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There’s a town park nearby that I’ve never detected. It has a woodchip totlot so I thought I’d get there early Saturday morning with the deus II and see what I could find. I hardly ever hit totlots, but I have limited places to hunt so I thought it would be worth a try. I spent about an hour in the totlot and only got $1.32 in clad and some junk. So I thought I’d hit some of the grassy areas of the park. This park isn’t very old but it was a nine hole golf course before. I think the golf course dates back to the 80s so not expecting anything really old to turn up. Before long I found an old shotgun headstamp. Then I found what looks like an old metal wheel off of a toy truck. Hmmm, I’m thinking maybe there was an old house here before the golf course. Just a few minutes later I get a very sweet sounding high tone in my custom general 1 program. It’s showing 92-93 on the tid. I was hoping for a silver dime but about seven inches down out pops a slick no date slq! I had to leave soon after that but I went back on Sunday hoping for more silver. Try as I might I only managed two wheaties (1918 & 1920) but did find some nice relics. Looks like I’ll be going back there more often!

Yesterday morning I hit a few curbstrips. Our curbstrips are small; less than three feet wide and sometimes only 16” or 18”. But still worth detecting as I got three wheats, a small sterling cap shaped pin, and a surprise 1867 10 centesimi Italian copper. I also managed to get $6.98 in clad. Today I went back to the park where I dug a slq last week. Today was a repeat with another slick, no date slq although this one looks like it may have been under a burn pile. Also got some more relics. The two little buckles were about two feet from each other and both were deep, but the second one was really deep at 11”. I was using the D2 in a custom general program, but I checked some targets by switching to deep high conductor and park and sensitive just to see how each sounded.

I took the XP Deus II back to the lot that I have pounded over last two years and was shocked to dig a nice dandy button and a piece of Spanish silver ! Notice the iron that was bonded to the coin. XP Deus II-Back to the Lot- 1700’s Coin Found !

Well....kinda lol. So I got out yesterday and went to an old park. Running through the park is a ditch that was dug in the late 1700s by the Spanish. I found this about 20 ft from the ditch. At first I thought I may have found a cut Spanish. It looks to be a cut Barber or Seated dime. Not much detail left, just a bit of the wreath. It reads 20-21 on the Nox....41 on the Legend...39 on the CTX...

What a day! Ended up in the low 70s with light wind, perfect metal detecting day. There is a small field near the end of my road and across the highway that I hadn't searched, it's a small part of the thousand or so acres that one of my landowners has. It's a totally non-descript field, nothing there. Some of the other fields in this property have nothing in them so I didn't expect much. Walked around the perimeter looking for those shade Reales and coins, nothing but buckshot, bullets and shotgun shells. Went by this hedgerow, that building is across the highway. I do not have permission to that property but I'm working on it. That's when things got interesting, I kept getting signals from 12 to 25, and dug all these relics: Some kind of pull knob, a clamp, a small piece of silver with hallmarks, a heavy copper funnel shaped thing, a long copper pin with a long shaft, a small brass toy cannon, some sort of cover plate, a really heavy cast knob with a turned circle (going to test it for silver, it's black), a tombac plate that was broken, a buckle and a small bit of shoe buckle. The cannon has a fuse hole, you can probably put a firecracker in it. The silver piece looks to be flatware. Hope I can find the rest of it. I also found some of the best buttons I've found in a long time: Huge dandy button with flowers and a beehive, no back marks: Another highly decorated convex button with "Standard Gilt" on the back: Got a few tiny buttons, one may be a Tombac with a shank. Large button with a square hole. The finds of the day beside the cannon were these two, I believe both are Virginia militia buttons. One definitely is, a two piece from the 1860s: It says "Sic Semper Tyrannis" (thus to tyrants). Some of the gold plate is still on it. the other is convex but looks like it also has the symbol of Virginia. I dug it in about 6 inches of clay, it was really hard to get to, and the bronze disease is heavy. It would be older than the Civil war era. Trash wasn't all that bad for 8 hours of digging. Found some "house parts" that told me there was a building there. Also dug a 1999 clad quarter next to the truck!

