First Indian of 2013

I went out today to join a group hunt organized by my friend Steveouke. The weather finally turned and it promised to be an enjoyable hunt.

After finding over two dollars in clad coins I moved over to a different area of the field and was joined by Stevo who promptly dug up some kind of old camp site looking piece of iron. His find told me we were on very old ground and I began to listen closely to the deep whispers. A minute later, I got a deep signal with no VDI. After digging a near 9 inch hole, I finally brought up my first Indian Head cent of 2013:

 

It’s an 1898 Indian in pretty decent shape. So no silver today but the Indian is really cool.

The find of the day was made by one of my hunting friends from the Friendly Metal Detecting Forum. I went to him to see his finds and he told me he had only found clad and a junk ring with no markings. He pulled the ring out and in his hand was this bulky gold ring! The reason it had no markings is because it had been obviously re-sized at one point. He could easily get $300 melt for that thing! He was happy to say the least.

So a good time was had by all.

Thank you for looking!

Another Indian from the 100 year old school

I returned to the 100 year old school today with my XP Deus metal detector. I was met there by Silversmith45 from the Friendly Metal Detecting Forum. Going over the same dirt where I pulled a 1920 Merc, I came across a signal that was in the pulltab range with the smallest bleep of a high tone. Since the soil at this site seems to be a bit strange, I decided to dig it. At about 5-6 inches, I found this 1907 Indian Head cent in kind of a corroded state.

To me, there is no ugly Indian Head

Not bad for hunting a spot that I’ve been over twice already.

Fresh out of the dirt

There is a high probability that this Indian Head cent has been in the ground for 100 years. The person who dropped this coin  is probably dirt themselves by now.

I continue to be impressed with my Deus. I even found this coin without headphones as I had forgotten them at home.

I lost count of how many Indians I’ve found this year. I think maybe 10 or 12 now.

This is Indian Head cent number 9 for the year. Even though it is the most recently minted Indian, it is also about the worse condition-wise. The years of my Indians are:
1881
1887
1888
1890
1897
1901
1906 (x2)
1907

All of them were found in Wichita. I wonder if I can find 10 indians for the year.

Thank you for looking!

My oldest coin

I met up with a Stevouke and Patton from the Friendly Metal Detecting Forum and we hunted a 100 year plus old school that shut down earlier this year.

I had hunted this school before but not since I bought my XP Deus metal detector. It took about one hour before I found my first significant coin; a 1910 wheat cent.

Sorry about the blurry pic. Still, 1910. Cool

Following KansasDave’s (another FMDF member) advice, I began a tight spiral around the spot where I found this wheat and sure enough, about a foot away, I got another good signal. I dug a hole and just about the 7 inch mark, I pulled something I knew was silver.

Oh, what a lovely sight!

I didn’t want to pull it out until the guys saw it because I thought it may be a Barber coin or maybe even a Seated coin. Steveouke’s son, a favorite hunting buddy of mine, couldn’t resist anymore and pulled the 1920 Mercury out.

Worn down but it’s all mine

Later, I managed to find an Indian Head cent. It had a pretty heavy cover of crud but after some tender brushing, I was able to uncover the date: 1881; my oldest coin to date.

If you look carefully, you can see the year it was minted: 1881

After a couple of toasted wheats, one of which I believe to be a 1911, I found a really cool token:

I wonder when it was the last time Ford used this logo

Thirty Years of Progress

The last thing I found was some kind of pin. The logo looks familiar but I can’t place it.

vintage metal pin

It was a fun hunt and the XP Deus didn’t disappoint. I know this school has been hit super hard before and after it closed, and yet, look at all the goodies. I plan on returning as often as I can to it.

Thank you for looking!

Felt like old times

I went out metal detecting this fine Sunday afternoon with the goal of spending a couple of hours detecting with my XP Deus metal detector. I was driving towards an old park when I went by some lots that the city has bought to expand one of our High Schools. Although I know these lots have been hit hard, I thought that maybe my Deus and I could find a coin or two other machines missed.

