My name is Michael Raftery and my family is from Petersburg VA. I live in NY and decided to take a trip to Petersburg to do some Metal detecting. I have a cousin in Petersburg that buys and restores old beautiful homes. He was gracious enough to let me detect his properties. I was in VA for a week and on my last day there I found something really Awesome! I got a weak single that seemed pretty deep and after doing some pinpointing I locked on to it. I started to dig and about 12 inches down I pulled out what seemed to be a big chunk of metal and after I knocked some dirt off I realized what it was. I had in my hand a post Civil war Union Officers Belt Plate! I think it dates to around 1870. After a hard day of detecting and not finding anything really significant I couldn’t believe my eyes 👀! My settings came from Andy’s Equinox book and I just slowed down and took my time and I was rewarded. Thank Minelab for such a great machine! Minelab Equinox 800 does it again!!!!!
