Your finds

dustified1234567

Hi there,

I have two questions. The first one relates to digging. I have read some of the "finds" threads and see people getting a ton of coins in a short amount of time. Whenever I go out and my MD beeps I kind of have to do some guess work. Dig a little and rescan the hole if its not there anymore then scan over the dirt that I dug up and so on. Is there an easier way of doing this without getting a detector that tells me all of this.

Number two. How do you all clean your coins when you find them. I know its not good to clean coins but if they have been in there a while they are obviously going to come out dirty.

Thanks for your help I can't wait till I find a coin that isn't just regular pocket change.

pocketpiececommems

Practice, Practice, Practice. Bury different coins or objects in a sandy area and practice on them. I personally use a screwdiver to locate and pull up my coins or objects in areas that I really don't want to leave a plug. You do take a chance of damaging good coins but you can still hit them with a knife too. When I hunt in farm fields then I dig my targets as there usually isn't a problem leaving a brown spot.

ricko

PPC has it right... practice with your machine (what kind are you swinging?) continuously. Those who find a lot of coins are doing a LOT of digging... because we still find trash. Cheers, RickO

pcgs69

I purchased a probe/pinpointer to help reduce search time. It greatly reduced my recovery time, not to mention virtually eliminated ripping the initial plug into pieces on shallow targets. If I'm on a beach I just dig away with a shovel - highly effective.

dustified1234567

To be quite honest and I know this sounds stupid I am not sure what kind of MD I have. I enjoyed it while I was in college and haven't done it in about 2 years. I want to get back into it just as I have collecting coins. I am going to my mothers next weekend so i will surely be bringing it back with me.

NeilinWestJersey

For me, it is quality before quantity. I have parks that I can detect and easily find 100 coins. I have done it at one park and only worked a 3X10 foot area. The park is still there, and so are the remaining coins, but I have no interest in going back.

Conversely, I got out on November 30th and only dug one coin in 4 hours of detecting, but it was an early 1770's King George Halfpenny, pictured below..



I have read a lot of posts in the forums titled "Century Day" meaning 100 coins were dug. My five century day came in May of 2008, when I dug 5 coins spanning five centuries.

Keep detecting and you will find your first out of production coin. My first one came from my own yard, and was the first coin I ever dug, a 1940 Quarter. I have dug more than 25 silver coins in my own yard, so do not overlook it!

As far as cleaning goes, there is nothing wrong with carefully cleaning a dug coin, unless you find a valuable one. I have different methods for cleaning different types, but for my copper and bronze coins I recommend a hot peroxide treatment, and then carefully wiping with a wet Q Tip. Let me know if you need more info on this.

Have a great weekend!
Neil

ricko

Hi Neil,
You mentioned that halfpenny was counterfeit... .how do you determine this? Thanks, Cheers, RickO

CROCKofCOINS

<FONT color=#551a8b size=3>Wapedia - Wiki: Halfpenny (British pre-decimal coin)</FONT>

6. 1. Counterfeit coinage
>>In the reign of King George III (1760-1820) the first issue of halfpennies did not come until 10 years after the king's accession, in 1770. Counterfeiting was rampant, and in 1771 the issuance of counterfeit copper coin became a felony; this however had little effect and for the next twenty years or so the majority of copper so-called coins in circulation were forgeries. <<

ricko

Thanks Jerry, Cheers, RickO