IF You Don’t Love It…

Why do you metal detect? I suspect that the reason you started is very similar to my reason: I wanted to get rich. Nah, not really. I did hope to find a gold ring now and again but what I really wanted was to find an Indian Head penny.

I found my first Indian Head cent (IH) after some time and effort. I can pinpoint with GPS-like precision where in Riverside Park I found it even today. I have to confess that in that day, I was ready to give up metal detecting for good. I had been at it for a couple of months and I had not found anything that sparked my imagination, nor anything that made me rich. I didn’t love metal detecting.

That faithful day it was different and the treasures came all at once. I found the IH at the base of a tree. It was about six inches down buried in hard, dry clay. It seemed to me I was never going to get to the target. When I saw that small disc protruding from the dirt however, all the tiredness and pain went away. I took the coin and washed it in the muddy waters of the Arkansas river. As the details of the coin were revealed I sat down on the bank and nearly cried. Yes, yes; I am a simpleton, what do you want from me? I then recorded a long, sappy, video about it where I talked about all kinds of silly stuff; all from holding that coin in my hand. The video is lost now; thank God but the love for the hobby is still with me since that day.

I was so excited about finding this IH that I DROVE around my city looking for another hunter to share my experience. As it turned out, I saw someone at Linwood park quietly enjoying the day with his metal detector. I parked my car and like a seven year old I practically ran to talk with him. I was very lucky that this person was Richard. Richard has been metal detecting for many many years and he appreciated my find. Through Richard I met the rest of the gang: Steve, Danny, JC, Doug, KS Dave, and other colorful characters who share this hobby.

In my time, I have seen many people try metal detecting and give up. I have gone out hunting many times and returned home with a handful of aluminum and rusted iron for my effort but now, the searching is the reward. I love metal detecting. I mean it is called METAL detecting, not Cool Relic and Coin detecting. And who knows, my next Indian Head cent may be just around the corner.

Happy Hunting!

I’ve done told you

Regardless of the heat, at lunch time today, I went to the place where I’ve found a number of old coins in the recent past. Saturday morning I took my Tesoro Compadre and cleaned a bunch of trash from the first 5-6 inches of soil. The spot is a bear in terms of iron. But it wasn’t the iron I was after, I was after all the freaking aluminum foil. As it happened, I removed a bunch of iron that was near the surface as well.

So today I took my time and decided to dig only the choosiest of signals. I was fooled a couple of times with rusted nails and I even got fooled a few times with small aluminum foil that I missed with the Compadre. By the way, I decided to take the XP Deus on this hunt. Towards the very end of my lunch hour I got a nice signal among iron. Nice and repeatable. After I dug up my obligatory 9 inch hole I stuck my pinpointer in and got an iffy bing at the bottom of the hole. This always makes me smile because that means the object is deep. Incidentally, in an effort to avoid holes-to-nowhere, I dusted off my DetectorPro Pulse Induction pinpointer. It has a reach of about 4 inches for a quarter size coin and a solid 3 inches for a dime sized coin so if I miss my pinpointing with the Deus, I can still find the target in the hole.

This particular target was about 2 inches deeper. I know, I ought to quit talking about depth. It means nothing to anyone else but me. Be that as it may, I pulled this nice 1905 Indian Head cent out of the dirt:

This IH was dropped shortly after it was minted. You can see part of the word Liberty on the headdress and the reverse has nice details on it.

And now comes a bit of ranting

Here is the list of all coins found at this relatively small spot at this park: I’d say is about 15ft x 15ft. You can see the pictures of these coins in the last 10 or so posts:
1919 Wheat
1918 Wheat
1915 Wheat
18xx V nickel
189X V nickel
1890 Indian
1905 Indian
1917 Type 1 Standing Liberty
1894 Barber quarter
1901 Barber dime
1912 Barber dime
1904 Barber dime
KS Tax Token

This list does not include the coins found by Redd and KSDave three years ago, many from this very same spot, one of which was a Seated dime.
Also, keep in mind that this park has been hunted a quadrillion times by a thousand detectorists since the hobby came about.

My point is that our old parks are choke-full of old coins but these coins are not easily accessible. You most definitely will NOT find these coins if you:
Swing too high
Swing too fast
Lift the coil at the ends of your swing
Listen poorly to the tones
Use a detector not built for these environs
Use a detector you do not know well
Do not learn from the trash you dig

I am not trying to be an ass. Really. I am just saying those of us who came into the hobby in the last 10 years have a different reality to contend with. Unless you are only hunting private properties (lucky you), you need to approach our city parks with a fresh set of expectations, philosophy, and equipment.

Thank you for stopping by.

