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There is some life left in me

8 Apr

As it is April already, I better write something.

Went out detecting for the first time this year with the club. We elected a small park that not too long ago was a dog-park (a park with a fence where you can let your dog off the leash). It is no longer a dog park however. The park opened in 1940 and some silver was found but not by me.

I hunted with the Tesoro Compadre and managed to find a historical piece of lead. Yes, it was historical darn it!

The most interesting part of my hunt was when concerned citizens from the surrounding neighborhood came around to make sure we were not a gang. Well, the joke is on them because we WERE a gang! Ha! A gang of old farts who somehow managed not to grow up and who dig in the ground looking for shiny stuff. Ha!

The other cool thing was the large group of children who congregated around us. I sure hope one or two of them was bitten by the bug and who knows, in 10 years they may gain membership in our prestigious club.

Even though I only stayed for an hour and a half, it was fun catching up with the guys and hearing their stories. Hopefully, the next post will have pictures of cool shiny stuff.

Thank you for stopping by!

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Yay! A Silver!

12 Aug

I actually found this little guy a week ago while doing a noble job for a church here in town. The Wheat State Treasure Hunters metal detecting club met at a local church to do a bit of community service and help them locate some lost items. They kindly told us we could keep all the coins we found and I think by the end of the day, 8 or 9 silver coins were found by various club members.

For me, it had been a while since I found my last silver coin. I can’t even take a whole lot of credit for finding this coin with Maurice as I saw it before I ran the coil over it. The 1943 War Nickel was laying all naked and pretty at the foot of a very old tree, obviously washed out by the rain.

Be that as it may, finding this coin got me all excited about metal detecting again, so hopefully there will be more of these in the future.

yay-a-silver

A rewarding hunt

10 May

Met up with friends today to hunt an old park. We hunted for 6 hours and although the morning started cool and cloudy, the sun eventually came out and the day turned into a beautiful Spring day.

For my part, I dug up two silver Roosevelt dimes and two Indian Head cents. The silvers were shallow, both at about 4 inches deep but the Indians were much deeper at around 8 inches. Try as I may, I could not find the Seated coin I went looking for.

Nonetheless, I LOVE seeing the silver coins when they first come out of the ground. I particularly love to see the edge of a silver coin sticking out of a dirt ball.

silver2

silver1

keepers

For now, my first Seated coin is still in the ground; somewhere.

Thank you for looking!

Silver number 25

7 May

Yesterday at lunch, Maurice (aka Zoltar) and I met lawdog1 from the Wheat State Treasure Hunters group at Riverside park. We hunted for an hour with little to show and I had to return to work but lawdog1 stayed to explore the spot a little more.

Later, I got a text from him with the picture of a beautiful 1903 Indian Head. Along with this picture, there was a picture of the exact spot where he found the Indian with the words ‘X marks the spot’ or something like it. I jokingly replied that I would stop after work and find the old silver he missed.

Well, I did stop at the X after work and I pulled this:

1940

 

A nice 1940 Merc at only 4 inches down. The audio signal was as sweet as they come but the VDI was 88, which at 12KHz on the Deus, it usually means a Memorial cent. Let that be a lesson for all of those who don’t dig penny signals!

1940-clean

 

This makes silver number 25 for the year. I am still behind 15 silvers. I need to be at least at 40 by the end of May to catch up. Wish me luck.

Thank you for looking!

Masked Barber

24 Apr

I met Steveouke at lunch for a quick hunt around the spot where I found the Indian Head yesterday. I got there a couple of minutes before he did and got to swing the detector a few times before I got a solid nickel signal. I dug a relatively shallow hole only to find an old piece of tin instead of a nickel. I ran the coil over the hole out of habit before covering it again and I got the sweet, silky, tell-tale audio signal and a solid VDI of 91. Gasp! This signal did not exist prior to me removing the tin from the hole! I dug maybe an inch deeper and out came this pretty thing:

1900-dirty 1900

I was taking the picture of the dirty coin when Stevo arrived. He was just in time to see the coin with the fresh dirt on it.

When I find a coin with very little wear as this one, I infer that it was dropped soon after it was minted. So someone lost this precious in the early years of the 20th century. How cool is that?

Soon after, I dug a signal on the wheat range and I found an old bullet. Now, about 100 yards away from where we were hunting, there is a row of houses. I know for a fact that one of those houses was built in 1901. Would someone be firing their rifle so close to these houses? I’d like to think not and I’d like to think this bullet is pre 1900’s.

bullet1

It looks as if the bullet hit the Buffalo.

My lunch hour went much quicker than I like and I left Stevo hunting in the park.

AT ANOTHER PARK, AT AN EARLIER DATE

I hunted my deep silver park the other day and found a bunch of wheats as always and these two things.

tax

I remember the first time I found a Kansas tax token. I was so intrigued by it. Now, they don’t excite me as much although they are an old and cool find. This one is one mil. Rarer for me are the 2 mil ones. They are made of aluminum and they never come up in good shape.

During that same hunt, I dug a deep iron signal and I found this:

saint

A tiny lead Saint Christopher. The fact that it is made of lead and the fact that it was over 8 inches deep tells me it is an old relic. The mystery to me is that it doesn’t appear to be part of a pendant but rather it seems to be a tiny statue. As you can see, it has a flat base that allows it to stand. There are remnants of the black paint that covered it at one time and the word GERMANY is stamped on the base. The Barber is used for size comparison. Interesting.

