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A Couple Of Old Ones Today...


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Very nice coins, what is the last one shown as I cant make out the date.

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Thanks, 2Valen!

The second one is a Braided Hair Large Cent, 1839.

Thanks!

Steve

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Excellent finds, Steve!  Could you give us a few details, such as how deep, which detector(s) were you using, what were the digital TID's, were you fighting through vegetation? 

I've never found either of these type coins, but have a trip planned to a Colonial homestead (as soon as we can get this C-virus under control) and hopefully there are some oldies waiting for me there.

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Very nice.  Those half dimes look so sweet!   and that copper is in pretty good condition, too. 

Do you carry the half dime around in your pocket and finger it and grin throughout the day like I do with a good ring find?   HA!  

HH

Mike

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Mike -- thanks!  Yep, I did finger the half dime during the day, smiling each time, LOL!  Yep, I'm sure it's the same feeling for me as when you dig a good ring (though yours are -- in terms of dollars -- much more valuable!)

Thanks, Dan!  Digging Seated coins never gets old; living in Oklahoma, there are very few; most of the ones I dig are during trips to PA, and I enjoy every one of them!

GB_Amateur -- I was using the EQX 800, Park 1, recovery speed 2, F2 setting at 0, sensitivity 25.  Ground balanced (at 11 on this site), and noise cancelled (though there was very little EMI -- hence the ability to run the sensitivity maxed out).  There are a fairly large number of scattered square nails, and various blobs/chunks of old rusty iron, left over from the former/burned church, so lots of high-tone falsing that needs to be worked through very slowly.  There is not a ton of undergrowth/vegetation here, as it's a fairly mature section of forest with tall trees, and thus the canopy blocks enough sunlight to minimize vegetative undergrowth.  The obstacles are largely a thick layer of fallen leaves, and a ton of old logs/branches laying around, plus scattered tiny saplings -- overall resulting in a difficult hunt in terms of coil control.  And of course, lack of coil control means more falsing, etc. -- so it's not an easy site to hunt.

The half dime was roughly 4" to 5" deep, the large cent probably 6" or so.  It's hard to determine depth much of the time, since the underground root matrix (and the dry soil we have right now) means popping a plug is impossible.  The dirt crumbles, and trying to get your shovel back out of the ground, through all the roots, means most of the dirt falls back in the hole, and thus there's no telling where the coil originally laid, in terms of depth.  Anyway, there is a layer of organic material/topsoil a couple of inches thick in most places on this site (deeper at times), and then a layer of relatively dense, yellowish clay mixed with shale, just underneath.  So, the coins I've dug here are generally not all that deep, impeded by the clay/shale layer. 

The half dime was generally reading about 20 to 21 in the ground, though there was some iron nearby so some low-tone grunting was mixed in.  I had to clear out the leaves, and a nearby log, to achieve enough coil control, to confirm if the target was indeed non-ferrous, or if it was a masquerading piece of iron.  The large cent rang higher in tone/number of course, but again with iron around, it was a jumpy-ID type of target -- lots of numbers in the upper 20s, and bouncing into the mid to upper 30s, but then plenty of iron grunts mixed in.  Neither coin was a nice, clean target, in terms of tone/ID.

Sounds like you have a great site to check out, hopefully soon!  My advice is -- sweep SLOWLY in this type of site (this minimizes iron falsing, with the square nails, which for me are much more difficult to deal with than regular modern nails), and when you hit what you think is a possible non-ferrous target, work it carefully and analyze closely -- listening very carefully.  Rotate all the way around, vary your sweep speed over the target as you interrogate; kick away some grass/dirt/leaves from over the top of the target and re-sweep, seeing if the tones and ID numbers change, etc..  In other words, employ all the "tricks" you can, to discern whether it's non-ferrous, or ferrous trying to ACT "non-ferrous."  But once you feel it's non-ferrous, DIG.  I dig almost ALL suspected non-ferrous targets on those types of sites, because there are usually surprises...

Hope that helps!

Steve

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