This was my first weekend since mid August that I was able to get in some good swing time. Saturday I headed to a new spot that had given up a Merc and a War Nickel on my first hunt there a few weeks earlier. Conditions were lousy - wet grass and bone dry dirt. Still, my third target was a nice '39 Merc. A novice might take this as a sign of things to come, but not me, I know better. I dug for another few hours and pulled 80+ coins but no more silver.
Because the ground was so dry I figured I'd hit some tot lots on Sunday and then maybe head into the woods. The first tot lot was kind of slow and I thought about skipping the others I had planned on hitting when I got lucky and pulled a small, 10k earring. It's bent and tiny but I'm happy to find gold in any size or condition. Of course that changed my tune on the tot lots and I hit several more but they gave up clad and the usual junk only.
After that I headed to an odd wooded spot that I'd hunted only two times before. The first time gave up a nice Indian Head and the second was a bust so I was only moderately hopeful for some keepers. I hunted for an hour or so finding only a bit of clad and a fair amount of junk. Then in a small clearing I pulled a few zinc pennies and beaver tails that sounded like nickels before I hit another zinc sounding tone and low and behold it was a tremendously worn old Canadian dime. The date is worn off but I believe this design was minted between 1902 and 1910. A little bit later I hit a nice silver tone and pulled a 1960 Rosie. At that point I was feeling pretty good about this spot. But things just got better. A little later I hit a nice tone, but kind of hard to pinpoint. I dug and dug but the dirt was dry and there were so many weeds and roots it was hard to pinpoint. I was close to giving up but thankfully I didn't as I finally pulled a sweet 1816 large cent! This is the oldest coin I've dug in my home turf, and the first large cent I've dug in quite a while (a year at least). I'm thrilled it has a legible date.
At that point I started heading back to the car. On the way I found a nice clothing clip with cool markings on it. Apparently the markings are the trademark of an old clothing company in Rochester:
http://www.trademarkia.com/nunquam-r...-71011637.html
Then I hit a nice nickel tone and there it was... my first shield nickel! And with a clear date! You all know how it feels to find an old coin type for the first time so I know I don't have to spend to much time describing my excitement! I was thrilled to cross another coin off my list and excited that my contest on the forum wasn't going to drag on too embarrassingly long!
So that's my fantastic weekend... thanks for reading, and as always, happy hunting!
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