The Deus 2 Gets Schooled

[CPT_GhostLight]

There's a part of town I've been hunting that has some older artifacts and everytime I go there I drive by an elementary school that was built in 1953. Since I'm usually looking for much older stuff, I never really payed much attention to this school. Well a few days ago I noticed some workers there and they were scraping off an area of the playground with a small excavator. I figured they were changing out some pipes or something and saw that they were dumping the dirt in the parking lot while they continued to scrape a fairly wide area about six inches down. Well that's probably worth checking out, I thought as I drove home that afternoon, and figured I could check it out on the way home the next evening.

They were still working hard at it when I drove by the next afternoon, but when I came back by a little after 6:00pm, the workers, and more importantly, the dirt pile were gone. Well, I missed that opportunity I thought, but I decided to check out the scraped area anyway.

I had the D2 with the 11" coil still on from some earlier detecting so I figured a quick run might turn up a silver coin or something old from the scraped area. I started swingin on the excavator path going in and out of the scrape and started pulling quite a few older ring pulls. At one point I pulled what looked like a foil milk bottle top that was folded in half and threw it in the trash pouch. A little after getting into the scrape and finding more ring pulls, I hit a '71  copper memorial penny. That could be a good sign or so I thought. I did manage to hit a deep dime, but it turned out to be a 1970.

After 3 or 4 passes on the scraped area, I decided to explore the path to the parking lot where they had dumped the dirt from the scrape. I noticed a section of side walk that had also been pulled out and found a 1968 quarter and a 1973 Dog Permit tag from Ventura County, California.

When I reached the area of the dump pile, I could tell it had been mostly small gravel with some dirt mixed in and there was a much smaller pile of wood chips still there, which I assume had been on top of the gravel. It had only a few foil targets in it, but the area where the gravel dirt had been dumped started giving up some good targets and a few surprises. One surprise was a small brass skeleton key, and a small brass ID bracelet (without the chain).  The other was what I thought was a very encrusted, but high ringing zinc penney, only to find after cleaning it was a 1935 wheat penny!

Oh, and the folded foil milk bottle topper that I almost threw out with the other trash fooled me too. I unfolded it and saw "Gold Circle Coin" imprinted on it and thought well maybe it was a gold foil candy coin wrapper. That's when I noticed the phrase, "For the Prevention of Disease" on it and thought what does that mean.... Oooooh.... then I remembered that was commonly imprinted on condom containers in the 40s and 50s. I had never heard of Gold Circle Coin condoms before but I looked them up... there's even one in the Smithsonian Institute, LOL!

So I ended up with some older clad coins, copper pennies from 1960 to 1975, a 1935 Wheatie, a brass ID bracelet piece, a skeleton key, a 1973 dog tag, a few mystery items, and a 1950s era condom wrapper. You just never know what will turn up at school! 😎

Mystery item:

Another mystery item:

And the trash:

[JCR]

You just never know till you try.

[F350Platinum]

Haha Cap'n, nice title. 🤣 And cool finds, I bet your heart skipped when you saw the gold... And then... 🤣 That's way funnier than Merry Widows.

Your whatzit looks like a graded fastener, an old potentiometer or maybe a 25 amp fusible link thingy 🤔 I don't think I'd be behind anything labeled "chance" if it was electrical... 😏

Great trash to finds ratio, you're really doing well. 👍

[Lodge Scent]

Good idea to check that spot CPT! I've dug a few Merry Widows but never even heard of the Gold Circle ? That has got to be the gnarliest wheatie I've seen dug in a long time 😉. Nice hunt!

[relicmeister]

I’m sorry to say I’ve missed a few good sidewalk tear outs in old areas by waiting too long to try, so I learned a lesson that time. You have to strike while the irons hot - like you did. 

[TJ Jeepguy]

Nice Cpt!

[PI-Man]

CPT — winner on gold circle coin!  I bet in the past for some during the late night hours that type coin was worth its weight in gold! 😂 

They actually mention the gold circle coin in the scene from the movie Pretty Woman when she first goes to hotel room with Richard Gere.  

All great finds.  Is that mystery item an encrusted pendant?  What was its ID?

 

[CPT_GhostLight]

19 hours ago, PI-Man said:

CPT — winner on gold circle coin!  I bet in the past for some during the late night hours that type coin was worth its weight in gold! 😂 

They actually mention the gold circle coin in the scene from the movie Pretty Woman when she first goes to hotel room with Richard Gere.  

All great finds.  Is that mystery item an encrusted pendant?  What was its ID?

 

The mystery item is sort of pendant shaped. It rang up as 67-68. It's got some weight but I haven't figured out how or even if I want to try to clean it up a bit. Of course it could just be a lead or brass tag of some kind.

[PI-Man]

Cross your fingers and give it a wack with the 🔨.  Well gentle tap.  You never know maybe something good under the crusty surface.  

Always a gamble.  I feel your pain ever time I have to hit crusty items to break them open I cringe — especially if they are found near the Spanish wrecks.  

[Skate]

Ventura! I find those dog license tags all over the beaches..........in Ventura! 

Great hunt and report CPT.