New Year, New Site, Old Finds

[GB_Amateur]

I've been lucky the past couple years with January and February weather nice enough to detect.  Not this year, though.  We didn't have much snow those months, but as soon as the rain stopped the ground refroze.  March has been much nicer and I've gotten out half a dozen times.  The first several hunts were either for trying different detectors or just cleaning up my "Wheatfield" site (muni park) that produced well last year.  My standard New Year's resolution is to find new potentially producing sites so finally this week I got to one of those.  It didn't disappoint.

This is another public park and (as always) I assumed it had been hit hard, like most of the other parks I've detected.  First thing out of the box I noticed that I was picking up ground noise.  Typically around here I ground balance the ML Equinox (11" coil, Park 1) around 30 plus or minus 5.  After hearing the ground noise I ran an auto GB sequence and it settled at ~7!  No problem, though, nice and quiet.  I settled in on a gain of 23 and left my other favorite settings (5 custom tones, Recovery Speed = 4, Iron Bias F2 = 0) alone.  I had viewed HistoricAerials' photos and had a decent idea of what the park looked like back in the 50's and 60's (oldest photo there was from 1955).  That helped me decide what ground may have been minimally reworked since those last days of dropping silver coins.

I did my usual first hunt surveying -- not trying to mow every inch but wandering around looking for sweetspots.  After a few modern coins, about 30 minutes in I got my first oldie -- a Wheat cent.  Already I knew I'd found a good detecting site.  Within another 30 minutes I get Wheatie #2, and within the next hour a Buffalo nickel.  These early finds were in an area about 10 m by 40 m.  I recalled from the aerial photos that a current sports field was present at least back to 1962 and by comparing the old photos to newer ones it appeared things hadn't changed much in that part of the park so I wandered over there.  Bonus:  one building obviously had a concession stand.  The ground around it had been covered with crushed stone so people wouldn't be walking in mud after rains.  I immediately got a copper Memorial cent about 2 inches deep.  Again surveying, maybe 10 meters away I received a good but strong (i.e. likely shallow) 5 cent dTID of 12-13 and an inch or so down, out popped a silver Warnick!  Here's a photo of the loot:

I'll explain the bottom row in a bit (only the central Buffie was found in this hunt).  The two Wheaties were dated 1941 and 1937 (no mintmarks).  The Warnick is the most common date+mm -- 1943-P.  What surprised me about it, besides how shallow it was, is that its color is consistent with circulated (but never spending time in the ground) examples of which I have at least 150 in my collection.  It has a not particularly attractive gray cast which made them easier to spot and remove from circulation back in the late 60's and early 70's when silver started going up in value.  All others I've pulled from the ground have been 'cleaned' by some ground chemical (acid, possibly) and look much whiter, similar in color to 90% silver coins.  Its depth is reflective of the material of the ground -- crushed stone.  In my area most overburden is from decayed vegetation (especially grass clippings).  As long as they don't put down thick layers of fresh stone the targets aren't going to be very deep in that area around the sports fields.

Finally, the last row.  The central coin (view enhanced by coating with olive oil) is the dateless one I found in this hunt.  On the left is a 1916-D I found late last year, also with an olive oil coating that is now evaporated somewhat.  The coin on the right is dateless and not from the ground.  Note the relative wear to the buffalo's back and head as well as the wear to the 'United States of America' across the top and 'E PLURIBUS UNUM'.  The two on the left show similar wear, and in some ways (but not all), more wear than the undug example.  But here's the big difference.  Look at the lower slice, below the buffalo's hooves.  The two outside coins have a recessed 'field' where the words 'FIVE CENTS' as well as the mintmark ('D' for Denver in both cases -- difficult to see in this photo) are protected from excessive wear.  The first coins minted in 1913 didn't have that recessed area but rather the 'FIVE CENTS' and mintmarks stood out, away from much of the coin's detail.  It was quickly realized that typical wear from circulation would obliterate these letters so the design was changed and the second type (exhitibed by the two outside coins here) was introduced late April 1913 and continued through the entire series, ending in 1938.  Thus even though the nickel I found in this hunt no longer has a date, I know it's an early 1913.  (I don't know which mint, though.)  About 30 million of each type were minted in Philadelphia that year making that version very common.  Both Denver mint (5.3 million with 'raised ground' & 4.2 million without) and San Francisco mint (2.1 million and 1.2 million respectively) are scarce and carry a premium value in decent condition (definitely not like mine!) with both type 2 issues from these branch mints carrying considerable numismatic value, especially the 'S' mintmarked Type 2.  Even if I knew the mintmark on mine were an 'S', it would be worthless in this terrible condition.   But it's fun to dream.  😁

I also found $3.90 face value of modern coins in this 3.5 hour hunt.  Bottom line is that this park hasn't been hit that hard by detectors and there are more goodies awaiting!

[phrunt]

A good history lesson on the coins and it sounds like you've found yourself some very nice new promising ground.  You can't never complain when you get a couple of silvers.

[Dan(NM)]

Congratulations and excellent write-up, thank you for taking the time to do it.

[F350Platinum]

Nice outing, GB. Great ID job on the Buffalo. May go back and look at some of mine. 👍

And you got silver. 🙂 I don't like digging in crushed stone or gravel, but I'll do it if the signal is good enough.

[GB_Amateur]

41 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

I don't like digging in crushed stone or gravel, but I'll do it if the signal is good enough.

Besides being a lot of effort, there are two other downsides.  If you're not extra careful it's pretty easy to mar the coin with the digging tool since it's difficult to control.  On top of that, if a lot of vehicle traffic has been over the coin, it might have been damaged by the stones abraiding it.  But the good news as in this case is that typically the soil chemicals haven't gotten near it.  This Warnick is as nice as the day it was lost over 40 years ago.  Too bad it's not a scarce date, but fingers crossed I'll find one of those here, with time.  🤞  (1939-D, I know you're waiting for me!)

 

[kac]

If a coin is in gravel it is usually scratched up anyways. I usually make a larger hole around and work the gravel loose to get them free.

[Valens Legacy]

GB thanks for the excellent read and history behind some of the finds.

Good luck on your next hunt.

[GB_Amateur]

10 hours ago, kac said:

If a coin is in gravel it is usually scratched up anyways.

I've had mixed results with those.  First off, some people use 'gravel' to include crushed stone (limestone around here).  I only think of gravel as natural rocks rounded by water flow (then sorted).  The latter are less damaging in my experience.

In the case of this Warnick, the area I found it isn't paved for vehicle traffic but rather just for pedestrians.  That is why I think it came out looking so good.  I've found that in crushed stone roadways, driveways, and parking lots there is a higher likelihood that a coin comes out damaged.

[rvpopeye]

Great looking collection for a day hunting !

Your coin detective research was interesting .

It would be even better if I could remember all that tomorrow !🙄

 

Outta likes , 🍀🖖