Went out at lunch time today with my XP Deus metal detector. I returned to my deep silver park safe in the knowledge that there thousands of silver coins there waiting for me to dig them up.
I was working an old creek bank when I got the signal; deep with no VDI but with that unmistakable sweet audio signal. I went down to dig it and run into my old friend dried clay. That’s a BIG problem in this park. As we are in the third day of 100+ temps, the ground is quickly drying up and at this park that means hard as heck clay. So inevitably I scratched the coin in the hole. When I pulled it out my heart sank. I was looking at the reverse of a very worn old silver Mercury dime with what looked to me to be a D for the mint mark:
The date on the obverse of the coin looked like a 1916 to me. Oh man! Although the nick was very small it was still noticeable. I was bummed. I texted my friend Stevouke and he asked that I send him a picture of the reverse. When I took the picture, I enlarged it on my phone and I could see that the mint mark was in fact an S not a D.
Upon further inspection, I now could see that the date was more like a 1918 or 1919. It’s a keeper alright, just not The One (as Stevo called it). Which makes me feel better. When I do pull that sweet 1916D from the ground, I want it in as pristine condition as I can get it!
Oh, and let me get this off my chest: I shared my settings on my Deus with a guy I’ve never met at one of the forums. I gave him the very same settings that have been getting me all this loot. Well, he tried them and couldn’t find anything but tin cans. So he posted about how I gave him these settings that got him nothing but trash and would someone else please help him set up his Deus properly so he doesn’t waste anymore time digging trash. Ha! the ungrateful rat bastard! It’s alright. I’ve shared my settings with two people; one is a local guy who is pretty cool and then this ***hole. There, it’s off my chest now.
***UPDATE*** The guy has since said that he didn’t mean to insult. After he re-read his own post, he said he could see how I would read it that way***
Thank you for looking (and letting me rant)!
The Dirt Is Good To Me 
You know you can call me anytime when you need to rant. I’ll even buy you some reading glasses.
Always such a supportive friend! LOL! and hey, those mint marks are teeny tiny!
Some people just have no class.
And clay is a big problem in my state. I haven’t done any metal detecting, but I think if I take it up this could be a real problem.
A.K.
Yeah, clay can be like concrete once it’s dry. As for the guy, he apologized and said that he didn’t mean to offend although after he re-read his post he could see how it seemed that way.
It’s all good.
For the few that know me, Pulltab also shared his settings with me a while back, which I appreciate very much. I just want to point out that I am not the ungrateful rat bastard he’s talking about. I may indeed be an ungrateful rat bastard, but I’m not this particular one. Thanks for the lessons, man.
David,
I believe I was very clear when I said that the other guy was a local guy who is cool. LOL! That was obviously you.
BTW, I heard someone else use the term ‘rat bastard’ once and I really liked the way it rolled off the tongue so I am happy I had an opportunity to use it. Feel free to use it too.