I took my trusty XP Deus metal detector, Maurice, out for a spin at lunch time today. The sun was finally out and the temps hovered in the low 50’s with a brisk cool breeze. Since I have grown in confidence with the Deus, I decided to hit a spot in downtown Wichita that I had hunted before. The site has an interesting history as it is the northernmost part of what was once an island in the middle of the Arkansas river. The island was filled in in the 30’s in one of those famed WPA projects. The island was known as Ackerman’s Island and it was large enough to accomodate a baseball field and an amusement park.
Anyway, as far as I can tell, there were buildings in that lot since the island was filled in and today, there are remnants of multiple foundations and even, I swear, a buried railroad line (although I haven’t dug it up to find out for sure). In other words, it’s tough going if you want to hunt it. But, as I said, since I think I am Mr. Big Deus Bridges I went there for lunch.
After many false starts I finally got a signal that sounded like a coin. It wasn’t very deep and I recovered a 1976 memorial. A little later, I got a faint sweet signal and around 6 inches I found a 1953 wheat cent. Last, before I ran out of time, I got a choppy signal with enough sweetness that it got my attention. I was also getting a VDI in the Indian Head range. With these two things I decided to dig the target. I pulled a toasted Indian Head cent from about 7 inches. **after much effort, I can barely make out the date: 1907**
By the way, this is only the second one cent trifecta I’ve dug up in one single hunt.
The interesting part of this hunt is of course, the Indian Head. Not only because Indian Head cents are super cool but also because of the reason for its choppy signal:
Yep, that’s a chunk of rusted iron stuck to the coin. I am very impressed that the Deus not only presented me with a semi-sweet signal but also with a nice solid VDI. The Deus is a master of iron.
***I posted this picture on a forum and one of the gurus of the hobby pointed out that in this case, the detector will aggregate the signals given by both the coin and the rusted nail and it will likely interpret the signal as a coin. This is because the two metals are touching. So I guess the find is not as impressive as I thought but still it is cool***
Now you know why it’s hard to pull some coins out of the ground! I wonder if I would have been able to find this coin with any other detector.
Now, where is the silver?!
Thank you for looking.
The Dirt Is Good To Me 
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