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Unexpected "wheatfield" (updated)


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Many wheat pennies were circulating in the early 70’s, but silver was being hoarded by then.  I prefer pre ‘65 sites when I go hunting.  I’ve been to a few early 60’s schools with a decent sprinkling of silver coinage and wheats.  Even a few years of pre ‘65 silver coin drops is enough for me to investigate a spot.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t find a silver coin at the site you wrote about above, but I hope you do find some!

Good luck! ??

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Glad your having some continued luck, Nice silver ring. As for the park sign, maybe it is when the park was dedicated to the public. Kinda like an old road that has been there forever but isn't accepted as a road until its dedicated. Funny how government works. I think with a little more searching you will hit up on the silver. Good luck and keep us posted.

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Good hunting GB, looks like you're in for some silver from the wheat dates. I love a new site. Demographics may play a part in your finds, I'm finding that to be an issue here - just the frugality of citizens - that and the fact that other detectors have been used at some of my places. One that held great promise yielded only a Mercury dime after a soil turn. Regardless we take what we can get. 

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I forgot to include a few more pieces of info that may shed light on my experiences so far.

1) Regarding detector and settings, my usual park and school 'rig' -- ML Eqx 800 w/11" DD coil in Park 1, no notching, 5 custom tones, Recovery Speed = 4, Iron Bias F2 = 0, ground balanced and EMI cancelled.  In heavily detected sites I usually go with gain = 24.  Here I turned it down a bit to 22.

2) I mentioned some similarities between pre- and post-park aerial photos.  Where currently there is a concrete block restroom building (men's and women's sides plus a central utility/maintenance room), back in the 1950's (as far back as the photos I've seen are taken) there was a different building the same location.  It's about twice the size and had a hip roof.  I suspect it was some kind of office for the industrial site.  The park itself is rolling hills/valleys along with several flat areas.  The building is on a high level spot but right behind is a slope down to lower ground -- an obvious place to sit and eat lunch, drink beer, waste away the time now.  But was this also a spot where the workers lounged during lunch and breaks and after work?  There are trees there now but too small/young to have been there 50 years ago.  Aerial photos are often too fuzzy (and sometimes taken in the winter) to figure out where the trees were back then.

3) Besides the building, there are two other landmarks which appear to have commonality between the 50's and now.  One today is a circular sidewalk with exercise equipment inside.  There was something of similar size and shape there in 1965.  Where today is a baseball field, there is a ghostlike field of similar size back in the 50's.

4) For the most part the recovered Wheat pennies were not deep.  Of the 14 found so far, one was about 7" deep, one 6" deep, most 3-5" deep and one about 2" deep.

Always something I try and figure out is whether or not a site has been detected previously, and if so, when.  This one has me baffled.  Who doesn't dig high conductors which are shallow?  Am I the first one to hunt this park?  Hard to believe in 2021 that an easily noticed (at least on maps) park has never been hunted.  If so it's the first I've found.

Another minor mystery is "why so few nickels?"  If the Wheat pennies are representative then there should be an occasional Buffie as well as an early Jefferson or two.  I'm hardly finding any nickels at all, old or new.  Plenty of clad dimes and quarters, at least compared to my typical park/school detect.  Also, pultabs in the nickel range seem to be on the sparse side.  That would make sense if this site didn't see traffic until after the ring-and-beavertail era (1965-75) which is consistent with the 1974 date of the establishment of the park.

I tend to stay away from parks on weekends (especially holiday weekends).  This week looks like nice detecting weather so I should get over there at least a couple times during the upcoming workweek.  More evidence will show up, it's just a question of whether it will help solve the mystery or simply add to it....  And I want to prove Raphis wrong as to whether or not I'll find a silver dime.  :biggrin:

 

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