Weekend Finds

  I say "weekend", but it was more like "end of last week", as I didn't get out much in the past few days. I hit the usual easy to reach spots like the park, my yard, the jobsite--and none of them for very long, but still managed to come up with a few items of interest.

  Another rusty lock for my rusty lock collection.

  And rusty spoon for that collection of the same name.

  This little belt-buckle was found in Union Commons, but the silver-plated utensil handle and keys were found along with the spoon and lock in my backyard.

  This great little "Castoria" bottle I picked up on North Haven on Saturday, when I was out there rebuilding a stone wall.

  I found this 3" Hubley-Kiddie toy tractor tire in Union. In case you are interested, I did a little research and this is what the original toy looked like (this one has replica tires):

  Also found this heavy 8" piece of something that looks to be a sword-point or more likely a bayonet of some sort. Possibly just a farm implement, but I have never seen anything like it. I am currently carrying it for protection in the wildly unpredictable streets of Camden. So don't mess with me. "I'm carryin' my steel, man."

The Master Plan

  Laura and I hiked down to the dam yesterday in search of the homestead of one Mssr. Molyneaux, one of Camden's early settlers. I read a bit about him in Robinson's "History of Camden and Rockport" and his cabin was supposedly near where the dam is now. Molyneaux himself, an eccentric French aristocrat who had taken to living, hunting, and fishing the wilds in and around lake Megunticook (in which he ultimately drowned), described it as being at the point where the lake empties into the river--where the dam is now. Anyhow, I think we were on the wrong side of the river. There was a foundation, but it was concrete and appeared to have once been an operating structure for the dam.
  I didn't do any metal detecting, but I scraped around in the rubble and found these two great pieces. They are pretty large and as I started to lug them back to the car, Laura said, "You're joking, right? What are you going to do with all these rusty things you are bringing home?"
  "You just have to trust me," I said. "I have a Master Plan. I know it seems crazy now, but it will all make sense in the end."

Spring Is Here

  I got a lead on a good beach for finding porcelain doll parts last week and I checked it out. No body parts, but I did find this great spring and a nice light blue bottle-bottom. There were a lot of people searching the place, so my guess is it's probably a hot-spot for great sea-junk. I'll have to hit it early one morning after a big storm.

Another Day In The Park

  I'm really getting spoiled by this place. I mean, it's a park--the terrain is flat and the grass is mowed, there is minimal modern rubbish, no hacking my way through the underbrush in search of some overgrown cellar-hole filled with rusted-out automobiles and tick-infested wild raspberries bushes. I just stop at the park on the way to work and dig up a few old coins and buttons. It's too easy.
  1915 Buffalo nickel, 1905 S Barber dime (silver), small belt-buckle, wheat penny, little #2 fishing weight, and two brass buttons.

The Infinite 8 of Willendorf

  I found this great little one-inch brass eight at an old home-site the other day. I gave it to Laura and she said, "Hey. It looks like a cross between the number eight and the Venus of Willendorf." I think it has a future in necklaces.
  This is the second brass eight I have found, the previous one discovered on North Haven last summer.

The Bottomless Park

  The park continues to give up the old goods. I am literally only covering about twenty square feet of ground on every hunt. Apparently, the large county fairs were held there in the mid-1800's. It's funny, in any other state metal-detectorists would have picked that place clean years ago. I picked out a few more heavily worn Indian head pennies; an 1878 and an unreadable date.

  I found this great little three-and-a-half inch brass pocketknife. After cleaning I could make out the words "W-ville co. Waterbury." It turns out that this was a pre-Civil War pocketknife made by the Waterville company out of Connecticut. I may try to soak it in oil for a few weeks and see if I can bring it back to life.

  Also, there was a rusty ring, a gold-plated costume ring, a small brass buckle (probably a shoe buckle), and a few tiny brass buttons.

Liberty Head Nickel

  A search in one of my favorite old parks yielded up this battered 1912D Liberty Head (or V) nickel. Alas, it was one year off from being the highly sought-after 3.5 million dollar 1913 Liberty Head.

19th Century Cellar Hole and Field

  I had a great hunt in the rain yesterday, around the remnants of an old cellar hole and a field in Pittston. The find of the day was a great 1863 Civil War Penny Token, the date of which was visible coming right out of the ground. These Civil War tokens were privately minted between 1862 and 1864, due to the lack of currency during the war, and were made illegal directly after. The rear says "Army and Navy", though it will take a little soaking in olive oil to clean it up.

  I also unearthed three Indian head pennies; an 1861, an 1886, and one still unreadable--a record number of Indians in one hunt for me. Two of them were actually stuck together in the soil, with their faces inward, which is why they look so good in the pics. They will clean up quite nicely.

  I found this great brass badge in the Pittston field. Apparently, it is circa 1930's and was issued for some "Boy Detective" comic strip. It is small, being less than 2 inches across. I was as excited to find this badge as I was to find the coins.

  Then there are the odds and ends: a few rusty knives, a tiny brass button, a large rusty iron button, watch cog, brass handle, unexploded artillery, an unidentifiable neat things. All in all, a fine day underground.

Insulators

  I seem to find these things a lot near the ocean--some kind of old electrical insulators. I believe they are carbon-based, but they register on the detector as nickel.

Blood, Mother! Blood!

 
  I was going through last year's sea-glass finds and putting together a jar of the best pieces for Laura, when I came across this great little fragment. I suspect it's from a bottle of blood, which was a huge seller in the 1800's.

Water Works

  I found this great piece deep in the forests of Camden, at the site of a large collapsed 19th century stone dam. I love the verdigris patina and the raised numbers and I plan incorporating it into one of my first first stone sculptures, if I can stop accumulating junk long enough to do any sculpting.

Union Field Finds

  I thought that button was a coin. It looked exactly like a large cent coming out of the dirt. Alas, it goes into the button collection, a nice big 19th century brass. A crazy rusty spoon, a bone-handled knife, a wheat penny (almost 30 wheaties so far this year--too many), and a couple of rusty whatchamacallits. I think the small one is a gun part and the other a long-distance bottle opener or tongue depressor.