Went coin-shooting at a local park today and dug 30 items: 1 Chuck E Cheese token, 1 Canadian cent, and $1.34 in US. Very successful hunt for me! The Canadian penny was crusty but showed hints of copper under the dirt. So, out of boredom, I started cleaning it up with my new set of André pencils. When I could read the date, I saw it was some sort of commemorative, so I looked it up online. The first image that caught my eye was someone selling a coin in similar condition to mine on Etsy for… …wait for it… $47,100!!! After a few seconds of shock/greed/horror (I should have cleaned it more gently) common sense prevailed and I read the rest of the search results. A circulated 1867-1967 cent is worth between $0.25 and $0.45. The guy on Etsy must be, as we used to say in high school, “trippin.” Still, a cool find. (These photos don’t do my find justice. I needed to exaggerate color/contrast/shadow trying to make the inscriptions legible.)

When I first started out hunting silver coins, I routinely ended up finding "clads" and maybe an old Wheatie or two. When I stopped hunting coins and concentrated on nugget shooting, I started finding silver coins. That's not all bad I guess, but it can be distracting. The historical allure of old silver coins can have a tendency to divert attention away from gold. Especially if no nuggets have been found, and suddenly you find silver coins. In that case, I invariable seem to find myself gravitating toward old deteriorating buildings and evidence of habitation, and straying away from the more likely areas I should be seeking in order to find gold. And therein lies the problem. Fortunately, one that I have been increasingly learning to live with.

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!

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.

Went out to another local park for two hours today with the same setup as yesterday when I found the gold Buccaneer flag charm. Today was 17 quarter, a fake plastic penny, and a medallion. Anyone see one like this before? It rang up as a 36 and was just off the sidelines of a soccer field (Equinox).

I took off work on Friday to see if I could snag some silver with the D2. I hunted for about 7 hours with 6 of those at the old ballpark where I’ve gotten multiple silvers with the nox. I hit the area hard with the deus. I dug mostly silver and nickel signals and a lot of iffy signals just to see what it was, but no silver and only 1 wheatie. Needless to say I was a little bummed. Today I got out to my only permission, the old house on 3 acres. This time I concentrated on a small level field on the other side of the property from the house. I hadn’t really detected this area much at all just doing an exploratory pass last weekend. This time I slowed down. Second target of the day was a nice sweet sounding 91/92 and I figured a silver dime since I have only found one clad coin the entire time I’ve hunted this place. About 7” down was a 1918d merc. I stood up and rescanned that spot and about a foot away I get a 59/60. Turns out to be a toasted buffalo nickel at the same depth. Then about three feet away I got a high 80s and out pops a toasted wheat cent. All three of these were not in the field that’s in the picture, but on the far end to the left. Once I got in the field I hit a nice high tone reading 94-96. At about 6” was a 1907d barber quarter. A couple of feet away was a high 80s and again another toasted wheatie. In between the wheatie and barber I get a jumpy signal in the 60s and out pops a Wahl Ever Sharp silver plated mechanical pencil! Now I start gridding that area and about 50 feet away I get a 96/97 and I’m thinking another quarter, but out pops a small sterling ring. That was about it as I headed back to the car. Today I was mostly using two custom coin programs I had set up last night. One was based on park, and the other based on general. Both with disc at 35, 5 tones with custom tone breaks, reactivity I varied at 1.5-2.5, silencer at 1, sensitivity at 95, audio response at 4. Park used square and the general used pwm.

