Treasure Hunting Adventures

06/07/2022

Someone lost their wallet around the year 1846. We found it about 175 years later. Awesome!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Nb6_fO7RU

Capped, Seated and Spanish Silver! (And some coppers)

01/05/2021

Bit of an intro but sometimes you can learn more from a little context.

After removing some junk metal from shallow depth, something else was still buried. As I dug, I hit a large flat rock. The signal was coming from directly ...

01/02/2021

Happy new year all! Hope 2021 brings you many digs like this!

John & I were back at one of our top spots and I got a great target in just the right zone. This is what you want to happen when you get that characteristic...

01/01/2021

How about a giant Spanish silver 8 reale cob from a couple weeks back?!
https://youtu.be/T-a4If_p1BA

1765 Spanish 8 Reales Cob found in Virginia.

09/22/2020

If any of you treasure hunters also love a nice kitty we are trying our hardest for this one. He’s better than an oak tree shilling!

https://gf.me/u/yz3ahb

The photo of Pumpkin Roo was taken on our wedding day just three weeks ago. Last Tuesday morning, … Eliza Mason needs your support for Please Help Pumpkin Roo

06/17/2020

Another early silver coin sees the light of day for the first time in 200 years.

https://youtu.be/uOW2FPxC7Rw

Another Early American Silver in the books!

06/12/2020

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KHDCS1qt5sY

It’s nothing like what they find in Australia, but if you’re looking for gold in New England, you understand the rarity of this find!

08/16/2017

We found a cache of Huge French Silver Coins!!! Check out our latest videos on the TREASURE FINDERS YouTube channel and subscribe to see the latest adventure- it's all free!

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCzAjb5ZPJtWF26dLX0OyIOQ

Don't just hunt for treasure, FIND it. Buried in the ground, hidden in the back of an old barn and sometimes even in plain sight, TREASURE is everywhere. We ...

11/21/2016

Mike and I were out picking barns when we passed one of my favorite fields for finding Native American artifacts. It was just turned over, and we had some luck!

01/13/2016

When the ground freezes up in New England, you have to look elsewhere for treasure. Some recent barn finds.

12/11/2015

Every digger can relate to this feeling!! Right in the middle of a Civil War camp. John Wayne!

12/10/2015

Garrick finds a pistol lost during the Civil War!

12/09/2015

We stumbled onto an undiscovered civil war campsite and Garrick immediately found an 1860's Smith and Wesson pistol. Five minutes later I found this!

11/17/2015

5 days diggin in Virginia. We covered about 2,000 acres of land in search of lost camp and skirmish sites. We had some good luck and came away with some cool stuff including 1 Smith & Wesson pistol, 1 Eagle breast plate, 1 1845 officers martingale, 1/2 US belt plate, 1 patriotic shield pin, 2 confederate knapsack hooks, 1 confederate spur part, 1 confederate horse bit part, 2 ornate powder flasks (what's left of em), 1 fuse, 1 VMI cadet button, 1 1820s navy button, 1 Gardner bullet, 1827 & 1844 large cents, 1 in identified Brass piece with what appears to be the beginning of the word "Washington". Ideas?

11/14/2015

Great day down in Virginia today, Found some undiscovered Civil War camps. We turned up a Smith and Wesson pistol, an eagle breast plate, confederate bridal bit, spur part and scabbard guard and two powder flasks!

09/14/2015

FIND OF A LIFETIME - Civil War Artillery, (And Not a Shell)

I have been searching for treasure since I could walk. While it's been fun, I'd never found much of any real historical significance until this. While doing some American Picker style barn digging, I saw something interesting sticking out of a pile of wood and metal junk. At first glance it just looked like more scrap metal, piled in the corner of a dusty barn, untouched for many decades. After I uncovered it a bit, I could see that it was actually an iron cannon. I saw the letters "C.C.C." stamped in the end of the muzzle, and my first thought was that it was perhaps a replica made by the Civilian Conservation Corp in the 1930's in an effort to create needless jobs for the unemployed. Not knowing much about these things, I asked a friend if he knew anything of the markings on it, and at his advisement, I bought it. "C.C.C." actually turned out to be the initials of the cannon's inspector, Clemens Clifford Chaffee, a top-of-the-class West Point Graduate and Civil War hero at the Siege of Vicksburg. The cannon I found was used during the heat of the war, perhaps at it's most famous battle. It has long been associated with Gettysburg battlefield, and has an associated letter of clearance of title. As much as I want to keep it for myself, practicality forces me to part with it. It is being offered at arguably the Nation's top fi****ms auction house, James D. Julia, in Fairfield Maine, on October 7th. For pictures and a full and professional description of the significance of this cannon, check out the James Julia auction listing. If you know any artillery collectors, let them know of it- someone's going to have a lot of fun firing it, and it could be you!

