My detecting buddy Tim found some really neat stuff

My late dig buddy, Tim Buck, who lived up in the Northeast, used to find some really cool stuff.

But he was always very understated and soft-spoken.

Just before his untimely death, he posted a short little summary of his final season.

"Here's some silver", he said, or something to that effect. And then a couple of pictures. And that was all.

But then you start noticing stuff in the pictures.

 

Here. I found his final post. That silver was from May, June, and July of 2012, right before he died (way too young).

I almost would not have believed he really found all that stuff he used to post, but he came down here to SE GA to visit me once, and I took him to some local sites.

Despite these places having been hard-hunted by other detectorists, I watched Tim pop a 1799 Spanish half-real on one relic site I took him to, and he found a deep V-nickel in one of my hotspot parks.

 

Look again.

Two Oak Trees and a Pine Tree!

 

Further down, he elaborated a bit.

 

This stuff was found in New Hampshire, I think.

 

Over the years, I have had the privilege to hunt alongside some American detectorists who are at the pinnacle of that hobby.

I'm not the master of the craft like some of my friends, but I have held history in my hands, fresh from the ground, and let me tell you, there is no sensation like it.

 

I wish I could figure out what the thing with a hole in it is. Maybe a half dollar. Looks like somebody started to make a ring out of it.

Cool thing about detecting is, you literally never know what is gonna turn up.

 

Among Tim's first finds were some old Daguerreotype photo plates. You could still see the ghostly old faces on them, despite their 150+ years in the ground. One was a baby picture, as I recall.

 

He'd have made you hate yourself and feel like a total amateur. Happened to me.

Seriously, though, he was a cool guy. Just a real natural at the hobby. With some great sites to go to.

He was only a detectorist for a relatively short time- maybe 5-7 years or so, having come into it from being a coin guy first, which is a common trajectory for many who pursue the coinshooting discipline of detecting.

This is as opposed to the relic hunters, who usually become detectorists to chase military relics instead of coins. (Ironically, the relic hunters usually score the best coins. And while I was primarily a coinshooter, my two "best" finds were relics.)

I actually used to give him online advice when he first started. He used to call himself "The Reluctant Relic Hunter" because he was finding all sorts of relics, but (at the time) relatively few coins.

I think I told him to shut up and enjoy the ride, because the relics he was finding were dang cool stuff, like those Daguerreotype plates. I said the coins would happen eventually.

And oh, boy, did they ever.

As has happened many times, one of my "students" very quickly outdid his "teacher" in technical skill. Which is not too surprising, since I'm sometimes rather lazy.

Finding stuff like those 16-inch-deep Massachusetts silvers takes laser-sharp concentration, good equipment, and complete mastery of every nuance of that equipment.

And yeah, a healthy dollop of luck, too.