For lunch today I took Maurice, my XP Deus metal detector, to a section of river bank where I found a number of rings a few years back. My intention was to dig all mid-tones. A good number of pulltabs are no longer buried there and this:
Not too shaby. I plan on returning and finish cleaning the area of all foil and pulltabs.
Thank you for stopping by.
Sunday evening I returned to the 1884 park with my trusty XP Deus metal detector.
I wanted to spend a little more time at the spot where I found the two Mercury dimes Saturday morning. This time I began my hunt with a high recovery speed and stayed at the same 5’x 10′ area.
I decided to try a two tone approach but it was tricky deciding on the cut-off for iron. I didn’t want to miss any small gold so I probably left the setting too low because I ended up digging about 20 rusty nails. Still, the hunt was productive:
Iron was found with every target except for the new dime, which was on the surface. The Mercury dime was a faint signal in spite of being only about six inches deep. I attribute this to the Jack that was in the hole with it. The Nickel is from 1949 and was found as part of a pocket spill with the two Wheat cents.
Let me recap so I can paint a picture for you. The area is approximately 5 feet by 10 feet. I conservatively estimate that I have dug more than 200 rusty nails and pieces of other iron from it since I began hunting the spot three years ago. During this hunt I dug two large pieces of iron near the surface. I find large pieces of iron near the surface every time I dig here. There appears to be no end to it.
Why all the iron? I surmise a structure stood here a long time ago; possibly even before the swing set stood there. I think this because I have dug very old door hinges and other pieces of iron that hold wood together from here. Theory number two is that the spot where the park now sits was used as a dump, which I understand was common on the old days. All the coins I have found here harken back to the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s, when the swing set sat there.
There you have it. A classic case of iron masking. There is something called silent masking. As I understand it, this is the case when you hear neither the iron nor the non ferrous target being masked. In other words, the coil goes over both the iron and the coin but the detector makes no noise at all. I believe this is happening here as well.
Stay tuned to see if I am right about this.
Thank you for stopping by.
I returned to the park this morning where I found the token the other day with the aim of exploring more deep signals with my XP Deus metal detector. I have been using the 9 inch coil lately to try to get around the trash.
I selected an area I haven’t explored in several years. I remember this area was heavily infested by foil and pull tabs but today I was amused to find out that the area was relatively clear of shallow trash. Seems like other hunters have been working the spot. After an hour of nothing but deep chunks of rusted iron, I changed my strategy. One of the beautiful things about the XP Deus is that it is ridiculously fast. At its slowest setting, it is as fast as many other machines at their fastest. This is known.
So I raised my recovery speed to 3 and moved to the 5’x10′ area where I have found 99 percent of all coins at this park. I actually watched a guy with an Etrack several years ago grid this very same spot and come up empty handed. I myself have come up empty handed several times but today, I was in a good mental place and got in the ‘zone’ quickly. I must add that the reason why a high recovery speed is necessary at this location is that if you sink your digger to about seven to eight inches randomly, you will likely find rusted nails and several small round pieces of amorphous rusted iron. I know that in the 30’s and 40’s there was play equipment here but why all the nails and other rusted iron are there I’ll never know. Here are my non-ferrous targets:
The round piece of rusted iron is a steel wheat cent. This is either the third or fourth I have dug since I began back in 2011. The rivet, I was told by my friend lawdog1, is likely from a pair of old overalls. The two mercs were around six inches deep but barely gave a signal as they were heavily masked by iron. I wonder how many more coins are there being silently masked by the insane amount of iron.
I will continue to explore this spot in the coming weeks to see if I can squeeze more silver from it.
Thank you for stopping by!
I went to Riverside park at lunch time today. Maurice was itching to find some silver. It was cold and windy but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.
I actually went looking for gold. It has been a while since I found any of the yellow stuff. Plus, I need the cash; to get me one of them Blisstools.
So there I was looking for pull tab signals when I run into my first old coin; a dateless Buffalo. A little later I got a screamer of a dime signal and produced a 1977 clad dime. A few feet away, I got another screaming dime signal. Thinking that I was going to pull out another clad dime, imagine my surprise when I saw that shinny 1939 Mercury dime!
At the end, besides the coins, I ended up with 6 pull tabs and about a dozen pieces of can slaw. It seems to me, judging by the endless foil signals, that someone lined up a dozen or so aluminum cans and just ran the mower on top of them. Can slaw is at the top of my most hated trash to dig up. Alas, I have to take the bad with the good.
Thank you for stopping by!
After a long while of not detecting (due to a myriad of reasons), I was beginning to feel like maybe I had reached that point in the hobby where I didn’t care for it anymore. Incredible, I know, given the amount of time I’ve dedicated to the hobby already. My head was not in the game anymore. I went out at lunch once and couldn’t concentrate. After that time, I spent my lunch hour running errands and such.
