for the horse-related items I’ve found. I didn’t find any old coins today, but this was interesting enough. I’ll hit that foundation site another time, more thoroughly.

The first item was interesting because it wasn’t made of iron. Nearly everything I find at this location is iron-based, encrusted in thick rust. I recognized it immediately as a brass barrel tap. These taps had a tapered neck that would be pushed into an oak barrel, creating a spigot of goodness – assuming the barrel had beer or whiskey in it. This is one of my favorite finds so far.

Another item I was able to identify was an iron buckle. Buckles like this were used with horse tack – the leather straps, saddles, and bridles used with horses. Like the horseshoes found previously in this area, this buckle likely dates from the mid to late 1800s. It took 10 days of electrolysis to remove the rust from the buckle. After the electrolysis, I preserved the buckle with Renaissance Wax to prevent future corrosion. The buckle’s tongue remained frozen in place, which is fine. I didn’t want to risk breaking the now-brittle iron by applying too much pressure.

I also found an ancient wood splitting wedge during the same outing. It was similarly encrusted with thick rust, but was otherwise similar to wedges sold today, so I opted to discard it in the recycle bin. I tend to dig about 95% junk, and the picture below illustrates the total haul. The tap, buckle and wedge are at the lower-right, and in the tray at the upper right, you’ll see a pocket watch bezel, likely of brass. I haven’t decided whether I’ll clean and save this or simply discard it. I also found the typical handful of old shotgun shells, aluminum and steel beverage cans, and unidentified scrap iron or steel. I always take the junk with me, leaving the ground cleaner than how I found it. Maybe next time I’ll find that pot of gold.

After some research, I found a map of Chesterfield Township from 1875. This map showed a homestead at the northwest side of the woods behind my house, about half a mile away. The homestead belonged to Alexander and Eliza Atkins (née Lewis), who married on May 29, 1831.

I overlaid the 1875 map over a modern map using Google Maps, then added a pinpoint where the homestead was located. Using Google Maps on my phone, I headed out to do some detecting at the location, hoping to find an old coin. I have worked that location several times, finding old bits of iron and modern aluminum cans with my Fisher F44 metal detector.

On November 20, I found the largest horseshoe. The middle-sized one was unearthed on November 28. When the freezing temperatures arrived, I thought the metal detecting was done for the season. With some unexpected warmer weather arriving before Christmas, I went out again, finding the third and smallest horseshoe on December 21. All three horseshoes were found within 30 meters of each other.

Each shoe was about 20 centimeters deep (roughly 9 inches). I removed the rust using electrolysis, which took about 3 days per shoe. No abrasives were used, since I wanted to preserve as much of the metal as possible. I applied Renaissance Wax to seal the surface and prevent future corrosion.

It’s interesting to imagine that these subdivisions and woods were once farms, and that artifacts from that era were left behind, waiting to be found. I’m looking forward to more detecting at that location in 2021.