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 am glad to have a standby park that will provide me with silver in lean times. I have spoken about this park extensively in the past and I am happy to know that other people have began to hunt it besides me. I know there are 1000’s of coins still under that dirt, alas, a little too deep for most detectors today. I plan on buying a Russian detector later this year that will hopefully get me to those coins.
Anyway, I decided to hunt the ol’ standby at lunch today in spite of a light drizzle falling and getting everything wet. By the way, the XP Deus is almost water proof as the stock headphones are rain proof. If you remove the controller and put it in your pocket (or in a zip lock bag) you’re good to go in the rain.
It was a good hunt:
A dateless Buffalo (only the second one this year), a 1946 wheat, and a 1958 Roosevelt dime. The button is kind of cool too. It reminds me of the coat buttons of the 50’s and 60’s.
So this year has been very different than last year, both in the time dedicated to the hobby and in the number of finds but I won’t complain too much as I am very blessed elsewhere. Perhaps this year will be a year of quality instead of quantity. I mean, I already found a Shield nickel, who knows what else is around the corner?
Keep on swinging!
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!
Although we were expecting snow today, it was not to happen until the afternoon so I grabbed Maurice and headed into 2014 full of hope. I went to the same school I went to last year on my first hunt of 2013. The school campus is so large that there had to be a keeper or two left.
After about an hour of digging clad, I got a sweet signal and I went for it. I will never get tired of seeing that edge in the coin ball”
The winner of 2014’s first silver coin of the year is a 1947D Roosevelt dime:
Next I found a cool holed token. This token was made by the Pace Manufacturing Company from 1927 until the 1940’s. It went into vending machines also made by the same company, such as the Bantam Mint Vending machine. The vending machines also doubled as slot machines in that after you made the purchase, you also could get tokens back that could be traded for merchandise. It was a clever way to get around anti-gambling laws:
I spent two hours at the school and I left as I did last year feeling that I haven’t yet even scratched the surface. By the way, I found 10 nickels.
So we are off.
Thank you for looking
After we had eaten our fill and everyone gathered in groups to gossip, er… I mean to catch up on family stuff, I silently exited the building, grabbed Maurice from the car, and headed across the street to a row of houses that looked to be empty. I wasn’t planning on hunting the yards since they were tiny and overgrown; no, I had the grass strip in my cross hairs. Interestingly, the original sidewalk from the mid to late 1800’s was still there but buried under 8 to 9 inches of dirt! I knew that the coins I really wanted were now beyond my reach but there were still plenty of targets in the soil covering the sidewalk.
I wished I had more time but I won’t complain about my take: two wheats from the 40’s, a bunch of clad, and three silver dimes from 1960, 1961, and 1962:
It sure felt good to hit silver again. I think I may arrange to hunt this town again. I know there is a hunter here who is kinda legendary but obviously he hasn’t cleaned out every spot.
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!
The Dirt Is Good To Me 