It was Monday May 4th, 2020 and was a beautiful sunny 63 degree day. I care to mention the date because I’m a kid of the 80s who grew up on Star Wars. Naturally, I was hoping that the “force” would be with me during my metal detecting outing. I went detecting with my buddy Gary at an old site. This site has been detected for many years but it is always the thrill of what could be out there that always has us going back. We had hunted it a handful of times with an occasional coin here and there, what I would stumble upon this day would definitely qualify as a box checked on my metal detecting finds bucket list. I decided to hunt in a spot that was new to me. My finds would range from the infamous “can-slaw”, or chunks of aluminum cans shredded by farm implements to chunks of old iron nails, and the like. I saw an old water washout running midway through the field and I thought to myself, let’s go check it out. I was halfway through my search when I got a slamming 85 on my Garrett AT Max metal detector. The adrenaline rush kicked in and I was thinking to myself, “This is it – you have a solid silver coin!” I proceeded to dig my plug and checked the hole. I didn’t hear a sound which meant the item was in my plug. Upon further examining the plug I could see a tiny silver circle at the very top of my plug. I thought to myself – this looks like the top of an old dog tax tag. The adrenaline started to subside as the reality of what I thought was a good find was nothing but an old dog tax tag. I proceeded to pull upward on the item and what would spring out of the soil would leave me totally surprised! There it was – an Indian Trade Silver Cross of Lorraine that measured almost 5”. It had intricate detail markings on the cross and a ‘CA’ stamped in the center. The maker's mark was of a silversmith named Charles Arnoldi (1779-1817) from Montreal, P.Q. I can definitely say that the “force” was with me that day!

Buy Garrett AT Pro Metal Detector with Waterproof 8.5" x 11" DD Search Coil Now