Lady Liberty Hiding in Dirt
02/21/16
<strong>Last year while detecting in Wyoming I found a round copper like disk.</strong> It looked like a bottle cap. Not seeing anything on it at the time I just put it in my finds pouch. We save all copper, brass and lead for recycling. Also I always save everything and clean it at the end of the day because you can never tell what is underneath all the dirt. Lo and behold under all the dirt was a face of lady liberty and the date 1868. My hunting partner at the time said too bad you don't have the back. Back I said? Yes it is the front half of a token issued by the sutler at Fort Sanders. He had seen one that a friend found. Oh well half a loaf (token) is better than none. Fast forward to this spring. I went back to the same spot with two of my detecting buddies (Marty and Tom). Marty, who still uses a XLT ( frugal doesn't even come close), found a back for the same type token. It was all crumpled up like someone threw it away. Now we have a token divided between two detecting friends. What do we do now? First we send it to Leonard Short in Virginia, the best relic restorer I know of. Well it came back (see the pics), now Marty and I have to come to an agreement on who gets "it". Everyone should have these problems. This is a very rare token because it has D.T. (Dakota Territory) on the back. I guess the moral of the story is don't dispose of anything you find until you determine what it is and always detect with good friends. I use a Spectra V3i for relic hunting with pretty good results so far. In my opinion there isn't a better detector. I also have a DFX, MXT and beach hunter. I am giving the token to Marty.