Boy! did I ever! And instead of a just two hours, I ended up spending 5 hours detecting. I just couldn’t stop finding coins. Still, it was until the very end of my hunt that I finally broke my silver slump with a beautiful 1944 Mercury dime.

Although I prefer gold, you can’t argue with the beauty of this coin

By the time I was done, this was my tally:

17 pre-1982 Memorial Lincoln cents
11 wheat cents, several with dates in the 1910’s
7 clad dimes
3 clad quarters
1 1906 Indian Head cent
1 dateless Buffalo nickel
1 1944 Mercury dime
a bunch of zinc Lincoln cents

This goes to show that just because other people have hunted a site extensively, it doesn’t mean that the place is dry.

Look what the other hunters missed

I just love finding these

The Indian Head cent sounded just like a zinc Lincoln cent, so you gotta dig those signals when hunting an old site.

I have found a number of these this year

 

I think this hearkens back to the late 50’s or maybe early 60’s.

So I am tired and I didn’t do some of the chores I was supposed to do today but I had fun. Finding all these coins reminded me of the old days before I got gold-fever.

Thank you for looking!

 

 

 

Gold Ring!!

A week’s worth of hunts with the AT Pro…

Thank you for looking!

Another Indian Head from the secret back yard

Along with the coin, I found an interesting mix of trash items that included parts of a cap gun, bronze/brass id tags, old pieces of copper slag, and a very corroded tin soldier which unfortunately, was far too toasted to see what war it was from. Everything I am finding tells me that the house that once stood here was continuously occupied until the very end of its life. There is relatively little modern trash.

This is Indian Head cent number five for the year. I only found four in 2011.

Thank you for looking!

My 1887 Indian Head cent

I went out hunting for lunch today. Although the temperature was hovering around the mid 50’s, the strong winds made it feel much colder. I had planned on hunting a walking path by the Arkansas river but meetings at my job didn’t leave me too much time. So instead I went to a site that I have researched carefully and where I dug up a 1951 wheat cent before.

The site is TERRIBLE! There is so much rusted iron that the All Metal portion of the audio sounded like a continuous buzz. So I decided to switch programs on my V3i from the Deep Silver program to my tried and true Coin & Jewelry stock program. Five minutes after switching programs and ten minutes after starting my hunt I got a signal among trash that jumped from the low 70’s all the way to 80 and everywhere in between with hints of iron here and there. The tone was consistent among the trash though. The dominant frequency here was 2.5kHz and not 7.5kHz like it was on all the other Indians I’ve dug up lately. One problem with the signal (other than the iffyness) was that it was relatively shallow. The depth upon pinpointing was five inches. I generally don’t dig shallow iffy signals because 99% of the time they are trash but given the history of the site and the fact that I found the aforementioned wheat here, I decided to dig it. I am so glad I did!

Freshly dug

A little cleaner. A definite candidate for olive oil

There sure has been a plethora of Indian Heads lately. This one is the oldest coin I’ve dug up to date. I love Indian Head pennies. They awaken the child in me more than any other coin. The year this coin was minted, Wichita was barely 17 years old and a little more than a collection of wooden structures along one solitary street. It’s early citizens however, already had great plans for it. Plans that included the neighborhood that once stood in the patch of grass where my cent was buried. I am not ready yet to disclose the exact location where I was today at lunch because I am now very hopeful that there may be Seated coins here and I want to be the one to find them. 😀

Thank you for looking!

A repeat of yesterday’s hunt

Indians again!

*** Two corrections:

1) I meant to say that I was off on my pinpointing and had to dig sideways after I dug up an eight inch hole

2) I meant to say that one out of 50 nickel signals is actually a signal at this park, the other forty-nine are pull tab beaver tails

Thank you for looking!

First Indian Head cent of 2012

This is the second Indian Head cent I’ve found in the old trashy park. The first one I found with my Ace 250 at a different spot in the park. It was a 1900 Indian Head and it was a darn near religious experience for me.

Thank you for looking!