 

The Key To Finding Old Coins

The key to finding old coins is to go to a place that has them. Really.

I returned to the old coin park. I hunted in the same general area and the very first deep target was my first and only Indian cent of the year.

A couple of pieces of deep rusted iron later, I hit upon this key

I have found a few of this very same kind of key before at other old parks. This company must have been a very popular place to buy keys back in the day. I am not sure how old this key may be; I am thinking maybe 30’s.

Anyway, the rest of the hunt produced only rusted iron and a number of very small pieces of aluminum foil from picnics of days of old.

I tell you, I am not afraid of telling the world about this since I know the kind of discipline and focus that it takes to hunt deep whispers. As long as I continue to pull the occasional  old coin from my excavations I will continue.

By the way, if you do decide to look for deep signals in the park, please use a dirt towel or some other way to hold the dirt. It is hard to put a deep hole back together and the towel will help.

I am going to try to take advantage of this super mild Winter courtesy of El Niño (I think) and hunt more before the year is up.

Thank you for stopping by.

Indians

I went back to the oldest park in Wichita for lunch today. I continue to explore the new 11 inch coil on the Deus. It’s a new paradigm I tell you. So I decided to try a new area of the park. It’s funny how a small park such as this has ‘areas’ but yet it does. Right away I began to get signals at a spot that didn’t have signals before. The first target was a 1907 Indian Head cent. Soon after, another 1907 Indian came out of the ground. Then a couple of memorials, then a cool medical pin mixed in with trash. Last, I pulled a 1918D wheat cent.

I think I have found the spot at the park that will yield the Seated coin. I got a slim signal there; I would say this was my first whisper with the 11 inch coil. I dug a foot deep and found a Bell jar’s lid with the glass insert at the bottom. I broke all to pieces trying to extract it. I was really hoping that there would be coins with it but alas, it was not to be. Then I got another whisper. I dug an 11 inch deep hole and at the bottom I found a piece of brass that appeared to have designs on it. You can see it pictured above with the coins. So I surmise that this part of the park has not been messed with much and all the old stuff is fairly deep. I left many, many signals undug because I ran out of time but it is for sure that I will hit that spot hard in the coming hunts. There is a Seated coin there and I WILL find it. 🙂

Thank you for looking!

Opportunity knocks

Today, the vicissitudes of life allowed me to take Maurice, my XP Deus metal detector, for a spin at the park. While I was there, I met a fellow Friendly Forum member from Dodge City. I hope he found lots of goodies.

And so I thought that was it for hunting for me for the day. However, as I was driving to pick up my son from a birthday party he had attended, I drove past an area of town that I hunted earlier during the year and saw that they had torn up one of the oldest streets in the city. I still had 15 minutes before the party was over so I stomped on the breaks, grabbed Maurice and hit the tear up for a blissful 10 minutes. In that time, I got an unmistakable quarter signal at a very shallow depth. I dug the hole and that grandest of geometrical figures appeared. It took me a second to realize what I had because the coin had been under that street for a very long time:

Yep, that’s a 1896 Barber quarter minted in Philadelphia (no mint mark). It has little to no wear which means it saw very little circulation before it was dropped.

So after I picked up my son, I went home and I was so agitated about having this opportunity that I was given permission to go back for 30 more minutes.

After 30 minutes, I had one 1906 Indian Head penny, one 1920 wheat, one 1952D wheat, and one wheat with an undetermined mint mark. At first I thought I had two Indians but I was mistaken. Also, I thought the 1920 wheat was a 1916. Alas, it was a good hunt nonetheless. I barely scratched the surface. I hope the street is still available tomorrow!

Thank you for looking!

Finding the X

X marks the spot, the saying goes. I’ve been hunting a site for over a year now where once a neighborhood thrived. It has been a chore to locate the backyards and front yards, where modern construction has not covered them. Last year, I found a backyard that produced two Indian cents and a Walking Liberty half.  An erstwhile front yard produced a number of wheats.

Today, on a 15 minute hunt during my lunch hour, I think I located another backyard. The site is horribly littered with the remains of the houses that stood there, yet, my Deus is custom built for this kind of situation. I raised my reactivity (recovery speed in Deus parlance) and immediately found a piece of ornate bling from times past:

Then, I found pieces of old brass tags, and pieces of toy cars and such. Last, I got a sweet signal that spoke of old coin. Maurice (my Deus metal detector) didn’t lie. In the hole, I found an 1890 Indian Head cent, my tenth this year. Although it has iron incrustations, the coin shows little wear, leading me to conclude that it was dropped near its mint date.

It is not unusual for me to find early stuff like this along with relics and coins from later years since the neighborhood stood there from Wichita’s early years to the 1970’s, when it was torn down.

