“Mommy, let’s put my buffalo nickels and those civil war bullets I found on your blog. That’d probably cause a commotion.”
“Okay, Seth. I’d love to cause a commotion.”
And from there, he started planning a blog post. His requirements: that I accompany him on a walk to the old homesite to metal detect, take pictures of the process, take pictures of some of his recent finds, and then allow him to dictate the post to me and then link to his favorite metal detecting sites.
I give you Seth:
“This photo does not belong here.”
Ginny here. “Yes, it does. Pretty scenery is important.”
“My first signal of the day. But I couldn’t find anything.”
“Another photo that doesn’t belong here.”
“I found a wheat penny on my second signal.”
“The date on the penny was 1953.”
Ginny here. Seth says this one doesn’t belong. I disagree. I thought you might want to see Silas in a handsome pink sweater. Seth says I am not allowed to link to sweaters on his post. But, it’s on my Ravelry page. It was originally Beatrix’s. (I’m not cheating Seth. There’s no link.)
“Bored girls.”
“On the left is a Civil War eagle button. The top row of bullets are three ring mini balls. On the bottom row: unknown, cleaner bullet, musket ball, fired musket ball.”
“Seth where did you find these?”
“I found most of them in the woods around our house.”
“Buckles. My favorites are the little shoe buckles.”
“The top coin is a very corroded war nickel. It’s 35% silver. During the years 1942-1945 nickel was needed for things for the war, so they made the nickels with an alloy of copper, manganese, and silver.
I found both buffalo nickels at the homesite that is pictured in this post. Buffalo nickels are rare and I wish the one with its date worn off still had its date there.”
“The wheat pennies that are clean enough to put in sleeves are in this picture.”
“Wheat pennies were made between 1909 and 1958. My oldest is in this picture and I found it the day that mommy took the pictures in this post. It’s from 1911. There are three tokens in this picture too: one play quarter, one tax token, and a sunoco car token from 1968.”
“These are the old buttons that I’ve found. Guess which ones are the military buttons?”
“There are three rings on the old lipstick tube. The bottom one is sterling silver. The princess pat is a makeup container, and the thing in the top left corner is a watch holder that would have been attached to a belt.”
“These are watch parts. The two bottom left pieces are faces.”
“Most of this silverware is silver plated.”
“The thing in the bottom left corner is a harmonica reed. There are also an old fashioned pen and two pen caps in the middle, an old razor holder, two locks, and the thing in the top left corner is unknown.”
“I got my metal detector for my birthday from my Grandad. It is a Garrett Ace 250 and I would recommend it to anyone willing to spend a bit of money. You can read more about their metal detectors on the Garrett website. I would also recommend the Bounty Hunter Junior, which was my first metal detector. It’s a very good starter metal detector for a kid. I have gotten my inspiration to metal detect from Nugget Noggin. He has a YouTube channel where he posts videos of himself metal detecting with his family. (Nugget Noggin is the name of his channel. His real name is Michael.) I think metal detecting is a lot of fun. I really like this hobby.”
p.s. Dear friends, Seth is hoping to hear from you. If you have any treasure hunting stories of your own to share, we’d love to hear them!
Alan says
Way to go, Seth (and Ginny). My 11 year old son is named Seth as well and we started detecting together. We also watch a lot of nuggetnoggin! You have found a LOT more than we have! Wow!
OMGitsaClaire says
Seth, have you ever thought about becoming an archaeologist when you grow up? I can tell that you like finding things and thinking about the people they once belonged to. This is what archaeologists do everyday. I should know. I am one. There are camps that teach kids your age about archaeology and lots of good books you can probably get at your local library. I’m also sure your state archaeologist would love to hear about all of the things you found on the old homesite and where it is. You can write him a letter or send him an email. Here is a link to his name that will connect you to his email address : http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/homepage_features/staff3.htm. As for camps, I can personally recommend the camps at the Exploring Joara Foundation in Morganton, North Carolina because I work with these people every day. I guarantee that you will find cool stuff and learn a lot about Native American life. Here is a link to their website: http://exploringjoara.org/education/camps/ . I only mention this because I wish someone had told me about this stuff when I was your age.
