CZconnoisseur
Active member
After the resounding success from the first hunt at the "deep coin park", I went back last night for more...I set up the Deus in the same manner as before, and started hunting in almost the same area as where I left off with the two deep V nickels.
It took quite a while to find the first coin - I was digging everything that sounded like it could be a deep target. Some foil was recovered right on the surface, and then a couple of deeper nuts and bolts at about 4-6" barely registered, but got dug anyway. First coin was a shallow clad quarter - after listening for the peeps and pips, a shallow coin really bonged through!
I was probably about 20 feet from where I found the Indian cent the other night when I got the first good suspect signal, and around 7" came a corroded 1917 D Wheat. Boom! Here we go! Not 5 feet away I got another deep target to pull a worn Indian cent dated 1888 from 8" deep. Hunted for another 20-30 minutes without finding any coins and then got a fairly consistent "86" indication that seemed a little shallower than the usual deep coins. I was surprised to see a nearly uncirculated 1942 S war nickel at the bottom of the hole, only 5" deep, and thought there must be another coin here! Turns out there wasn't, and out of the hole this war nickel indicated "51" in 4 khz, which is exactly where some pulltabs and rings fall. Not sure how the software got thrown like that, but with an "open screen" it all gets dug anyway, even the trash, especially given what's come out of this place so far. Almost nothing gets left in the ground....
A little more swinging and I got a non-VDI hit to pull the first 90% silver of the night, a worn 1937 S Merc from 8". Bam! Now we're cookin with gas! Next target was a surface pocket spill of a clad dime and zincoln....not long after another non-VDI target came into the detection field. Another Indian cent, this one dated 1901! Things were going very well and I had more old coins in my pocket than recent drops - always a great sign!
Then came two older Wheats dated 1919 and 1919 D from the same hole at around 7-8", again no VDI for these coins. Got over a large irony-type signal, but it seemed there were other targets around it. Zeroed in on one of them to pull a beautiful 1882 Indian cent from 6" which still shows all letters of "liberty" in the headband. Fan-freakin-tastic! I decide to take a water break and savor the moment - the night air was crisp and cool, about 55-60 degrees with a slight breeze. Conditions were about perfect for hunting the deep targets, and cutting those large plugs with the Lesche is definitely a workout - I can feel my wrists and forearms are a little tense from last night's excitement....
About 10 minutes later it was time to get back to work. I stood up and scanned the hole where I just dug the 1882 Indian cent. THe irony target was still there, but just ahead of it was a high-toned hit. Zeroed in on that one to find a nice 1927 Merc at 6" or so. The PP was still indicating in the hole, and further down was a large square nail...pulled that out of the way and rescanned to get a cleaner, soft high toned hit. Just offset was a neat flat button with some of the gilt remaining. A cool period find to add to my flat button collection!
All of the coins found so far were inside a 50 ft square and the grass was a little thicker here. It then dawned on me that I wasn't finding too many coins from the 1950s and later except for the recent drops - which leads me to believe this place has been heavily scoured from Day 1, but the deepest and oldest targets are still there, out of range of most detectors.
Near the end of the hunt I got another non-VDI high toned hit and located a thin Canadian dime dated 1881 which was to be the oldest coin of the night. Yahoo! Something a little different! This was at the 8" level as were most of the deep coins tonight, but I wasn't prepared for the next discover. In the dirt pile next to the hole my PP screamed loudly, and just below the surface I saw another silver coin that looked a little different. There was a sharp outline of a wreath with "ONE DIME" partially visible. I lost it at that point. Hardly containing my excitement I carefully picked up the coin and saw a "D" mintmark on the reverse, turned it over and saw sharp details and a date: 1907. After collecting myself I put this coin into an empty pocket and called it a night. I wanted to get home and see the extent of the hunt, and was NOT dissappointed one bit.
I carefully cleaned off the dirt from the Barber dime, and found it to still possess some original mint luster on both sides. This is probably the nicest dime I've EVER found, and it's always a little more exciting when a coin has numismatic value over simply silver melt value. I didn't gouge it with the Lesche, and it turns out to be close to VF35-XF40 grade, probably worth $30-$55 if sold online. But for now I am going to enjoy it as is....
