Phew! I thought I was going to go all through 2012 without finding a Barber coin. Luckily, the XP Deus metal detector is a monster in iron. I returned for an hour to the 100 year old school that I hunted yesterday and was able to pull a trade token and an 1897 Barber quarter.
The token is about the size of a U.S. nickel and thanks to Steveouke, I know that it was made by a company called Mills between 1913 and 1932. The token was used in slot machines that were designed to prove that the machines themselves were not gambling machines! They did this by telling the gambler (gamer?) how many coins he or she would win on the next spin. If the number shown was zero, then you would put your coin in anyway because the next number shown could be something other than zero. The machines also dispensed gum for your coin, thus making the machine a combination of vending and gambling machine. Interesting to say the least.
Not a bad haul
The Barber quarter gave a dime signal. I wonder if the reason for that is that the quarter is very worn. The coin was about 5 inches deep.
Although the spot where I found these two (and the 1881 Indian Head and 1920 Merc yesterday) is iron infested, the Deus was able to pick up their signal nice and clear. I think I will hit it one more time before I move on to my other spot where I think I will find silver.
Thank you for looking!
The Dirt Is Good To Me 
I’ve decided that you do so much better than most hunters for one primary reason. You are out hunting a lot. I tend to hunt once or twice a week, so if you go out daily, you couldn’t help but do at least 3x as well as I do. Now add in your average length of time you spend hunting daily, and you are bound to have your coil over way more ground that I see. I’m sure that a top-of-the-line metal detector can’t hurt either, right?
LOL! Well, I do agree that putting in the time is key to success. However, I actually cut down my hunting time drastically. I used to hunt every Saturday and Sunday mornings but now I have other things I do on those mornings. Sometimes, I get to hunt on weekend afternoons. Now even my lunch hour hunts have been cut down.
I believe in the Wichita area, location is way more important than time. And yes, a detector that is fast and can handle iron is of utmost importance but having said that, Steveouke is doing really well with his Ace 250.
I guess I should have included time spent on finding locations, but it was all meant as a compliment, to note that you actually hunt. I think there are a lot of folks who go out once a month and still wonder why they get poor results. I try not to be in that group, but I am sure that I would find more if I worked at it more. And you are certainly right about detectors. You have a great hunting tool, but people have been finding coins since the very beginnings of metal detecting, with what we today would consider very crude tools. The brain behind the detector finds the targets, and the detector maybe helps make it even more fun. Happy hunting!