r/MetalDetectingRelics

America 250

Hopefully I find one of these on my next outing… 🤞

Found this screw/nail looking thing in the field in North Eastern Slovenia. It can't be a screw, and it doesn't look like it could have been a nail either. It looks hand made and it is quite heavy for its size. I tried other threads, used AI and internet search and i didn't find the straight answer. Hope some of you can help me?
Thank you!

Found close to an old farm house down by the creek.

Metal detecting

The last week and half been getting skunked but things changed today with a three ring day. 1 stainless men’s band, one silver small ring, and winner was a designer titanium with real diamond and small 18k accent. Found the exact ring listed at jewelers. To top it off also found a pendent that at first looked gold but tarnished after couple hours of being out of the water so I figured it was junk but took 2nd look and realized it was silver with gold plating. Tested the diamonds no surprise they were not real but massive red stone in center is real. Can’t tell if it’s a ruby or garnet.

Imagine the scene.

A soldier, or perhaps a traveler, 200 years ago pauses in a free moment and decides to mend a button. The button being mended has a broken shank made of a copper alloy,  quite likely brass.

It's impossible to know whether the button was ever replaced. In my imagination, something distracted the traveler. Perhaps it was a bee. Perhaps it was a captain barking orders.

Whatever scenario you can imagine is possible. What we do know is that at some point during this interaction, both the discarded button and the thimble fell to the ground;  and there they sat, lost in transition, waiting.

The signal was junk. From one direction it reads as a partially non-ferrous 28 on the Nokta Legend. When I turned and swung over the target, the signal became even less enticing, now reading a ferrous 16. In my head I had it pegged as a large square nail, but you have to dig the junk to find the good stuff.

So I put the spade to earth and what turned up surprised me. A brass button. The 28 made sense, but the ferrous reading had me puzzled. I swung over the hole once more. Sure enough, something else was down there, giving a repeatable 16. It was just off to the side of the button. That range usually means a .22 shell casing, but the depth didn't add up.

Once again I put my spade to the earth and I prodded around with my pin pointer and got another very exciting surprise. A thimble. I don't find many thimbles. This would be my third.

It was a wonderful surprise on a slow day, detecting near this colonial encampment.

A button and a thimble, lost together, found together  and together they shall rest; forevermore.

Thank you kindly for reading.

Recently there were some posts on social media of large coppers wrapped in paper towel and soaked with olive oil for 2 days, followed up with a gentle rinse with isopropyl alcohol. The post showed before photos of coppers with a rough surface like 80 grit sandpaper. And after the olive oil and rinse they came out smooth as if they were just minted, with regular circulation wear.

I gave this a try with some of my coppers and did not experience that effect. I do not have before photos. But ultimately feel like some coins are slightly better, some are surely worse, and some are just meh.

I will say some of them I used 000 fine steel wool, to clean and that trick works the best overall to restore the coins to a more coin-like finish rather than rough sandpaper with no detail.

Anyone else have any home remedies that fixes coppers? Something simple enough that doesn’t require a whole lot of special tools / chemicals?

Solid Silver Thimble.

This was the first thimble I ever found, years ago at a Colonial site in Upstate NY. It is not marked, and dates back to late 1700’s to early 1800’s. I must have dug hundreds or more clad thimbles since then, not one has been silver. Guess I got lucky.