Kellyco Metal Detectors - February 7, 2026

A Mysterious Bunker Hill Button, A Half Dollar Pre-Dating Its Location's Establishment, and the FIRST License Plate?? 🏛️🗝️

Metal detectorists across the USA are re-discovering relics and...

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Some finds tell their story immediately, others make you work for it.

These are customer treasures from 2025 that required digging through records, not just dirt.

Framed 1878 Etna horse wagon license plate

Jim P. - Pittsburgh, PA
Minelab Equinox 800

Jim recovered a two-horse wagon license plate from 1878 in Etna, just outside Pittsburgh. It's plate #1 - the first one issued that year. The plate broke into three pieces at some point, likely from soil weight or damage when it was originally lost. Jim found the first piece, then went back the next day and recovered the other two sections.

Municipal wagon plates from 1870s Pennsylvania don't turn up often. Most were discarded when wagons were scrapped or melted down when plating systems changed. This one spent nearly 150 years in the ground.

There's no way to identify the original owner. Etna's registration archives were lost in a flood, so whoever hitched up their two-horse team and paid for that first plate in 1878 remains anonymous.

Annie Oakley shooting demonstration disc

Mike M. - Pinehurst, NC
Whites Pro XLT

Mike found an Annie Oakley shooting disc in Pinehurst, where Oakley retired in 1918 after leaving the Wild West show. She continued giving shooting demonstrations in the area - her husband would throw discs like this one in the air, and she'd shoot them mid-flight. The shot discs were then sold as souvenirs.

Some discs spun off into the grass and dirt instead of being collected. This one stayed buried until Mike's coil sounded off at about 7 inches deep. The disc is half-dollar sized and stamped with "Shot with Remington UMC Cartridge" around the edge, with Oakley's name in the center.

A piece of sharpshooter history from one of the best to ever do it!

Collection of excavated Civil War belt plates and buckles showing both Union US oval plates and Confederate state plates

Sid W. - Germantown, TN
Minelab Equinox 900

Sid has been digging Civil War relics in Germantown for 37 years. This collection shows both Union and Confederate belt plates recovered from the same ground - a direct result of the town's strategic position during the war.

Germantown sits on what was the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, a critical supply line both armies fought over. Union forces occupied the town after Shiloh in 1862, using the railroad to move troops and supplies east from Memphis. Confederate cavalry repeatedly hit those supply lines, including derailing an entire Federal train just outside town in June 1862.

Almost every able-bodied man from Germantown (85 of them) enlisted as the "Shelby Grays" in the 4th Tennessee Infantry. They trained briefly in town before heading to Shiloh, Chickamauga, and Nashville. Meanwhile, 250 Union soldiers built Fort Germantown to guard the railroad.

Stephen C. - Pearson, GA

Minelab Manticore

Stephen found an 1834 Capped Bust Half Dollar at old school grounds. The school was built well after 1834, so how'd it get there? Stephen's theory: a kid brought it to show off and lost it.

In 1834, a half dollar had real purchasing power - equivalent to around $17 today. By the time schools were built in rural Georgia in the late 1800s or early 1900s, this coin would have already been "old money," the kind of thing a kid might fish out of a grandparent's drawer to impress classmates.

The Capped Bust design ran from 1807 to 1839, featuring Liberty wearing a mob cap with "LIBERTY" inscribed on the band. These coins saw heavy circulation, which makes finding one in this condition notable. Most were worn smooth from decades of use.

Stephen got lucky. Some kid 100+ years ago didn't!

Bill D. - Nelson, NH
Fisher F19

Bill found an undocumented 1700s homesite on his own property and spent four years detecting it with three different machines - a Simplex, Ace 400, and Equinox 800. He thought he'd hunted it out. Then he switched to a Fisher F19 and pulled a pewter button marked "23" - British 23rd Regiment from the Revolutionary War.

The problem: deed research showed someone lived on the site in 1773, but the 23rd Regiment didn't arrive in America until 1776. The button didn't make sense until Bill kept digging into records. The property's next owner was John Stroud, who fought with the New Hampshire militia at Bunker Hill. The 23rd Regiment was there too, in direct combat with Stroud's unit. They charged the militia three times and retreated twice.

Bill's theory: this button is Stroud's war souvenir from Bunker Hill, taken from a British soldier during one of those retreats. He owned the property for 20 years before finding it. Sometimes the best finds are right under your feet.

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Kellyco Metal Detectors 11217 Outlet Dr Knoxville, TN 37932