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CmonNow

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  1. My Apex shipped yesterday and according to UPS I will have it on Tuesday. Depending on which driver has my route, the deliveries sometimes don't arrive until after supper, so I may have to wait until next week for a chance to try it out. Glad it's finally on the way though.
  2. "strength of the strike" I like that. Coin jargon. Under a magnifier there is definition between the fine, vertical lines above the wheat also. It was a pleasant coin to find. I like finding pleasant coins. Problem is, my cousin has a dog. Handsome blonde lab named Jonesy. He's a happy, friendly critter, almost white but kinda creamy colored. The area I was hunting in has a constant aroma of dog dung. Came within inches of planting my knee into some a few times. (I found half a dozen clad, an old watch chain, the hammer of a toy gun, and some other crap on this hunt). There is also a building near where I was hunting that's always been called "the woodshed". There was a mighty stink coming from that building. I suspect it's a dead cat. They have a lot of cats around there. Most of them are alive, but apparently not all of them. After I left I could TASTE a mixture of dog dung and dead animal. It took strong, IPA beer to get rid of that taste. I will go back though. The place has a long history, and there has to be at least one silver someplace.
  3. Nicest wheat penny I've found so far. Found it in my cousin's yard, which used to be my uncle's yard, and has been a residence going back to at least 1874. Farm country in southeast Minnesota. The soil at this place is definitely more friendly to copper than other places I've found wheats that are so green you have to nearly destroy them just to read the year. I found a 1919 Wheatie here a few weeks ago. That one cleaned up easily too, but wasn't quite as pretty as this one. Minimal cleanup, and I present it for your viewing pleasure. Just don't touch it.
  4. Same here. One old coin makes a good day detecting into a great day. A couple weeks ago I found 31 coins in four hours, all within about 40 yards of each other and three of em in a one-foot circle. There wasn't a gem in the bunch. It was all clad and pennies, with the oldest being a 1977 penny. Had fun, and it was by far my most productive day ever in the raw number of coins found (previous record was 14), but just one green wheatie would have made it better. A 'bad day' detecting is still better than a good day working. I haven't been out yet this week due to yard work, tree trimming, the gas man replacing a couple regulators on our meters, and a couple honey-do items, and today I'm surrounded by rain of varying intensity. Radar shows it breaking up now though, so I think I'll head out in an hour or so and be able to stay dry.
  5. There are a lot of small, cold-water streams around here. Some have exposed gravel banks at the bends. At least one that's located on public land is known to have produced gold. I picked up some panning equipment over the winter and I've watched enough videos that I know enough to head out and try to find some gold. From my trout fishing days, I know that if you wade while wearing shorts, the cold water does a good job pulling heat out of your lower legs to mitigate the hot weather somewhat. If you stay in the water long enough you can even start to feel a little chilly when it's 85 degrees. I went back to the spot where I found the two silvers, covered a bit more of the ground and only found a green 1941 wheatie. I decided to go try a beach that I know has a long history of use going back to the pioneer days. Stayed on the dry sand to start with and only found a clad dime, a couple zincolns in pathetic condition, and a broken pair of cheap sunglasses. I think the river level came up an inch or so from all the sweat rolling off me, and I decided to head back to the Jeep along the edge of the water. My coil had gotten a bit dusty and needed a rinse anyway. About three feet into my walk along the water's edge, my now-cleaner coil produced a promising beep and I found my first silver Rosie, a 1952-S about six inches down in the wet sand. I'll go back to that beach when it's cooler and less populated. Given its long history I'm sure there's more to be found. That made three days in a row finding silver last week (I work a four-day week). In between the two silvers above and the Rosie from the beach, I found a 43-D Merc at another park in a neighboring town where I had found another Merc a few weeks ago.
  6. Just in my past few outings I've been seeing what seems like an unusual number of solid 16s to 19s. So many in the past have been old-style can tabs or can slaw that I walk past them, even the strong-sounding ones. After seeing this post it looks like I'll be spending more time digging. You just never know what you might be walking by. Like they say, ya gotta dig trash to find treasure.
  7. Dammit. You do realize that if I dig all those type of signals it will take me 400 years to get done with the local park, right? Congratulations. Dammit.
  8. That whole thing Robin Williams did in that movie was improv. The "Good morning Vietnam!" thing. It all came from his head. Dude was a genius. I read a book some time back written by a Green Beret who was a Congressional Medal of Honor winner in Vietnam. He said that when you get used to 115 degrees with high humidity, 75 degrees feels cold. 75 wouldn't feel cold right now, but it would be nice.
