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Some jingle from the last couple of days- a timex can take a burying + Large Cent? Update-Silver tod
kevinstang
Posts: 1,517 ✭✭✭
Been able to hit a couple of city parks the last couple of days for about an hour each day, there the kind of parks I usually avoid- tot lots on them, lots of trash (especially cut up cans). This small city has three parks that were basically identical in shape and size that must have been built sometime in the late 1800's, oldest post card I have of one park is from 1906 era. Anyways I hit two out of the three. I know these spots have been hit by other detectorists in the past and still in the present (have seen others out hunting)- this along with the modern trash usually keeps me out of them but for maybe once a year or so. A brief history on the parks and layout- pretty much square shaped that when originally built each park had a fountain in the middle with sidewalks from all 4 corners that led to the middle and fountain. My father who was born in 1924 can remember as a kid swimming in them on hot summer days. From what I can gather sometime after world war 2 the fountains were removed or simply covered up ( I'm pretty certain in one park the base of the one remains as for a large circular area in middle of park I cannot get anything but a strong signal from my Garrett and its impossible to hunt- I dug down about 1 foot in one test spot and hit what looked to be solid concrete ). Anyways,when I grew up there were no sidewalks either- just dirt trodded paths through the parks. The typical new style playground equipment has since been added in a corner of each park as well. And in the past ten years or so the sidewalks have started to go back in- and from what I can tell from the old post cards and the present, they look to be in about the same locations. I hadn't kept up on just exactly when the sidewalks started to be put back in, but its been over the last couple of years, with the final park getting its sidewalks last fall- I remember seeing them just before the snow fell and saying to myself I should hit the area again- it had been about year since I had hunted that park.
Well back to the finds- I decided to visit the most recent sidewalk site, all I basically found was trash and lots of it, really couldn't sort out much- two many metal cans that have been mulched by the lazy city workers riding the lawn mowers, tin foil wrappers and old bottle caps if I can get a deep signal. But while walking one section of the sidewalk just basically running my detector along as I walked a few feet to side of the concrete (re-rod in sidewalk is also a pain) I got a strong signal and out popped this:
Its hard to see but it is a large cent, I've cleaned it up some and when wet you can just make out the lower bow and some of the leaves on wreath as well as the "TED" in United . On the obverse you can barely see Miss Liberty's nose line and chin line as well as outline of were "Liberty" was. Hard to decide if its a Classic head type or Matron head type. The diameter is slightly larger than an 1837 cent I have and lettering is thicker. What at first I thought was just a few scratches on obverse might be graffiti of sorts- its in area directly below bust going by nose line, right were the date would be- and it looks like someone scratched a "1" and then a "14" crude but maybe...they just gave up on carving the "8". The piece is pretty smooth, maybe it spent some time on bottom of fountain. Looks like they must have dug it up when doing sidewalks last year, it was only about 1 inch deep. I may have to put my 4 inch sniper coil on and walk both sides of the sidewalks at this park again- I can get a little closer, who knows.
The other finds came from the other park, closer to the playground equipment. One is a brass bell- the Jingle in my finds, still rings out- its rather large- maybe from a horse bridal or sleigh? The other cool find is a ladies Timex water resistant watch. At first I thought I had a gold ring when I saw the color in the hole, then realized it was a watch. Figured it was just going to be a battery operated watch, but when I got home and popped the back cover- it was a wind up and just like new in side. I gave it a wind- and it works! Has been keeping good time for nearly 24 hours now with a couple of windings. It was about 5 inches deep in the ground and no sign of band or pins that held the band to the watch body were in the hole, so it had to be down for a few years, kind of amazing it still works. Except for the condensation inside the crystal it looks to be in pretty good shape.This park yielded around 3 dollars in modern clad coinage and one wheat cent a 57-D. Well there you have it, my finds for the later half of the week, HH. Oh yeah- a picture of the watch and bell:
Update:
I managed to slip away for an hour late this afternoon with my sniper coil and walk half of the sidewalks in parks middle and found probably my nicest ring ever! Its only sterling- marked 925, but has alot of detail and a black ( I think its onyx) stone in middle- and it fits my ring finger at that! See post below for photo of it. HH
Well back to the finds- I decided to visit the most recent sidewalk site, all I basically found was trash and lots of it, really couldn't sort out much- two many metal cans that have been mulched by the lazy city workers riding the lawn mowers, tin foil wrappers and old bottle caps if I can get a deep signal. But while walking one section of the sidewalk just basically running my detector along as I walked a few feet to side of the concrete (re-rod in sidewalk is also a pain) I got a strong signal and out popped this:
Its hard to see but it is a large cent, I've cleaned it up some and when wet you can just make out the lower bow and some of the leaves on wreath as well as the "TED" in United . On the obverse you can barely see Miss Liberty's nose line and chin line as well as outline of were "Liberty" was. Hard to decide if its a Classic head type or Matron head type. The diameter is slightly larger than an 1837 cent I have and lettering is thicker. What at first I thought was just a few scratches on obverse might be graffiti of sorts- its in area directly below bust going by nose line, right were the date would be- and it looks like someone scratched a "1" and then a "14" crude but maybe...they just gave up on carving the "8". The piece is pretty smooth, maybe it spent some time on bottom of fountain. Looks like they must have dug it up when doing sidewalks last year, it was only about 1 inch deep. I may have to put my 4 inch sniper coil on and walk both sides of the sidewalks at this park again- I can get a little closer, who knows.
The other finds came from the other park, closer to the playground equipment. One is a brass bell- the Jingle in my finds, still rings out- its rather large- maybe from a horse bridal or sleigh? The other cool find is a ladies Timex water resistant watch. At first I thought I had a gold ring when I saw the color in the hole, then realized it was a watch. Figured it was just going to be a battery operated watch, but when I got home and popped the back cover- it was a wind up and just like new in side. I gave it a wind- and it works! Has been keeping good time for nearly 24 hours now with a couple of windings. It was about 5 inches deep in the ground and no sign of band or pins that held the band to the watch body were in the hole, so it had to be down for a few years, kind of amazing it still works. Except for the condensation inside the crystal it looks to be in pretty good shape.This park yielded around 3 dollars in modern clad coinage and one wheat cent a 57-D. Well there you have it, my finds for the later half of the week, HH. Oh yeah- a picture of the watch and bell:
Update:
I managed to slip away for an hour late this afternoon with my sniper coil and walk half of the sidewalks in parks middle and found probably my nicest ring ever! Its only sterling- marked 925, but has alot of detail and a black ( I think its onyx) stone in middle- and it fits my ring finger at that! See post below for photo of it. HH
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Comments
That may be a sign to get back out there. Maybe try some areas of the park inwhich you wouldnt expect to find
anything. How about the outer perimeter of the park? Has that change alot?
See first post above for the details.
Jerry