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What's Your Most Unusual Token Find? Recently Calabash had posted a unusual token find for one loaf which I thought was pretty cool token find. Going through some of my token finds from past years I believe this is my most unusual token find to date. The token is from the Delagua Mine which is located in southern Colorado and is good for one cap, 22mm in size and made of brass. The V.A.F. Co. stands for the Victor-American Fuel Company. Here is some history on the Delagua Mine: Delagua developed around the Delagua bituminous coal mine, opened in 1903 and operated by the Victor American Fuel Company. As of 1922, it was the largest mine in Colorado,and at its peak employed at least 900 men. In October 1917, the Delagua Mine was considered one of the "largest and finest 'mining camps' in the state". By 1916 the saloon and dance hall had been converted into the Delagua Social Club, complete with "three first class pool tables and one billiard table", a soda fountain, , bowling alleys, a stage that featured a motion picture show twice weekly and at least 250 members in 1917. At the Delagua Mine on November 8, 1910, an explosion (loud enough to be heard three miles away in Hastings) killed 76 miners. Safety inspectors later determined that the blast was an explosion of gas and dust, caused by the open flame of a head lamp.

...a pretty good day by Oklahoma standards! These came from a grassy area between an old hospital, and an old church; my hunting buddies managed some other goodies -- including two Mercs, a couple of IHPs, several wheats, and a Buffalo nickel. Steve

I had a rather awesome hunt today, scored a barber grand slam and a dime trifecta... Started the day hunting after a 6 1/2 drive to my old stomping grounds. First site gave up the barbers, rosie and a wheat..... Ending the day by doing a test hunt at a backup spot, looks like both are going to produce very nicely. Scored 2 wheats and the merc in 30 minutes.... Found the barbers with the Equinox 800 and the others with the CTX.... My wife kicked me outta the house for 8 days....so...I did some research close to where I grew up and arrived today for nothing but digging, eating and sleeping First spot was across from the old railroad depot next to a dried up man made lake from back in the day..... Second hunt was an old city park.....

After a bit of a drought of finding cool coins with the Equinox, I found another V nickel detecting in the neighbors parking strip in between thunderstorms. It was pretty worn and pitted, and not of any numismatic value, so I cleaned it up a bit.

Went to the same location where I had 42 quarters. I used the same settings, but this time I swung the Samurai sword 15" coil. I had a bit more time today (11:20-1:20), but the humidity was really oppressive. No mosquitoes this time because they don't even want to be out in the Florida heat! I believe 55 quarters is a first for me in 2 hours. If I were not the one going up and down all those times, I would not believe these coins all came from 2 hours of detecting. Most were within the first few inches, so they were a quick dig. With all the stuff dug, that is an average of about 1 item a minute. I think I know what I can save up for...knee replacemnts! I left a scad of dimes in the ground, so there are still plenty of targets for my friend. 😁 The bracelet was a STRONG 9-10. It looked amazing coming out of the ground, but it was not silver. There was also an iPod Nano, but my son snagged it in hopes of cleaning it up. Now, time to focus on the jewelry!

i am having fun experimenting with Equinox settings, but ever learning the tones, and feeling a bit more confident. Late 1700s farm house with tons of modern trash gave up the 1901 Barber dime, sterling watch back, and Philadelphia & Reading railroad button. the rings and Rosie were from a natural spring swimming area. The 1905 Barber dime i got yesterday from a large field I have been hunting for about 7 years. Two Barbers within 2 weeks is rare for me....then topped them all off today with this 1853 half dime. My first one of those, and so nice to fill another slot in my Type book of dug US coins. been a really sweet year with finding coins. thanks for looking. HH

Just dug my deepest dime ever today.

Well, after reading about the high number war nickels I finally got one at an old fairground in Kansas. Hits a solid 21.I was sure surprised to see a nickel in the hole. It's a 1943 s.

Haven Only recently purchased my 800, I am only just barely learning how to use it. one of the first keepers came from an old campsite that I assumed was probably depression era. I got a solid 13 and assumed it was a nickel. to my surprise it was a part of a WW 1 Dough-boy toy soldier. It is very heavy, over 15 grams and appears to be made of cast lead. My CTX id it at 12.10 and the Gold Bug Pro at 13. I managed to go back to an area that I detected last fall with the CTX and found several more coins that I had missed. I blamed that on the fact that there was so much trash and the recovery speed is so fast on the Equinox, but no silver. I stopped for lunch and thought about that. I decided to put on the 6 inch coil and go back over that same area, same results more coins all coming being next to multiple ferrous objects. It was getting late in the day and I only hunted a small part of the area that I had previously hunted but wanted to try one more thing before I quit for the day. I had been using the Nox headphones. I switched to the wireless module and used my headphones that I use with my GPZ and went back over the very same small area, same results more coins. Again no silver but, I have hopes. The next day, I went to another area that I hadn't been before and found these nice coins Norm

Part of a field that is usually swampy has dried out a bit and I was able to see what was there without sinking to my knees. Found Susan B Dollar (most hated coin I think), British One Penny which was an odd find this side of the pond and a small white gold earing 12-14k .044g. Oddly the One Penny is worth the most 🙂 Rest is the usual clad.

