Welcome to the next level

Decided to try my coil around an area of the oldest park in town which does not get any attention. By "attention" I mean a section that virtually never gets any modern human activity and as such there are few changes made to it over the years. So I started off where I left the last time I was there and came across a 1944 wheat penny. About 20 minutes into the hunt, I got a strong signal which was very similar to my Mercery dime discovery - right on the money! This time it was older -- 1923 -- and in fairly good condition.

The next possible signal I got did not even seem like anything special. It was "iffy" at best. For any Xterra owners out there, the best I can describe it is a faint signal (as in, it barely overcame my threshold tone) and had a very narrow window that you hear it. The difference between this possibly good signal and a high VDI (42-46) signal from some aluminum scraps was the fact it was CONSISTENT at all types of angles swinging the coil. Junk will not behave like this, instead giving a much more erratic signal. The difference is subtle hopefully I now have a better feel for this in the field.

Anyway, what happened next can only be described as the greatest set of finds in my detecting career to this point. About 5-6inches down in very compacted and dry soil, my glove revealed the silvery edge of a large coin with stars around the perimeter. Could it be what I thought it was? Oh yes, I laid my eyes on my very own Barber quarter - 1902!!

My oldest coin to date. I swung over the hole again. There was still a signal coming out of there - you have got to be kidding me! My pinpointer guided me to more shiny silver off to the edge of where I made my plug. This time I was rewarded two fold... another Mercury dime - 1918 and sandwiched with it was my very first standing liberty quarter. But as I pulled it out I realized my screwdriver I had used to loosen the compacted dirt had scrapped the 3 o'clock position, taking out the E Plurus unum. The coin had enough wear on it to make the date unreadable but the reverse revealed it to be minted after 1917 (Type II).

Now no more than a foot from this three silvers in one hole was a solid penny signal near a tree that I decided to dig to see if it was a wheatie. At first glance, I knew it was not a wheat penny. The reverse was the back of my first Indian Head Penny! The obverse had some gunk on it so I waited to clean it at home. Imagine my surprise as I revealed the date - 1883! My oldest coin to date. It is going to take some time before I get down from this "cloud nine."

I can only hope that I have finally figured out how to read silver with my machine because now all I can think about is getting my next piece.

Eat your Wheaties, get a Merc

Don't just swing anywhere

Lately I have been hunting in parks that are adjacent to some of the more historical landmarks in town. The focal point of the hunt has not been on the "center of the action" spots that most everyday people would think would be the place to swing your coil. Instead, I look at an area and see if there is any evidence of recent soil disturbance. What you aim for is areas that have not gotten any attention from the maintenance crew. These grounds tend to hold the older coin at a shallower depth than most other areas where there is often many rounds of topsoil removal and reseeding.

The Wheaties keep coming

Lately I have not shied away from the obvious "penny" signals. Sometimes these come out of the ground as old wheat pennies, and sometimes come out of unexpected places. I recently pulled a 1926 Wheat out of a pile of silt that had piled up from a wall drain - only 1 inch from the surface! Oldest one to date, 1919, came from a strip of grass across from the ol' swimming hole.

 

The first Mercury Dime, quite the surprise!

While on my hunt right next to an old train depot, I got an unusual VDI signal coming from my XTerra 705 that I have not seen before (at least one that was this consistent). Keep giving a solid "46" from all angles I approached it so I decided to check it out. About 5-6inches down, what I initially imagined to be just some type of "can slaw" ended up being a nice shiny silver piece for me. Imagine my surprise when I took it out thinking it was a silver Rosie and it ended up being my very first Mercury dime - dated 1942! That find made my day. After some research, I discovered 1942 had a small portion of Mercs that were minted with a "2" stamped over last "1" in "1941" - these coins are worth about $250-600 depending on the condition. Closer inspection revealed I did not have this error coin but it was exciting for a brief moment to think I found something potentially rare.

Have some other finds to post from other hunts, so stay tuned.

The best 30 minute hunt ever!

Had a chance to quickly jump out of the house for a very brief hunt. Ended up going to two locations. The first was the 1917 house, and the second was a nearby gathering place that has been around part of the city for ages. About 10 minutes into the hunt, I pulled this out of the ground about 3-4 inches down in a spot where the land owner had been parking his truck. At first I thought it was just a copper/brass emblem with no real good identifying marks. When I got it home and washed off the other side, I got a wealth of information. The inscription read "Douglas the Tailor  Originator of the Concave Shoulder and the Unbreakable Front  85 S. Howard St.  Akron, Ohio"

Front

Back

  After doing some research I discovered that Doug the Tailor did exist in Akron, Ohio - the only reference I found with an actual date attached to this business was in a 1917 publication of the Elyria Evening Telegram - not sure if this was when the emblem was made or exactly when the business was first around. I will have to do some more research. Perhaps the historical society in Akron can assist me.

Elyria Evening Telegram 1917


Relocated the last part of my hunt since I initially thought I was on my way home to provide my better half with reinforcement on the crazy kids, but was called off. The very first good signal I got was a nice consistent  28-30. About 5-6 inches down I unveiled my very first old foreign coin, a 1920 Large Canadian Cent in pretty good condition.

After this find, I was on cloud nine and then had to head back to the casa. Could not have asked for a better short hunt then this - wonder if another one will someday top how productive this one was in such a brief amount of time. Guess I will be returning this lovely spot again in the future.

