F350Platinum

Ha, like the Hoover Boys say, "it's an episode". Noticed they all use the Equinox now. It's aluminum, and is reeded. As I recall it was where the house stood, I guess it got mangled like the Girl scout pin by heavy machinery.

Went back to the farmhouse Chase and I detected last weekend. We got 1" of rain so things were better for hacking around, wanted to get back there and see what I could find. Got there at 9am and stayed until about 4. First thing I dug was an 1908 IHP by the road, hoped that would be the theme of the day, but it turned out differently. There is a lot of trash here, and apparently this house burned. I dug a few clumps of molten metal (aluminum) that gave me a clue, the trash to finds ratio was off the charts. ? I dug the heck out of it to clean things up for a return trip. It takes about 40 minutes to get there. I think I dug a little bit of everything! Sinkers, glass fuses, broken tools, hair rollers, rivets, bullets, and of course a lot of pull tabs and aluminum bottle caps. Here are the finds, mostly clad but some other cool stuff: A big Smokey the Bear token was the most ironic find, solid 28. An old brass World Association of Girl Scouts badge ca. 1950s - 1960s It originally had blue enamel. Dug this small heart, I think it is aluminum, it has weld marks for a pin: A device for a ribbon of some sort that was a 4/5, and a Yale key found near the fuses, probably a spare key kept with the fuses. Not much but interesting nonetheless!

Shows how much you love detecting! Great finds. ?

Currently I'm using André pencils. If the coin is really cool I'll clean it completely, might use 0000 steel wool. I tried washing coins and didn't like how they came out. Now I'm thinking of getting a tumbler. There doesn't seem to be a clear and foolproof way to clean coins and relics anywhere.

Went out there this morning and found a 1916 D penny, it was on top of the ground. Really wish these people had lost more silver?

Junk

It's not too bad, got my balance down hunting over soybeans last year. Just can't swing much unless you're on a wheel track. Just giving y'all something to read while working! ?

The corn is harvested here, time to get out in the fields. I've been wanting to search this particular field right next to an old farmhouse where I dug some silver coins. Right up next to it I dug one IHP and a colonial button, figured there might be more in the field. I'd say it's about a half acre, don't know why they bother but a field is a field I guess. Yesterday was one of the last hot and humid days we can expect here, so why not be miserable for a few hours? ? The end of the field the photo was taken from is where I dug the coin and button, as you get closer to the hunt club building it's mostly beer cans. They haven't tilled this field and they probably won't, most farming here is "no till". They may run a bush hog around the edges but that's it. Used the 10x5 coil as usual, it's especially good in corn stalks. I found that swinging it ahead of me on an angle is better than back and forth. I made a short video but don't see .MP4 uploads. In 4 hours I got some clad, one coin spill gave me a quarter, nickel, and Zincoln. The other quarter was up near the hunt club. On the "good" end of the field I dug a 1944 wheat. Near that I got a 25, thought I'd get another IHP but to my surprise I dug an old brass ring. I know it's a ring because of the crown on the metal, doubt it's a compression fitting ring. Sad there was no makers' mark or inscription, but I don't want to scrape all the crud off. As it is something put a nick in it. It does not bend. Here is a closeup of the ring: And here is the trash, one iron relic looked interesting, kind of a hook with a loop. I threw all the beer cans and slaw in the handy dumpster. The shell is a high power .17 caliber. Not sure how old the ring is, so I thought I'd post it.

That coin is in really good shape! Small date large C if you want to know its worth. That is one heckuva find, tho not moreso than your gold.

That is a great bad photo. ? You should ask "what is this rock?" That looks like a large C.

That's known as the "small date" version, got a "bad" photo of the back?

That's some great stuff Chris! If you're only coming back from a hunt with 2 finds those are about the best I could imagine. The Chinese Cash can be very old. Each one has the name of a ruler and where it was minted. Try "lensing" them with Google Lens. For me the problem would be which way is up? ? You are lucky finding the more valuable coins. ?

Maybe it's just New Mexico then... Dan seems to get one a week. ? The Coiltek 10x5 is working great for me. It makes the detector noticeably lighter and you get almost the same swing as with the 11". I'm not a go to reference for it, as I'm new to the hobby and "feel" more than I know, but it's much easier to "lock on" to a target (the Equinox seems to do that) amongst a bunch of crap, and pinpoints and ground balances much better than the 11". Others may disagree regarding depth but for me depth isn't much of an issue. Most targets here are going to be in the first 6-8" as there isn't much topsoil before the clay. I have found targets on the beach down to 12". If the target gets past the clay here it is gone. Gerry just got some in, bet they go fast even with the higher price they are charging for them now. He may be the only one beside Big Boys that has one. I think your wife would love it.

