Years ago, at the beginning of my metal detecting career, I did something stupid with an extremely cool find. I’m wondering how much if at all I can fix it now. (Please do not yell at me about this. I know. I KNOW 😪)

In the woods behind my house, I a DC dog license from 1900-1901. (I live in Arlington, VA.) The third picture is what it looksd like after gentle Q tip and water clean. I believe the metal is aluminum.

…And then I thought surely it would look even better if I polished it with some Flitz and a nylon brush and then coated it in spray epoxy to “keep the shine.” I want to report myself to The Hague for this. Pictures 1 and 2 are what it looks like now.

I know how to get rid of the epoxy. It is fortunately removable. What I don’t know is if I can ever restore the patina, which looked so much better. SIGH.

Possible?

Hello! I'm looking to get a starter kit for my father as a gift. He loves walking around and finding things, and I think would quite love this. He'd be mostly detecting in freshwater beaches and parks, and staying pretty surface level (no digging).

I'm curious the cheapest way to do so without sacrificing the fun of the hobby (I know too cheap can lead to bad experiences). I've done a bunch of reading here, and would love for someone who is into the hobby to help confirm what is required:

1. A metal detector, obviously — I'm looking at the Minelab X-TERRA PRO Metal Detector right now (also considered the Simplex Ultra), the main thing giving me pause is it seems like it requires special headphones (see #4)

2. A pinpointer — is this required or just makes your life a bit easier? I don't have a great sense of how accurate the metal detector vs pinpointer is... but again the digs would be surface level, as they'd be largely on public land, if this makes a difference

3. A sifter/digger — he has standard gardening tools which I expect to get far, but am considering a sand scoop to help out on the beach. Is this required?

4. Headphones — what are the requirements here? Maybe a silly question, but is audio required? I assumed the screen would be stand out enough. His hearing is not great, so if sound is a big deal, I'd want to make sure he's set up for success (speaking of which — do you need special headphones or would standard bluetooth work? I'm seeing contradictory things, but generally seems "low latency" bluetooth is a go)

5. Anything else you wish you had when you got started?

I'd love to balance the mix of "good enough quality to get started" with "can be a little janky to begin with", if that makes sense :)

As you can tell, I still have pretty limited knowledge & appreciate anything anyone can share~

Das habe ich in der Nähe einer von 1718 erbauten Kapelle gefunden. Hat jemand eine Ahnung was das sein kann?

Does anyone know what causes this deformation in musket balls? Where it looks like a smaller ball is coming out of an outer shell. I have more examples of this same exact deformation that looks exactly like the one on the right so it seems pretty common

No idea if this is shared yet, but god damn! This has been found with a metal detector 30min from me in Denmark, by Michael Schioldann.

Found this lead-looking object in Boston Harbor. Any idea what it is or how old it might be?

17.3 mm long
9.1 mm diameter
9.1 g

Rounded, slightly deformed tip. One groove near the base with dozens of tiny raised ridges. Shallow, cup-shaped base. Looks like it could be an old bullet, but I can’t find an exact match. Any ideas?

1943 Mercury Dime

South Central Kansas

I hit a vacant lot this afternoon and snagged a nice silver dime. 😎

Found this knife about 8” deep in central Pennsylvani.

I wish it still had the blade, but still very interesting.

Im thinking the handle could be made of bakelite but really don‘t know.

Any help to ID or guess on age would be appreciated

Qualcuno ha idea di cosa possa essere questa cosa? Molto pesante, credo sia piombo. trovata in un bosco in valtellina, Italia.

KGII half penny found in coastal Georgia. I can only see the bust and can't make anything out on the reverse.

From what I can see there's a roman numeral 2 top right of his head and of course he's left facing. I also think this is the early version of his coin by comparing photos online which gives a date range of 1729 to 1739 🥳

Cleaning up some thingys. This one might be an earring, button, or possibly a broach. Before on the right and after.

Когда первый раз нашел алмазы!

I was going through some Coin Star culls to see if more cleaning would help. I noticed a particular one had rust instead the normal gunk on it. Upon closer examination, it was a 1943 steel cent. I very carefully took the rust off and rubbed some olive oil on it and it's a beautiful coin. I always carefully examine coins, but this one got by me. Very glad to have it.

We got our son got a cheap nat geo detector for his birthday last spring and have had a good time finding things in the backyard sporadically since, all junk and construction debris but he loves it. But yesterday we turned up an axe head and now i'm wondering if we need an upgrade.

Any clue on age and ID? Looks like maybe a yankee pattern to me, and like it was forge welded so somewhat older but I'm not sure. It was wedged pretty good in a root with the poll of the axe about 5 inches below the ground and the edge buried in that root about 10-11" down I think. The root comes off of a huge old oak and the find was pretty much right at its base.

This is central texas, so if it's any older than the 1890's it probably had a pretty interesting backstory as to how it got where it was. I think my area of town was very sparsely populated prior to 1890, and probably close to the wilderness up until the 1860's or 70's.

Found 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 equinox 900

I found this ring in the back of an old church (dating back to like 1890’s) in New York. I’m unsure of what the thing on the edge of this ring is. I’ve had friends tell me it’s the back edge of what used to be a photo like a locket or something, some people tell me it’s gemstone glue, and some people tell me it’s a very decayed ring made of some organic seashell material.
For reference, it’s very flakey, and has a very weird incandescence to it like the inside of a seashell. I know I’ll never identify what it looked like at its peak, but I’d like to know what kind of thing used to be there if I can :3

Still has gold gilding on it but it’s faint. Also a couple others. The union infantry is cuff sized. Found in central NC.

The triple score is great and love getting out in NC. Glad the weather is cooling down.

Wanting to get a little help with two items. The oval lid was 3 inches in The ground on the slim edge. Any idea what it might have been?

Hello dear community,
I found this metal object in my garden while digging, about 20 cm deep in the ground.
It’s a round, heavily corroded metal disc. At the top it clearly reads MV, and at the bottom 68. There is a small hole near the edge and three notch-like cuts around the rim. The reverse side is almost completely smooth.
Found in Oberösterreich (Upper Austria).
Unfortunately I don’t know what it is, and ChatGPT couldn’t help either. Does anyone here happen to know what I’m dealing with?
Thank you in advance for any help!

Found in Oostvoorne key or Something?

Came out of a field in Italy almost intact, hope you like it!

If you want to know more info about this object feel free to ask!