I am taking a trip this Saturday to the Eastern Kansas border for a Karate tournament. I hope to have an hour or so to hunt an old park I know about.  I am going back to the 1840’s and 1850’s time-wise and maybe, just maybe, I may be able to find a Seated coin.

Wish me luck.

Sunday afternoon silver

15 Apr

I met Steveouke and another member of the Wheat State Treasure Hunters group for a hunt at an 1940’s school that now sits vacant.

We spent about an hour there with not much to show for it when we decided to hit my old trashy park. I wanted to show them what I mean by the wrap-around signals I’ve been concentrating on lately.

We hunted for a while, again, with no finds to speak of when I came upon one of those deep signals. I dug a hole and at the bottom I got a strong hit with the Garrett pinpointer. I reached in and pulled out a nice silver disc: a 1935 D Mercury dime.1935

So my streak has lasted 7 days so far. 7 days of silver in a row. My best streak so far. After 9 nine months of owning the XP Deus, I think I am beginning to get the hang of it.

Thank you for looking!

First Indian of 2013

2 Feb

I went out today to join a group hunt organized by my friend Steveouke. The weather finally turned and it promised to be an enjoyable hunt.

After finding over two dollars in clad coins I moved over to a different area of the field and was joined by Stevo who promptly dug up some kind of old camp site looking piece of iron. His find told me we were on very old ground and I began to listen closely to the deep whispers. A minute later, I got a deep signal with no VDI. After digging a near 9 inch hole, I finally brought up my first Indian Head cent of 2013:

Indian

 

It’s an 1898 Indian in pretty decent shape. So no silver today but the Indian is really cool.

The find of the day was made by one of my hunting friends from the Friendly Metal Detecting Forum. I went to him to see his finds and he told me he had only found clad and a junk ring with no markings. He pulled the ring out and in his hand was this bulky gold ring! The reason it had no markings is because it had been obviously re-sized at one point. He could easily get $300 melt for that thing! He was happy to say the least.

So a good time was had by all.

Thank you for looking!

Silv in my pock

27 Jan

Maurice and I hunted with Stevouke today. I started with clad and wheats as it is my fashion nowadays. Eventually, I hit a faint, deep signal and I went for it. At about 8 inches deep I pulled a dirt clump with a pretty silver edge poking through. In my excitement I forgot to take a picture of the dirt ball with the coin in it. It’s such an awesome sight!

1914-dirty

 

The 1914 Barber dime has no mint mark which means it was minted in Philadelphia. No other silver was to be had though I had a great time with Stevouke as always.

Thank you for looking!

It was not my kill

21 Jan

Yesterday, me and Maurice met lawdog1, a fellow hunter and member of the Friendly Metal Detecting Forum at an old school site. The sun was shining and the temps hovered in the 50’s.

The site dates back to the late 1800’s and it’s now a grassy field. We began swinging and after some trash finds and an unidentifiable wheat cent, I heard lawdog1 exclaim “Oh my God!, oh my God!” For a split second I thought he may be hurt but when he turned and looked at me he had a smile that told me otherwise.

I ran to where he was still kneeling and immediately saw the large disc sitting on top of his plug. As I knelt down beside him and his AT Pro I immediately saw what he had just dug:

1876

An 1876 Seated quarter in near perfect condition!!!!

My heart began to thump as if I just kissed my first girlfriend. This is the coin I’ve been looking for for a year and a half! I was almost as happy as he was just to have been there when this beautiful coin was unearthed after being in the ground for well over a hundred years.

My soul did a victory dance but I took no scalp; it was not my kill.

Congratulations go to Lawdog! who should change his nickname to Luckydog1.

Thanks for looking!

Silver on the last hunt of 2011!

1 Jan

I managed to squeeze one more hunt this year courtesy of this fantastic weather. I think we made it to the low 60’s with full sun. Redd from the Friendly Metal Detecting Forum (FMDF) suggested we try a very small town called Geuda Springs. The town has a storied past due to the natural springs that flowed there back at the turn of the century. I’ve known about this town for many years and I thought it was a great idea to hunt there. I was met there by Patton, also from the FMDF and we set to find the abandoned baseball diamond that Redd said existed in Geuda Springs (we didn’t find it). After driving around for a while, Patton and I decided to wait for the rest of our group (Redd, keepmeoutside, and cloudykid). We found what once was one of the main streets of the town but now it’s overgrown with grass and we started hunting there. Soon after, I found the 1945 Mercury dime. Later, I moved across the street to some empty lots and found the 1954 Roosevelt dime and the 1944 wheat.

It was 11am by then and the rest of the group was still missing. Patton decided to try another town to the West and I waited until noon. I called Redd but only got his voice mail again. As I was on the highway on my way back to Wichita, I got a call from Redd. He asked me why I hadn’t showed to the hunt. It turned out that he was at the baseball diamond all the while!  The reception at the town we were at was not very good so he never got my calls. Oh well! I am sorry I didn’t get to meet the new guys.

All in all it was a great hunt. Patton is a great hunting partner. He has a great sense of humor and he really enjoys the hobby. He was hunting with a bit of bursitis –the great ones play through the pain, they say. Still, it was fun. I managed to make my totally random goal of 35 silver coins for the year and also, I found my first silver with the V3i.

Without further ado, I give you silver coins number 34 and number 35:

1945 Mercury dime and 1954 Roosevelt dime

#34 and #35 fresh from the soil

Merc, Rosie, and wheat

Here they are a bit cleaner

I think I am going to go for a goal of 75 silver coins for 2012.

Thank you for looking!