Thanks Chris, I'm grateful that I find anything. The 1911 wheat penny tells me I'm in or close to Barber era, but the silver isn't gonna jump out without removing a lot of the trash. I wonder sometimes if they sent all the Barbers out west! ? I've still got two more unexplored farmhouses to go, and a lot to revisit with greater experience and this great coil. It can really sift through the junk. All the coins I did find were not clear signals at first, nor was my initial understanding of the Equinox. I use an old Army trick and wear a bandana like I used to wear under my helmet. Not a stranger to sweat ? 84 isn't hot like it was in August but there wasn't any shade unless we got behind our vehicles.

I'm always impressed by your discipline and fortitude. The trash to keepers ratio stands out, but what keepers! Great stuff.

This is a great place for the Coiltek 10x5. Not only is searching the corn rows difficult and would be almost ridiculous with the stock coil or larger, but the sheer amount of trash in the ground is surely masking good finds. I found one of the wheats on top of the ground. If there is any non-iron signal here on a sweep it would be worth digging, but it's going to take a lot of digging. It was not very breezy and full sun, 84 degrees. Next week will be cooler.

... We don't have enough time. ? Thanks GB, I meant to correct that error, thought something was wrong with my assertion. This place is about 40 minutes from my house, so revisiting it as long as I am able is not a problem. May throw my fancy lawnmower on my trailer and cut the grass! It's a large circle in the middle of a cornfield. I have an aerial from 1967 that clearly shows a large house and 4 out buildings with a fifth near the road. We hunted around but the cornfield is difficult. More to come for sure. That address is now occupied by a hotel.

I've dug both an 1809 half cent and two V nickels, one of the V's was nearly indistinguishable as it was scooped in a river - it was silver-ish, and the second was dug in a yard and it was brown. Dug the half cent in a field, I wouldn't call it the find of a lifetime... Ask anyone on here who has found a gold coin. Even Trimes and Reales are fairly common. Really a V nickel is more of a find because it is in the pull tab range. ? Great find. ?

Got an opportunity to visit a couple of places recently, hoped they'd be a bit better but the prospect was exciting anyway. I got in touch with Chase and invited him down, these are supposedly un-hunted places. The first one was pretty clean, we didn't find much of anything. Huge field over 30 acres. It had been "turbo-tilled" so it was easy to hunt after a corn harvest but possibly because of that method of tilling the only thing we heard for the most part was deep iron. Theory is the soil was "fluffed" up with air making any targets deeper. We hacked around there for about 3 hours, and the finds bags got heavy with iron so we quit and went up the road to another permission, a farm where a farmhouse that was taken down in the 80s along with 4 outbuildings stood. Chase is somewhere out there... ? It was an extremely trashy site, lots of iron and shotgun shells, so we sorta just coin shot it. I heard and saw just about every signal from -9 to 40 on the Equinox. Very difficult! By the end of the day (it got to 84) I managed to pull some stuff out, my trash was plumbing and steel, 2 toasted matchbox cars (China) and a pretty mangled cap gun. Here are the keepers: 2 clad dimes, 1979 and 1980, two memorials from the 70s, and two wheats, a 1952 and a 1911. One aluminum button from the prior site, and a small iron disc that long ago lost its identifying characteristics. I kept it just because it was round. my favorite find was a vintage Montgomery Ward Credit Protection key fob, ca. 1940s. It's bronze, and was hit by a lawnmower but it I straightened it out. Never knew the first credit cards were coins. Going back to this site soon, there's gotta be some silver there. At least the penny is over 100 years old.

Heh Joe, If you dug 140 coins in one day ya beat me and are now "coin King" ? Most I got in one day on my last trip was ~86. May be more the trip before that, I'll have to look. I looked, and I did get 142 in one day on Father's Day at that campground. ?

Good to see ya really digging Joe, sorry about the pain. Great finds! ?

Good going Joe! I've dug mercs and Reales but never a stinkin' Roosevelt. ? Great amount of clad too. ?

From what I got "lensing" your photos, it could be Marcasite, a form of pyrite. Morocco is known for it. Is it magnetic or translucent?

I'm gonna second this emotion ? I routinely run the 10x5 on my Equinox 600, and pushing IB to F2=3 (max) makes bottle caps stick out like a sore thumb. I only dig, pick up, or scoop them now as a courtesy or if I'm feeling froggy. The tone pattern is very distinct. I do think the 11" isn't as good in this respect just coming back from using both in a 4 day hunt.

Don't want to hijack Dan's thread, but I'll try RS2 over at the newer farmhouse. The Ace 400 didn't yield anything new over there but that little tweak may help, possibly using one of the field settings. I've been using Park 1 for a while now because it's easier to get the easy stuff. I did find 4 silver coins at the old farmhouse with it. I started out in Field 2 when I was out last year, there are also a lot of opinions on depth and accuracy. Sorry Dan! Hopefully these extra posts will give you the day ?