Warmed up nicely here in VA, they're calling it "meteorological spring", yeah right. Sure as you're born were gonna get one more snowstorm, hopefully I'll be in Savannah when it comes. 🙄 Working on getting the RV ready for its shakedown trip next month, but I managed to get out twice this week. First outing was Tuesday at the colonial farm I've been hunting, so much to choose from here but I decided to hunt a spot where the finds could be very old, or not. It's only about 4 acres of a much bigger field that I divide by telephone poles. Didn't do too bad, got a buffalo nickel, some old wheats, and the best tiny colonial button I've ever found. It's smaller than a dime, but was gold plated: The back has a crown and the words "Rich Gilt" on it. The letters are raised so it must have been cast. There are still traces of gold plating on it. Got a nice musket ball, a big D buckle and a couple of other really old buttons. Some interesting metal fragments from who knows what, one appears to be part of a stamped flower. Today I went to an old farmhouse down the street from mine, a place that I've pounded pretty hard and found some nice silver coins. I went back over that spot with recovery speed turned down and sensitivity way up. Snagged a 1913 wheat, a 1965 dime, a memorial, and then I got a strong iron signal with just a few chirps in the 27-30 range, and the depth meter pegged. I was sorry of able to isolate the high sound but the iron kept coming over it. Dug down about 8-10", about the length of my Ranger shovel. I was still getting iron but there was a persistent 27. I took out my trusty (sort of) Quest Xpointer Max, and poked around the bottom of the hole until I found a non ferrous beep among all the iron. Got this nice little relic: it's only about the size of a dime. It was made probably in the 1920s to 1940s by the Uncas Jewelry company, here is some info: http://danielleoliviatefftwrites.com/found-in-the-jewelry-box-blog/four-popular-uncas-rings-and-some-company-history Not a bad week. Got to get out there, some of my permissions are about to become off limits with spring planting!

I only see these at the Post Office. Never expected to dig one up. Found it behind the backstop of a softball field. I guess I need to add it to my bucket list so I can cross it off. Ironically, I’ve been looking for an intact beaver-tail pop top for a long time. I want to show young people how we decorated our dorm rooms with pop top chains back in the Dark Ages.

I placed a phone call to the State Geologist of Wyoming after reading articles in the ICMJ recommending an area in the Western part of the state that was known for shallow pocket gold and ore shoots situated along a fault line. After having no luck detecting an eroded rusty quartz outcrop for a few hours, I ventured out onto a raised knoll in the sagebrush a feet away and started picking up a staccato of signals over a 30' wide by 100' deep area. The rimfire round, (resembles a 45/70 but doesn't have a centerfire primer),was stuck in the ground nose down, with 1/4 inch of the case sticking out. It was intact when I pulled it out, and after being stored it in a coffee can in my truck awhile, it broke in half while I was bouncing around 4-wheeling. I taped it together to hold the powder in the case. The nickel 3 cent piece dated 1865 and the percussion pistol/rifle side plate were found close to the rifle round. I found several pieces of plank/boards that were so old and dried up they looked and felt like balsa wood. There were 3 large Flagstones buried just under the surface that had been placed together to make a campfire and hearth, (where the remnant of a lead bar, slag and hand cast bullets were recovered) Small animal bones were found in the fireplace. Numerous fired bullets and "Drops" were also recovered along with all the rest of the items shown in the photographs. Some of the percussion caps found (1/2 inch deep) were unfired! The 1851 0 mint 2 1/2 dollar gold piece was found together with the brass baton (cabinet latch?) near the campfire. The site appeared to be an old campsite or wagon stop from the 1800's.

Made it out in the Florida winter weather today (85°) to a soccer complex that I have vacuumed with the Equinox 15" coil many times. Today I was using the 5x10" and focusing on the areas I avoided when using the large coil because there were so many targets. I was mainly digging quarter sounds and those indicating a possible ring. Lots of junk was dug. No rings today, but in three hours I managed to dig 46 quarters, something that hasn't happened for a long time! There is also a token that was not too deep in the ground. https://www.worthpoint.com/dictionary/p/coins-currency/tokens/car-wash-tokens It was found next to pine trees on the perimeter of one of the fields. In case you are wondering, yes, it was so warm today that I can't wait for next winter to get here in Florida!

