May 2010
April ended with 12 silver coins... One less than March... April also yielded 3 pieces of Sterling Jewelry...
May 1st (Saturday)
Hunt #27: I headed up to Colchester to meet up with John. John is interested in Metal Detecting, but has not taken the 1st step of purchasing gear and such... So I headed up and meet him at his fathers house and showed him the basics of my backup detector... The Minelabs X-Terra 70...
We dug a few pennies in his Dad's yard and then headed over to the local elementry school so he could dirt fish some....
I dug one Wheat Penny... and this Sterling Silver ring as my keepers for the day...
The ring is small as you can see from the size 4 stamp... Make sense being as we were at an elementry school...
May 5th (Wednesday)
Hunt #29: I headed back to the site I was working last week that yielded all of the wheats, austrailian penny, and one silver mercury dime...
The site is a stand alone building built in the late 20's and farm land before that...
The pervious 2 hunts yielded 15-20 wheaties... a 1943 Huge Austrailian Penny... and 1944 Mercury Dime... Its about 3 acres... 1/2 of that being pretty grown over and can't swing there a lot... Late in the fall perhaps :-)
The pervious hunts I used the 10X12 SEF.... Today I decided to use the 6X8 SEF as the targets I had recoverd were not over 6"...
Today started slow... I got 4 wheats in the first 15 minutes then quiet for over the next 30-45 minutes... a wheat here and there...
Then I got a rough nickle signal @ 3-4"... Out popped the 1936 Buffalo... 5 minutes later... a no-dater buffalo...
1st time I've found three Buffalo Nickles on one hunt...
The last No-Dater Buffalo came in towards the end of the hunt...
Next up was....
1953D Roosevelt Silver Dime (Silver #46)
The next Signal as a 12/29 in all directions... I was thinking token or... *shrug* I was not expecting this small silver coin...
1872 20 Pfennig (Silver #47)
This was a solid signal @ 4-5" that I was 95% sure was silver...
1941 Mercury Silver Dime (Silver #48)
I got a iffy 12/42 12/46 signal @ 6-8" range... When I went to pin point the target is locked onto a 12/15 a few inches away that turned out to be a kids hair braclet... Once I popped that out the 12/42 12/46 was a little more pronounced but not a banging signal... but enough to investigate and dig....
I was not expecting a...
1810 Classic Head Half Cent
As you can tell... this is the side of the coin that was facing up... and took more damage... but its been in the ground for close to 200 years...
This hunt yield a few firsts...
1 hunt with 3 Buffalo Nickles, 1st 20 Pfennig, and 1st US Half Cent...
May 7th and 8th (Friday and Saturday)
Hunt #30: I hit a few places over 2 days... Friday night: I hunted locally in Navy housing with a co-worker... Saturday AM I headed north to a town green and got rained out... Came home and in the late afternoon after it cleared up I headed back to the site that yielded the half cent and 20 pfennig...
I needed 16 wheat pennies to hit 200 and 2 pieces of silver to get to 50 for the year...
I did not get any silver, but did manage to net 14 wheat pennies...
I do enjoy digging dog tags and I'm not sure how I missed this one the 1st time through... Perhaps the attached rusting hook and the direction I was traveling did make it sound interesting enough :-)
This came in 12/31 to 12/33 range as I recall...
1949 Groton CT Dog Tag
This girls Straight Shooter bracket was a Ralston Cereal premium to support the Tom Mix radio show in the early 1940's.
You took the card from the box of cereal and sent it in... The Letter on the Front was the first letter of the first name of the child registering.
This was a solid 12/31...
May 9th (Sunday)
Hunt #31: Mother Day! Late in the afternoon I headed back to the site I've been working needing 2 wheats and 2 silver to hit the 200/50 mark for the year...
6 wheat penny targets were recovered pushing me over the 200 mark!
I wanted two silver... but was satisified with the one I unearthed :-)
1926 Mercury Silver Dime (Silver #49)
May 10th (Monday)
Hunt #32: I headed to a small city park in a nearby town... It was my first time there and I mounted up the 10X12 SEF coil... It was the typical yellow / sandy dirt... Easy digging... and my 4th target was.....