Sophomore season yields first silver!

So as a follow up to my set of hunts I made that resulted in the discovery of the old button. That same park that gave me my first gold along with other interesting finds ended up giving me my first "deep" signal. I can understand now what the veterans speak of when they refer to "deep" signal. Some people refer to deep targets as giving a "narrow" signal - I guess this is one way to describe it. The signal is narrow in that it barely exceeds the threshold limit set by your machine and its detection area is rather "narrow" or "smaller" than compared to a target that is shallower. (Not sure if any of this made sense, as I have been frustrated myself with trying to understand what others have used to describe how deep targets are picked up). If anything, the only way someone can understand how a deep target is picked up by their machine is purely a matter of experience with detector and knowing what it is trying to tell you.

Anyway, back to the point here - my XTerra gave a consistent 38-40 signal and I immediately thought "here's another dime." After I extracted it from about 6-7inches down, I was surprised on how clean it looked fresh out of the ground. Well, to my surprise I read a "1947" on my very first silver coin. It certainly highlighted the hunt and just like finding my first gold, it made me want to find more of these awesome coins.

Glad to have another first checked off my list of finds - not a bad start to my sophomore season of detecting. Hopefully a sign of things to come.

The mystery button...

One of the interesting items that I came across in my hunt at the 1912 house in my last post was what looked like a rather large button. My initial impression was that the button had some sort of baseball pattern with a letter "E" in the middle.

Mystery button

I posted on a few metal detecting forums to get some feedback on what this relic might be. Although I did not get any solid info - one member did observe that the image on the button was not an "E" but rather part of an image of a belt. Using this to base my research on, I scoured the internet, looking for anything that looked close to what was on the button. Many, many, many images poured through later,



I discovered the very same design on a smaller button for sale on an auction website, offered through someone who had business that dealt with all sorts of button, along with other trinkets. I emailed the owner and was surprised to get a rather quick reply. She indicated that she will consult with her other "button friends" and let me know what she found out. A few days later, I got the following response

** I believe it is made of brass. Nice size too. It represents a belt buckle, and I would think probably dates between 1910-1930. Unless it has a backmark you would not be able to tell who made it **

Very cool! This is perhaps the oldest relic I have found to date. Will continue with this site - even sweeping through with slightly different sensitivity/threshold settings.

A few small hunts and a new baby

So I have already gotten a start about a month and a half ago on hunting local parks whenever the weather got above 40F. I have gotten some nice little additions to my collection - just a few months into the new year and I scored my second overall gold ring. It was small one (0.75g) and only 10K but I am not going to complain (gold is gold!).

Also found a old car wash token - or what I thought was an old car wash token. The markings indicate according to my research to be a modern token (at least past 1980) that is still used today.

My last hunt was at one of my favorite parks in town with lots o' history behind it and what do I discover that nice spring afternoon - another detectorist! I was floored. I have been at this hobby for just over a year now and this is the first other person with a detector that I have seen in town. It was great to talk detecting with him. He even uses the same machine as I do - yeah! Go Minelab Xterra! It would be great to have another person to detect with that has an appreciation for the hobby as well.

This was the last hunt I took in before the birth of my second son (less than 12hours after that). Ended up with some interesting relics this time around. I unearthed some old railroad parts, including a very large square nut. I also discovered parts to an old Hubley Texan Jr. Cap gun (circa 1950s) - there was just one of the sides behind the cylinder but enough for me to ID what the item was. I will have to go back to the spot and see if there are other pieces left over.

Also came across an old lipstick case from COTY (New York) when lipstick cases were made out of metal. Hard to decipher what era it is from based on the decorative pattern.

Some people might be bothered by detecting with another person or even get territorial over someone detecting in "my park" or think "they are going to get all the good stuff" -- not me. If you are in this hobby with those thoughts, you are probably in the hobby for the wrong reasons. There is always be something great to find, there is plenty of ground to hunt, and there are lots of great people out there who y can learn from and share in your hunts with.

The last item - I have saved the best for last - was a cap to a old tube of listerine toothpaste - circa 1930s!!  Very cool find, some of the front part of the tube was still attached that gave Lambert Pharmacal Company along the edge (the LPCo symbol embossed on the cap). LP Co was the original company to develop Listerine.

2012 Finds Total

As the year of 2012 comes to a close, with all its ups and downs, I decided to take my treasure finds and total them up for the year. Here is a compilation of all clad, gold, and silver finds along with their approximate value.

Clad:
Coin           Quantity         Value 
Dollar             1                $1.00
Quarter       125              $31.25
Dime           108             $10.80
Nickel           83               $4.15
Penny          395               $3.95

Clad Total:                    $51.15

Precious Metals:
Gold: 1 Ring at 10K puirty: Amount: 8.175g - Spot price on 12/31/2012 was $1663.57/toz

Silver: 1 Lizard pendant at 92.5% purity (sterling): Amount: 7.260g - Spot price on 12/31/2012 was $30.14/toz

Precious Metal Total: $188.84

Grand Total value of 2012 Finds: $239.99

Not bad for my rookie year! Can't wait to get back out there. In fact, if the temperature just a little over freezing, I WILL be back out there. Until then, have a great new year!