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Finds for 01/07/08 and 01/08/08
ASUtodd
Posts: 1,312 ✭✭
I got off work yesterday at my normal 4:30pm time so I decided I would try and get some metal detecting in. I sat all day at work yesterday trying to figure out where I should go in order to get the hang of my new DFX and to also find enough stuff to help me figure out what I Was doing (no junk).... Well after some long thought it hit me like a ton of bricks!! Our Fraternal Order of Police Lodge sits on an old Boy Scout camp and is also currently used by the YMCA and Kiwanis club for summer camp. I knew that this would be a good spot because no one would be there but me and I figured that very few, if anyone at all, had hit this place before. Well 4:30 rolled around and I was running out the door and home. I managed to get to the lodge by 4:45.... don't ask just know I got there... I jump out of the car excited about what treasures awaited me, or junk, but either way I was determined to have fun... Well I did. By the end of the first day I had found $2.86 cents in change (clad), one kids necklace charm, and one 1899 Indian Head Penny. The Indian Head was a complete surprise to me. I had been finding all modern clad items when I got around a flag pole that had recently been installed. When searching around it I got a weird signal. I pulled my pinpoint trigger and it showed the item to be about an inch deep. The signal bounced back and forth and finally displayed a 1 cent sign, tone, and VDI. I figured, "Heck another Lincoln cent to go with the other 20!" Well I dug and saw that the coin was bent so I figured it was worthless. Well I used a bit of nature's degreaser (spit) and found, to my surprise, that the coin was an indian head!! It is in HORRIBLE shape and bent like someone hit it with a shovel (no I didn't hit it) but to me it's priceless becasue it is my first Indian Head! I guess whoever dug the flagpole out dug this up also.
Today I sat at work fidgeting around waiting for 4:30 to hit. Well at 4:10 I couldn't stand it and ran out the door. I had a Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) meeting tonight at 7pm there so I figured I would hunt until everyone showed up (yes even in the dark!). Well I got to the lodge about 4:30 and started my work in an area that was away from the newer playground. This area had older swings and was built sometime in the 70's. Wel the first target I hit was a 1958 Wheat cent!! My first Wheatie! What a two day run so far! Now if I could just find some stupid silver! Anyways, I went back to searching when I got a strong, and I mean strong, 25 cent signal. It was loud, sharp, and the graph was peaked out with one solid bar... I thought, "SILVER!!!!!" Well I pinpointed the target to 3.5 inches and then plunged the shovel into the soft earth. I pried the ground up and sitting right under my clump were 4 quartes neatly stacked one on top of the other. One 1980, one 1973, and two 1971 (none silver). I looks like someone buried them there. I hit that area super hard trying to see if this was someone's hiding spot but nothing else was found in a 10 foot area around this. By nights end I had $3.89 in clad money and a gold earing.
So far with my new DFX I found all modern clads (except a dollar), a Wheat Penny, Indian Head Penny, charm, and earing. I hope to keep hitting this spot and searching deeper to find the silver. I know it is there.... Has to be..
Todd
Here are the pics: (excuse the bluriness I was in a hurry and it is mainly clad items)
Today I sat at work fidgeting around waiting for 4:30 to hit. Well at 4:10 I couldn't stand it and ran out the door. I had a Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) meeting tonight at 7pm there so I figured I would hunt until everyone showed up (yes even in the dark!). Well I got to the lodge about 4:30 and started my work in an area that was away from the newer playground. This area had older swings and was built sometime in the 70's. Wel the first target I hit was a 1958 Wheat cent!! My first Wheatie! What a two day run so far! Now if I could just find some stupid silver! Anyways, I went back to searching when I got a strong, and I mean strong, 25 cent signal. It was loud, sharp, and the graph was peaked out with one solid bar... I thought, "SILVER!!!!!" Well I pinpointed the target to 3.5 inches and then plunged the shovel into the soft earth. I pried the ground up and sitting right under my clump were 4 quartes neatly stacked one on top of the other. One 1980, one 1973, and two 1971 (none silver). I looks like someone buried them there. I hit that area super hard trying to see if this was someone's hiding spot but nothing else was found in a 10 foot area around this. By nights end I had $3.89 in clad money and a gold earing.
So far with my new DFX I found all modern clads (except a dollar), a Wheat Penny, Indian Head Penny, charm, and earing. I hope to keep hitting this spot and searching deeper to find the silver. I know it is there.... Has to be..
Todd
Here are the pics: (excuse the bluriness I was in a hurry and it is mainly clad items)
0
Comments
Happy hunting!
Rick
1836 Capped Liberty
dime. My oldest US
detecting find so far.
I dig almost every
signal I get for the most
part. Go figure...
Who cares about how rough it is- I have dug some scary ones over the years, myself. My most recent one was a fluke, and the exception to the norm.
It don't matter HOW they look, an IHC will put a smile on my face every time.
Consider that as an indicator that you're on the right track, and you'll be silvered quite soon, at the rate you're going.
The Swami says you are due a Mercury dime very soon.
With the sheer volume of modern stuff you are digging, it shows you're doin' things right. Now all it will take is a visit to the right places, and presto, we'll be seeing more of you on the monthly awards thread.
Attaboy- keep the coil to the soil!
Todd
Musketball = lead
It's usually fairly easy to determine. Both can be rather heavy.
Todd
WTG- it sounds like you have a potential musketball there.
Todd
Todd
To See Pics Click Here
Todd
Todd
That's as good as a silver coin in my book!
Congratulations. I dug my first around the time I got my first Indian cent, too. (Back in the early 1990s, in my case). It was a rush.
As your historians told you, it could predate the CW. The plantation sites I mentioned were at their peak in the 1820s-1830s. Of course the first ones I found were in NC (Asheville) in an 1880s cemetery. I also got a Confederate Enfield no-ring Minie there, though, so the site was likely a spot where Confederate sentries were posted prior to there ever being a cemetery on the hilltop. The Battle of Ashevile was fought nearby in 1865 (a very minor skirmish- nobody died on either side- one guy lost a leg to a cannonball, I think).
Two conclusions:
1) You have a promising site, there.
2) You're past the total novice stage and you have been "initiated". When those first couple of old silver coins come up, you'll probably end up a "lifer" like some of us here.
See- when you were lamenting over on the World Coin Forum that you wouldn't be able to afford collecting much after the baby comes, I TOLD YOU not to sweat it... the dug stuff don't cost you nothin'! (Except batteries, gas money, and time, of course). You'll find your interests branching out into historical buttons and other relics, now, which is all good.
Congratulations again.
PS- it's 19th century, your musketball, but that is probably as close as you'll ever be able to date it since it's the round ball. It is probably not prior to the 19th century, I wouldn't think, because it's my understanding that the Rev War balls (from the Brown Bess musket and the like) were larger, around .75 caliber. Yours is early 1800s to maybe 1870s or so, most likely in the decades around the CW. Round balls were used later than the CW for hunting, of course, and still are by some folks today, but yours is at least 140-150 years old, I would think, because of that nice patination.