Tag Archives: Barber dime

Memorial day

30 May

I went out this morning to Linwood park where I’ve been finding old coins for a while now. I left the Bliss home and took the Deus instead. I just wanted to hunt and not worry about the new detector.

The very first signal was a nice 1904 Barber with no mint mark. Then I dug a bunch of deep trash. Last I got a crackling more than a signal. The only reason I dug it is because the all metal mode told me there was a definite object down there. The target was a 2 mil Kansas tax token.

mem-day

I really like my Deus. I know it. I know what it’s telling me. I just wish I could find deeper coins. 9 inches seems to be the limit for dimes. It can go deeper on larger coins of course but dimes are so much more common.

At any rate, I found that dime in the same 5×5 area around this young tree where I’ve found a number of old coins before. As you can see, there is no lack of trash. All that trash with the exception of the bottle cap was deep.

More rain is in the forecast so I don’t know when I’ll get another chance to detect.

Thanks for stopping by.

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More diatribe

4 Dec

I hunted for a short time today at the site where I’ve been finding old coins. I’m still perfecting the Money Making Protocol (MMP) with the trusty XP Deus.

So, if you don’t know already, I believe there are still thousands of silver coins in our city parks but they are either too deep or masked. The MMP is designed to find me the former and it didn’t disappoint this morning.

After digging a couple of very deep iron I got a signal within the parameters of the protocol. As per the protocol, I dug a 4-5 inch hole. If this was a small piece of foil, this is where I would find it. There was nothing in the plug nor in the hole. I then dug the hole further to the 9 inch level (the pinpointer is 9 inches long and it’s very handy for this step). If this was a coin, it would be in the dirt or in the hole. I explored the dirt that I dug up and found nothing. I then put the pinpointer in the hole and got a weak ding. I cleaned the hole and pinpointed again and the target was a bit off center but at the bottom. At this point, I expected to find deep iron and dug a couple of inches more of dirt. I applied the pinpointer to the new excavated dirt and got a nice solid bang. Still expecting iron I was pleasantly surprised to see this:

1912

Yep, this puppy was down about 10 inches. Now, there is only moderate wear on it so I think it was dropped near the date of minting.

1912 Barber, Philadelphia mint.

I am very excited for the possibilities. I know there are more Seated coins in that park and I aim to get me at least one.

Thank you for looking!

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The Money Maker Protocol

18 Nov

Yesterday I went to a very old park in the city. I won’t call it a hunted out park because, really, ALL our parks are hunted out! Anyway, a couple of years ago, a pair of detectorists hit this park with their E-tracs and pulled a number of very cool coins out of there. Needless to say, scores of other detectorists descended upon this park but none repeated the impressive results the two guys with their Minelabs achieved.
The park is, of course, very trashy and, as it is very popular today, the trash continues to pile up.

I myself have hunted this park a number of times and managed to pull a silver coin now and again. This time however, I took my XP Deus to this park with a very specific protocol in mind. Protocol is a fancy word for what you all do now when detecting. Do you dig a signal or not? The answer to that question depends on your protocol.

I specifically wanted to try the spot where the two guys mentioned above found all their coins. Heck, I was there for one of their hunts and watched as one of them dug up a super cool Seated dime. I know they did a very thorough job at that spot but being me, and the reputation of the E-track notwithstanding,  I believe there are still many cool coins to be had there.

I walked to the very spot where KansasDave found that Seated dime that morning and I began applying my protocol. I had to dig a couple of rusted bottle caps to establish some parameters and then I began to seriously look for treasure. Not long I had a couple of signals that fit the criteria of the Money Making Protocol. The first coin was a wheat minted in 1919. Cool. Next signal was a wheat from 1918.  Next signal turned out to be a very toasted V nickel. I can barely make out the first two numbers of the date: 18xx.
V-nickel

I continued and dug up a couple of small pieces of aluminum foil. The protocol is susceptible to this so I still need to refine it. Not to worry though as my next signal gifted me with this beauty:
Stander-obverse

A 1917 Type 1 Standing Liberty Quarter.
Stander-reverse

A few feet away, the next signal turned out to be a 1901 Barber dime with a New Orleans mint mark:
Barber-front

Barber-reverse

The last signal of the hunt was a very deep 1964 memorial. Geez!

So I think that the Money Maker Protocol is a winner. I wouldn’t apply this protocol to just any park. It is designed for very old parks.

hunt

Hopefully I will get to hunt a bit more this Fall and Winter.

Thank you for stopping by!

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The 11″ beast goes to work

1 Nov

I’ve done three hunts with Maurice and the new 11″ coil. The first hunt I felt rushed and couldn’t really relax and concentrate. The second hunt, I hit a park where I’ve found silver recently. I wanted to see what the new coil would do there. It didn’t disappoint:

Hunt1

The rusted object in the middle is actually a really cool pin from some kind of farmer’s fair. I haven’t yet cleaned it enough to take a picture of it. Right below it, there is a wheat cent that appears to have been buffed until all detail was gone.

