Zincoln Vdi Results In A Surprise Find

[GB_Amateur]

It's been a slow year, partly due to the weather, partly due to checking out detector+coil combos in trashy (multiply hunted) test sites, and partly due to lack of available promising old sites.  So far in 2022 I've researched three possible new sites.  From the first of these I've shown some results (silver Roosie dime, Buffalo nickel, Wartime nickel) but it's getting tougher there.  That muni park site suffers from my most annoying nemesis -- reworking/backfilling 'improvements' which bury most of the goodies previous detectorists failed to get.  I'm sure there are a few Wheaties and other coins from the first 65 years of the 20th Century (e.g. silver) but with good weather here I expect it to get a lot more visitors, particularly around the sports fields which are most of my remaining, promising ground.

Last weekend I discovered what looked to be a very good and possibly unsearched homestead (now public property) for which early 20th Century USGS topos showed a couple buildings that disappeared in the 1950's.  I headed out there Tuesday, grabbed my detecting gear, and on the (walking) way noticed a sign at the pedestrian entrance so checked it out.  There in plain letters were the dreaded "no metal detectors."    In their defense the site is exclusively wooded trails with one meadow so I understand they don't want digging to disturb the flora.  I was close to another site I've hunted quite a bit (with only moderate results, mostly Wheaties and one silver Warnick) so off I go.  In 3 hours of detecting, not surprisingly I found no old coins but instead about a dozen copper strips (sounding good in the quarter - half dollar VDI region) that had been used as flashing from a slate roof of a large residential building torn down in the mid-60's.  A few modern coin crumbs but no oldies.

Wednesday I had a two part plan -- go to my 2021 best site (what I called the "Wheatfield" due to the number of Wheat cents I've found there), figuring if the grass had been mown I could mop up on one rather lightly frequented (nowadays), quite shaded, sloped area that previous partial coverage had produced a couple Wheaties.  If unmown I had another park (plan 2) not terribly far away I wanted to re-search with a small coil to get between the pulltabs around picnic tables.  Interestingly the plan 1 section A was the only part of this plan 1 park which hadn't been mowed.  Hmmm.  I've seen this before -- areas that are lightly used are returned "to nature" never to be mowed again.  I figured this might be my last chance so even with some scattered thick grass I went to work.  Right off the bat the EMI was bad and after fiddling with different multifrequency modes and settings I settled into (ML Equinox 800 settings of) recovery speed = 4, 10 kHz in Park 2, which was the quietest I could find, allowing me to run gain in the 20-22 range.  I had 3 hours to hunt and spent the first 1:45 here, with a couple small successes -- 1944 Wheat cent plus a thin brass trade token that had a large '1 centsign' in the middle and a merchant's name around the rim.  (Below I post photos of these and other relevent finds.)  The token hit in the aluminum screwcap zone (21-23 on the Equinox).  Both of these finds were in the 5" depth range and less than 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) apart.  I eventually moved on to section B which was an open, flatter area but also unmown.  EMI was quiet now so back to my standard park 1, MultiFrequency, gain = 22-23, Iron Bias F2 = 0, keeping recovery speed at 4.  In the first 10 minutes in the 4"-5" depth range I found two fired lead bullets, both white (oxidation with age?) and both measuring 0.30-0.31 inch diameter (caliber), only about a meter apart.  My typical assumption when I find bullets and/or casings in parks is that these were dropped or fired by hunters prior to the land becoming a park. I think that is likely here - so first half of 20th Century or earlier.  After 45 minutes I wasn't finding any more goodies so with 30 minutes remaining I headed towards section C which was on my way back to the vehicle.