Popped a V-nickel out while detecting tailings pile for gold. It cleaned up pretty good for a dug V. When I used to coin-shoot V's were my favorite to dig for some reason? This is my 2nd V from this area while looking for nuggs….. I'll take it...lol

Hit a school yard just at the end of my street. Getting better at my Multi Kruzer as my trash level is way down. Came across this large cent there that was for some reason pretty shallow. Other is a 42 wheatie. Heads facing left so guessing post early 1800's? I'll probably leave it alone and not attempt to clean/trash it.

I went field hunting today for the first time. I used my 340/V12 combo. What a blast! First big old copper for me. Probably doesn’t mean much to other people, but it was an 1861 1 cent piece with the New Brunswick name on it. I’m in Maine and half Canadian. That half is from that province. The 340 blew me away on how it did. Also a few old buckles, a button, and a 1925 wheatie.

Had an unusual, and great day. First thing that happened was I found a silver ring...my first! 30 minutes later Dave dug his first Barber dime, an 1893 S in great condition. 30 minutes later I got a nice, clean signal, and was amazed to unearth a 14k gold ring! How weird is that on that old trail. And the stretch we were working has almost no traffic now, other than the occasional hunter. So hunting along about 15 minutes later, and the DFX gives a solid nickel reading, and out pops the 1903 V nickel. All of this in about 250 yards of road, of the .77 miles we covered today. My best day, EVER! Jim

Was brutally windy today so figured I would hit a patch of woods where I have found other old coins but this time wanted to test out and see how the 3 tone mode in 19khz can handle probably one of the worst trashy spots in the area. There is a fire pit that goes back to the boyscouts and over the years people have burned their trash and littered the place so it has a healthy mix of aluminum, aluminum slag, old iron nails etc. Kept the MK at 85 gain, iSat 5, Disc at 4 (for the rust), and used n2 on Fe Vol. With some med/quick swings I would hit on a target then go over it and let the machine lock in. Still amazes me the separation and recovery speed on this machine in this mode. Targets aren't deep but it is certainly a good way to pick through the top layers of trash and reveal stuff in between. The V nickel was in a root tangle on a path about 6-7" down and small silver chain piece in with some aluminum can slaw. V Nickel is 1884 I believe but in rough shape but nice to know there is stuff still in the area.

Yesterday evening was a beautiful day to hunt. Didn't get to hunt long. The school was mowing the lawn, or rather the acreage. Might not look like much but the war nickel is the 3rd in 4 months. Not bad for a presumably hunted out site. Oh, by the way a site is never hunted out. There's always something left, waiting for the next generation of detectors or the detectorist that my be an unconventional hunter. I might explain that statement at a later date.

We were looking for stage-robbery loot along a stage road that was also an emigrant route. The desert road mostly follows the stage road, but here and there, the emigrant wagons cut a really deep gouge into the soil, and the desert road deviates to avoid those spots. We don't generally hunt the road, as there's too much modern junk, like .22 shells, but yesterday we did hunt the deep sections of the old route, and found a bunch of interesting items. I found an old pocketknife, with only one sideplate, but the plate was mother-of-pearl, which is pretty rare. I also found an unfired .38 S&W round, and a .38 case with no headstamp. Also, the business half of an old hatchet. But the best was the last thing I found....my first Barber dime...a 1902 in excellent condition once I cleaned off the accumulated crud. The places Dave and I hunt, coins are really rare. We also located the encampment location where they spent the night. Lots and lots of trash. We'll be getting to that spot in the future. They couldn't make the spring on the Butte in one day, so stopped at roughly the same place as each wagon train went through. Dave found a pile of stuff, too, but no coins. His finds included a nice obsidian arrowhead, which he left where he found it, of course. He also found a really old spoon, that had broken, and had been repaired by wrapping wire around the neck of the handle. The crushed cartridge is a .44 of fame and legend...LOL I imagine that cartridge with no headstamp is also really old. I was using the TDI SL, and the SP 350 8 x 14 coil. I was running in ALL, but only digging the high conductor signals mostly. Digging low conductor signals results in wasted time...just too much small iron junk. Jim

I have had the pleasure of hunting this property recently. Here are a few of the most notable finds. I’m hoping this is the forum to post pics. A Tshirt I made that I’ll wear on my hunts so you all can recognize me when I’m out there...The house itself... as it is today. My dog Draper. Would like help identifying this one. I can not make anything of it.... These twin coins were picked from the same hole in the front of the house. They are Canadian 60 year confederation coins given to each student attending schools in Ontario in 1927.

It was a rather strange day today ......broad spectrum of finds and dates of coins. BUT .........I got a tiny 9ct gold stud earring in black sand mix. A nice old penny, the other penny is just too far gone to see a date. Another coin for the scrap. Hubby ran off with the stainless steel hose clip thingys......guess some junk is useful eh?