The third hunt with the new coil happened at a site that has long since stopped producing. That is exactly the reason why I chose the spot. Again, I spent maybe 30 minutes there and I found a 1919 wheat cent and a 1902 Barber dime.

Hunt2

Although the ring in the picture has no corrosion, I don’t think it’s real gold.

I sure hope this is a sign of things to come. I have many old sites that I will revisit with the new coil. Stay tuned.

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Number 50 is another Barber dime

11 Oct

I took Maurice down to Riverside park again today at lunch. I decided to return to an area that appears was a pond at one time. The earliest aerial photo I can find, from 1938, shows that the pond was already dry by then. Anyway, I’ve found a few old coins along the erstwhile bank so I thought I would try again.

Not too long into the hunt, I got a deep squeak and I decided it was worth digging. Around the eight inch mark I pulled this, my fiftieth silver coin of the year.

50

It’s another 1899 Barber dime with no mint mark (which means it was minted in Philadelphia). Two things to note here: The coin was laying against rusted iron and the coin was at one time, exposed to water for a considerable time. I thus deduce that this coin was dropped when there was water in the pond. Brilliant, I know.

Before I covered the hole, I scanned it with the pinpointer and I got another hit! Unfortunately, it was a piece of ancient barbed wire (I think) and possibly the piece of rusted iron the dime rested next to.

wire

I did a cursorily cleaning on the coin and this is the best I can do for now:

50clean

After my mandatory 30 minutes, I called the hunt done:

hunt

The half round object near gave me a stroke. It was at the bottom of a 9 inch deep hole and I thought for sure I had a large cent! Alas, it is a piece of a very old pocket watch. It is decorated (it is cool how long ago we even decorated pieces that were not meant to be seen) and the holes and pits you see is where this piece fit with the other parts of the watch. The wheat cent is a 1944 and the square nail is the millionth square nail I have found in our city parks. I will never know for sure why there are soooo many square nails in our city parks.

Now, I only need to find another 50 silver coins between today and New Year’s to meet my goal of 100 silver coins for the year.

Thank you for looking!

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Another Barber dime and a first for me

7 Oct

I decided to take Maurice to the oldest park in the city for lunch today. I know there is a Seated coin in that park and I aim to find it.

For today however, I must be content with my 6th Barber dime of the year. This dime was barely two inches under the ground, surrounded by trash and iron. Among a cacophony of mid tones and iron signals there was a high, sweet sound, just barely discernible. Alas, my trusty XP Deus never lies (although I often misunderstand it) and out of the ground came this 1899 O Barber dime.

1899O

obverseOmint

When I first looked at it at the park, I thought it was a D mint mark. Once I returned to my office and ran some water over it, I could see the slightly misshapen O. I love it! This is my first New Orleans mint mark ever. The mint at New Orleans was active for only a short time and now I got a coin from there.

This is my third silver coin from this park. It is a difficult park but it is loaded with goodies. Besides the silver coins, I’ve found a heavy gold bracelet here plus a number of old nickels including Buffaloes and V’s plus a couple of Indian Head cents. Oh yeah, and a bullet from the 1850’s.

It won’t be long now, before this park gives up its Seated coin to me.

Thank you for looking!

P.S. I forgot to mention that my good friends have a new nickname for me: AlmostASeated. I must say I’ve earned it. LOL!

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Stress reliever

23 Aug

With all the other things going on in my life, my detecting time has diminished greatly. I decided however, that 30 minutes of hunting at lunch time was better than no hunting at all so I resumed my lunch hour hunts and after a few days of covering the park where I found the last war nickel my XP Deus  hit on two cool coins:

1919

 

The first was a 1919 Buffalo nickel. The Buffs I find usually don’t have a visible date but this one does so I will post about it.  Because of the all iron nails at this park (don’t know why there are so many), this nickel came up as a square pull tab. The signal was sweet however and I opted to see what it was.

1899

 

The second coin was a well worn 1899 Barber dime. This guy was mixed in with some aluminum foil so the signal was a warble of mid and high tones. Again, the sweetness of the high tones made me dig it.

I think this small park has many, many more coins and I aim to dig them all up. Wish me luck.

Thank you for looking!

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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.

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Back to silver

5 Apr

After work I stopped at my old trashy park to do some hunting. While there, I got a text from my friend Stevouke telling me that today he was going to catch up with me on the silver coin count. He has 11 silver coins for the year with his trusty Ace 250 whilst I had 12. I told him he may well catch up but that I wasn’t gonna make it easy for him.

So after about an hour I came upon a signal you don’t get very often in the old trashy park. This was undeniably a coin and a dime at that. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t expecting a silver but a clad dime. Instead, this beauty came out of the 6 inch deep hole:

1907

clean2

This is silver coin number 13 for the year.

Later I found a few more interesting things including a 1919 wheat cent.

hunt

I haven’t found a shot shell in a while and the arrow head looking thing appears to be a tip from a fence maybe.

So it was an enjoyable afternoon and I am back to silver after a whole month of not hunting much.

On my way to the car I saw this bit of graffiti. Normally I disapprove of graffiti but this was too clever to pass up.

rabbit

Here’s to finding more silver in April!

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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!

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