Springtime Metal Detecting

It's that time of year again... When the cold embrace of winter givesway to the semi-cold embrace of not quite winter. I recently dusted off the old Teknetics metal detector to do a little dirt fishing! I had permission to search an old home foundation from the late 1800's.

When we arrived at the location there was no evident signs that a house had been there. It was in the middle of the woods a few feet off of a dirt path. But my friend was adamant that an German family had lived in the house until the 1920's.

So with detectors in hand we began our search. Several hours later and a few hundred freshly dug and filled holes, we had a bunch of scrap iron to show for it. We found food tins, stove pieces, a couple thing-a-ma-jiggers and one of those whats-a-ma-doodles. It confirmed that there was definately a house at the site, but it also confirmed that they were obviously poor and dropping coins was not very likely.

As we were about to call it a day, I swung my detector in an area I thought might have been the front of the house, since it was near the path. I got a pretty good signal and dug this beautiful brass skeleton key.

It's the only one I've found and I really fell in love with it. There's no markings or obvious maker's marks, but after a little research, I found similar keys that seem to have been made at the turn of the century for front doors.

It has definately reinvigorated my passion for detecting this year.