BMc

Here you go, Skip!

Not sure what you're calling the good stuff, (half dollar?) but you will find it when you put a coil over it! Don't worry, It will come in due time. Karma will see to it as long as you don't stop taking care of your Grandma and Grandpa!

Four, if you count the Indian Head/Buffalo Nickel. Old home site remains: Pottery pieces and older shards. Broken glass and crockery, buttons, .22 bullet casing, and misc. artifacts. Indian head dates: 1890, 1900, and 1901. The Buffalo Nickel was a 1915, and the Jefferson was a 1970's date. A child's ring, marked .925 inside.

To me that was no heartbreaker V.L! I hunted for a year before I found silver. In fact, I had given up on silver and started hunting gold. I didn't find gold but I did find silver! It's a rush (and a milestone) either way!

The 1880s,a time of Economic growth: During the 1870s and 1880s, the U.S. economy rose at the fastest rate in its history, with real wages, wealth, GDP, and capital formation all increasing rapidly. For example, between 1865 and 1898, the output of wheat increased by 256%, corn by 222%, coal by 800% and miles of railway track by 567%. During the Great Depression, millions of people were out of work across the United States. Unable to find another job locally, many unemployed people hit the road, traveling from place to place, hoping to find some work. A few of these people had cars, but most hitchhiked or “rode the rails”. The 1930s economy, not nearly as good as 1880s. Many men were too proud to stand in soup lines and would rather work for what they could get. Often, Just enough to survive

I took a photo but can't open the file due to "JPG not supported" I'll see about changing extension. The quarter looks normal. A little tarnished again.

Here's Here's the other coins I found at the site. I suspect more finds will turn up, If I can keep going back. The Chris Columbus 1/2 dollar coin was a surprise. The resident had been a Mexican citizen so I kind of expected to find Mexican coins. Being silver was a bonus.

This one was my 3rd, but the other two were so worn they hardly had any detail left. Couldn't read the date on either one. I was really surprised to see how well preserved this one was. Doesn't appear to have been carried much at all.

Thanks Rv. I actually went back a couple of times and pulled out a few more coins; old Mexican silver, and a 1893 Commemorative coin which I will post when I figure out what I did with the photographs. Lol!

Thanks a lot everyone. Later the same day that I had found the (highly tarnished) quarter, I stopped in at JW's Prospecting Supplies in Prescott Valley and showed J.W. the quarter. Without saying anything, he immediately pulled out some Mercury and started melting it onto the coin to make it shiny and new looking. I was a little concerned and taken aback about that because if it altered the coins appearance it might affect the value. At that point however; I wasn't worrying about value since everyone in the store including myself, one customer, and Scott Johnson an employee, had all run out the back door trying to avoid the Mercury fumes. After a few minutes, we came back inside and sure enough, the quarter looked freshly minted!

Nice! Have you thought about a 2 Box deep seeker detector to bottle and relic hunt/locate the old privies ? I highly recommend it! I have found a ton of stuff over the years with my Fisher Gemini 3. Usually not much trash, occasional farming implements.

Great Finds! It doesn't always have to be the fancy stuff! Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Thanks for sharing. American families went through very hard times back then. I can relate to much of what you posted in my own family's history.

Not the same kind of mining, more like basic pick and shovel work. I think they were just glad to have a job . . .

I found this 1930 Standing Liberty Quarter while nugget shooting in a small saddle overlooking Placerita creek near Wagoner, AZ. Although It was tarnished, it appeared to be in pristine condition showing little or no wear. I looked up miner's wages for Placerita Creek in 1930, which was the first year of the Great Depression. They were paid .25 cents a day, so the person who lost the quarter, lost a day's pay! I couldn't help but feel compassion for the miner wondering what the impact on his family had been. So, to all the miners, prospectors and gold hunters who venture forth in pursuit of their golden dreams: May your pokes always be full, and may your pockets never have holes in them!

Yeah, they did last four seasons. The Archeological community was equating them with grave robber, pot hunter, thief of time types that were destroying history by having the audacity to excavate outside accepted archeological procedures; IMO, the network overreacted to the perceived sensitivity of the issue. That got them cancelled even though they had been detecting on private property, having property owner permission.

