Unexpected "wheatfield" (updated)

[GB_Amateur]

It seems one of my recurring detecting New Year's Resolutions has been to find new hunting grounds and not get stuck in a rut trying to find the last crumbs I'm capable of tasting in the sites I've detected extensively.  So far this year I've done well (at least one silver coin in each) at three 'new' sites (two parks and one school) and 3 weeks ago before heading out East I was able to get in a short 1 hour hunt at another park I've never previously visited.

I vaguely knew about this spot previously but for various reasons I never tried it.  My first 'requirement' is that a new (to me) site have a decent chance of hiding old coins.  For the most part that means having had significant human activity prior to 1970 and preferably prior to 1960.  This 4th 'new' (to me) site of 2021 didn't seem to meet that minimal requirement.  In fact there is a prominent bronze plaque on site which states it didn't become a park until 1974 and previously was an industrial storage lot for several decades.  However, Historic Aerials hinted at a more promising past.  It seemed to show that some of the modern park's features were present at least back to 1965.  I'll go deeper into that later in this post.

That first 1 hour hunt produced three Wheat pennies along with four copper (alloy) Memorial Cents and a couple clad dimes.  Three Wheaties in an hour on a site which supposedly wasn't frequented until 1974 was surprising but far from earth shaking.  I filed it away until after getting home from my week+ in the East.  After getting home I needed some time to decompress (i.e. take care of other things) and it was quite humid besides.  Further, this summer has been wetter than normal and the grass grows back as fast as it gets cut.  Finally this past Thursday (2 days ago as I write) I got in 3 hours on a freshly mown park.  I concentrated on areas that the Historic Aerials indicated would be most promising but still did some fairly broad surveying.  The results were a bit disappointing compared to the previous short run -- 1 Wheat cent vs. 4 copper Memorials along with a few modern 5, 10, 25 cent coins.  Here's a photo of only the coin finds (oh, plus a Sterling ring my wife has already claimed):

The next day I returned for another 3 hours, this time hunting exclusively on what I considered the most promising part of this site.  Now the floodgates started to open:  10 Wheaties compared to 5 copper Memorials along with $1.85 in larger denomination modern coins:

The dates on the 10 Wheaties are: 1909, 1918, 1920, 192x-D (haven't yet resolved that last digit), four from the 40's and two from the 50's.  Non-cent finds don't seem to show any particular date pattern although only 2 or 3 are from the current millenium.  Now for the non-coin finds from these last 2 days (total of 6 hours):

Pretty much the typical park trash.  There is one arcade token from 80's or later (right below five Stinkin' Zincolns).  The ladies watch appears to be nothing special (no precious metal or stones).  Possibly most interesting is above the drink can lid -- it's a copper piece that looks like it has a coin slot in it.  The padlock is badly corroded and the shank has been cut with a hacksaw.  It may be from this site's industrial days.  Oh, one last interesting find.  To the right of the Hot Wheels car is a wooden piece I recognize as being from a Lincoln Logs wooden playset (not metallic)!

So what explains the plethora of Wheat Cents?  Here are some hypotheses:

1) The bronze plaque is wrong and the property was turned into a park well before 1974.  This seems a bit odd -- I mean the park department historian can't get a date right and spends hundred+ dollars on a sign with erroneous information?

2) The industrial site's employees spent some of their lunch-hours in the same shady(?) sloped spot, either accidentally dropping coins or even possibly playing some kind of penny-ante game tossing them and missing picking up some?

3) Nature's randomness is conspiring to try and trick me into thinking this site's Wheats/Memorials ratio is indicative of something other than just luck.

The plausibility of this last hypothesis can be tested with statistics.  I'll start with my on-going 5 year record of fraction of copper Lincolns that are Wheats.  That's 338/1547 = 21.58%.  Most of these have come from parks and schools, all of those sites having been established no earlier than 1974 while most of the remaining sites were private permission homesites that were established no later than 1960.  Thus using this value as 'typical' for sites frequented for at least 47 years is a stricter requirement than necessary.  Still, using 21.58% ratio of Wheats to total coppers, the chance that of the first 27 copper alloy Lincolns found, 14 or more would be Wheats is less than one in 7100.

Of course Wheats tend to be an indicator that even better (yes, silver coins) treasures are hidden and awaiting a coil to be swung over them.  Hopefully I can add some more evidence by digging one (or more) of those on my next trip to this spot.

[kac]

Not a bad haul for puttering around in a new spot. Must feel odd hitting unfamilar grounds 🙂

[Raphis]

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! 👍🏼

[Valens Legacy]

Nice hunting again for you, and I wish you more luck in the future.

 

[Cascade Steven]

Interesting statistics and congratulations on your success.  Best Wishes in your future searches.

[rvpopeye]

Plenty of targets there !

Hope you can pull out some silver next time....

 

 

[dogodog]

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.

[F350Platinum]

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. 

[GB_Amateur]

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. 

 

[locator]

Wow 👀. That's a bunch of stuff and it looks like you had a lot of fun. Congratulations.

Good Luck & Happy Hunting