This section fortunately was mown but unfortunately it's close to a picnic shelter meaning I had to get ready for trash, especially pulltabs which can masquerade as USA 5 cent 'nickels'.  I have developed a standard technique when hunting parks and schools in my area.  If the Equinox's signal strength meter (misnamed 'depth meter') shows 4 or more bars (more bars is deeper) and the VDI is anywhere close to a nickel (12-13 being the sweetspot) then I'm digging it.  If signal strength is less than 3 bars I have an investigation method using Field 2, recovery speed = 6 that identifies most beavertail only (ring missing) pulltabs.  The modern racetrack tabs, when shallow, typically flash some 14 in Park 1.  However, 4 bar or weaker signal strength nickels will flash some 11 and 14 in Park 1, and my investigation method using Field 2 fails with deeper targets.  (BTW, if 3 bar signal strength I use my judgement on the dig/ no dig decision, deepending upon what's been showing up and/or how fatigued I am.)  Approximately 15 minutes into my last 30 minutes I get a mostly 12-13 signal with some 11 and 14 thrown in, and it's varying between 3 and 4 bars.  Diggable.  At about 5 inches out comes a Jeffie (won't read the date until I get home), which is promising.

Finally, with 5 minutes before I turn into a pumpkin I get what appears to be a deep Zincoln:  19, 20, 21 VDI but a 4 bar signal strength.  Maybe it's a deep Zincoln -- those do occur especially if the ground has been reworked, but since these annoying junk coins have been around for 40 years now, if they haven't self-destructed from galvanic action they can be naturally deep.  I figured about 80% I had a Zincoln and 2% an Indian Head (I had found one last year about 20 meters away) with the remaining 18% 'other' and likely trash.  After digging a ~6" diameter plug I got a Garrett Carrot signal in the hole sidewall and at about 4-5 inch depth out came a plug of dirt with a silver ring apparent.  Based on the VDI I hoped for a delicate sterling ring -- it was about the size of a woman's pinkie.  When I tried to push the dirt out of the ring's center it didn't give but rather showed the reverse side pole of Mercury dime!  WTF?  (I guess this fits the 18% 'other'.  )  The VDI should have read 26-27.  Putting the handheld back in the hole, very close to where I had just pulled the dime I got another strong signal and recovered a very rustly 16d nail.  I estimate the tip of the nail was 1 to 1.5 inches away from the dime when undisturbed.  Apparently being that close pulled the dime's VDI down to the Zincoln range, and fortunately not lower or I wouldn't have dug it.

OK, here's what you've been waiting for, the finds described above (copper items now with a coating of olive oil) along with the Merc's next door neighbor rusted nail.

Merc is a 1941 plain; Wheatie is 1944 plain; nickel is 1954-D -- all three quite common date+mm.  Although the edge of the token is partly missing I don't think that happened while in the ground since most of the remainder of the rim shows no sign of similar deterioration, but that's just my speculation.  The nickel doesn't look like it's spent a lot of its lifetime in circulation but that doesn't necessarily tell when it was dropped since it could have just as easily sat in a drawer for 2 or 3 decades before being lost.

Oh, Thursday was rainy so I did some more research and found an accessible (and not too distant) public site that dates back to 1915!  That site is the search plan for early next week.  🤞

[CPT_GhostLight]

Excellent detail and insights into the Nox as well as great finds! Thanks for taking us along on your journey and making us part of the process, great story!

 

[schoolofhardNox]

Well, you managed to turn it into a good hunt considering all the drawbacks. The Merc looks like it was dropped early on based on it's condition, same goes for the other two. You hit a decent layer for the probability of more silver coins.

[F350Platinum]

Nice hunt and great detail, GB. 👍

Here id'a mowed the darn place myself, and called the county supervisor asking him why the heck there were signs like that. 🤬

Glad you got a silver coin, I would have used my Quest pinpointer to casually leave the big nail behind, if I can't see it, I don't feel obligated to take it with me 🙄 😀

[kac]

Nice merc, sometimes silvers and even clad can have off numbers or different phase. Finding that in a soccer field that is very iron rich as it is near some wet lands. Grass roots are deeper than 6" to give you an idea how rich the soil is. Other day dug a bunch of nickels that were above pull tab mark which totally screwed me up, was thinking they were war nicks at first.

You said that the ground has been re-worked, is there signs of any of the dirt being pushed to the sides of the part or did they do a good ole turn it over and cover it up? I say that because the soccer field I been hunting has 8" top soil on top of gravel and well below that is fill. It was once a farm so anything old is long gone. Most the targets are 70's or newer and only found one 54 rosie and a merc in a dirt pile off the side from when they redid the field.