Internet research indicates that: "Diggers", a pseudo reality show aired on National Geographic, features two losers roaming the countryside and people's yards with their metal detectors" " Hobbyist metal detectorists "King George" Wyant and his buddy Tim "The Ringmaster" Saylor travel the country looking for lost relics of history" Why did Diggers get canceled? The show's hosts, hobby metal detectorists “King George” Wyant and Tim “Ringy” Saylor, cross the U.S. searching for discarded metal items of historical relevance. As soon as the show premiered, archaeologists raised concerns that Diggers was creating a culture of looting and asked NGC to cancel the program! I personally thought that they might be a bit goofy on occasion, but I still found their antics amusing and hated that they got cancelled! So, when I find a nice silver coin, in honor of King George and Ringy, I have been known to yell out, SIV IN THE POCK! FOUND COINS: I recently got to visit with an older gentlemen I hadn't seen in many years. Over lunch, I asked him if he knew of any old houses that I might detect for coins. He told me the following story: A few days ago, while walking along a freshly graded gravel road, he had found an 1880's silver dollar buried vertically on edge, barely visible. After lunch, he showed me the spot in the road where he had found the silver dollar which was slightly downhill from an old collapsed/eroded adobe house that had been abandoned in the 1940's. He said that when he had been in elementary school, (1950), long after the man who lived in the house had died, the man's family boarded up the door and windows, then returned to Mexico and never came back. A few years later, the roof and door frame of the house, partially collapsed after a heavy rain, and my friend decided to see what was in the house. He was astonished to find shelving that had been cut into the interior sides of the adobe bricks, where several coffee cans filled with coins were stored. The cans had rusted out, the shelves eroded away, and coins had spilled out onto the muddy floor. He quickly filled his pockets with coins and ran off to spend his new found wealth. My friend said he planned to return for more later, but the rain had caused another collapse and he couldn't get inside where the coins were. Quarters: 1909 1914 x 2 V Nickle: 1911 Wheaties 1917, 1919-D 1928-S 1929 Canadian 1 Cent: 1929 Excavation Continuing.

Yeah, GB, not sure what the universe has to do with it but that's why I tried to avoid getting into the "weeds" too much by implying that the term was a generalization that stemmed from "my experience" I doubt very much if the kid that made the black jack out of a sock full of pennies knew the difference or cared one way or the other.

Good one Jim!

If a Lincoln Memorial penny has a date before 1982, it is made of 95% copper. If the date is 1983 or later, it is made of 97.5% zinc and plated with a thin copper coating. A plated coin is commonly referred to as a "clad", especially among coin shooters, in my experience. If others differ, please chime in.

That area has been pounded as you know, but still might cough one up for you. I'm concentrating mostly on the North end nowadays. Coming in off of Jungo. T-Bone, Dick Bailey etc, 20 oz plus country . . .

Yeah Mitchell, the equipment I was using does tend to date the find(s) a bit. July 1999, Gold was $350.00 an oz. I went back in July 2019 and hope to go again this coming July; stopping at the Eugène's for a few days along the way.

I happen to live in the Southern NM (desert), and during Library Research, I ran across a news article from the 1950s that mentioned a remote picnic site that was popular for weekend and holiday gatherings. A faded black and white photograph showed several concrete tables, benches, and stone bar-b-que pits on a secluded hilltop outside of town. I couldn't find anything else to go on and everyone I talked to had never heard of it, so I explored the back-roads until I located it by a process of elimination. Nothing was left of the concrete and stone that was functionally intact, and the, (4x4 only), inaccessibility of the rocky washed out road made the location an ideal lover's lane, beer drinking - high school hideaway. After several trips to the site and a modest clean-up effort, I managed to unearth a few nice surprises: Wheaties, rosies, Jeffersons, a buffalo/Indian head, a girls 10k gold ring with a tiny "diamond" setting, and a singed (partially burned), 1961 Ben Franklin half dollar. The biggest surprise though, was the improvised "black-jack" made from a gym sock filled with (217) clad pennies, hidden under a pile of rocks. Another strange surprise was a 1961 Washington Quarter that had a hole shot through it! Kind of gives a new meaning to the term, "Coin Shooting" To me, that's what makes metal detecting and coin shooting so interesting. You just never know what you might find next!

Thanks Jeff! 🐐