Dear White’s,

I wanted to share an experience that I had recently while exploring old home sites in Southern New Hampshire. I had been searching a long 'cart road' that went deep into the woods for a few days when I came upon an old cellar hole with a decent portion of the land surrounding the foundation fairly clear. This got me excited...knowing that I was nearly 2 miles deep into the woods on a rarely traveled road meant that I could be the first one to ever detect this site...and how right I was!

I fired up the XLT and started working a horse shoe type grid around 3 sides about 10 feet away from the cellar hole. This area had much less iron to deal with and I wanted to use my standard coil as much as possible. Before long I began getting nice signals and proceeded to dig my first of what would turn out to be 23 Colonial Buttons! I've dug many buttons in my time...but not this many at any one site! Some were large dating to the late 1700's, and others were 2-piece type dating to the mid 1800's.

I eventually turned to my 5.3 coil to get up next to the foundation, and that's where I dug a beautiful large Colonial Button with a Flower Motif, 2 brass matching door keyhole plates and a lead bag seal. I also dug on the site were bullets, musket balls, and pieces of Iron Tools.

Not all the buttons found at the site are pictured...they are currently soaking in olive oil to be cleaned. But, here are most of the best finds from the site with a close up of the larger Colonial buttons.

Thank you White’s for putting out such great machines that truly do find treasure!

Sincerely,

Hank E.

New Hampshire

Dear White’s

'Their 1st ring turns out to be a jackpot'

It happened when the family went on a weekend trip to Rockport Texas and we brought the Prizm III. The first couple of days my sons and I were only finding clad and fishing weights. They were talking about how they wished to find a ring, and behold the last day of our trip we got up at 6am and headed to the beach.

As my sons were going down the beach with the metal detector they got a good signal on the screen. They started to dig down about 2 inches on the shoreline, when my 10 year old son said “It’s a ring!” It was hard to see at first, but as the sun was starting to come up a diamond was shinning in our faces.

My sons found an 18k gold 1.24 carat diamond engagement ring, we were all so excited and even more when I got it appraised at a local jeweler in San Antonio. The retail value of the ring is $11,000!!!!

Talk about a find of a lifetime!

Barry

Using my DFX, I had permission to search a 13-acre farm, which gave up coins from King George III to Queen Victoria and buttons, belt and shoe buckles from the 1500’s through the 1800’s along with a variety of other items. This button I found on my recent trip back to England had a very interesting yet mysterious history, so I thought your readers might be interested in what I found.

While staying at a Moat Hill Farm B&B in Westhorpe, Suffolk, the owner Steve being a history buff of the area, told me the story of this forgotten piece of English history. King Henry VIII’s younger sister whose name was Mary had been married off as nobility usually was, to the aged King Louis XII of France, in 1514. Mary’s secret lover prior to her royal marriage to the French king was Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, but because of not being of noble blood was thought to have been below Princess Mary’s status.

Upon Louis XII’s death in 1515, Charles Brandon became part of the contingent to France to bring Mary back to England. Mary had heard rumors of Henrys plan on remarrying her, this time to a Spanish prince, so in 1515 at a small chapel in Palais de Cluny she married Charles Brandon. Henry VIII, upon Mary’s arrival back to England, had her removed from court, relocating her to the Suffolk area with her new husband and entourage due to his displeasure in her marriage. Henry still had great love of his younger sister, which he had shown in the naming of his famous warship the “MARY ROSE” which recently was brought up from its watery grave.

The button I found would have been from a coat or cape due to its size and shape. It would have been too elaborate for any commoner to have owned or worn, I was informed. The button was in the form of a double rose, being called a “Tudor Rose” for King Henry VIII’s family line (c1485-1603). The location found would have placed its loss in a direct line from the area where Mary was living in Suffolk to the city of Ipswich.

The outer rose would have been “Red” representing the House of Lancaster, while the inner rose being “White” representing the House of York. These two families fought a long and bloody war called “The War of the Roses” (1455-1487) in English History. This “Tudor Rose” became a combination of both houses, which ended with the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603.

The button has since been returned to the farm owner who was surprised and grateful of not only receiving it back but also its added history. One of the coins also found on her property, a copper Farthing of Queen Victoria that was left with her after being found, was valued at 140 pounds ($280.00) at the time of its finding.

History makes a find that much more rewarding, when facts (dates, times, people) come to light and share their past with you.

Thanks White’s

John (Florida)

double eagle

White’s,

Merilyn, another club member and I went out to a Girl Scout Camp this morning to look for a lady's engagement ring that had been lost for over 9 years. She lost it throwing hay to horses. The search area was a large circle about 50 feet across with two large trees inside a fence in the middle of a 40 acre horse pasture.

The Park Ranger went with us and I loaned him an M6 to use. We split the area up into four quadrants, each one of us searching a quadrant. After the first search was done, we all did a "right shift" to search a new quadrant. I was about 15 minutes into to the second search behind the ranger when I got a solid signal on my DFX at a VDI of 15 that read 6 inches using the 6 X 10 DD. I cut a plug and when I checked, the signal was in the plug.

I took about an inch off the bottom and checked again and the signal was in my hand. When I looked, there was the 10K engagement ring, with a center stone of about 1/3 carat with 2 baguettes on each side. All stones intact and the ring was in perfect shape. I simply yelled "I got it" and everyone came running.

I turned the ring over to the ranger, who called his wife, who put the owner on the phone. (They were at a Girl Scout meeting in Ocala). When the ranger asked her to describe her ring, he said "I have it right here in my hand". He told us that the owner was so happy that she started crying and had to hang up.

We didn't have our camera with us, but the ranger said his wife would get a picture of the ring and e-mail to us. It was great to find the ring, and even better to hear how happy the lady was to know that it was found and that she would get it back tonight. That's one of the greatest enjoyments of this hobby, at least for Merilyn and me.

Score one for the DFX and the 6 X 10!!!

George S.

While detecting for Civil War relics with the MXT in North Georgia I got a good signal and knew it had to be a good target so as I was digging I heard a click with my shovel and my heart sank cause I just knew I either scarred the target or even broke it, well once I cleared the dirt words came out of my mouth that I can't type here, it was a beautiful 5 inch point broken in 3 pieces thanks to my shovel :-(

So after I gathered myself I swung the coil over the hole and still that wonderful sound we like to hear, dug down about a foot more and there it was, a perfect solid 12 LB cannon ball. My 1st whole projectile! So, 2 in 1 hole isn’t bad even though I broke the point in 3 pieces. A few other relics were found that day as well. American Digger Magazine had these two items in the 2008 September-October issue.

The morale of this story, be careful when you shove the digging tool down in the dirt, because you just never know what you are going dig up! You posted one of my stories earlier this year and of course I was very grateful by the $100 gift certificate, White’s MXT and your other products are the best in the business along with your Tech Support/Sales Department.

Garrett B.