http://jamesdjulia.com/?s=3350&post_type=page_catalog&meta_key=catalog_aucID&meta_value=386

02/26/2015

Colonial AMERICAN GOLD! 1765 Zachariah Brigden Boston Gold Posey Ring

I found this gold ring (first picture) with a Z*B maker's mark and inscription "A Friend's gift" at a site where a militia skirmish occurred around the year 1800. I had hunted the site once before with a friend and had some good luck, which I'll share in a later post. Our hopes weren't as high on this return trip, as we figured we probably found the majority of the good stuff the first time around. I was searching in an open area when I got a decent signal in the grass. I dug it out and found that it was just a scrap of an aluminum can that had been hit with a lawnmower. I filled the hole and started on again when I got the same signal. I think it rang in somewhere in the 50's on my DFX. I figured it was another piece of the same can but thought I'd check anyway....and it was another piece of the same can. I filled that hole and sure enough, immediately got a third signal within about a foot, only this time it was less promising. It rang in around 25. I was certain it was the last small scrap of can, or maybe the pull tab, and I decided to skip over it. I went a few feet further and then something told me to go back and check it out. I dug out the grass and the signal was in the roots near the surface of the plug. With low hopes I had to tear up the plug to see what I had. When I first saw it, I thought it was the aluminum ring around the old glass screw-cap soda bottles, but it wasn't. I wiped it off and saw the inscription "A Friend's Gift", and the maker's hallmark Z*B. I didn't have a clue as to whether I could identify that mark, but was excited to have found my second poesy ring! When I got home, I did a quick search of British hallmarks, since nearly all jewelry that survives from this period is European in origin, but I couldn't find a match. When I checked the American listings I had success. The mark matched precisely that of Boston goldsmith Zachariah Brigden. Brigden's silver chocolate pots (see picture) are on display at the Museum of Fine Arts. I was able to locate a specialist on his work and she confirmed that my find was indeed made by him, some time around 1765, before the Revolutionary War. I have since only been able to locate one other ring that he made, which is on display at the Yale University Art Gallery (a mourning ring made in 1766, second & third pictures). The last picture is of the rest of the stuff we found on the same hunt, including coins from 1797 & 1798.
Zachariah Brigden was born in Charlestown (Boston) Mass in 1734 and died in 1787.

02/24/2015

My favorite button- c.1790 Rattlesnake and 13 eggs with Liberty Cap on Pole. I spotted this one while walking across a dusty potato field. When I found it I thought the liberty cap was a mushroom. If I recall, it's identified it in Albert's button book in the Patriotic & Commemorative section as PC-14. If anyone has the book, perhaps you can post a picture of the relevant pages. I don't have a copy of it.

During the American Revolution, the rattlesnake was a prominent symbol of liberty, as on the 1775 Gadsden "Don't Tread on Me" flag and Benjamin Franklin's "JOIN, or DIE." woodcut. These buttons were born of the revolutionary movement and represent some of the earliest forms of display of American patriotism.

02/23/2015

Searching for lost Civil War Camps in Virginia - Eagle Breast Plate

On our annual Virginia hunt we located a new confederate cavalry campsite along a creek at the base of a hill. At first it was nothing but iron tent spikes, but then I found a this nice eagle breast plate. My first one, as they aren't too common up here in MA. My buddy found a solid brass confederate horse bit.

02/20/2015

1600-1820 Colonial shoe, knee and sash buckles I've found in Massachusetts and Vermont. These can be fairly useful in helping to determine the age of a site, as design changed frequently and considerably throughout the years. I've included some great drawing charts from my favorite buckle-reference website, where you can also find dates and descriptions on them:

http://www.ukdfd.co.uk/ceejays_site/pages/buckletitlepage.htm

Now booking treasure hunts for Spring 2015.

02/18/2015

I found the remnants of a long-ago burned-out house way out in the middle of a tilled field in Massachusetts. There was hardly anything left of the place beyond a few plowed-under foundation stones and a lot of iron nail chatter. I got an iron signal that had a bit more depth to it than the nails and dug up this loaded late 1800's Defender 5-shot pocket revolver. The bullet is stamped "US", and appears to be a .32, but I'm not an expert. Second picture is what I believe to be an example of the same gun.

02/18/2015

Is this the oldest coin in America ever to have been fed into a parking meter?