It hit 67 today here in VA, started out at 32. I wanted to hunt one of my old farm permissions, a place close to an old service station that might yield some decent coins. I was disappointed to remember that this is a holiday, Happy President's Day. The area I wanted to hunt was full of hunters (pumpkinheads, local name) blasting rabbits in the woods with dogs running them out. No going there! I took another road into the field and went to the old farmhouse, a place Chase and I scouted in the past but it was too muddy and we found next to nothing. I figured I'd hack around there now that things have dried up a bit. This place has been hammered over the years by detectorists according to the owner. He mentioned someone found two Trimes here and gave him one. Ended up not doing too bad. Dug some old relics and a 1930 wheat, but had to walk a lot to get them. I really don't know what any of them are, but they're brass and copper and old. 😁 The wheat was whacked by something but still gave up a date: The hunters left early afternoon, so I thought I'd leave this field for the one I originally wanted to go to. I was walking along slowly back to the truck, digging shotgun and percussion primers along the way , and got a sharp wake up, a solid 19/20 that just wouldn't change no matter what angle. I thought "great, another penny anyway"... Nope. I couldn't believe my eyes: 1847 silver seated liberty half dime. It was about 4" deep. It's in pretty good shape for being lost around 175 years ago in a farm. It's ridiculously small and thin, maybe a little bigger than a Trime, about 1.5mm. they were only minted in Philadelphia that year. For those of you who are interested, here's a size comparison: Here's the trash, I dug a lot of buck balls and small pieces of aluminum, shotgun shells and primers, some small copper pieces and what was left of a gold plated Zippo. The only big piece of iron that got me was the curved buckle, the rest were the typical nail falsing. Settings were park 1 5 tones, 21-23 sensitivity, F2=3.

I was going to add this to yesterday's post, but it kinda got a life of it's own. Yesterday I was going to hunt this area, but there were hunters and dogs all over the place. Didn't mind because I got a silver half dime. 😀 Today was another warm day but overcast. My goal was to hunt around that group of trees right of center, it's an old car repair shop that closed about 15 years ago, I remember when it was still open because I worked near here. It's now abandoned and overgrown, only one side is available to me as this huge farm permission runs up to it. It's almost a mile away from the road into the field, so I 4 wheeled it down there. Got 4 wheats and not much more than what I expected to find near a service station, lots of old busted car stuff. Happy with the 4 wheat pennies all pretty much from the 1940s, I went back to an area that I hunted a few months back and got some interesting finds. Today I was running the Equinox at my usual settings plus recovery speed 2, or mid. There is a cell tower here but I never had to run sensitivity lower than 20, as I got closer to it it got better and I could turn it up as high as 23. There was a house here in the early to mid 1900s, it's gone now. On the way over to it I got a nice 21, and popped out my first surprise of the day: A Buck USA 119 phenolic hunting knife. It's not in too bad shape, the handle has some chips and the aluminum parts are a tad corroded, but the blade is nice and sharp. Pinpointer to show size. Cleaned it up a little, not bad. While hunting around I got a 16/17 and dug this iron, yikes. It weighs about 5 pounds. I randomly hunted the relatively small area where the house was, and snagged the following with which I included the 4 wheats from earlier: 7 wheats total from 1910 to '17 to '26, and then mostly 40s. I was glad to get a 1905 IHP, a 1911 V nickel, an aluminum button I found near the garage, some sort of wrench, a bag seal, a small clip of some sort with a pattern on it, and an undated buffalo nickel. It was getting late in the day, I was heading back to the truck, and got a 27/30 that I thought might be a quarter. Nope... I think it's a King George copper, you can make out the bust looking right. It's pretty worn from the field, the reverse is unintelligible. I hoped I would get one here! It might be this one, a half penny, 1770s: Or it could be this one, 1775: Here's the trash, from copper junk to bullets to iron.

