I haven’t had much luck lately on my hunts. Granted, I’ve cut back on my detecting quite a bit, but still, what does a man have to do around here to get some silver?!
So Saturday morning I met Steveouke and Silversmith45 from the Friendly Metal Detecting Forum at a grade school that was built in 1917. We found nothing so we moved on to some empty lots around the school. I hunted with my AT Pro with the 5x8DD coil. Aside from a bunch of clad, I found this Steffen’s Ice Cream Co. Good Luck Token.
Came up between a quarter and a half dollar on the Pro.
No swastika on this good luck token
The token was a little over six inches deep.
The Steffen Ice Cream Company was founded in Wichita in 1899 but was then known as the Citizen’s Ice Company. In 1903 the company changed its name to become the Steffen-Bretch Ice and Ice Cream Company. The founder of the business, Nicholas Steffen, was killed by a train while him and another man attempted to cross a railroad crossing on June 8, 1910.
I haven’t been able to date the token. I’ve found a couple of examples here and there but the best I can do for now is to tell you that at some point, the Steffen’s Ice Cream co. stopped making ice cream and this token obviously dates to before that date. Because a swastika was not used on the design of the token, I suspect this token was made after WWII, since by then, Hitler and his goons had given the swastika a negative connotation (prior to that, the swastika was a good luck symbol as well as a symbol for a sun wheel).
But I could be wrong.
Later on Saturday, while running an errand, I stopped by another elementary school and hunted for a little while. This school opened in the mid fifties and it is schedule to shut down this year. I found some clad there as well as a tiny ballerina pendant that read as foil on my AT Pro (VDI of 40). The reason why I dug this signal is that it was noticeably different than any other foil signal I’ve ever heard on the Pro. This one was silky and ’round’. I believe this is what someone else was talking about when they said that gold signals were softer than pull tab signals and foil signals on the AT Pro. I hope to run into this kind of signal again and hopefully there will be gold at the bottom of the hole!
Tiny dancer 4 inches down.
Thank you for looking!
The Dirt Is Good To Me 
This is a cool post. Thank you…