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Old spot provides some fun...
Riccar
Posts: 789
I was driving home from work today and got home earlier than expected... right during the end of my kids' nap time so I thought I'd take a detour. There's an old school house (1895 = 1 room, 1910 became 2 room) that was built by some of my town's first families that lived here. A few years ago I actually tracked down the son of one of the original founders of this school (he's now around his 90's) and received permission to hunt it. This guy has been a lot of fun to talk with about the "old days." He's even let me detect his house (also built in the late 1800's) and those times I go there I seem to end up talking with him more than I do hunting. 
Well, today I thought I had about a half hour to hunt so I'd go poke around the old school. This place has been pounded in the past. I've heard about guys in my local detecting club talk about guys hitting it for over 20 years so it's definitely not a "ripe" spot to detect. For the record, I've only found one silver at this site after many outings there (happened today).
I drove up today and noticed a tree was gone in one area. I thought, ok, I'll hit that first and if I still have time I'll do a little wandering. Well, my first few targets consisted of tabs, caps, and clad. However, I then hit a solid dime signal. My machine was telling me it was only about 2-3 inches down. There are a lot of rocks (gravel) that they've trucked in there, so I dug around the area and popped out the dirt. This is what I saw:
As soon as I saw the coin, I knew it wasn't clad... don't you just love the sight of silver coins that come out of the ground?!
I did a little rinsing with water to see the date: it's a 1918-S mercury dime. This site was one of the first locations I had researched when I first started detecting and since that time I've hit better sites and made better finds. It's not a valuable coin, but knowing the history of this place makes it special to me. One of my friends calls a coin that looks rough from the affects of the soil "ground kissed," and I'm thinking I'll just leave this one uncleaned in order to let it remain in the "ground kissed" state.
Well, by the time I had finished searching this little patch of dirt, I figured my kids were awake and I would go pick up my daughter since she likes to take quick little outings with me. I took her to the spot where I dug the coin and took her picture with the coin.
I took a close-up of it in her hand and my wife said the dime almost looked like a quarter in my daughter's tiny hand.
Here's my little girl sitting on the old steps of the school house. I was thinking these steps look like something right out of the set of "Little House on the Prairie." Fun to think about the history this site has seen.
And last but not least, I had to provide this last picture for our forum friend ZOT... He's known to have his obligatory "wild life" shot from each of his outings, and while I was going through my pictures tonight after getting home, I noticed I had actually captured a hawk (or turkey vulture) in the background of this picture. (you can see it above the roof... my daughter actually pointed him out while we were there so I looked up and saw this hawk scouting for dinner)
Not a spectacular find today, but it was fun for me since this was an unexpected find at one of the first old places that I would hit when I first started detecting. Now, 3 kids later, I'm happy to find a lonely, "ground kissed" merc.
Hope everyone is well... Even though I may not post as many finds anymore (due to the "3 kid" factor) I'm still enjoying reading everyone's posts and wishing I could be out there with you more.
HH, Rick
Well, today I thought I had about a half hour to hunt so I'd go poke around the old school. This place has been pounded in the past. I've heard about guys in my local detecting club talk about guys hitting it for over 20 years so it's definitely not a "ripe" spot to detect. For the record, I've only found one silver at this site after many outings there (happened today).
I drove up today and noticed a tree was gone in one area. I thought, ok, I'll hit that first and if I still have time I'll do a little wandering. Well, my first few targets consisted of tabs, caps, and clad. However, I then hit a solid dime signal. My machine was telling me it was only about 2-3 inches down. There are a lot of rocks (gravel) that they've trucked in there, so I dug around the area and popped out the dirt. This is what I saw:
As soon as I saw the coin, I knew it wasn't clad... don't you just love the sight of silver coins that come out of the ground?!
I did a little rinsing with water to see the date: it's a 1918-S mercury dime. This site was one of the first locations I had researched when I first started detecting and since that time I've hit better sites and made better finds. It's not a valuable coin, but knowing the history of this place makes it special to me. One of my friends calls a coin that looks rough from the affects of the soil "ground kissed," and I'm thinking I'll just leave this one uncleaned in order to let it remain in the "ground kissed" state.
Well, by the time I had finished searching this little patch of dirt, I figured my kids were awake and I would go pick up my daughter since she likes to take quick little outings with me. I took her to the spot where I dug the coin and took her picture with the coin.
I took a close-up of it in her hand and my wife said the dime almost looked like a quarter in my daughter's tiny hand.
Here's my little girl sitting on the old steps of the school house. I was thinking these steps look like something right out of the set of "Little House on the Prairie." Fun to think about the history this site has seen.
And last but not least, I had to provide this last picture for our forum friend ZOT... He's known to have his obligatory "wild life" shot from each of his outings, and while I was going through my pictures tonight after getting home, I noticed I had actually captured a hawk (or turkey vulture) in the background of this picture. (you can see it above the roof... my daughter actually pointed him out while we were there so I looked up and saw this hawk scouting for dinner)
Not a spectacular find today, but it was fun for me since this was an unexpected find at one of the first old places that I would hit when I first started detecting. Now, 3 kids later, I'm happy to find a lonely, "ground kissed" merc.
Hope everyone is well... Even though I may not post as many finds anymore (due to the "3 kid" factor) I'm still enjoying reading everyone's posts and wishing I could be out there with you more.
HH, Rick
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Comments
Jerry
Missing tree.... Ha! Well spotted!
Thanks for the wildlife greeting
Hell, I don't need to exercise.....I get enough just pushing my luck.
It's nice to revisit your old haunts. A good find adds icing on the cake.
Your daughter is cute as a button!
<<Missing tree.... Ha! Well spotted!>>
Actually was a pretty good sized one... but funny how I didn't notice it at first. I looked, and thought "something's different," and then I saw the fresh dirt around where the stump was dug out.
<<That's some true wildlife you've captured there >>
I really wish that I would've had my camera one day when I was out in the field and saw a falcon in the act of catching his dinner... truly amazing to see their quickness in action.
<<The pictures and story were so good that some detector manufacture should pay you to use them.>>
Thanks. Actually, some stories submitted to White's Electronics will receive a "thank you" with an accessories coupon for a couple hundred bucks. (nice to relay a story to them and get to go shopping for coils, tools, etc. on their dime)
<<Your daughter is cute as a button! >>
Thanks. I think so but I know my opinion is biased.
<< <i>
That sight of silver peeking outta the dirt does something to me.
You're not the only one!
I remember your past comments and even the avatar with the reale playing peek-a-boo...