We'll, actually, it was in a park on the ballfield. I went on the other side of the fence from where I found the silver dime last weekend. The 15" had no issues among the trash, even running at 4 recovery and 23 sensitivity in Park 1. The dimes were about 7-8" down about 15 ft. away from each other in moist soil. This is only my 3rd Mercury dime I've ever found; the rest have been at the same park on different fields. Florida is "cold" today at 50° with strong wind. Not many people out and about.

Seated Dime. Plucked from the iron patch using the Rutus Alter V1.0.

The day started out a little wet and rainy, but the sun came out and we got into the mid-60s here in Central Texas. Beautiful day for digging in the dirt. Stopped by an old school for about 3 1/2 hours, I don't think it's as old as I thought only 4 Wheaties from the 50s, the little Bull Durham pendant and a boatload of clad. Went over to a park by the river got a couple more mercs and two Wheaties. The last three hunts have produced multiple silvers, I've been very fortunate to be able to get my coil over some keepers.

We had a "fake spring" last week with day temperatures in the mid 60s. No better weather to get out in. I arranged a Saturday hunt with Chase and his friend, and got out there to scout the place on Thursday so we wouldn't have or create any issues as a group. The owner was generous as usual. Went over to the old home place I mowed last fall, unfortunately they moved all their equipment over the spot the house once stood, so I decided to walk way out back to a remote field. It was planted with wheat so no digging, but on the road back I got a 1912 wheat at least. I came back to hunt around the equipment and got some clad and a nice old "Terror" padlock ca. 1908. Also got a really old brass lamp switch or skeleton key head and a corroded aluminum key fob that says "Hirshberg Hollander Co's Stag Brand Semi Paste Paint is the best" They used to use this sort of paint on boats. Lots of boats in this peninsula, I used to have one. Friday I had home stuff to do, but Saturday it started out warm, and ended up at about 68. Could not have been better! Chase and his friend came down and we went to the oldest field I have, where I dug that Spanish cob. I brought some golf balls with me I found out hunting this field to give back to the landowner, and let the cat have one of them to play with for a bit. I'm glad he is still there and healthy. We got out hunting, both Chase and his friend had Deus 2's! I am impressed by the weight and ergonomics of that thing, it looks really cool. Maybe someday when I grow up I'll get one 🙄, but I did just fine with the Equinox: Got an old coat hook, a pretzeled Victorian sash buckle, 4 Tombacs, a piece of silver ribbon, an overall button, small buckle fragment and then the smallest, thinnest buckle I have ever found, that's a 1977 Jefferson nickel I dug below it for size comparison. This field is huge, easy to dig, and wide open. That's Chase and his friend off in the distance 🤣. His friend got some Tombacs and a Virginia military CW button, and Chase may post his finds here or later. Great day out with friends.

Finally got out this morning for a long over due hunt. I meant to go for just a couple hours to an old town site that I and others before me have hounded for decades. I figured I'd use the Deus with the hi frequency coil in deep mode x/y graph and dig everything non ferrous hoping for a small gold coin...there are still plenty of non ferrous targets in the ground however high conductors are very very rare at this place. So off I went up on a hillside that I have found some good stuff in the past with the Deus and started banging away. The sun was up and warm at 8:30 am and the the cows were already looking for shade. Head stamps, small bullets, bullet casings etc I dug one after the other but I kept on digging...after about an hour and a half with sweat in my eyes I said to myself what the hell am I doing here? I got stuff I should be doing at home rather then screwing off digging junk. Since it was too early to just give up I decided I'd put the 11" coil on the Nox and go for a long walk in a big field. I've made several attempts in this field in the past...it's off the old town site but close enough to investigate. I was looking forward to some quiet detecting out of the iron hoping for a needle in a hay stack find. About 2/3 into the field and after a few more head stamps I get a real nice 24-25 on the Nox loud and clear. Probably a small buckle I'm thinking with my defeatist attitude.. then what do you know out pops a small silver disk from about 6 inches...carefully I rub the dirt off saying to my self "please be a seated...please" and bingo it was! Now I can go home I figured but greed sets in and I start circling the spot like a buzzard over a fresh kill. After a while nothing more so I keep on going further toward the end of the field...an hour or so later I'm making my way back and start gravitating toward the area where I found the seated dime...Again I get a nice clear high conductor this time a 22 on the nox...this could be a bullet casing I'm thinking but it sounds smaller then that..I got to work for this one because it's deep...trying to be careful using my Lesche I dig around it and once again out pops a small silver disk! Good lord another seated dime! Time for a break and light a small cigar in celebration. Looking around I see my first dig hole from the first seated about 10 yards away...I guess some old timer had a hole in his pocket and lost both coins.. Tired and happy as it's not every day you get two seated coins. The first one was an 1868 San Francisco stamped and the second one was an 1870 with no mint mark. Heres a few pics including the junk...I dug the fork early on and it seemed to be giving me the finger as if to say go home idiot this place is hunted out...but they never really are I guess. HH strick

