Bottle Digging, Metal Detecting, and Recognition
November 30th 2006 16:43
Recognition is really what treasure hunting is all about. The ability to recognize value amongst the backdrop of chaos which the multiverse seems to be. The metal detector itself is the very first, or one of the very first, electronic recognition devices.
Here is a true story illustrating the importance of recognition.
There was a bottle digger in Tampa Florida who was just crazy for old bottles. Of course the oldest bottles to be had there in Tampa were from the fort period, and many dated well before the civil war.
It was the custom during the time of Tampas fort period to utilize outhouses as trash dumps too. Once the hole was dug deep into the sand for the outhouse, then shored up with wood, it made a functioning facility for quite some time, which through use became filled with trash, then covered back over.
Large buildings of the city eventually covered the old fort site, and all these outhouse sites, and it is only during renovation or new construction downtown that these outhouses of old become available to modern day diggers. There is not much left by now, and most of the bottles are broken, but there are thousands in some outhouses and even a small percentage of whole bottles makes the digging worthwhile.
It was just such an outhouse that attracted the Tampa bottle digger I am speaking of. He recognized it for what it was, even though it was nothing more than a round dark stain on the surface of the otherwise white sand. He dug it all the way to the bottom, and made off with nearly 100 really nice antique bottles, many pontil types, some with dates, and not too few were vandenburg gins, which were highly coveted at that time, and valuable. This had been an outhouse to a very busy bar near the fort, and was a really good find.
The demolition site where this outhouse was found was itself a shambles, and our bottle diggers hole was just one among many, actually even smaller than some others there, so he just did a cursory job of covering up his diggings. Piles of broken glass and sand from his diggings covered the ground around this old outhouse.
The next day another treasure hunter came by, an old duck known around town because he was often seen out and about with his radio shack metal detector, which was so old and well used it was duct taped together. He recognized the bottle diggers hole for what it was, an excavation of an outhouse, and he proceeded to detect there. He found about 20 dollars face value in silver money from the diggings that the bottle digger had brought up from the bottom of the outhouse. He found one nice gold coin too. And many buttons. All dating before 1850.
Recognition. A valuable thing.
Here is a true story illustrating the importance of recognition.
There was a bottle digger in Tampa Florida who was just crazy for old bottles. Of course the oldest bottles to be had there in Tampa were from the fort period, and many dated well before the civil war.
It was the custom during the time of Tampas fort period to utilize outhouses as trash dumps too. Once the hole was dug deep into the sand for the outhouse, then shored up with wood, it made a functioning facility for quite some time, which through use became filled with trash, then covered back over.
Large buildings of the city eventually covered the old fort site, and all these outhouse sites, and it is only during renovation or new construction downtown that these outhouses of old become available to modern day diggers. There is not much left by now, and most of the bottles are broken, but there are thousands in some outhouses and even a small percentage of whole bottles makes the digging worthwhile.
It was just such an outhouse that attracted the Tampa bottle digger I am speaking of. He recognized it for what it was, even though it was nothing more than a round dark stain on the surface of the otherwise white sand. He dug it all the way to the bottom, and made off with nearly 100 really nice antique bottles, many pontil types, some with dates, and not too few were vandenburg gins, which were highly coveted at that time, and valuable. This had been an outhouse to a very busy bar near the fort, and was a really good find.
The demolition site where this outhouse was found was itself a shambles, and our bottle diggers hole was just one among many, actually even smaller than some others there, so he just did a cursory job of covering up his diggings. Piles of broken glass and sand from his diggings covered the ground around this old outhouse.
The next day another treasure hunter came by, an old duck known around town because he was often seen out and about with his radio shack metal detector, which was so old and well used it was duct taped together. He recognized the bottle diggers hole for what it was, an excavation of an outhouse, and he proceeded to detect there. He found about 20 dollars face value in silver money from the diggings that the bottle digger had brought up from the bottom of the outhouse. He found one nice gold coin too. And many buttons. All dating before 1850.
Recognition. A valuable thing.
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