I’m not a big relic hunter.  In fact, I’m pretty disappointed when I dig a relic unless three things are true: it is in good shape, its general age can be determined, and its general purpose can be determined.  I rarely find anything that meets those criteria, but it was a slow day today, so we have relics to blog about.

Today started out finishing off a small section of a zone that had given up some old coins recently (and I always save the least promising sections for last), and then wandering around a site from zone to zone looking for hotspots.  I hate these sorts of days, cause they offer little promise (I’m much prefer the certainly of working a hot zone (who doesn’t?)), but sometimes these days work out.

First target of the day was a big old buckle. I don’t even know if it is a shoe or belt buckle, but I do think it is kinda old, as it is copper, and its depth and location are consistent with some large coppers.  These are always a disappointment for me, as they sound so good in the ground, like a big ol’ silver half dollar. (If you know how old it is, e-mail me (comments are still a hassle)).

Onto a zone that seemed like it could be promising, like hold some really old stuff, and there was good news, and bad news.  The good news was that it appears it had never been detected.  The bad news was also that it appears it had never been detected.  I surmise that perhaps it had been detected lightly or not at all by the number of deep, high tone objects I was digging.  Tons of stuff like this —

Detecting these sorts of sites is really hard, especially when the ground is rock hard, cause you get your hopes up on every high tone, and there are tons of them, only to dig junk (which some people, of course, call relics). My skill is more along the lines of working sites where alot of this stuff has been cleaned out by others, cause, as those who read my blog know, I don’t really like to dig all that much, cause it is so costly.

Anyway, this relic at least can be approximately dated, which is kinda cool.  Looks like the late 1800s. In addition to the “PATENTED” and the dates, it also says MANUFACTURED BY BERGMA?N & CO NY:  I have no idea what it is and it appears that it is smashed.  I imagine it was part of a larger machine of some sort.

Assuming the unidentifiable letter is an “N”, which seems reasonable, brings up something interesting. Apparently, Bergmann & Co was a company organized in 1876  by Bergmann and Thomas Edison for the manufacture of telegraph, telephone and other electrical apparatus.  Another quote from the article:

Early in 1881 Sigmund Bergmann … went into equal partnership with Edison and Edward Johnson and opened a shop in New York which was to supply lamp sockets, switches, fuses, light fixtures, chemical meters, and other instruments, all devised by Edison. Bergmann, who proved to be an able manufacturer, had to expand his quarters within a year and employ three hundred men.

So, maybe it is part of a really old light bulb from the Edison era.  Who knows?

In any case, this means the zone is promising at least, and deserves a good going over.  I only found one old coin here, tho, a 1920 wheatie.

I decided to move on, partly cause the dirt was so rock hard, and my purpose today was to sort of to catalog zones anyway.  Ended up in a shadier, moister zone where the digging was easier, and managed to pull a barely legal hunt-saving quarter.