Sharnee Torrents says
Hello dearest Seth,
My name is Sharnee Torrents and I really wanted to say WOW to all your findings!! We live in Tasmania (heard of it??) and to have the chance to detect for things would simply be amazing!! I’ve never been good at History so I think this would help heaps!! 🙂
In saying that my Son-Ezekiel has just started reading a book called The Bobbsey Twins of Lakeport, have you read it?? In the story there is a old lady who has lost her siege coins!! This is something I’ve NEVER heard of up until Zeke came and told me all about what he’d just read! We then looked on Google and saw some pictures of them…. AMAZING!!! When he told me all this it made me think of you as I remember the post your lovely Mummy wrote the day of your birthday and the wonderful pressie you received!! 🙂
What I wanted to ask is have you ever seen one, a siege coin that is, I know you go to the old coin shop (sorry if I’ve remembered the name of that wrongly) and thought that perhaps you’ve seen one there!! I’d love to hear from you, as would Ezekiel about these coins, I’m not sure there would be any in Australia but perhaps there are….. THis is the kind of History that I LOVE!!!
Well dear Seth, thanks for reading, I do look forward to hearing from you on what you know and thank you very much for sharing in this wonderful post of your awesome findings!!
Enjoy the hunt,
Smiles Sharnee 🙂
Heather says
Hey Seth- My girls and I loved looking at all your treasures you found! We are very jealous and would like to start metal detecting today! 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing with us!!
Hannah says
Dear Seth,
my brother and I liked what you found,especially the miniy balls. We are going to borrow our Grandpa’s metal detector now.
Aiden and Andrew
kim says
Seth, this might just be the coolest post EVER. I loved looking through your treasures. I can’t believe you found such unique and valuable things! You have a talent, that’s for sure. I think you should create a treasure hunt post every few months with all your new finds. You could start your own museum!
🙂 Kim
Maribeth says
Seth, I am SO impressed! So is Austin. Good luck on finding more interesting things! We would love to see them when you do.
Lauren says
Hi Seth,
I am from Australia and found your post very very interesting! Most of the things you’ve found, I’ve never seen before. As I looked through your photos I found myself wondering, who carried that coin in their pocket? Who ate from that fork? Who buckled that buckle on their shoe? What were their lives like? And how did their things end up hiding in the wood for a boy from 2012 to find one day? It’s amazing that all around your house, there is so much history lying just beyond where people can see. Just waiting for someone interested to find it and bring it back to life again. We don’t have that around here – koalas, yes, but war buttons? Bullets, fired and unfired? We don’t have that!
I was wondering, what is a wheat penny? I haven’t heard of that before, why is it called a wheat penny?
brooke says
Hi Seth!
You have inspired me to get a metal detector for my son’s 9th birthday. You have found so many treasures, it looks like so much fun! We can’t wait to look at the youtube channel you linked to.
Thanks!
Bobby Jo says
This is an awesome story/collection/hobby!!! My sons would love this!! Thanks for sharing!!
Gris fleur says
My 11 year old son is crying now ! His birthday is only in December and he cannot wait !!!!!! We are now living in United Kingdom and will soon leave for Malaysia. I’m sure he will send you a picture of his treasures; because no doubt that we won’t wait December !
S/V Mari Hal-O-Jen says
Hi Seth! You’ve found some fascinating things! The metal detector my family got for Christmas is an underwater one. We can’t wait to take it out next time we go scuba diving! The waters around Key West are riddled with old wrecks (wrecking was what made Key West the richest city in America for awhile) and of course there is all the Spanish wrecks like the Atocha that Mel Fisher found. They are still diving that wreck and just brought up boxes of pearls and emeralds. The pearls don’t look like much anymore but the emeralds are some of the prettiest I’ve ever seen. Here’s an old post I wrote about the Atocha:
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/marihalojen/?xjMsgID=54417&c=1165
K says
I’m a little late, but I did a short treasure hunt post with pictures of what I called a “genie bottle” that I found as a girl and a jack rock. http://rangeofnotion.blogspot.com/2012/02/treasure-hunt-finds-from-long-ago.html
Seth, your finds are so interesting (I even checked out one of the metal detectors you mentioned, my seven year-old would probably enjoy it). I wonder if there was a battle site or camp near your house long ago. Thanks for sharing your treasures!
Maggie says
My Dad is thinking about getting a metal detector so he can hang out in the Australian out back by himself. We call them prospectors. I was suprised by a prospector a couple of years ago when he came out of nowhere in the middle of the bush while I was trying to go to the toilet behind a rock!
renee ~ heirloom seasons says
I think Seth’s treasures are wonderful, beautiful! (The scenery is beautiful too Ginny…)
What a great adventure for the two of you to take together!
Kelly says
What amazing finds! How perfect that you guys live in an area rich with history, hence the fired musket ball and military buttons! I wonder if I’d find anything good up here in Southeastern Pennsylvania? (About two hours from Gettysburg, which I’m sure has TONS of treasure to hunt.)
WAY TO GO, SETH!
jess says
What an amazing collection of treasures you have found, Seth! You have a great start as a life-long collector.