I am doing well sniping out dime and quarters and copper pennies with my Tejon and concentric coil as I am discing out zincs and lower. Got 2nd disc to break on screw caps so not digging any trash really. Something you might want to try. Figured I can always go back and work the below nickel range later. Much easier than getting blasted with tons of junk target hits.

BTW nickels are usually below the square flip tabs, should be easy to pick out at most depths. That is a cool trick you do to identify them though.

[longbow62]

Congrats on the nice finds! Earlier in the year I was hunting a late 1800's or early 1900's house and despite high hopes was not finding much when I got a classic IHP signal on my Nox 18-19. Yep it was a 1900 IHP. Not two steps away I get another classic IHP beep and dig out a 1907 Barber dime! Not a worn one either. It was dropped with very little wear. I swung back over the hole checking for another coin, but got nothing. I honestly don't remember if I heard iron or not. Another time this year I passed on a Merc I thought was a penny, and my buddy dug it. It was heavily worn and rang low out of the hole too. Man that always smarts when that happens! I was kicking myself the rest of the day. 

[Valens Legacy]

Great write-up as usual on your hunting.

Glad to see the saves you got, but I am sure that you had a lot of trash also.

Good luck on your next hunt.

[GB_Amateur]

15 hours ago, schoolofhardNox said:

The Merc looks like it was dropped early on based on it's condition, same goes for the other two. You hit a decent layer for the probability of more silver coins.

12 hours ago, kac said:

You said that the ground has been re-worked, is there signs of any of the dirt being pushed to the sides of the part or did they do a good ole turn it over and cover it up?

This particular park is good practice for site reading.  Interestingly the aerial photos seem to help as they show different shades of color for the grass.  Here are a few things I think I've figured out:

1) Anything around modern structures (including streetside sidewalks) is bad news unless it's pre-60's.  They always use forms and rework the grassy area within several feet of the finished concrete afterward.

2) Soil type is a give-away.  Organic matter accumulates with time so deep organic matter is good.  Backfilling around here is usually done with thick, sticky clay.  That's inexpensive whereas topsoil brings top dollar.  I think they even sometimes strip off the topsoil (to sell on the side...) and replace with clay.  I've dug a few deep targets under clay layers but it's time consuming and messy getting through the clay and since deep good targets are more difficult to distinguish from deep (conductive) iron trash, it's a bad tradeoff for me.

3) The kind of grass also tells a tale.  Old grass around here is stouter but also not as thick/plush.  When they reseed after backfilling the grass is soft and tends to be thicker.  And the color of the grass is different, too.

4) Contours (which relic hunters take advantage of) are always good indicators.  Modern reworking tries to make everything smooth and uniform.  Old areas can be raised (or low).  But, kac, I don't see any stripped off layers in piles.

5) A gravel layer can be bad or good, depending upon how deep and how thick.  Here (and other sites) I've found coins right on the top of gravel (when that surface was the finished surface in the past) but also under the gravel layer (particularly when it was put down as a base layer to aid in water runoff).  I've also found items in the gravel which were brought in with the gravel (e.g. bullets that ended up in streams/creeks where the gravel was extracted).

It is true (and I know you've mentioned this, kac) that occasionally the backfilling was done with dirt from an old, inhabited site.  As an example, in the early 60's my uncle was filling a low area of land he had just acquired to build a workshop.  The town he lived in was putting in new sewer lines and he asked them to bring their unwanted dirt to his site.  A few years later he found a sunbaker Morgan Dollar (in bad shape...) staring up at him.

Interesting thing about this park is that all of the above apply in one place or another.  I've just about finished all the promising (un-backfilled) part but as I showed this week there are a few places that remain.

[strick]

Nice work there GB...I always get excited when I see a street tear out and the dirt is jet black is that what you are referring to when you say organic matter? 

strick 

[GB_Amateur]

10 hours ago, strick said:

I always get excited when I see a street tear out and the dirt is jet black is that what you are referring to when you say organic matter?

Yes.  Sometimes its compacted while other times its loose.  But black/dark soil is a good sign, at least here in the Midwest.  Sounds like it's similar there in N. Cal.