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!

A cache or a spill?

Well, I had the opportunity to take in some time at the oldest park in town. So far my hunts in this park were feast or famine - and when good finds come up in this park, they stand out for some reason. My son was in tow and was a real trooper. He even helped Dad with "digging for pennies." In fact, that was all I was getting out of the ground was either pull tabs or pennies. It getting close to lunchtime when I decided to explore a rough edge patch in the park. I remembered back to what fellow "treasure hunter" Dan Hughes, author and podcaster, said regarding old parks. If you come across some bushes, be an adventurous soul and swing that detector not only around but also IN the bush, as that bush may not have been there 50-100yrs ago. Well, bushes during winter that are not evergreens are easier to approach so I swung around one not too far from where I had found that nice 10K gold ring back in May.

A nice quarter signal showed up around 2/3 of the way around the bush so I retrieved my coin and checked the hold with the pinpointer again. Nice signal again. The next thing I noticed was that several signals were coming not only from the bottom of the hole, but also the side of the hole and the top of the hole. Apparently I had come upon a coin spill of some sort or maybe even a cache?!? It took quite a while to sift through all the signals in the hole - sometimes I thought the signals would never end.  In the end though, I ended up with just over 10 dollars in quarters along with a few Canadian quarter pals as well. 

After I returned home, I checked the dates and ended up coming so close but ultimately had a no go on the silver - the earliest dated quarter I had was 1965. I guess the silver coinage will have to wait until my second season. 

My next post will include totals of all my clad along with current value of all gold and silver acquired. 

Old Fairgrounds

So just before the first major snowstorm was planning to hit the state in about 48hours time, I had an opportunity to hunt the local fairgrounds for a few hours. During the hunt, I gathered quite a bit of pull tabs and some random metal couplings used for electrical work. My most interesting find was one I did not know I had until I got home. When I first pulled this out of the ground, I thought it was a regular washer. Upon further inspection at home, I noticed not only was the "washer" really lightweight, it had markings on it as well. On one side read "OK VENS TOKEN." I had to do a bit of research on this to find its possible origins. It could be an amusement token used for "nongambling" purposes - date of the token is unknown but these token were commonly distributed from 1890-1930. 

Now all I need to do is get an actual coin in this date range!

Half a friendship pendant

OK VENS COUPON TOKEN 

A collection of hunting finds

 Since my detecting has come to a precise premium over the past month of so, I decided to gather all my finds together in one post. These items were gathered from various parks around town when I had a small slice of time to detect between appointments. I came across a few pennies with some patterns struck on them. One was in the shape of a cross, the other in the shape of a heart. Besides the clad shown below, I also found a piece with the inscription "Sweepstakes Bouillon" - R/9313-3.

Been a while

Well, due to work and family priorities, I have not hunted in awhile - hoping to get out this weekend before Old Man Winter really takes hold here in Big Sky Countryand hunting may not be an option. When that is in full swing, I plan to post on indoor activities related to the hobby such library research and online historical references to use. I have a few standbys right now, but I am always running into new ways to approach how to research and use tools not readily apparent to most people. Sometimes that little extra clue or piece of info is even to tip the odds in favor of finding something really unique. Until then - keep swinging.

P.S. I am compiling finds from several mini- hunts over the last two months and will post shortly on those items.

Daddy/Son hunting time

I know I have not posted in awhile - I just started my full-time job so my MD'ing time has become more precious. I had my nearly two year old son in tow for all my adventures over the Labor Day weekend. Got a lot of clad - just over $2 in the process, but the interesting finds were part of a bracelet, a Lewis & Clark two hundred year Great Falls expedition anniversary pin, and two relatively new Matchbox cars. My son was really excited to see those come out of the ground. He likes to look for "hennies" (pennies) now.

On a separate note, I picked up a kid's metal detector at a garage sale for $1. Very very basic. I will slowly incorporate this into my hunts as he gets the hang of it. Very good Daddy/Son time.

Morning Hunts again - that's the ticket!

With the long days of summer starting to get shorter and shorter, I still have a window of opportunity to hunt during the early morning hours. Now my morning coil sweeps across the morning dew on the grass. This past weekend I got around a few hunts in the morning along with another adhoc hunt at a local park with my almost 2yo son. Interesting finds this time around include a toe ring, a pendant that reads "Weather Tamer," and a city of Great Falls 5 cent parking token with the initials "RWM" on it. I am still in the midst of investigating the approximate date(s) of this token, as it obvious is not used anymore by local businesses downtown for their perspective patrons. Clad total was $1.43 with two Canadian cents

Just so everybody knows it is NOT all goodies I gather, I have included some of my junk finds.