CmonNow

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.

"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.

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.

On 7/7/2020 at 7:35 AM, GB_Amateur said:

My goal (when park or school detecting) is simple -- come back home with one old coin (and here I include any Wheatie as an old coin).  Sometimes I don't meet this modest goal, but I don't get bothered by it. 

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.

On 7/7/2020 at 7:35 AM, GB_Amateur said:

Fortunately I have a placer (glacier) gold creek within driving distance.  All I have to put up with there are mosquitoes and heat.  Digging is not a problem.  😅

 

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.

Quote

Hope you find some more keepers soon to show us.

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.

8 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

CmonNow,

I walk over more 1 to 15 VdI spotty sounding targets in one hunt than I want to admit. There are thousands of them in the parks I hunt. I rarely walk over a decent sounding target in the 16 to 38 range unless it is falsing iron or an obviously huge target. These are Equinox/Vanquish/X-Terra numbers BTW. The reason why is that I've dug 9 gold rings this year so far and 8 of them together barely equal the total grams of that one ring in the photos. Those really heavy mens rings generally always come in at 16 to 21 and are usually 6+ grams weight. Selling gold for melt value is easy. Selling loose precious stones and diamonds from a 1 gram gold women's rings is not nearly as easy. And then there is platinum.......and palladium, gotta also dig those nickel numbers if they sound good.

Jeff

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.

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.

1 minute ago, 2Valen said:

I am 60 miles south of Springfield, Illinois, and I agree with the weather report from you. It reminds me when Robin Williams gave the weather report in the movie Good Morning Vietnam.

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 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Two silver coins in one day is getting rare these days, unless you can get access to a spot that was frequented by leisure activity and has never been hunted.  Well done!  The condition of the Merc is particularly nice and as far as the Barber goes, still attractive even with the ding.

Good that you're returning to that spot.  Sounds like it was at least semi-popular back when silver was still in circulation, having found the dimes and the Wheatie.  If you haven't been, don't forget to dig 12-13 (and even 14, particularly if it shows 13 as well) since that's where nickels vTID and the wartime nickels (always having a large mintmark over the dome of the Jefferson Memorial) have quite a bit of silver, roughly 3/4 as much as a dime.  There may be Buffies and V-nickels in that ground as well.  Some have found Warnicks with even higher vTID's but I haven't.  And make sure to check the vTID after getting the target pinpointed/located directly above the coil attachment screw.  That's where vTID is most accurate.  If after doing that you see 10's or 15's then, in my experience, it's not a nickel.  12-13 is the sweetspot but also getting some 11's and 14's can still be a nickel.  And if you're digging all non-ferrous, well, at least practice predicting what you've got before you dig.  (Apologies if you know all this, but others will read it and they might not.)

I've put detecting on hold over the last week and probably at least the upcoming one, too.  Besides the heat and humidity, our part of the Midwest hasn't had appreciable rain for over a month and the ground is so dry it's almost impossible to dig a plug and get it to return and stay.  (Just a dried up pelt that wants to come loose with the least little disturbance.)  Some use the screwdriver recovery technique, but there are downsides to that and it tends to keep you close to the surface where it's mostly (but not always) modern coins.  I woudn't discourage anyone from going that direction; it's just not for me.  I'm retired and our winters have been mild (no ground freeze, or if it does it thaws quickly) so I can wait.  But I have relatives I visit in Wisconsin so I know what you have to deal with in the winter....

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.

8 hours ago, 2Valen said:

Great finds and wish I could get back out there.

Keep up the good work and happy hunting.

What part of the country are you in as it sounds like your close to where I am at, hot humid and no breeze.

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.

2 minutes ago, Majuba Man said:

Nice finds, you don't know what it is unless you dig and check your hole, sometimes there is a bonus. Hope you checked the area well, looks like a good spot to spend some time!

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.

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?

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.

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.

That's a great relic to find.  Can't beat one with personal history behind it.

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.

12 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Excellent find!  Seateds are tough in much of the country, maybe the entire country.  (I don't have one yet.)

That ding to the rim is unfortunate.  The condition otherwise looks top notch.  It certainly didn't see much wear before it was lost, waiting > 100 years for you to swing your detector over it.  I don't think they had lawn mowers back then, BTW.  😁  Sometimes coin in parking areas with gravel or crushed limestone just get beat up when cars drive over them and pack down the rocks, but that tends to show up all over the coin and yours looks like just that one rim ding, at least from the obverse view.

Did you check for a mintmark (I stole this image off of PCGS).  Note the 'S' (San Francisco) under the wreath on the reverse:

Looks like there isn't much value difference between the 'plain' (Philadelphia, so no mintmark) and -S even though there were more than twice as many plains as -S's minted.  No other mint made any that year.  Regardless, excellent find.

 

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.

On 6/13/2020 at 9:16 PM, TreasureHunter5 said:

Found in my yard, house built in 1940. It was the only old coin found in the yard. Hit it a little on the back, but I’m happy. Let me know what you think.

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!

9 minutes ago, rod-pa said:

flat out awesome!  I have yet to get a half older than 1917.  perfect way for you to break into 1800s.

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.  😀

10 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Your first ever silver coin is a Seated half dollar??  You are so hooked now!  Well done and nice writeup.  Makes me wonder what others were thinking.  At 4 inches deep this had to just scream.  Did no one bother to hunt there, or were they 'convinced' it was a large chunk of metal dropped by the power pole techs?  Your lesson is their loss, obviously.

I've always thought that fairgrounds (with carnival areas) have to be one of the best places to find coins -- people with coins just burning holes in their pockets.  Most around here are off-limits except during events.  I've never asked for permission but you've got me thinking....

The most difficult coins to recover without scratching are those in hardpack, especially when in gravel or stone such as parking lots.  I've been pretty lucky but unfortunately late in a hunt when I'm tired I get sloppy.  Thanks for the reminder.  (I can't even see the damage in your photos so apparently not too bad of a scratch.)

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.

On 5/17/2020 at 4:13 PM, Cal_Cobra said:

I should make a log of everything I've found with my EQ800 since I got it, definitely been dozens of seateds, a lovely 18K jewel encrusted gold ring (first hunt actually), a rare $1 US gold coin, a few rare silver coins...

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!

9 hours ago, Johnny Crunch said:

CmonNow, you mention you like bells and whistles and tweaking things: White's V3i. It's old, heavy, complicated, eats batteries— long overdue for an update (which will apparently never happen) — it's like Nox800's grumpy old grampa! A miracle worker in the right hands... a red hot mess to us mere mortals... you will need A LOT more than 150 hours to sort it all out!  Go Packers! Apple Pie with Cheese! Eff 'em, Bucky!

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?