Beer and Coke Please!

It’s that time of year for bottle prospect’in! Around these parts of the tidal rivers of the N.C. Coast you have about a month were the water clears up enough to actually see a few feet around on the bottom. Then around mid November the water at least for me gets too cold to jump in. If you have a old town in the area well…. it’s time to look for bottles, fishing rods, and the big ticket items are the old 1900’s turn of the century Cokes and Pepsi’s. There are also tons of old medicines’ , elixirs and if you’re really lucky maybe a 1700-1800’s whisky flask but,…. they are usually broken. After leaving work, I shot to my favorite spot were bottles litter the bottom. Conditions looked good as I drove the Buick Grand National down the Hwy staying off the turbo so the Sheriff doesn’t gun me down. The only thing that would ruin the dive would be fishermen or the tide ripping through the tidal river.

Running from the Sheriff!

As I got to the dock, the tide was slack. All conditions were go! Water was cool and the fishing pier was empty so, after deploying my diver down buoy I shoot down the 20 ft or so and found conditions on the bottom superb with 3 ft of vis. I starting running around piling up known crappy bottles in piles and putting in possibles in the bag. After three runs back to the breakwater to empty the bag I started to sort what I had and fortunately I had what I came for.

Pile of bottles

Sure enough after a little cleaning a mint 1900 PBR beer bottle and a bubble blown early 1900 Coca Cola were in the pile among a few other keepers. Coke and a Beer Please! What a way to end a day! Yowzaa!
Semper FI - Bob

No Detector Needed!

The other day N.Y. Rob emailed me at work looking to see if I wanted to do some Indian relic hunting over at the sod farm west of New Bern that I have never been to because of work. “Dude, didn’t you say that there’s some old pottery and glass laying around?” “Let me bring up the detectors if the farmer doesn’t mind maybe there’s some old coins and buttons in the ground.” I emailed back. So the stage was set for a afterwork Friday afternoon pleasant hunt in rural North Carolina. Ole N.Y. Rob and his father in law Dan have been hunting these fields for the last few years pulling Indian points and tools. They call the pounding tools made by the X-man cuz they have a x chiseled in them by the maker, I guess kinda like Craftsman marks their tools.
N.Y. Rob and Danny feeling up some sod.

We checked in with the sod shop and fingered some of the nice Indian relics that they have picked up that were laying around the shop, then headed to the fields. You could make out where in the past the house must have stood as the few trees stuck out in the middle of one field and the surrounding field was littered with old glass and whatnot. I was digging alone with my Excalibur, Danny and N.Y.Rob were a team with a extra detector and a shovelman. Digging around the probable house area turned up everything such as old solid irons, and other house debris. N.Y. Rob found a lump of silver which must have been a coin that melted when the house burned down, while I pulled a 1920’s era Marine Corps eagle globe and anchor emblem.
Moving over the road, we passed a small cluster of headstones shaded by a few trees a few feet off the highway. The man who once owned the place was a Confederate in the N.C. Calvary during that war as his cracked gravestone was there with the C.S.A. marker.

Me, and a 1903 penny.

“Hey Bob check out what Danny found!” N.Y. Robs calls from across the street. I look and see Danny pulling something from his mouth , so I wander over.

(Add N.C. drawl for effect) “Lookit this man! I jus found it laayin right ther on top of the dirt man.” And there it was, the best coin I have ever seen found metal detecting, except I guess since it was picked up off the top of the sand without a metal detector it probably doesn’t count. Anyway it was a 1823 Half Dime that the old Confederate must have dropped a few years after the minting date as it was in FINE shape indeed. (Later Danny said it’s about a $500 buck coin from a internet search) Me? Well I finally found a coin, a 1903 Indian head so we all came out alright, just gotta find some time to hit it again!