Omega loves abandoned military housing

[imi_wakaranai]

So yesterday I made my first trip onto the empty housing project on a military base overseas where I live. For background info please read the following post: http://www.findmall.com/read.php?58,1271827 I started out with the 5" coil and detected in the area of an empty clothesline on the side yard of one of the houses. I had the disc set at 50, used 2 tones, and I dug every good signal. I pulled out old matchbox cars, tent pegs, broken pulleys, ammo from WWII, bottle caps, tabs, etc etc. My success of the day came to about $2.50 in clad, 7 of the 14 coins being quarters. I can't believe how the Omega loves those quarters, amazing! I also dug a bracelet, but I am sure it is junk. Everytime I dug a quarter or dime, I couldn't wait to see the date. Unfortunately, I found no silver coins today, but I know that these will appear. Just give it time.

I also used the 10" coil today for about one hour of the hunt. This was my first time to use it today, and I wish that I hadn't taken off the 5' and opted for the 10" I was finding much more good stuff with the 5" than with the 10".

In the 2.5 hours that I was there I loved being able to detect without being pestered or stared at. It's strange to detect in an abandoned neighborhood with all of the standing houses, minus the people.

Inclosed are some snapshots of the area. Hopefully the photos give a sense of how desolate & peaceful the area is. The lone car in the photo is mine. Not even one car drove by the whole time I was there. Hopefully, the rainbow that appeared is a promise of good things to come.

 

[Monte]

open, green lawns, I certainly can't fault you for choosing the 5" DD coil for your task yesterday. That mentioned working under and around the clotheslines. A great choice of coils! now, I am also a fan of the 10" concentric for more open areas, but since you're working in close quarters and have places like that to deal with, the 5" would be my #1 pick as well.

I trust that time will result in some silver coins showing up, but keep in mind that (from what I see) the lawns appear to be built up above the sidewalks a bit and (if you're referring to US coinage) the silver coins were replaced 45 years ago. Sure, some were still carried for a while, but that's 45 years of modern lost stuff as well. I'd stick with the 5" while working closer to the buildings, metal structures, and potentially multi-target clotheslines. Move to the stock coil when comfortable.

Best of success to you on your beautiful-looking hunt site!

Monte

 

[lafatlife]

Wow, abandoned? Who mows the lawns?

Your finds may have not been much just yet but go to where the kids played, don't forget any parade fields in the area and a place that is often over looked is car washes. I don't know if they have them there in the housing areas but some of them do.

Good luck.

 

[imi_wakaranai]

Monte, these houses went up in the 50s, so I would think that they will produce silver. A fellow detectorist told me a few years ago that he pulled some silver from these housing areas. Question: How do silver quarters & dimes usually VDI? I know this will vary according to depth and how the coin is laying in the ground etc.

lafatlife, thanks for the tips on where to be looking on base. As for who mows the grass, this is maintained by Japanese contract workers. And you'd be surprised at their ages. Most of the workers are in their 50s & 60s and at least 1/2 are females.

 

[marcomo]

Not sure of the specific #s on the O8, but silver will normally hit several numbers higher than it's clad counterpart.

And I'm betting you're right, the silver is there. Like Monte said, there's a lot more clad years at this site than silver years.

My best guess based on foggy memory is that by 1966 clad overtook silver. By 1964, people were snagging silver out of circulation because the intrinsic value of the silver in the coin exceeded the face value of the coin. Looking at the mintages bears this out. Because of the silver hoarding, in 1964 they minted about 5-6 times more 10 and 25 cent coins than the previous record high year, which was the year before - 1963.

Through 1964 all 10-25 cent coins dropped were silver and there was a pretty good chance in 1965 too. So depending when in the 1950's these houses were built, you've realistically got 6-14 years of potential silver drops. Of course you're going to find more clad, because you have a lot more years that clad was dropped. But 6-14 years is a nice chunk of time that should eventually work in your favor.

The biggest things that could work against you would be if the area has been heavily detected already, if fill dirt was ever brought in, or if the sink rate of the area is really severe. But I've got money on you finding some silver soon. Good luck!

 

[Cal_Cobra]

If there's silver there, the O8 will find it

I'm actually finding that the O8 is a better silver machine then my F75, with the only exception being deep large silver.

 

[imi_wakaranai]

marcomo,

I really never tried to quantify how much silver was possibly in the ground based on when the structures were built and when silver was taken out of production. One other tidbit of info: Though these houses were built sometime in the 50s, these bases have been occupied by American GIs since 1945. Granted the housing areas didn't have houses then, but the land was used for different military purposes. A guy that I used to hunt with over here a few years ago found 2 silver coins from 2 different European nations on this same base. They were apparently a coin spill & were dated from the 30s~40s. Being that some GIs fought both in Europe & the Pacific in WWII, we figured that the coins were dropped by a GI who had previously fought over in Europe.

Cal Cobra, Thanks for the encouragement. It is good to hear that the Omega is a very capable lil machine.

 

[RandyNorthridgeca]

n/t