Elton Franks spends a lot of time with a metal detector in his hand, looking for lost or discarded pieces of history.
In early April, Franks was searching an area near Town Creek off N.C. 133 in Brunswick County when I hit this target, Franks said. When I dug it up, I saw a face . When you find something like that, your adrenaline starts going.
What Franks found appears to be a coin-like, Native American peace medal dating to around 1715. Only around 700 of the bronze medals which were given to Native American tribes by English colonists as a way of establishing or sustaining alliances are thought to have been made, and only around 30 are currently accounted for, Franks said.