Nine year hiatus from metal detecting is over

rhedden

Some of you may recognize me from the U.S. coin forum, where I typically have something to say about Liberty Seated material. However, I am also an avid detectorist. Having done most of my digging in upstate NY, various places in PA, and Maryland from 1998 to 2009, I have quite a box full of goodies from long ago. Perhaps I can post some of them to this thread later this evening.

My detecting career came to a crashing halt when my job took me to West Texas in 2009. I only used my detector three times - once in Texas, and twice in New Mexico - and I have next to nothing to show for it. All public property in my former hometown in west Texas was off limits to detecting, period. Many private properties are just a good place to get mugged, with lots of thugs driving by in rusty pickup trucks. On the one occasion where I found a remote site on private land, which had some history to it, I walked around for over an hour and never even found a rusty nail or a pulltab. It can be done, but one has to be very resourceful about making friends with ranchers who have historic sites on their properties. In New Mexico, I do have one find to report: a 1902 Indian cent eyeballed on a mountaintop path through some pine forest. Got the detector out and went all around that area, and only found a wheat cent and a couple of memorial cents.

Well, there's some good news - I'm back in New York (close to Vermont) and the ice is melting! I'm planning to do some major recovery with the machine this spring as soon as the ground is clear of snow. Scoping out sites this month, and sharpening up my shovel (will that help? ) Anyone else here ready to go out diggin'?

No Headlights

Good luck. Waiting for the ground to thaw here in Iowa. Hope the frost moves a few goodies around do that they can be found now.

Yacorie1

Welcome back to the hobby. I have a new equinox 800 that is arriving tomorrow and I can't wait to get out and swing.

Jimnight

Welcome back to New York.

rhedden

Dug this dime last time I lived in New York- July 1999. What a surprise to find a nice semi-key "S" mint on the east coast!

pcgs69

Nice dime! We'd love to see some of your other finds. I have a buddy in upstate NY, and have traveled across lake Champlain to get there. Salivated at all the farm fields in NY and VT.

rhedden

Here are some metal eagles that are not coins.

Dug deep in the forest of upstate NY:

Here are a "penny" and a "beer can" I dug next to a highway on a sultry summer afternoon in Maryland. My friend had just returned from the car with a can of Coke. "Let's go. There's nothing here." I had just dug the large cent and the belt plate. The plate was right next to an actual beer can that gave an identical reading on my machine... patience pays off for digging both.

ricko

Welcome back to quest for treasure... Those are nice finds you posted... I too am in NYS... Catskill Mountains... Cheers, RickO

Namvet69

Buckle is very nice. I am an AT pro guy. As much as I the finding coins, colonial relics are the best. Peace Roy

ricko

@Namvet69.... Colonial relics are great... and in my area, the opportunities abound since it was settled in the late 1600's and was also an active area during the Revolutionary War. Cheers, RickO