Went to my local park today, and immediately met-up with Lou, a fellow forum member and avid MD enthusiast. The noon time weather was cold, but it warmed up nicely by mid-afternoon. I decided to work a new section of the park in the outer edge of an old Baseball field. There were some old trees there, that one time were next to what was an old pond. It's now the basketball courts. I figured that back in the 20's and 30's when the pond was still there, that people probably set-up their picnics in and around these trees facing the pond. Also, in later years once the pond was gone, this would be a great area to watch little league games. It seemed like a great place to focus my hunt on.
Well early on I was struggling. I showed Lou all the junk I was pulling out of the ground, and only found one Memorial penny that first hour. I decided I needed to work closer to the trees. After-all, almost all of my silver finds have been close to trees and their large root systems. I worked tree to tree, methodically searching around the whole trunk, and then out and around any visible roots. With zero luck, and only a Wheat penny between the first two trees, I started to hunt one of the largest of this section. Within a minute I hit a nice shallow dime signal. Shallow enough that I assumed it was a clad dime. I keep forgetting that in this park almost ALL of the silver has been shallow. It's just amazing that most of the silver coins have been found in the 1-4 inch range. So, out pops my third Rosie ever! I thought they were a myth by this time.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
After cleaning up the Rosie plug I went and found Lou to show him what I had found. Spent a good 20 minutes over in the area he was hunting, ran to the car, then after I came back I started to work my way back to that tree. That took about an hour because I kept finding good signals along the way. A few more Wheat pennies, and a bunch of clad. Now, back at the tree I pick-up where I left off. No more than a few feet from where the Rosie came out, I hit another dime signal. This one was iffy. I think it was because the dime had been on a sharp angle and almost perpendicular when I dug it. Another decent dime signal, and just a few inches down out comes my second silver of the day, and a nice 1923 Mercury! Needless to say I was ecstatic now. Two silver afternoon, after such a horrible start, with a slight hangover thanks to the Flyers game, so I was starting to feel good about being out there. Here's silver number two below:
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
After another hour or so of hunting in and around this tree Lou made his way over to where I was, and I showed him the second silver dime. We then methodically worked this area together for the next two hours or so. Finding clad along the way it wasn't promising. I worked myself in-between two giant old trees that someone had dumped their old charcoal into the middle of. I started to find Memorial pennies within the charcoal. As I moved on I hit a very iffy dime signal. So iffy I almost walked away, but since it hit, I decided to dig it. My first attempt to cut a plug failed. It was right inside a major root system, so I wouldn't be able to use my Raven. I started to carefully work tiny sections of dirt away from these two criss-crossing roots, and then realized my original pin-point was off by a few inches. So with one cut I started to lift a flap of grass and saw the silver dime fall from the bottom of it. Another Mercury? Wow, couldn't have seen that one coming. It was about 2 inches down. Shallow yet again. Called Lou over who was nearby to show him the dime, and where it was in relation to the hole, and he too couldn't believe how shallow all these silvers were coming in at.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
At this point in our hunt we were losing daylight fast. Both of us had dumped our trash finds in the trashcans at the park, and we were about to leave. With the last few swings of our hunt Lou hit something really neat. It was dark, so when he gave me this "coin" and asked if I had a flashlight, I used my iPhone to see what it was he had found. I almost had a heart attack! I told him "Are you ready for this?! It's a 1790 coin!" We were both really excited, but it didn't last, since my thumb was covering the other part that said 1706-1790 Benjamin Franklin Souvenir Coin. Oh man, thought we found the best find there ever! However, when he looked it up online he found out it's worth $10! That's cool. His one coin beats all three of my silver in value. I don't have a pic of it, but I'm sure he'll put it up. So, that was our hunt today. Great weather, and good finds, equals good times! My totals are below.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z7zd5yxNeo[/video]
Well early on I was struggling. I showed Lou all the junk I was pulling out of the ground, and only found one Memorial penny that first hour. I decided I needed to work closer to the trees. After-all, almost all of my silver finds have been close to trees and their large root systems. I worked tree to tree, methodically searching around the whole trunk, and then out and around any visible roots. With zero luck, and only a Wheat penny between the first two trees, I started to hunt one of the largest of this section. Within a minute I hit a nice shallow dime signal. Shallow enough that I assumed it was a clad dime. I keep forgetting that in this park almost ALL of the silver has been shallow. It's just amazing that most of the silver coins have been found in the 1-4 inch range. So, out pops my third Rosie ever! I thought they were a myth by this time.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
After cleaning up the Rosie plug I went and found Lou to show him what I had found. Spent a good 20 minutes over in the area he was hunting, ran to the car, then after I came back I started to work my way back to that tree. That took about an hour because I kept finding good signals along the way. A few more Wheat pennies, and a bunch of clad. Now, back at the tree I pick-up where I left off. No more than a few feet from where the Rosie came out, I hit another dime signal. This one was iffy. I think it was because the dime had been on a sharp angle and almost perpendicular when I dug it. Another decent dime signal, and just a few inches down out comes my second silver of the day, and a nice 1923 Mercury! Needless to say I was ecstatic now. Two silver afternoon, after such a horrible start, with a slight hangover thanks to the Flyers game, so I was starting to feel good about being out there. Here's silver number two below:
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
After another hour or so of hunting in and around this tree Lou made his way over to where I was, and I showed him the second silver dime. We then methodically worked this area together for the next two hours or so. Finding clad along the way it wasn't promising. I worked myself in-between two giant old trees that someone had dumped their old charcoal into the middle of. I started to find Memorial pennies within the charcoal. As I moved on I hit a very iffy dime signal. So iffy I almost walked away, but since it hit, I decided to dig it. My first attempt to cut a plug failed. It was right inside a major root system, so I wouldn't be able to use my Raven. I started to carefully work tiny sections of dirt away from these two criss-crossing roots, and then realized my original pin-point was off by a few inches. So with one cut I started to lift a flap of grass and saw the silver dime fall from the bottom of it. Another Mercury? Wow, couldn't have seen that one coming. It was about 2 inches down. Shallow yet again. Called Lou over who was nearby to show him the dime, and where it was in relation to the hole, and he too couldn't believe how shallow all these silvers were coming in at.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
At this point in our hunt we were losing daylight fast. Both of us had dumped our trash finds in the trashcans at the park, and we were about to leave. With the last few swings of our hunt Lou hit something really neat. It was dark, so when he gave me this "coin" and asked if I had a flashlight, I used my iPhone to see what it was he had found. I almost had a heart attack! I told him "Are you ready for this?! It's a 1790 coin!" We were both really excited, but it didn't last, since my thumb was covering the other part that said 1706-1790 Benjamin Franklin Souvenir Coin. Oh man, thought we found the best find there ever! However, when he looked it up online he found out it's worth $10! That's cool. His one coin beats all three of my silver in value. I don't have a pic of it, but I'm sure he'll put it up. So, that was our hunt today. Great weather, and good finds, equals good times! My totals are below.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z7zd5yxNeo[/video]
