Zincoln Signal Turns Into A Much Better Find

[GB_Amateur]

I've recently been posting photos and commentary on a muni park which has been producing old coins inconsistent with the park's establishment date.  Since I wrote that update I've been out an additional 20 hours and although the number of old finds per hour has decreased, there have still been some goodies dribbling in.  Besides what I show in the photo below I've also recovered another 6 Wheat cents.  Here are the best finds in those last seven hunts:

Clockwise from upper left:  a wristwatch with a five letter brand name ending in 'EX'.  Want to guess what it is (and also what I over optimistically hoped it was)?    Sterling child's ring with red glass setting, 1892 (plain) Barber dime, copper alloy token with "Good for 5c in trade" on one side but no company name on the rerverse 😞, 1943-P silver alloy Warnick, and 1937 (plain) Buffalo nickel with all four digits of the date still fully present.  That brings this site's silver coin total to 3, Buffalo Nickel count to 2, and Wheatie count to 25.  There's no question now that there was human activity (accompanied by loss of coins) prior to the 1974 date posted on a plaque as the time of establishment as a municipal park.

The dime deserves special documentation.  I got a moderately weak 19-20 dTID on the ML Equinox which is spot on for a Zinc penny in my area.  However, the weakness of the signal caught my attention.  Yes, I occasionally find deep Zincolns, but that is unusual.  Even though I sometimes pass over strong Zincoln zone signals, I always dig the weaker ones.  After cutting a 6 inch diameter plug and removing a nugget scoop's worth of additional loose soil I was at a depth of about 4" and rechecked the hole with the detector.  (I was already getting a weak but clear tone on both the Garrett Carrot pinpointer but wanted to get a better pinpoint location from the Eqx 800.)  To my surprise I now was getting a solid (but still moderate strength) 24-25.  I was liking this 'Zincoln' more and more!  I loosened another 2-3 inches of dirt and after removing it I couldn't get a reaction on my White's TRX pinpointer when going through the hole.  In my recovery pan I did get a signal and when I saw the light metal reeded edge of a small object I was pretty sure I had a silver dime.  A squirt of water revealed the Barber head and a four digit date (which I couldn't read with my detecting glasses -- no matter as I can do that when I get home).

I've recovered at least a couple dozen silver dimes with the Equinox and this is the first that gave such an low dTID initially.  (26-27 seems to be the sweetspot in my typical soil.)  This may have been an example of a coincident small piece of iron (small enough not to even cause the Eqx to grunt -- and note I keep all notches wide open when detecting).  I did recheck the plug and hole after recovery without hearing anything obvious.

I've graded the dime as a Good-4 on the Sheldon scale.  A couple weeks back @Raphis posted a Barber dime for which he was unsure of the date.  That one has more like a Fair-2 grade.  I was curious how much of his coin was lost to wear and he cooperatively weighed it at 2.15 g which is a 14% loss from its mint state 2.50 g.  Mine comes in considerably higher but still shows an 8% loss at 2.30 g.  It would be overstating things to try and use those measurements to conclude when the coins were dropped since multiple variables determine a coin's circulation lifetime (i.e. from time of minting to time of loss).  But I suspect both were dropped no later than the mid-1950's.

[kac]

Barber dimes must be on sale, found 2 today as well. 🙂

No trace of the band for the watch?

[F350Platinum]

Some call them... "Tim"... 😀

Great stuff GB. This barber thing may bode well for me tomorrow, I'm going to go one new place and two recent places. Nice ring! That's a great day right there. 👍

[GB_Amateur]

One half of the faux leather band was attached but I removed and pitched it.  This very watch is available on Amazon for $36 so it's not an oldie by any means.

The coin loss pattern for this park has pretty much crystallized.  Anything within 20 or so meters of the (current) restroom building has a decent chance of being old.  (There was a building there previously, when this was an industrial yard.)  Outside of that I've only found two old coins (both Wheaties) but lots of modern coins plus this wristwatch.  But there is one spot in particular that HistoricAerials indicates previously held a building of some kind going back about a century (or more).  I've saved that spot for later in the season when the grass isn't growing and there are fewer park visitors since it's right next to a paved walking path that is heavily used.  Fingers crossed...

🤞

[Valens Legacy]

Another great hunt for you GB and glad to see the saves.

We all know that Timex can take a licking, but is it still ticking?

[rvpopeye]

That looks like my watch,,,a Timex Expedition.

The rust isn't on mine though...cuz it's plastic.

I don't have a dime like that yet but there's one out there with my name on it.....

(if anybody finds it let me know 😜)