April Summary

[Zincoln]

April was a fair month for me. I was able to get access to a private boarding school which operated from 1906 until 1988 and sat on 50 acres.  While it wouldn't have seen lots of commerce, and while jewelry wasn't part of the environment, I still had high hopes.  I know the student body was quite small until the 20s.  

In the end, I managed 5 silver dimes, 4 war nickels, a buff, and 20+ wheat pennies.  Also found quite a lot of clad (and very few zincolns - yeah!).  Lots of keys from the old dorms.  It was better than most locations I hunt, and I'm sure still has a few more out there.   It became clear that when new facilities were built in the 50s and 60s, lots of dirt was moved around an much of the original turf has been buried under a foot or more of fill.  You could easily tell original ground from the fill when cutting plugs.

At the start of May, I spent one entire day working tot lots in schools I'd ignored since the start of the pandemic.   Found several nice gold items, one of which I have hopes of returning.  Also found a small mountain of bling and clad.

I used a mix of my Deus with the 9" X35 coil and a derivation of the hot program, and my V3i with the 10" DD coil and my custom deep program at the old school.  The class ring was found with my MX Sport and 7"DD. 

It was a very wet April (and now May) out West.  Hoping to get some warmth soon!

Zincoln 

 

[Valens Legacy]

Great finds, how many hunts did it take to get all that?

Good luck on your next outing.

[strick]

Nice work. Send some of that rain south ! 

Strick

[kac]

Old skelleton key is cool. Like the building dome cut out on it. I found a snake ring just like the one you have that was plated zinc. Typical kiddie bling.

You able to track the owner down for the class ring?

[Zincoln]

7 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Great finds, how many hunts did it take to get all that?

Good luck on your next outing.

VL - the old school was 5 or 6 hunts....quite a few hours for the silver. Again, better than most any park up here and about as good as most yards I might access.  

The jewelry was all from one single day hunt at various schools.

ZIncoln

[Zincoln]

1 hour ago, kac said:

Old skelleton key is cool. Like the building dome cut out on it. I found a snake ring just like the one you have that was plated zinc. Typical kiddie bling.

You able to track the owner down for the class ring?

I found the skeleton key to be kinda funny. It has Washington DC emblazed on it.  It's a modern momento.  I do find a few from the correct era, but not this one.   

Class ring is WIP.  The school not too far away that i expected it to belong to doesn't have anyone graduating that year that corresponds to the initials.  Meaning, it may be from somewhere else in the country.

Zincoln

[GB_Amateur]

Great finding an unhunted (or maybe just not very well hunted) old school.  With four Warnicks I'm thinking you must have found quite a few non-silver Jeffersons there, too.  Did you check those date+MM for keys/semi-keys?

I would have expected more Wheaties based on the number of silver coin finds.  Were you digging everything above Zincoln?  Should have been some Indian Head cents, too.

One thing about schools -- if the children attending them didn't have a reason to be carrying coins they can be kinda sparse on oldies.   Maybe it wasn't until ~1960 that they were carrying coins which would explain the lack of IHP's.

[Zincoln]

GB - I dig everything non ferrous in order to ensure I pull gold.  I did find quite a few nickels, but not many in the 40's and 50's.  Nothing like a 39d or 50d.  Pulled close to $15 in clad.  

I agree on wheat pennies as i generally run 7:1 wheat to silver so this was a very good silver ratio.  Looking back, I only pulled a 13d and a 20 in terms of older wheats.  Seems that even though there was an active boarding school, the ranks were small until they built up the bigger dorms in the late 20s.  Then, they rebuilt in the 50s/60's, and pushed all the dirt around where the original dorms and admin buildings were.  I'm quite certain some goodies are a foot deep, and some under asphalt or existing buildings.  I hit the old ballfield which was nearby in years past and managed around 10 silvers also, with most being 40's and 50s.  I believe this is when the local store was at its peak.  

Our Oregon dirt really puts a stop to you after about 8-9 inches in terms of any valid VDIs, and beyond that items like dimes typically come in as iron.  Don't care what detector or coil you use (though i know the eTrac crowd has had some luck on slightly deeper targets in the parks).  Likely we are still registering them....but you'd dig countless nails to pull the occasional small silver.  I've always loved it when I've gone somewhere with sweet soil and you suddenly find items at 12 inches - whole different world.

I keep hoping for a Barber or IHC, but think after this many hours on the site my odds aren't real good.

Best,
Zincoln

[GB_Amateur]

3 hours ago, Zincoln said:

...I generally run 7:1 wheat to silver so this was a very good silver ratio.  Looking back, I only pulled a 13d and a 20 in terms of older wheats.

1913-D (15.8 million) isn't an easy find around here, even back in the early 60's when I searched bank rolls (and never found one).  It's not a key or semi-key, but not until 1916 (36.0 million) did Denver crank out very many cents.

 

3 hours ago, Zincoln said:

Seems that even though there was an active boarding school, the ranks were small until they built up the bigger dorms in the late 20s.  Then, they rebuilt in the 50s/60's, and pushed all the dirt around where the original dorms and admin buildings were.  I'm quite certain some goodies are a foot deep, and some under asphalt or existing buildings.

Yes, that's a bane of old sites today.  Even when undetected, the chances the oldies are within reach, due to backfilling, often isn't very good.  PI's will reach deep but with their primitive discrimination it can be a daunting effort.  However, that may be the only solution for such sites.

Nice effort to find this spot, and I hope you can squeeze out a few more goodies.  There's an IHP (and maybe a Barber or two) awaiting.

[geof_junk]

I love the key. That key is very religious, cross on one end and a church bell on the other end 😁