On Jan 2 2016 my fellow club member Wes Anderson and myself headed out to a new piece of property we were going to search. Back story on this property and why it was special to me. This particular property was owned by my seventh great grandfather who was granted the land in the mid to late 1600's then passed it through his children when passed away. I took my trusted Safari out and headed across the field. To my surprise not 50 yards from the truck I get my first signal and it sounds clean. I dig down about 4-5 inches and out pops a very slick 1857 three cent piece.
Excited to be on the board with a semi hard to find coin press on looking for the earlier artifacts. I started picking up scrap brass, the occasional round ball and some early 1800's brass flat buttons. Still not in the age range I was looking for we made the decision to move to a different area of the property. As we were going along in the new area I start to second guess my decision because there are almost no signals. Then my threshold is interrupted by a screaming high tone. "Man that sounds great" I though. I motioned for my friend Wes to come over and have a listen and watch as I dug. I dug a small hole about 6 inches down and out pops a large, thick hammered real! I jumped up and let out a few fist pumps as I knew I was getting closer to the date range I was looking.
We continued to look around and to my surprise more colonial coins are unearthed. I turn up a cut mid 1700's real and a holded Carolus iii reale. On cloud nine I decide to give it another thirty minutes when BAM! another great signal. I unearth a cut coin I have never seen before but I can tell its period. After some work cleaning off the dirt and looking at the details I see its a cut 1649-1657 British Commonwealth Shilling!!! Rare in England, unheard of in the States and it fits the time frame I was looking. This is more than a rare coin, its a piece of my family history and an item that will now continue to pass down the family line, much like the property that was searched.
Chad - NC, USA