Found this beautiful 1784 half reale a couple miles from my house. Regrettably, I left it on the nightstand alongside some modern pocket change and that was the last time I ever saw it. Now I'm not here to place blame, but I can spot a 1947 nickel in my change, so I know it wasn't me that spent it. I'm not going to name names.
Later, somebody who ordered a roll of dimes from the bank was ecstatic...or confused.

02/17/2015

Vermont Gold Prospecting

Panning and camping out at one of our favorite spots in the Vermont wilderness. It's not California, but there is gold here if you know where to look!

02/17/2015

WWII Dog Tag Returned to the rightful owners.

While hosting a friend from Virginia for our annual New England treasure hunt, we got permission to search a large farm that dates back to about 1750. My friend was searching along an old road bed on the property when he found this World War II dog tag. When we showed the property owner, she was in disbelief. She recognized the name immediately and knew that the gentleman's family had farmed the land for generations before selling the property to a retired couple from New York who eventually sold the property to her. She also knew that he had passed away many years ago, but that his grandchildren lived just down the street. We left the tag with her to return to the family. We haven't been back since, but we'll get the rest of the story when we get back out there in May.

02/15/2015

Some years back I gave up detecting for about 6 months. I felt like I'd searched every property within 50 square miles of my house. Boredom eventually got the better of me and I took a drive looking for a new place to dig. I stumbled on a guy clearing a piece of wooded land to expand his farm. He gave me permission and I headed toward the center of the area. I noticed pretty quickly that someone else had already been there, but I didn't have any better ideas so I stayed anyway. After about an hour I got a loud clear signal. I dug up what thought was a seated quarter until I had it in my hand and realized it was much better than that- 1875 CC Twenty Cent Piece! I might have given up digging if not for this one. They only minted 133,290 of these.

02/15/2015

What are they? These two have had me stumped for a while- any ideas?

02/15/2015

Native American shelter we found on a trek up a mountainside. Didn't find much but it was a great day anyway.

02/14/2015

Be Careful Digging-

I've dug about a dozen of these Connecticut Cents from the 1780's. They were made by the state government after the revolutionary war, prior to the establishment of a National currency system, which didn't occur until 1792.

This one represents the repercussions of careless digging- probably the worst instance of it in my digging career. It would have been a beauty if I didn't strike it with the shovel. Don't learn the hard way!

02/13/2015

I was just about to give up on a new site that was producing nothing whatsoever when I finally dug a large one-piece cast brass button. It was face down in the dirt, and I thought to myself, maybe it's a GW inaugural? Of course when I picked it up and turned it over, it wasn't. I filled the hole in and before I could take another step I had another signal. I shoveled out the loose soil and another large button rolled out. This time I didn't have to roll it over! Shocked.

02/13/2015

Here's one I had in my collection for years before I realized it was the real thing and not some kids badge-
a 1912 Massachusetts Motorcycle Registration Tag. These metal fobs were only made between 1910 and 1914.

02/12/2015

This Ultra Rare (RRR) 15mm George Washington Inaugural button, Alberts # WI-18b, Dewitt # 1789-33, Darby 15 Star brass cuff button was found by a dear friend. The finder has been an avid digger for about 30 years, and I've had the pleasure of knowing him and digging with him for the last 10. The guy that found this button is the most honest, hardest working, most giving person you could ever meet. He has worked overnights at a manufacturing plant, 55 hours a week, without missing a day of work in 25 years. As is the case for a lot of people, all of his earnings are eaten up by the costs of heating and owning his house and providing for his family. He has never been one to part with a relic, but in the case of this button he feels that he doesn't have any reasonable alternative. The J. Harold Cobb catalog lists only one known example, with an historical sale price of $17,000. That being said, he is open to reasonable offers. It's likely headed to the auction block, but figured we would see if there was any interest here first.

02/11/2015

While detecting a random spot in the woods in southeastern mass, I got a loud signal just under the leaves. I looked down at the ground and saw some corroded pieces of what used to be a galvanized bucket. I glanced around and noticed that a lot of rusted cans and other junk had been dumped there, probably in the '50's. Bummer. I kicked the leaves with my foot and a square piece of scrap metal rolled into sight. I was shocked when I picked it up and saw this - War of 1812 era Militia Belt Plate.

02/11/2015

Now booking treasure hunting excursions for Spring 2015, if it ever comes. Whatever it is you're looking for, we'll find it. Or you can just keep watching it on TV, since it seems to have gone mainstream in the last few years.

Nearly 20 years experience metal detecting for coins and colonial relics from the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, gold panning, digging for antique bottles, searching for Native American arrowheads.

You keep everything you find. All required equipment provided. See the "About" section for a link to my personal page and send a message for details if you're interested.