Mercury rising with :minelab:

[JimmyCT]

This evening I had a little time before the sunset and drove around the corner to a local park. (same park and area where I found my oneway -> wheat cents) I started out scanning the area width wise. Then after about 3 passes, something told me to go back to the top of the slight incline and scan length wise down towards to pool area. The ground is basically bare and covered with pine needles and in spots has these little grass domes which are higher than the bare ground. So scanning I have to lift up and kind of "ride the grass domes" like a seagull floating on the ocean waves. So my first pass length wise towards the pool area, one of these little grass domes is in my way. I lift up the coil and kind of ride down the sides of it. Suddenly I recieve a audio response high pitched, 176-178 on the meter. I slide up on the side of the grass dome and start "working the wiggle" as I am doing so, I am sliding back down the grass dome to find the strongest of the signal. This took a little bit as obviously the ground with this grass dome is very uneven. Finally I get 180 on the meter and turn and work it again bam 180! I get the visual on the location and start digging! I dig about a 5" deep hole and still don't see the coin. So I re-scan and pinpoint and it tells me it is right where I dug. I suddenly look at the side wall of the hole and see coin sticking out on an angle. I pull it out and Mr. 1938 Mercury is staring me in the face. This is an area where silver is rare lol Last time I found silver in this area was 20 + years ago. I also found a 1936 wheat cent right next to one of the big pine trees. By now, the sun is just about gone. So I pack it up and call it a day.

My feeling is this: this little mercury escaped detection all these years due to the odd angle I found it on. The wheat, I was riding the roots of the trees and found it in this little cul-de-sac of roots. Maybe there are some that just don't want to work that hard for a piece of silver and copper....oh oh I will! lol.

 

[GunnarMN]

you know what i think , the sov is great at coins on edge, great find Jim, WOW you have been at this 30 years you may be new to the SOV but not to detecting but It really is good at really finding things on edge let us know if you find the dregings from that pond I just gett antsy thinking about what is in that dredg matterial

 

[JimmyCT]

Thanks gunnar. Yes, the machine is awesome to say the least. A little about the dredging - the beach was used from 1918 - early 1980's. Then they closed it due to "bacteria" in the water lol. There is another reason why they closed it and it wasn't because of "bacteria" in the water. A natural underground spring fed the pond lol. However, the majority of the public was for it. Anyhow, about 1 -1 1/2 years ago, the city had a company come in and "clean" up the old swimming area. Made the old swimming area into a environmental "green" theme / animal sanctuary. Now, to find out where they dumped it......

you know what i think , the sov is great at coins on edge, great find Jim, WOW you have been at this 30 years you may be new to the SOV but not to detecting but It really is good at really finding things on edge let us know if you find the dregings from that pond I just gett antsy thinking about what is in that dredg matterial

 

[fwcrawford]

Jim,
That dime doesn't look like it is very worn.. I can still see the diagonal bands on the column on the reverse of the coin.
That is about the first thing to go!
Nice find!!!

 

[JimmyCT]

For some reason, any silver that comes out of this area is usually well preserved and I am not sure why. The wheat cent certainly has seen better days that is for sure.

Jim,
That dime doesn't look like it is very worn.. I can still see the diagonal bands on the column on the reverse of the coin.
That is about the first thing to go!
Nice find!!!

 

[Critterhunter]

Excellent job. I've found a good bit of coins on edge with the GT and I think the SEF coil makes it even better at it. One thing I've found is that coins on edge can warble like a screw cap from one direction and may take some work to walk up to 180 from the other. I found a silver ring on edge with the 12x10 first time out too and that was at a spot I had gridded with my Explorers prior to the GT.