Turkey Day Swingin'

Ahhh Thanksgiving... not really one of my favorite holidays, but whatever. The morning started off hectic, running around trying to get milk and garlic before heading of to the g/f's parents house so she could make the mashed potatoes before it was time to eat. In all that mess, I took the time out to swing the MD in the front and back yard.

Right outta the gate a found a few pieces of trash and a '44 Wheat penny. I was pretty stoked at that point. Not even 5 minutes later I got a signal on my X30 that was jumping around between +32 and +40... so honestly, I was thinking I found some silver. But when I dug up the item, about 4 inches down... to my surprise it looked like a button. But not just any button. I've been doing this long enough now to recognize an older military button... it was just trying to find out how old.

As you can see from the image below, the front of the button shows an eagle with an anchor, and 13 stars. What you can't see on the back, is that it reads, Benedict & Coe... which was what the Waterbury Co (known to make old military buttons) was known as from 1829-1832. And the style matches that of an 1830s Federal Navy Button. Amazing!!!!



Other than this great find, I found 2 more Wheats, a '44 and a '52, along with a bunch of clad.

After that, it was off to my uncle Dan's for TDAY #2.

9/13 Trantwood Elementary

Last night around 8p I left the house with my X-Terra and BHID. I had a plan to hit up an elementary school that I know has been around at least since the 50s, and then scoot over to the beach.

When I got to the school, I noticed there were two newer tot lots built alongside the two older ones that had been there. All of my finds you see below are from these TLs, as they are all I hunted. I really want to hunt the actual fields, because I feel it's a safe bet I can find some wheaties or mercs here.



I never did venture out to the beach, but might hit it up this afternoon. All in all, $1.27 in clad, a bullet charm, a charm bracelet, and a neat button.

INFO ON THE BUTTON:
"The belt surrounding the shield bears the motto of the Order of the Garter, "Hon Y Soit Qui Mal Y Pense" or "Shame to him who evil thinks." The motto below, "Dieu et Mon Droit," means "God and My Right."

The middle shield would represent post Victoria, so 1837 to present... and appears to be the coat of arms for the British Royal Family.

From The Archive: WWII Pin! 8-9-08

Being the weekend, the g/f wanted to go over to her parents house in Chesapeake for the day and hit up their pool... so we did. Her mom had once asked me to bring my MD over to try and find their property line pin that was in the ground, so I thought, what the hey, I'll bring it with me. I did end up finding it, it was about an 8" long metal rod that was down about 6" and rang up as a penny.

For s & g's I decided to just scan around the front a bit to see what might pop up. The first was a 1962 Memorial penny about 4 inches down, not far from the driveway. Her mom was pretty stoked to see how accurate the MD was, and how I hit it and dug it with precision. It was nice only digging three holes for the day and getting something out of each.

The next beep rang as a 32, and I was like, sweet, maybe this will be my wheat penny or something... but I found something even cooler. It came out and I immediately identified it as being military, but I didn't recognize the insignia... the g/f's mom had no clue. So a brief search online and I found it as being a WWII USAAC insignia, but could only find the Officer's version w/o the disk. And then I came across it, after about 15 minutes of searching, it is indeed the Enlisted disk version of the lapel insignia for AAC guys... very cool and easily my oldest find.

These two are examples from the web of both the Officer pin, and the Enlisted disk.



Oh, and USAAC for those who don't know is the US Army Air Corps.