Pinch Me-Unreal Weekend

[ron@stlouis]

On Saturday I hit an old girl scout camp that my brother and I have really pounded the past year. So far it has given up 188 coins of which 13 have been silver. With no rain the past couple of weeks, the ground is like concrete. I had an hour and a half to dig (my wife thought I was at the office). Three pieces of trash later, it looked like a skunk when I dug a 1942 quarter for my only coin. It was a good way to start the weekend.


On Sunday, my twin and I hit three houses. The first two gave up 14 modern coins. The third house was a hundred plus years old. When you see a house with a tin roof in the oldest part of town, you know you are looking at some history.

I took the back yard and my brother the front. We both star hitting coins right off the bat so it looked encouraging. I switched to the side of the house and heard a coin tone while the tab emblem showed up at two inches. I flipped the plug and out came a 1903 Barber dime. It was my personal best beating out a 1907 Indian Head. My brother has been detecting five or six years and never gotten a Barber dime. I was on cloud 9. I checked the rest of the side yard and pulled up a few more modern coins. My brother was digging left and right and had about 25 coins so far in the front.

He always tells people the best place to hunt is just follow me after I pass over an area. I decided to check the front yard to maybe get some payback. He had spent so much time digging he left a tiny area where I made a couple of swings and got a hit two inches down. Pulled up the plug and up came an 1882 Indian Head. Less than a half hour and I broke my personal best record twice. I was estatic. I've only been detecting since March 2004 so this was heaven.

The old house produced 62 coins, 1882, 1903, 1943 wheat, 1952 dime (I was kind enough to leave that for my brother) and a 1953 wheat. The ground was somewhat of poor quality, a bit rocky so low sink rate. The deepest coin was 4 inches down, most were 1-2 inches. Figure this out. The coins were shallow and easy to find. All five older coins were spread throughout the property. No suggestion that this property was ever dedected considering all the factors. Makes you wonder, how come you had so few coins from say 1900 to 1950? House had been lived in all the time. I know people didn't have money in the depression years but strange. You would think kids would be dropping an occasional penny the first fify years.

It was a great trip. We plan on going back once we get some soaking rain. Can't wait to see this place again.

 

[WVAdirtdigger]

That house is the type of site that I frequent most. I usually hit a hotspot where most of the coins turn up but sometimes it's like your experience and they are scattered about. I can't explain why but one of the most common hotspots around an old house for my is at an angle from one of the corners of the house. I think people didn't often follow the straight pathways when entering or leaving the house. They took the "shortcut" as it were. Another hotspot is the clothesline area. Very few of them are still visible but they explain a hotspot.

I doubt that you'll find any deep coins there going by what you've found so far but it won't hurt to try. Keep looking for this knd of site. In my area, they're too numerous to count. They don't produce tons of goodies but each one turns up a few.

 

[ron@stlouis]

I went into the office for a few hours on the 4th and figured I would take care of home and work. Of course it was hard to concentrate when my bozo, I mean brother, called to tell me he was on the same site digging and his 31st coin was a buffalo nickel with the date worn off. He poured salt on the wound two minutes later telling me he pulled up a 1952 dime out of the same hole. The telephone torture continued when he called twenty minutes later to tell me about a 1907 Indian Head. Unreal. He ended up with 42 coins, some scattered over the ground we had covered and then at the far back side of the property which we didn't hit the previous day.

The is property about a half acre and two trips have produced 106 coins, six of quality. Gets you thinking with the other houses we have hit where the sink rate was greater, how many coins are lost forever. We are going to hit this place over and over. Your heart is in your mouth with every good signal. Once we finish with this one, we are going to knock on the door of the property across the street. Going to wait until we finish up some other properties and until the ground is wet so we don't leave a hundred brown spots with the dry conditions.

Can't wait to go out again