  9. It's the first time I've found two silvers in the same day, and hopefully not the last. It was actually two silvers in ten minutes. Probably best not to dwell on, or try to top that. Like I've said before and I'm sure most of you realize, every coin we pull from the ground is one less that's out there for the next guy, which is both good and bad. We're digging ourselves out of a hobby. I used to fill the change jar on my dresser every four months or so, cash it in and get $50-60 out of it. These days, I hardly carry or spend cash anymore. I've had the same three twenties in my wallet for months now, and I almost never have even one coin in my pocket. It will probably take me the rest of my life to build up thirty bucks in that same change jar. If my ways are anything like your ways, that does not bode well for the hobby of metal detecting, at least not for coin shooting in the conventional, easy-access ways. We're in the time of year here where it's feast or famine for moisture. Too dry or too wet depending on the day. Last Sunday we had a mega-rainstorm go through and wash out some roads north, east, and south of here. We had a four-foot-wide river running in the road ditch in front of our house, which is normally part of the lawn. Today, eight days later, everything is getting dry again under the baking, terrible, horrible, sun. Sun should be banned. And wind should be subsidized, but only when the soil is moist. 🙂 I skip way too many 12-13-14 signals due to can tabs, especially in this weather, and I get a lot of those signals in the places I hunt. The rare nickel I have dug is because it held a solid 13 with maybe a slight deviation to 12 long enough to convince me to give it a shot. I carry a Predator Tools Raptor Model 31-C as my main digger, and also a brass probe along with a six-inch bronze-shafted screwdriver and a repurposed plastic spatula handle for last-inch digging to find the target while trying to minimize scratching. I'm having to be careful with plugs the last few days because they all want to break apart.
  10. Western Wisconsin. It's been hot and muggy here for a week and it sounds like it's going to last another week at least. Weather like this makes doing any little thing outside seem like a lot more work. It's much easier to dig than when the ground is frozen solid and covered in snow, though. Gotta take the bad with the good, as mom used to say.
  11. I had been there a couple hours by the time I found them and my brain was starting to go goofy from the heat, so I gave up before I started raving like a lunatic and shaking the sweat from my head like a wet dog. Was 91 and humid and I couldn't buy even a light breeze. I was hunting that particular area because it was shaded by several large trees, but that only helps so much when the air refuses to move. I found a couple clad and a 1964 nickel about 20 yards from these coins a few weeks ago. I'll be able to get out earlier tomorrow than I could today. It will be cooler and I'm going right back to that spot.
  12. Great finds. I would be very happy about that token, it has character. Also, forgive a guy who lives a long way from civil war country, but how can you tell the sinker was made from a mini ball?
  13. Found a 1926-D Mercury dime and a 1908 Barber dime today. Just about passed out from heat stroke in the process, but I got 'em.They were about eight feet apart and both about four inches under the surface. The Merc is in pretty good shape. It rang up 25-26 on the Equinox. The Barber is more worn and has a gouge in the rim on the lower right in the pic. That one rang a little higher at 26-27.Also found a very green 1936 Wheatie about a foot from the Barber dime.
  14. I've never dared to entertain the possibility of finding a gold coin, but right here is proof that it can happen. Congratulations on a great find. If it were me, I would go back and make sure I covered every inch of that place twice.
  15. Wow, that would be frustrating. Looks like UPS left it sit in New York for four weeks. That's just unacceptable. Priority Mail is supposed to be one of their quicker services and usually is domestically. At least it's finally at the Newark airport. That's a big hub for UPS international. Who knows how many stops it will make on the way to you, but at least it's moving.
  16. That's a great relic to find. Can't beat one with personal history behind it.
  17. Great find. I've found around a dozen wheaties in the short time I've been detecting and all but two or three looked much worse than this one. I wouldn't clean it any further, it looks good the way it is.
  18. There's a small gouge in the rim on the reverse side too, and that part of the edge has a bit of a 'wave' to it, being a bit bent. There is no mintmark on the coin. I looked it up, and the reel-type lawnmower was invented in England in 1830. I know my mom's family had one as early as the late 1920s or so, because she and her six older brothers and sisters told stories about having to push it around the yard on hot summer days. Your idea about the coin being driven over on gravel is a better idea though. There is gravel under the grass in the area where I found it, a lot in some spots, less in others.
  19. This quarter is a nice find. I love the flying eagle on the back of those. I have yet to find a silver quarter of any kind. Is there any sign of a date if you use high magnification and a low angle on the lighting? If not, it's still old silver from your yard, and that's special. Good job!
  20. Four inches down, rang 26-28 on the Equinox. Found at a fairgrounds.It has some dings and dents, so I think it was stepped on or hit by an old-time lawn mower or something. Some tarnish too. Still has fairly good detail. (The grid behind it is half-inch squares.)Also found a very green 1928 wheatie and half a dozen clad and pennies.Oh, and I found a couple pieces of cut/shaped flint in a couple of my holes. Look like small hide scrapers/blades. Must have been some native activity on that spot back in the day.
