markinswpa
Well-known member
The Manticore continues to impress me with it ability to sniff out masked coins. Last Saturday we had bands of rain moving through so I opted to hunt the torn down church which I hit it a few times last year with the Legend and 900. The idea was I wouldn't be more than 50 feet from the truck and could sit it out if the clouds opened up. I quickly was reminded why I hadn't gone back more than I did. Deep heavy rooted grass made for difficult hand digging and deep memorial pennies (at least 30 last year) that sounded too good to pass up were the first couple targets of the day. All toll after about 6 hours I was able to dig 2 clad dimes a nickle and memorials were only 5 this time. I did dig another half dozen wheats and one burnt Merc. I wasn't sure what it was, when it came out it was black and busted, only a bit of silver on the rim gave me hope it was a piece of a silver coin. It wasn't till I got home, cleaned it up and got it under magnification that I was able to confirm it was a Merc. The interesting find of the day was a slick 1887 V nickel. This is the 3rd (from the 1880s ) I've dug from this site. Funny thing is only other nickels were all modern, no Buff's. A lot of iron on this site and tuff digging made for a somewhat frustrating but productive hunt. Although not pretty or whole the Merc was added to the silver count.
On Tuesday I headed back to the old park where I had hit a Merc in the dark on my way out on the previous outing. I wanted to investigate the area where I found the Merc because I couldn't remember ( I was pretty tired by that time ) if I had done due diligence in rechecking the area. First coin of the day was a 69 from one direction. The tone was coiny and I dug, out comes a toasty 45 wheat. The only wheat on the day. Right next to it I pull out a large rusty nail. That wheat had been hiding behind that nail for a long time and the Manticore sniffed it out. Some might say it was the angle of the approach, maybe, but this was in an open well hit area. I made my way back to the area to where I had dug the previous Merc. I got a 77 with a nice tone. About 7 in. down I see silver in the bottom of the hole. A 56 Rosie. Although I couldn't see my old plug I'm pretty certain this was close to the Merc I had found. The area also gave up a deep memorial and a clad Jeff. My day was getting better when I pulled my first Merc of the day from 7 or so inches down and like the wheat I also pulled a large piece of iron ( round thing top left of junk pic ) from the hole. Also when replacing the plug I noticed a blob of rusted iron in the side wall of the plug. So this Merc was doing a pretty good job of hiding as well. The next Merc, a 77-79-80 ' Popped the plug, rescanned and got a 61. ??? Another shovel full and laying flat and poking through I could see silver. Just happy to have my third silver for the day it took me awhile to realize that worn 1919 Merc was completely on edge. The last Merc was also a 77-78 had two pulltabs around it. A pretty rough looking Buff was the only other keeper. A couple clad dimes a few Jeff nickels and 5 memorials made up the clad finds for the day. One thing of note, I got fooled a couple times but I dug some of the iron in the pic on purpose when I saw possible good target numbers in with the obvious. So pretty impressive IMO, I have pulled a dozen silvers from hunted out parks in 6 trips. I hope the trend continues. Thanks for looking in. Mark
On Tuesday I headed back to the old park where I had hit a Merc in the dark on my way out on the previous outing. I wanted to investigate the area where I found the Merc because I couldn't remember ( I was pretty tired by that time ) if I had done due diligence in rechecking the area. First coin of the day was a 69 from one direction. The tone was coiny and I dug, out comes a toasty 45 wheat. The only wheat on the day. Right next to it I pull out a large rusty nail. That wheat had been hiding behind that nail for a long time and the Manticore sniffed it out. Some might say it was the angle of the approach, maybe, but this was in an open well hit area. I made my way back to the area to where I had dug the previous Merc. I got a 77 with a nice tone. About 7 in. down I see silver in the bottom of the hole. A 56 Rosie. Although I couldn't see my old plug I'm pretty certain this was close to the Merc I had found. The area also gave up a deep memorial and a clad Jeff. My day was getting better when I pulled my first Merc of the day from 7 or so inches down and like the wheat I also pulled a large piece of iron ( round thing top left of junk pic ) from the hole. Also when replacing the plug I noticed a blob of rusted iron in the side wall of the plug. So this Merc was doing a pretty good job of hiding as well. The next Merc, a 77-79-80 ' Popped the plug, rescanned and got a 61. ??? Another shovel full and laying flat and poking through I could see silver. Just happy to have my third silver for the day it took me awhile to realize that worn 1919 Merc was completely on edge. The last Merc was also a 77-78 had two pulltabs around it. A pretty rough looking Buff was the only other keeper. A couple clad dimes a few Jeff nickels and 5 memorials made up the clad finds for the day. One thing of note, I got fooled a couple times but I dug some of the iron in the pic on purpose when I saw possible good target numbers in with the obvious. So pretty impressive IMO, I have pulled a dozen silvers from hunted out parks in 6 trips. I hope the trend continues. Thanks for looking in. Mark
Attachments
-
20250315_210038.jpg
140.1 KB · Views: 20
-
20250315_210240.jpg
131.2 KB · Views: 16
