Back to school

[Ism]

Went to a local school today. I'm not sure of its age but it was built before 1955. Besides some change and a couple wheat pennies I found these, both are sterling silver. The ornate one is old. Has an indian head and the word sterling stamped inside the band. The other ring was on a chain .925. I think it was a gold chain because the wear marks inside the band have a gold tint to them. Going out next weekend to look for the the chain. I wasn't looking for gold at the time, just making a cursory search of the area to see if any silver coins lie beneath the surface.

 

[Ism]

Hi All,

Went back to the school today. I methodically searched the full sized soccer field. After 4-1/2 hrs I got about 2/5 of it covered. I will have to try to complete the job through the week after school hrs. Hopefully the field won't be occupied. There is another field that they seem to gravitate to for their games. That's next but it is very trashy, this one was pretty clean (public areas are usually blanketed with trash where I live). In the first hour I dug the gold ring and silver cross. The gold ring has no identification on it so I don't know what the karat wt. is. Its definitely gold, I'm guessing its old. I also found a 1937 buffalo and 1943 P nickle (both pictured in the center). I'm sure the heart pendant is silver (the photo shows an off color to the pendant), but no identifying marks? Silver just has a certain look when it is removed from the ground. Like Teflon, the dirt just doesn't stick to it. Thats what leads me to believe its silver. The rest is just junk jewelry and this time I included the pile of trash. Like I said, this was a fairly clean area. Even after some rain, the ground was hard packed and difficult to penetrate. The curious thing is I didn't find any silver coins yet. I wasn't digging deep objects max depth was about 5-6 inches, but I turned up some older nickles and a couple wheats. Thanks for looking

 

[digginLa]

Nice finds, I'm going to hit a soccer field just as soon as my Cibola gets here or my DeLeon comes back from the factory.

 

[BusDigger]

Congrats on your finds! Looks like you've got a good spot there, and one which hasn't been hunted much. I'd be surprised if you don't start finding some silver coinage before long.

Smitty

 

[Ism]

Smitty,
It seems that parks and schools around me have very few silver coins. However I have dug a number of wheat's and a few indians. They are usually at the extreme range of my Vaquero with the stock coil. Its like somebody swept these locations and took most of the silver coins and left the wheat's. I stopped focusing on trying to find the silver coins and started looking for gold and silver jewelry. Using the 5x10 DD for the wide sweep, I have found a lot more valuables and as much clad. The occasional old coin are what I believe get turned up or deposited during landscape changes. This last school seems to be a sleeper. Its not old enough to attract the people that want history so it has been left alone. I'm all smiles...

 

[BusDigger]

I'm sure many "cherry pick" the better signals, but I'd also have to think in doing so, they've passed a few up along the way. Besides, you've removed quite a bit of trash, so that just might allow you something the others missed. Wheaties & IHs are in the same era as silver, so where those cents are....so should the silver be. I'd dig them Wheats & IHs all day long

You might just get a pleasant surprise one of these days.......

Smitty

 

[Ism]

I plan to go over it again with the stock coil in the spring (I don't think I will have time before it gets too cold for me).

I also have a Whites TDI that is a real deep seeker for coins. Its drawback is that some iron objects sound like a good coin signal.

 

[Ism]

I had to purchase a new digging tool, I lost the old one at an old park I went to earlier in the week. So I ordered a Lesche on Wednesday but it didn't arrive by Saturday morning. I ran to Home Depot and bought a duct knife so that I could return to the schools soccer field. It may have been a blessing in disguise because the ground was hard packed and dry. I had a difficult time pushing the blade in the earth and spent 4hrs just doing 1/5th of the field near the other goal post. I dug mostly trash but had a very good day of it. Enclosed is a picture of the finds excluding trash. Artisan handmade gold ring (not sure the karat wt. but its definitely gold through and through, I had a friend that made these), .925 silver heart ring and .925 20g chain. The rest is costume jewelry. I thought I had something when I found the ring with the stone but once I got it home I saw the plating worn to the core metal (probably zinc). On another note, the gold ring hit hard but it was a broken signal. after I got it home and cleaned it, I saw it was broken at the thinnest part. I have read that rings will give this type of signal when broken.

Today I went out again and searched another 5th of the field but only found a .925 silver heart earring (another broken signal), a hand full of change and a pouch full of trash. So I have the width of the field at the inner circle to complete. One other trinket I found was a gold? plated heart on a rope chain. This one I need help with, It doesn't seem to me that a rope chain would be something manufactured out of junk metal but I don't know these things and it looks too tarnished for gold. The chain doesn't appear to be plated. Enclosed is a picture. What do you jewelry experts think?


Thanks, Randy

 

[digginLa]

nice finds, I also found a necklace just like the one in the left hand picture, mine looks like it had a pendant on it but all thats left is the 2 tabs where the chain connected to it, I can make out the word Italy on the 2 tabs tho, however mine disked out when i raised the level to around the point where I lost nickles so not sure what its made out of. Jimmie

 

[Ism]

I was too hasty in my question, I found my jewelry loop and the broken ends showed a copper core. Thanks for looking