CZconnoisseur
Active member
I spent about 3 hours today at a relatively trash-free house courtesy of Marty. On this house the backyard was very small while the front yard was a standard 55 feet by 40 feet - much like the rest of the post-war neighborhood. Started off in the front yard and found plenty of zincolns in various states of preservation...along with a few pieces of sheet aluminum from a siding job done years ago. I feel that I have to dig out these aluminum pieces and see what's hiding underneath, but on this house there weren't too many deep targets - rather the sheer number of coins recovered kept me busy. Was able to hunt the entire house, both yards, and once you got away from the house the signal density really dropped off to where there wasn't even trash near the backyard fenceline.
All of the cool finds and silver was found in the front yard - I remember getting a booming "80" inches from the front sidewalk and out rolled a huge medallion commemorating 100 years of existence of the IC railroad. Wasn't expecting that! 10 feet further down the sidewalk I hit an "83" that wouldn't budge and thought I was going after another clad quarter. Out came a nice Susan B Anthony dollar, which is the second dollar coin found this year! Where the sidewalk and driveway met was where the signals began to run together, so I upped reactivity to 4 keeping silencer at -1. To me there is a marked separation difference between r2 and r3, and again from r3 to r4. Not much of a depth difference IMO from r3 to r4, but r2 to r3 is a significant change. Nickels and zincolns had a habit of being in the same hole at this house - which makes for an interesting signal...no two nickel-zincoln co-located targets sound the same. I dug anything that remotely resembled a solid signal, and was not disappointed almost all the time! One hole I remember had 3 nickels, two zincolns, and two copper pennies - and that particular signal sounded strange.....boopbippitybeepbeepboopbump...so strange I had to see what could make such an odd sound!
I dug 79 pennies alone, most of them zincolns; which were anywhere from surface to up to 5" deep for some of the Wheats and high-relief Memorials. There must be some acidity to this soil, because almost all these rental properties the 1940s and later Wheats are severely corroded, and even the silver coins are tarnished. Many of the zincolns were eaten up as well, and a couple had to be discarded altogether. Found a 1944 war nickel which had a tough green coating that tumbling only began to get rid of. Must be fertilizer or maybe people used a lot of salt in the 1950s and 1960s when the winters were actually cold, snowy, and harsh.
Both silver dimes were stand-alone and clear targets - they both came in at 76 and 77 and I called them correctly both times. Every now and then a 1950s Wheat will sound like silver since the copper content for some 1950s Wheats seems to be almost 100%, going by the VDI. One direction the VDI may read 75 or 76 while a 90 degree sweep will yield 69 or 71 - almost all the time (in my soil) these are later-date Wheats. The bronze, green Wheaties which we all love to see come up actually have more tin content which actually makes them more corrosion resistant than their younger siblings. Forget who it was that dug a spectacular 1919 S Wheat the other day that had the telltale lovely even green patina with almost NO pitting - these coins still retain some numismatic value and we all hope to hit that 1914 D or 1909 S VDB someday!
Cooler weather is around the corner - and can't come too soon for me! This will make night hunts much more pleasurable, as well as decrease the insect component...should be many more great hunts ahead!
All of the cool finds and silver was found in the front yard - I remember getting a booming "80" inches from the front sidewalk and out rolled a huge medallion commemorating 100 years of existence of the IC railroad. Wasn't expecting that! 10 feet further down the sidewalk I hit an "83" that wouldn't budge and thought I was going after another clad quarter. Out came a nice Susan B Anthony dollar, which is the second dollar coin found this year! Where the sidewalk and driveway met was where the signals began to run together, so I upped reactivity to 4 keeping silencer at -1. To me there is a marked separation difference between r2 and r3, and again from r3 to r4. Not much of a depth difference IMO from r3 to r4, but r2 to r3 is a significant change. Nickels and zincolns had a habit of being in the same hole at this house - which makes for an interesting signal...no two nickel-zincoln co-located targets sound the same. I dug anything that remotely resembled a solid signal, and was not disappointed almost all the time! One hole I remember had 3 nickels, two zincolns, and two copper pennies - and that particular signal sounded strange.....boopbippitybeepbeepboopbump...so strange I had to see what could make such an odd sound!
I dug 79 pennies alone, most of them zincolns; which were anywhere from surface to up to 5" deep for some of the Wheats and high-relief Memorials. There must be some acidity to this soil, because almost all these rental properties the 1940s and later Wheats are severely corroded, and even the silver coins are tarnished. Many of the zincolns were eaten up as well, and a couple had to be discarded altogether. Found a 1944 war nickel which had a tough green coating that tumbling only began to get rid of. Must be fertilizer or maybe people used a lot of salt in the 1950s and 1960s when the winters were actually cold, snowy, and harsh.
Both silver dimes were stand-alone and clear targets - they both came in at 76 and 77 and I called them correctly both times. Every now and then a 1950s Wheat will sound like silver since the copper content for some 1950s Wheats seems to be almost 100%, going by the VDI. One direction the VDI may read 75 or 76 while a 90 degree sweep will yield 69 or 71 - almost all the time (in my soil) these are later-date Wheats. The bronze, green Wheaties which we all love to see come up actually have more tin content which actually makes them more corrosion resistant than their younger siblings. Forget who it was that dug a spectacular 1919 S Wheat the other day that had the telltale lovely even green patina with almost NO pitting - these coins still retain some numismatic value and we all hope to hit that 1914 D or 1909 S VDB someday!
Cooler weather is around the corner - and can't come too soon for me! This will make night hunts much more pleasurable, as well as decrease the insect component...should be many more great hunts ahead!