Looks like I have one or two more hunts before I have to part with the Deus. Going out with a BANG suits me just fine!
It took quite a while to find the first coin - I was digging everything that sounded like it could be a deep target. Some foil was recovered right on the surface, and then a couple of deeper nuts and bolts at about 4-6" barely registered, but got dug anyway. First coin was a shallow clad quarter - after listening for the peeps and pips, a shallow coin really bonged through!
I was probably about 20 feet from where I found the Indian cent the other night when I got the first good suspect signal, and around 7" came a corroded 1917 D Wheat. Boom! Here we go! Not 5 feet away I got another deep target to pull a worn Indian cent dated 1888 from 8" deep. Hunted for another 20-30 minutes without finding any coins and then got a fairly consistent "86" indication that seemed a little shallower than the usual deep coins. I was surprised to see a nearly uncirculated 1942 S war nickel at the bottom of the hole, only 5" deep, and thought there must be another coin here! Turns out there wasn't, and out of the hole this war nickel indicated "51" in 4 khz, which is exactly where some pulltabs and rings fall. Not sure how the software got thrown like that, but with an "open screen" it all gets dug anyway, even the trash, especially given what's come out of this place so far. Almost nothing gets left in the ground....
A little more swinging and I got a non-VDI hit to pull the first 90% silver of the night, a worn 1937 S Merc from 8". Bam! Now we're cookin with gas! Next target was a surface pocket spill of a clad dime and zincoln....not long after another non-VDI target came into the detection field. Another Indian cent, this one dated 1901! Things were going very well and I had more old coins in my pocket than recent drops - always a great sign!
Then came two older Wheats dated 1919 and 1919 D from the same hole at around 7-8", again no VDI for these coins. Got over a large irony-type signal, but it seemed there were other targets around it. Zeroed in on one of them to pull a beautiful 1882 Indian cent from 6" which still shows all letters of "liberty" in the headband. Fan-freakin-tastic! I decide to take a water break and savor the moment - the night air was crisp and cool, about 55-60 degrees with a slight breeze. Conditions were about perfect for hunting the deep targets, and cutting those large plugs with the Lesche is definitely a workout - I can feel my wrists and forearms are a little tense from last night's excitement....
About 10 minutes later it was time to get back to work. I stood up and scanned the hole where I just dug the 1882 Indian cent. THe irony target was still there, but just ahead of it was a high-toned hit. Zeroed in on that one to find a nice 1927 Merc at 6" or so. The PP was still indicating in the hole, and further down was a large square nail...pulled that out of the way and rescanned to get a cleaner, soft high toned hit. Just offset was a neat flat button with some of the gilt remaining. A cool period find to add to my flat button collection!
All of the coins found so far were inside a 50 ft square and the grass was a little thicker here. It then dawned on me that I wasn't finding too many coins from the 1950s and later except for the recent drops - which leads me to believe this place has been heavily scoured from Day 1, but the deepest and oldest targets are still there, out of range of most detectors.
Near the end of the hunt I got another non-VDI high toned hit and located a thin Canadian dime dated 1881 which was to be the oldest coin of the night. Yahoo! Something a little different! This was at the 8" level as were most of the deep coins tonight, but I wasn't prepared for the next discover. In the dirt pile next to the hole my PP screamed loudly, and just below the surface I saw another silver coin that looked a little different. There was a sharp outline of a wreath with "ONE DIME" partially visible. I lost it at that point. Hardly containing my excitement I carefully picked up the coin and saw a "D" mintmark on the reverse, turned it over and saw sharp details and a date: 1907. After collecting myself I put this coin into an empty pocket and called it a night. I wanted to get home and see the extent of the hunt, and was NOT dissappointed one bit.
I carefully cleaned off the dirt from the Barber dime, and found it to still possess some original mint luster on both sides. This is probably the nicest dime I've EVER found, and it's always a little more exciting when a coin has numismatic value over simply silver melt value. I didn't gouge it with the Lesche, and it turns out to be close to VF35-XF40 grade, probably worth $30-$55 if sold online. But for now I am going to enjoy it as is....
Looks like I have one or two more hunts before I have to part with the Deus. Going out with a BANG suits me just fine!
