On a recent trip to Avoca, in the central Victorian goldfields, I was detecting in an old timers site after any bits of gold they had missed. I had already found a couple of sub-gram pieces, one a specie. I had of course also found numerous bits of lead shot , tin and other metallic rubbish. After moving a few hundred metres further into the old timers diggings, I commenced detecting down a hill towards a small gully when noise exploded from my GPZ. My immediate thought was I had found another large piece of junk. But as we all know, you dig everything, no matter the sound. I commenced digging and after creating a hole at least 20cm's deep by a metre wide, I had still not unearthed the object. When moving the GPZ over the hole it screamed, but I could not determine where the exact sound came from. I took out my Minelab Pro 35 and had a poke around the hole and starting digging again where the Pro 35 indicated. After digging down around another few centimetres I found a smallish piece of light metal caked in dirt. Disappointed, no. I was expecting rubbish. I ran the GPZ over the hole, just to check, and it exploded with sound again. I kept on digging for another 10cms before finding a 5cm by 3cm piece of what looked like brass. It was heavy and curved, with a steel insert at one end. The top side had a curled leaf like design caved into it and what looked like a hole on one side where a screw could have been inserted. I had no idea what I had found but at least, to me, it wasn't junk. After returning to camp, at the end of the day, I washed the piece of brass and thought it would be a good addition to my collection of other bits and pieces I had found in the old timers workings over the past couple of years. I then turned to the small piece of light dirt encrusted metal I had found. It had a round shape with an oblong piece attached on one side. I cleaned the piece in water and to my surprise, saw faint details on the metal. I cleaned it some more and then looked at it through the magnifier app on my phone. The design looked like a dragon holding a coat of arms and I thought maybe Chinese in origin. After returning home, I showed the piece to a couple of friends who had differing views, but all thought the design was a winged dragon. I took a photo and enlarged it. Straight away I saw that it wasn't a dragon but an eagle. After doing some research on the web I saw similar designs used on American Civil War uniform attachments. I then submitted the photo on Google Find and immediately it came back with an image exactly matching what I had found, except this image was complete. I had found the tongue portion of an Engineer Belt Buckle from the American Civil War with a date of around 1860. Wow, to me this was as good as finding a gold nugget. The questions that came to mind were many. Who wore this? How did it get to Avoca in central Victoria? How was it lost as it must have been of significance to the owner? Was it worn during any American Civil War campaigns? I'll never know the answers to these questions but I am so pleased I had this great find with my GPZ 7000.
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