Fairly interesting hunt today, it got up to 55 with no wind. Thought I'd go to the old steamboat landing, it was bush hogged about 4 weeks ago. This is a nice flat piece of land overlooking a river, I've never dug any silver here (Chase did), but clad and old pennies are pretty plentiful. I've also dug some late 1600s to mid 1700s buckles here. It's about 4 acres, all waterfront. Most of the year this little field is covered with poison ivy, but when they clear it, not so much. In the bottom of the photo the daffodils are sprouting, there are lots of them here. There was a building or two and a large dock or two for the steamships. Anyone who has been reading my posts knows this place has been hit hard, not just by me but many others. One thing for sure with a place like this, when it's gone, it's gone. Got out early and stayed all day. Got lots of trash, this place is loaded with iron and other metals as well as lots of shotgun shells and for some reason every time I dig here I find harmonica and organ reeds. Got a really nice cast aluminum horse shoe, it was laying on the ground. I know no horses have been here recently so it must have been thrown into a tree. Also dug this small compact, too bad it was trashed. at first I thought it was a watch. There was nothing inside. Here are the finds of the day, and hence the name of this post: Got 2 IHPs, an 1882 and an 1894. Some sort of small copper disc, an aluminum coat button that was painted a nasty shade of green. Finally, a 1934 and a no date buffalo nickel that I dug in the last half hour. So glad to be outside again!

Hey wassup guys!😃 Hope y'all doing great!👍😄 Still buzzing from Saturday!!! 3 gold coins!!!🤣🤣🤣 Never thought that i would experience something like this!😳 Can't wait to go back, because i didn't get to stay there for too long (had the wife waiting for me). Good luck out there!🍀 Best regards 🍻

It was cold, but all the snow is finally gone so I went to an old ballpark. This ballfield dates back to the mid 40s so I knew there had to be silver there. I had been there last summer but it was so hot I guess I couldn’t concentrate well enough on the signals because all I got was clad. Today I hit the same area and got three mercs. A 1940, 1942, and 1945. I also got a very worn, no date slq. I also got $7.96 in clad which included a 1971 half. Halves are hard to come by for me so that was a nice surprise. This was on Saturday. This puts me at five silvers for the year. I checked last year’s log and I had 7 by this time. I’m going back tomorrow so maybe I’ll get a couple more. So I went back Sunday and hit a hillside near the stands. Not 20 minutes in and I hit a well worn merc. Upon closer inspection it’s a 1916! My first 1916. The backside was caked in a thin layer of mud and not having any water I just put it in my pocket and figured I’d wash it at home and hope for a D mintmark. Before ending the day I got a ‘46 rosie and a ‘43 merc along with $5 something in clad. This 7 silver weekend puts me at 8 for the year. Oh yeah, almost forgot. When I got back home I washed off the backside of that 1916 merc. Low and behold I see remnants of a mint mark! I run to get my lighted 16x magnifier and as hard as I tried I couldn’t make it into a D….it was an S. Bummer!