
Johnson School “Penny Lunch” Token – Aluminum – Lexington Kentucky (Fayette Co. Schools)
This Johnson School "Penny Lunch" token (aluminum) was OVER 13" deep on private property on the North side of Lexington. It remains one of the deepest coins I've ever recovered. I estimate this to be ...

Manx Triskelion symbol found (Isle of Man?) on Copper Saddle Adornment
This old beauty found in downtown Lexington near Broadway and High Streets during house construction. Copper material... and silver dollar sized. I've not found any clear connection between the Masx triskelion and Lexington, KY, but ...

Palmolive-Peet Co Buy one Get one Free Antique Brass Token – Chicago P-009
These 1920s bronze tokens were loyalty advertising tools that were given out with pocket change for future purchases. There are many varieties often specific to the region of the promotion. I've seen them from many ...

US Civil War Whistle Made from a 58 Caliber Minie Ball
Carved Minie Balls Took Many Forms - Including this Rather Creative One! During the American Civil War, some soldiers carved minie balls, which were bullets used in their weapons, into whistles as a form of ...

Provenance, Prioritization and Compromise – Metal Detecting and Archaeology Coming To Terms?
I received a series of questions on my last post from a reader named Byron. As I started my response, I realized that I've heard a similar question at least a dozen times recently, so ...

Phoenix Hotel – Henry Straus Cigar Bar Tavern – Lexington, KY
These are two Phoenix Hotel (1820s - 1977) Henry Straus Cigar Stand tokens (1920-1930s?) from Lexington. I found both, but one was in Bourbon Co. and one was in Lexington. What are the odds? In ...

Don’t Let Metal Detecting Rallies Impact Detectorist / Archaeologist Cooperation
This is a response to the thoughtful protest post by Craig Swain about DIV (Digging in Virginia) metal detecting rally at “Ransack a Historic Site” - I'm focusing more on the rallies in general than illegally hunting ...

Using Minelab E-Trac with Pro-Swing Harness – A $4.00 Hack for More Comfort
I've been using the excellent new NEL Big coil (it's 15 x 17 inches, y'all!) in some of my civil war camp searches over the past few weeks in a successful attempt to sniff out fragments ...

Reader Question: Could you Put Metal Detectors into Footwear?
You can incorporate detectors into anything into which you can isolate a transmitting and receiving coil connected to circuitry/software to manage the electromagnetic signals and look for variations to alert on. You would need ...

Thought Experiment: Could a metal detector detect bullets in the air?
This is a real question someone asked me: Could a metal detector detect bullets flying by? This depends on the processing speed of the machine and the tuning. Nothing off the shelf would do this, ...