I am happy to have a new spot to scrub in search of cool coins and such.

Thank you for looking!

Silver by any other name…

I have been hunting but I haven’t been posting. Here are the finds from the last few hunts:

From my neighborhood park, a silver St. Christopher, a little larger than a U.S. quarter, that got in a fight with a lawnmower and lost:

From a private property that I hunted with Stevouke and another hunter from the Wheat State Treasure Hunters came a cool 1913 Buffalo nickel and a 1908 Indian Head cent:

From my deep silver park, a 1936 Buffalo nickel and an old sterling silver ring that I broke during extraction:

 

No silver coins although I get the feeling many silver coins will forthcoming soon! Why?…

MAURICE HAS A NEW BRAIN!!!!

Yep, the software on the Deus has been upgraded to version 3. I took it out for a quick spin this afternoon and quickly got targets out of a spot in the park that had long since dried up, even with the Deus! Version 3 has a number of improvements and additions one of which may become my hunting standard. Right away I can go deeper. There is a noticeable increase on the strength of the small, deep beeps. Also, the Deus is noticeably better on the iron. Instead of getting my usual iron wrap-around, many of the iron signals actually came in with the VDI of 00. The other thing that just blew my mind is how much faster the thing is! All of that plus a bucket full of new features is sure to increase my silver count.

Thank you for looking!

A rewarding hunt

Met up with friends today to hunt an old park. We hunted for 6 hours and although the morning started cool and cloudy, the sun eventually came out and the day turned into a beautiful Spring day.

For my part, I dug up two silver Roosevelt dimes and two Indian Head cents. The silvers were shallow, both at about 4 inches deep but the Indians were much deeper at around 8 inches. Try as I may, I could not find the Seated coin I went looking for.

Nonetheless, I LOVE seeing the silver coins when they first come out of the ground. I particularly love to see the edge of a silver coin sticking out of a dirt ball.

For now, my first Seated coin is still in the ground; somewhere.

Thank you for looking!

Too cold for the end of April

I tried to hunt today. I really did. I went out to Riverside park here in Doo-Dah and gave it the old college try. I spent about 30 minutes in the wet, cold, windy park looking for that Seated that I KNOW is there.

I just couldn’t hang. Couldn’t do it. I shamefully turned Maurice off and went home.

But not before I pulled this really cool 1902 Indian Head cent from the cold dirt!

 

If I keep this up, I will easily beat my 2012 Indian Head count.

Thank you for looking!

 

Mommy, why can’t I find a coin?

I took my trusty XP Deus metal detector, Maurice, out for a spin at lunch time today. The sun was finally out and the temps hovered in the low 50’s with a brisk cool breeze. Since I have grown in confidence with the Deus, I decided to hit a spot in downtown Wichita that I had hunted before. The site has an interesting history as it is the northernmost part of what was once an island in the middle of the Arkansas river. The island was filled in in the 30’s in one of those famed WPA projects. The island was known as Ackerman’s Island and it was large enough to accomodate a baseball field and an amusement park.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, there were buildings in that lot since the island was filled in and today, there are remnants of multiple foundations and even, I swear, a buried railroad line (although I haven’t dug it up to find out for sure). In other words, it’s tough going if you want to hunt it. But, as I said, since I think I am Mr. Big Deus Bridges I went there for lunch.

After many false starts I finally got a signal that sounded like a coin. It wasn’t very deep and I recovered a 1976 memorial. A little later, I got a faint sweet signal and around 6 inches I found a 1953 wheat cent. Last, before I ran out of time, I got a choppy signal with enough sweetness that it got my attention. I was also getting a VDI in the Indian Head range. With these two things I decided to dig the target. I pulled a toasted Indian Head cent from about 7 inches. **after much effort, I can barely make out the date: 1907**

By the way, this is only the second one cent trifecta I’ve dug up in one single hunt.

The interesting part of this hunt is of course, the Indian Head. Not only because Indian Head cents are super cool but also because of the reason for its choppy signal:

Yep, that’s a chunk of rusted iron stuck to the coin. I am very impressed that the Deus not only presented me with a semi-sweet signal but also with a nice solid VDI. The Deus is a master of iron.

***I posted this picture on a forum and one of the gurus of the hobby pointed out that in this case, the detector will aggregate the signals given by both the coin and the rusted nail and it will likely interpret the signal as a coin. This is because the two metals are touching. So I guess the find is not as impressive as I thought but still it is cool***

Now you know why it’s hard to pull some coins out of the ground!  I wonder if I would have been able to find this coin with any other detector.

Now, where is the silver?!

Thank you for looking.