Dean Wormer informed Delta Tau Chi pledge Kent Dorfman "Fat, drunk & stupid in no way go through life" has been ringing in my head the last few weeks. While I don't drink much with much being the operative word, fat and stupid are probably a pretty good fit. I can't fix stupid so in addition to starting the Paleo diet a couple of weeks ago I thought I needed to get out more and get a little exercise. I used to be a avid detectorist in the past and used the progression of Minelab's machines. I decided I would get back in the saddle and purchased a brand spanking new Equinox 800. After tinkering with it in my yard a bit and finding a copper memorial I loaded up Andy Sabich's coin program and headed to a local high school that I am quite sure has been bombarded over the years. BOY, I AM OUT OF SHAPE! After a little over an hour and a half I was starting to lock up. I did celebrate finding a wheatie early on, which was more than I was expecting. I had programmed the detector to ignore zinc pennies and was just looking for very good signals. Literally turning the corner to make my way back to the car I got a 27 signal. I had found a couple of clad dimes and was sure I was adding another and out pops a silver rosie. For the first run finding a wheatie and a rosie made my day. Well I gots to be going now and I'll see if I can stand up. I am going to be sore tomorrow. Cheers!

Some photos of my finds, Roman coinage.

Hit an area where I had picked up a trime before. This time out I snagged an 1853 half dime, old 3 ringer, bronze wedding band that was fairly deep and 2 large cents that are in rough shape. Probably won't bother cleaning the large cents as they may just disintegrate. Used the Multi Kruzer at 14 khz in 2 tone mode. Had isat off, was manually ground balancing as the ground is pretty tame, gain at 95 and disc at 0. I'm finding it is better to let it do it's chatter and low iron hum once in a while rather than using discrim at all as it disc seems to make the audio bit choppy and hard to follow. Finding 2 tone very easy to pick out good targets even when there is a lot of trash and iron around, just work slow. That stock coil is working really well in the woods.

Bored silly with my states lock down on covid 19, I decided to go out to a place close to my house and run the MK with the 9 inch today and test out my home made detector stand. I was out for about 4 hours and found a bunch of clad and a fake diamond earring. Then I decided to dig every signal that I passed up before to test the 9 inch even more. 25+ pulltabs later I got a good nickle sound in the 60's. I dug a small hole pushed the pointer in and at about 3 inches was the large cent. I thought it was an oddly corroded 1/2 dollar. It was about 6 inches from the edge of a parking lot. It turns out it is an 1821 or 1827, hard to tell, I can just make out a 182- maybe 1 or 7. This was a great week for me. Might go out tomorrow if the wife allows. By the way the stand works great no dead dog detector anymore. Guess I'm not getting the battery pack now!!

Starting to think may be a cache of silver half’s in a general area, that’s three (1861-1862-1863) from same area. Two months ago, I dig an 1861 1/2 dollar, a week later a local buddy digs an 1863 1/2 dollar. Today, I dig the third an 1862 1/2 dollar from same general area. From previous hunts, Plenty of musket balls have surfaced, some 1850-1860 era finds as well. But no other coins have surfaced, just these three seated half’s. A town short lived, 1853 to late 1860’s based from history books. Based from one of the books, Late 1860’s a row of six wooden cabins facing the river still stood. Took me about 11 years to find these row of cabins, wasn’t until a few months ago finally found the town settlement. It’s located in an orchard, with permission from property owner, I’ve been searching for this settlement pass 11 years. It’s an area I use different top end detectors, enjoy switching things up a bit and happy as a lark what ever I swing. Today, it was the Blisstool V6 (Beast) that nailed the seated half. Running the V6 with Ore mode, but with a higher fine setting to bring back depth loss yet retain fast recovery speed. These settings work well in this area, the town area is laced with old iron. Square nails, large spike nails, etc. Ore mode turns the Blisstool V6 into a fast recovery unit, enhances separation in areas with iron. Hopefully, The owner plows here soon the area surely needs it. Maybe more will surface? Thanks for looking, Paul

Out digging with the MK 9 inch coil and man did I get lucky. I decided to head to an old sight and hunt in the woods. I was hunting around an old spring about 300 yds from an 19th century house. Was finding my usual shotgun shell cases and wire, buckshot and a 32 cal. bullet. When I got a huge signal!! I new it would be iron so I dug it anyway. Found myself an awesome horseshoe. Thought to myself that's got to be good luck. I stumbled around for a little bit and found an old spoon and a weird piece of twisted copper wire, seem's hollow with solid wires inside (no clue). I got onto a bunch of aluminum, not even sure how it got to where I was hunting. I was ready to call it a day when I got a big aluminum hit but it was different, it was a much lower tone. Dug to about 8 inches and popped a big coin, It was a 1942 WL 1/2 dollar. Man did I get excited!!! I decided to stay a little longer. About three feet away I got the same big signal. Dug that and popped another 1942 WL 1/2 dollar. I spent the next three hours finding nothing. I guess the horseshoe thing has some merit. Shotgun shell cases, two peter's Large P circa. 1915 to 1927 one UMC co. circa. 1900 to 1910 one USC co. circa 1926