  21. My oldest coins before this were two 1961 pennies. My proudest find before this was a shotgun shell end from 1900-1906, based on the inscription. I'm still proud of the shotgun shell, but I like silver better. 😀
  22. It was right under a power line, and surrounded by other electrical buried in the ground to supply the vendor booths and tents during the fair, so maybe interference was a problem for somebody else. There are electrical sub-panels here and there, and you can see where the trenches were dug to bury the lines. I had my sensitivity way down (3 bars out of 8) to knock out most of the chatter. It was also tucked next to a walking/bike path and may have been overlooked because it was on the fringe of that particular chunk of grass. On an average summer day I bet seventy-five people passed within feet or yards of this coin for all these years and never knew it was there, not to mention the thousands of people during the fair. I didn't know it until I started detecting there, but all sorts of people use this fairgrounds for walking and biking, and people seem to randomly drive through there. It seems to be open to public use all the time. I don't think they even close the gates at night. I'd imagine the lawmen drive through at night to make sure no hooligans are messing it up. I did find a completely smashed glass booze bottle that some drunken yutz threw at the concrete floor of the big picnic shelter. Glass everywhere. Picked up as many pieces as I could find without crawling around on hands and knees. To get permission I looked up the management on the fair's website, emailed the head honcho, or in this case a honchette, and she said no problem, have fun. The groundskeeper stopping by right after finding this coin was the only person who's spoken to me the whole time I've been there. I think this was my fifth time detecting there. Tons of junk in the ground, constant signals with all metal turned on, less with discrimination, but still nearly continuous sound. It's slow going because of that, but it's just a matter of time until I find something else exciting.
  23. Four inches under the surface, three feet from a paved walking/biking trail and four feet from the base of some support cables for a power pole, not far from one of the main entrances to the county fairgrounds in town. The fairgrounds have been used for that purpose since at least 1895 according to historic maps, and maybe longer based on this coin. It's pretty well worn, with a lot of the detail gone. But, I knew I had a lifetime event on my hands as soon as it popped loose from the dirt. I saw the edge and a little bit of one side, saw the shine, and knew it was silver. I about soiled myself and passed out. Not only because of the silver, but partly because it was 91 degrees F, humid, no breeze, the sun was pounding me like a professional boxer, and sweat was dripping off my nose. Yes, I scratched it, right next to the date. Somehow I always knew I would scratch my first silver, and I came to accept that in a dream some time back. But that's okay, it makes it mine. And it wouldn't have been for sale at any price, so it doesn't matter. Well, if it was mint condition and worth $3000, maybe I would have thought about selling it for a minute or two, but I really don't think so. Found 11 other coins today, all clad and pennies, along with a copper token from Grand Slam Sports, which is a laser tag and "family entertainment" place in Burnsville, Minnesota, about 45 minutes from here. The token rang up like an old penny or a dime. I didn't scratch the damn token. Oh no, of course not, not the token, that looks as good as the day it was struck. 😭 I have probably 20 hours into hunting this fairgrounds and I've found about 40 coins, but this one is the king (queen?). Just by chance, the head groundskeeper came by right after I found it, was pretty interested, took a picture of the coin, and told me that other people detect here from time to time, and drove off on his golf cart. Bad news about other people detecting there (which I suspected because of what I was finding and not finding), but they missed this one, the dumbasses. 🙂 I bought an AT Max to give some variety from using my Equinox. I found this with the AT Max. It rang up at 87-90 in the ground and 89-90 on the surface. I wish I had found it with the Equinox because it really has a hold on my heart more than the AT Max does, but I made the decision to use the Garrett today, and now I have to live with it. I think I'll be okay. My life felt complete for about 15 minutes afterward and I was walking on air, but then I realized that that fairgrounds is old, and even though other sad schlubs have been detecting there, there is still more old silver to be found, there has to be. I've only covered about five percent of the total ground available there, and I will keep at it. I have no choice now.
  24. Are you trying to upset me? Because you're upsetting me. 😀 If I could find even ONE of those things I would consider myself Lord and Ruler of all the Earth for at least a couple days. I really need to up the quality of the sites I hunt. To the maps! Find old sites! Pull into driveways and ask for permission! Nothing ventured nothing gained!
  25. Lol! When my dear departed mother first told me apple pie was good with cheese I thought she may need to go to a padded cell for a while until I tried it. It's awesome, especially melted on warm pie. Go Pack go! Don't care much about the Badgers, but if they win the national championship I'll pretend I was a fan all along. I've looked at the V3i and seen some videos of people having a good time and a good day with it. Your post leads me to a rookie question though. A lot of detectors, like the V3i, the GPX series, the CTX3030, and many others, have a box that hangs below your swinging arm, varying in size from model to model. If that box is necessary on some detectors, why can machines like the Equinox and so many others do just fine as far as depth, etc, with a smaller-than-a-cellphone control above the shaft?
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