50th SILVER for 2010!
1945 Mercury Silver Dime (Silver #50)
Here are the 50 silver coins plus the 6 pieces of Sterling (.925) Jewelry I have recovered from 2010 ytd.
May 14th (Friday)
Hunt #33: I had not been out since monday night and had a rough day so I headed out to a town park... I spent about 90 minutes digging targets... I nabbed 3 wheats and all modern clad :-( I decided to change locations to another park closer to town and loaded up my E-Trac left the park and turned right... and... orange cones and missing sidewalk... and it waskn't all roped off... hmmm... I pull over... 3 blocks missing on one side and 1 block missing on the other side...
What the heck... lets doeeeet... :-)
Very first target 12/45 at 1"
1917 Mercury Silver Dime (Silver #51)
Next target was a wheat penny on the surface! I got another 4 wheat pennies, some copper line parts...
I crossed the road to the one block part on the other side... 12/47 @ 1"
1948 Washington Silver Quarter (Silver #52)
There were 8 wheat pennies total... This was the first time I hunted a spot where they were replacing sidewalks :-) Fun... easy and a fast 2 silver coins for the 20-30 minutes I was there... :-)
(Most of the clad was from the little park I hit juswt before the sidewalks...)
May 15th (Saturday)
Hunt #34: Its been a good year to this point and I had a few goals for 2010... I was seeking 100+ silver... more silver from 1800... at least one seated silver... etc... etc...
Well today I headed to the park I was going to yesterday when the saw the sidewalk they tore up and dediced to hunth there in stead... The park I hit dates back into the 1800's and has pretty high traffic daily... so I was expecting lots of colt 45 caps... pull tabs... 12/37 memorial pennies... and I was not dissapointed... I did get a '57 D Wheat penny about 30 minutes in... and decided I was going to give this location another 30 minutes... Its a good sized park and if it only held clad... I'd seek out another location...
Then I got a 24/46 27/47 signal @ 10" very high in the FE area... but the CO stayed 46-47 on all directions... so I decided to dig... Dug a nice deep plug... X-1... nothing... dig down to about 8"... X-1 nothing... I almost filled the hole back in... and I was thinking... CO 46-47 46-47... Let me remove some more... THERE IT IS! 12/47... SWEET Silver sound in my headphone... pop it out... I can see SEATED LIBERTY!
1856 Seated Liberty Silver Quarter (Silver #53) and my oldest Silver Coin todate!
Its my 53rd Silver coin and 3rd 1800's silver for for the year... No one around to hear me yell or do a little happy dance... Well the little furry guy with a nut was scratching his head then laughing at me like the insurance commercials.
I wondered how many other deep coins I had missed like this... but I am still thinking that the FE read so high into the Ferrous area... *shrug*
I did manage 2 wheaties... and I got a fairly good 12/15 @ 4" and hello Mr. V
1892 "V" Nickle
May 21st (Friday)
Hunt #36: Still working the park that yielded the Seated Quarter and V Nickel...
This is the 2nd time this year that I have nabbed 3 Indian Head Pennies in one day, from different parks this year...
I hit the park @ 1pm this afternoon... On my previous 2 trips to the park I had used my 10X12 SEF coil, but this park is loaded with trash in spots... The one part of the park that has yield the best finds so far is one of the trashy parts... so I put the 8X6 SEF Coil on my E-Trac today.
None of the 3 Indians Head Pennies were solid and obvious.
First out was this 1906... It was a bouncy signal, but in general was hitting 12/35 @ 6-7"...
1906 Indian Head Penny
5 minutes later I got a 3-5" 6/40 signal... I was NOT expecting another Indian Head with this signal... but you never know...
This 1909 looks amazing... I can read Liberty and see most of the 4 diamonds...
1909 Indian Head Penny...
The last Indian Head Penny was in the 6" range and was another bouncy signal but I was fairly sure it was another IH... 1905 was the date on the last penny...
1905 Indian Head Penny...
Here they are after a little cleaning... They are all in great shape!