z118
10-23-2011, 09:50 PM
My father (bob_e99) came up for a visit this weekend. His visit was a welcome reason to take Friday off, and the two of us got out for some much anticipated metal detecting. The last time he visited he was using my Sov GT and just getting into the hobby. This time he had his new E-trac and a full blow obsession with detecting.
On Friday we hit an odd lot I'd started hunting this year which had given up a half dozen silvers in 3 hunts. I was hoping we'd both get a bit of the shiny stuff. Targets were sparse and after an hour or so of hunting I was starting to worry we'd be skunked, but then I dug a nice Rosie and shortly after my father got one too - his first! So that was good. I also dug a broken piece of silverware with a nice monograph and just enough of a makers mark to date the piece to the early to mid 1800's. Cool! If I dug a silver coin that old I'd be thrilled to pieces... so I'm not sure why this piece of silver should be less thrilling, but somehow, it is. Still a great find for me though. I also dug an odd knob looking piece of metal stamped Ford. I'm guessing I can date it if I look hard enough.
On Saturday we got out again. My father was very interested to check out some of the old, large parks in the area which I have mostly ignored. We hit one early and in spite of some pretty sloppy conditions I managed to find a good number of shallow clad and through some amazing luck a huge silver ring. This is one of the biggest and most garish rings I've found, but it's silver, so it made my morning. After having enough of the mud and slop we drove a ways away to another odd lot I had worked a few times this summer. My previous hunts at this spot had given up 20+ wheats, two Buffs, and some older Jefferson nickels, so I was certain silver must be there somewhere. Conditions were good, and we worked for a while without much luck other than a few wheats and some clad. At one point I got very iffy signal that I suspected might be a deep nickel. I pulled a plug, which unfortunately fell apart, so I scooped a mess of dirt out of the hole. I scanned the dirt with the E trac and was very surprised to get a sweet high tone. Using the Propointer I quickly located a 1926 Buff in the dirt, and then got to the high tone which proved to be a 1916 Merc! This was a thrilling dig for sure. I did not get any hint of a silver tone or silver numbers on this target. Perhaps the Merc was below the Buff? Unfortunately, my dad did not have the fortunate luck I did... I wish we could have found more silver at this spot, but we hunted for some time without any luck other than clad.
Sunday morning we hit a small park in a somewhat questionable area in the city. As I expected, there was a ton of trash - mostly screw tops. Once again I was blessed with profound luck - about 20 minutes into the hunt I hit a large, sweet tone that I figured would be trash, but I flipped a plug and there maybe 4 inches down was a well worn, shiny 1941 quarter. That really got my hopes up but we hunted for another hour and a half without any silver or even so much as a wheat. We did pull some clad and about a million screw tops though. After that we hit another huge old park but again, found only sparse clad.
So my totals for the 3 days - 113 coins worth $10.21 which includes a '41 quarter, 1916 Merc, 1954 Rosie, 1926 Buff, and 5 wheats. Factor in the big silver ring and the old piece of silverware and I feel pretty lucky about the whole thing!
One way or another it was a great weekend. We had some great weather and the foliage was worth being outdoors by itself. It was great to spend so much time with the old man. I must say my father is dang near MORE obsessed with detecting that I am... or maybe he just has more time to be obsessed. lol I'm glad he got his first Rosie while we was here (he's dug seated, barber, and mercs on his own). At some point I'll need to get back out to New England for a hunt on his turf. I know we'd both like to meet up with some forum folks if we could.
Happy hunting!
On Friday we hit an odd lot I'd started hunting this year which had given up a half dozen silvers in 3 hunts. I was hoping we'd both get a bit of the shiny stuff. Targets were sparse and after an hour or so of hunting I was starting to worry we'd be skunked, but then I dug a nice Rosie and shortly after my father got one too - his first! So that was good. I also dug a broken piece of silverware with a nice monograph and just enough of a makers mark to date the piece to the early to mid 1800's. Cool! If I dug a silver coin that old I'd be thrilled to pieces... so I'm not sure why this piece of silver should be less thrilling, but somehow, it is. Still a great find for me though. I also dug an odd knob looking piece of metal stamped Ford. I'm guessing I can date it if I look hard enough.
On Saturday we got out again. My father was very interested to check out some of the old, large parks in the area which I have mostly ignored. We hit one early and in spite of some pretty sloppy conditions I managed to find a good number of shallow clad and through some amazing luck a huge silver ring. This is one of the biggest and most garish rings I've found, but it's silver, so it made my morning. After having enough of the mud and slop we drove a ways away to another odd lot I had worked a few times this summer. My previous hunts at this spot had given up 20+ wheats, two Buffs, and some older Jefferson nickels, so I was certain silver must be there somewhere. Conditions were good, and we worked for a while without much luck other than a few wheats and some clad. At one point I got very iffy signal that I suspected might be a deep nickel. I pulled a plug, which unfortunately fell apart, so I scooped a mess of dirt out of the hole. I scanned the dirt with the E trac and was very surprised to get a sweet high tone. Using the Propointer I quickly located a 1926 Buff in the dirt, and then got to the high tone which proved to be a 1916 Merc! This was a thrilling dig for sure. I did not get any hint of a silver tone or silver numbers on this target. Perhaps the Merc was below the Buff? Unfortunately, my dad did not have the fortunate luck I did... I wish we could have found more silver at this spot, but we hunted for some time without any luck other than clad.
Sunday morning we hit a small park in a somewhat questionable area in the city. As I expected, there was a ton of trash - mostly screw tops. Once again I was blessed with profound luck - about 20 minutes into the hunt I hit a large, sweet tone that I figured would be trash, but I flipped a plug and there maybe 4 inches down was a well worn, shiny 1941 quarter. That really got my hopes up but we hunted for another hour and a half without any silver or even so much as a wheat. We did pull some clad and about a million screw tops though. After that we hit another huge old park but again, found only sparse clad.
So my totals for the 3 days - 113 coins worth $10.21 which includes a '41 quarter, 1916 Merc, 1954 Rosie, 1926 Buff, and 5 wheats. Factor in the big silver ring and the old piece of silverware and I feel pretty lucky about the whole thing!
One way or another it was a great weekend. We had some great weather and the foliage was worth being outdoors by itself. It was great to spend so much time with the old man. I must say my father is dang near MORE obsessed with detecting that I am... or maybe he just has more time to be obsessed. lol I'm glad he got his first Rosie while we was here (he's dug seated, barber, and mercs on his own). At some point I'll need to get back out to New England for a hunt on his turf. I know we'd both like to meet up with some forum folks if we could.
Happy hunting!