This Saturday morning however, I awoke early and no one else did. Even the dogs were asleep. I didn’t want to sit around the house so I grabbed Maurice and headed to my deep silver park.
As usual, the park was quiet. I really like this park. It has a lot of character in my opinion. I decided to try something new with the Deus and so I hit the areas that have produced the most silver and which, I believed, were now empty of all good targets. Right away I began to pull targets I missed before. The first few things I dug up were pull tabs and bottle caps. I was surprised by these because I have tried very hard to remove all trash from these areas and I thought I had finally cleaned them up. After the trash, I began to get good targets. A 1990 Canadian penny; hmmmm… a few memorials; really??!! A couple of wheats; oh my! and finally, a 1940 Mercury dime!!! Whaaaat!!! Seriously, I have gone over these areas at least 100 times; really!
Seeing that silver disk embedded in the clay brought me back to life. I am back in the fray.
Here’s to many more like it!
Today is a bitterly cold day. Needless to say I won’t be hunting. Yesterday, it was a different story; sunny, warm, perfect. I know I said that I was going to use my lunch hour to walk instead of hunting but yesterday I was in good spirits. Steve and I are undertaking a super-secret project and it is well on its way. It promises riches and definitely, it promises good times. So, in my excitement, I decided to hit the old trashy park. The old trashy park is very large and it has many areas I have not explored properly. I decided to go to such an area and was having a really good time cleaning up the beaver-tail pulltabs when I got a mixed trashy signal. If you don’t know by now, I dig these all day long. I dig them especially when the high tone component is somewhat sweet.
I dug my hole and the first thing that came out was a piece of can slaw. No surprise there. I should have taken a picture of it. Anyway, before I covered the hole I stuck my Garret pinpointer into the hole once more and I got another strong hit. I reached in with my gloved hand and voila! this is what I saw:
I always get excited when I see a worn coin in the hole because it makes me hopeful for a Seated.
Alas, no less of a cool coin but a Seated it was not. I had in my hand a well-worn 1928 Mercury dime. Silver always lifts my spirits and this day it made me even happier. Needless to say, this spot will get worked over pretty well.
I won’t be posting about the super-secret project for a long while but if you see me walking down the street grinning like a fool, it won’t be because I am crazy!
Thank you for looking!
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:
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.
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.
I took the day off today so I could go to the doctor. No surprises there: lose weight, exercise more, less salt, more vegetables, etc, etc. To relax after the stressful doctor’s visit, I took Maurice for another foray into Wichita’s oldest park. This park is very small and very, very trashy.
After about an hour, I got an ugly, trashy signal. I dig those at this park because I want to clean the park in preparation for the 11 inch coil that is forthcoming. Before I dug it however, I checked it with my 4KHz program and wow! the signal changed to very distinctive iron grunts and a smooth, silky, come-and-dig-me-big-boy, kind of signal. I couldn’t believe the difference changing the frequency made on this signal.
So I dug the hole and around the 8 inch mark, I saw the silver disk of my third ever 1916 Mercury dime! My last two 1916 Mercs didn’t have a mint mark and I couldn’t see if this one did. I wasn’t about to rub it though! (Just in case you don’t know, the 1916D Mercury dime is worth some $$, almost $700 in this condition)
I had to deliver some paper work to Steve so I called him and he said I could come by to wash the coin and see the mint mark.
Steve ran some water over the dime and we set into the task of determining if a mint mark existed.
It had a mint mark! Steve got his trusty printer’s loupe and after not being sure handed the coin to me. I immediately saw a D on the back!! I started dancing and celebratin’ but Steve still wasn’t sure.
Eventually, I came home and put the coin under my microscope:
Alas! the S couldn’t be more clear.
So there it is. Another dream dashed against the rocks of reality.
Still, this is silver coin number 4 from that park for me and silver coin number 51 for the year.
Thank you for looking!
After Stevouke found a Seated quarter and lawdog1 found a shield nickel, I went out with the dim hopes of keeping up with those two. Me and Maurice spent an hour scouring the old trashy park and managed to find a measly 1917S Mercury dime:
I tell you, I am happy to find any silver but it would be nice to find a Seated or a Shield nickel!
Thank you for looking!
Since it was a beautiful Fall day, I decided to take Maurice for a Seated coin search to the large park near my job. I have Seated fever now, thanks to my friend Steveouke, who had the audacity to find a Seated quarter the other day (Congrats again Steve!). Unfortunately, I only had 30 minutes or so to spend so I hit the dirt fast and furious(ly).
As it turned out, it was a productive 30 minutes. No, I didn’t find my Seated but I managed to extract a cool 1943 Merc and a 1936 Buffalo nickel from the park. Oh, I found a tiny alien parabolic antena. Ok, it’s either that or an old copper earring.
So my Seated drought continues for yet another day. I KNOW there is a Seated coin in them parks. I just gotta find it. 🙂
Thank you for looking!
The Dirt Is Good To Me 