Quick hunt before the police came

[drkp88]

Last week I had stopped at an old home and asked a person outside for permission to hunt the yard. Answer was "ok with me." Yesterday I stopped by with a friend of mine and started to detect. About an hour later I saw a pair of shoes come into view followed by "what are you doing here?" Turned out he was the owner and the person I had asked was a tenant. Well, as luck would have it, he was the type to call an officer to make everything "official". The police officers
were great about the whole thing and kind of understood. I kept things very polite (it wasn't like we were in cammo dodging around bushes - we had the car parked right in the parking lot and we were in plain view), I apologized to the owner for the misunderstanding and all was over. The owner actually mentioned that a girl that had lived there previously spent four years detecting the property. About six years ago I had permission from the previous owner and I foud a large cent, barber dime, few mercs and rosies, and a catch of 78 Chinese coins (1700's - 1800's).
Well this time I found a 1905 IH. another Chinese coin, and a pretty toasted Draped LC (I think 179.
Bruce in Ct

 

[Orlensin-FL]

drkp88 glad it all worked out and turned out okay. Good job on the finds too.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Nice saves on the old coins

I used to do a lot of yard hunting in my early years of detecting (1970s and '80s), and came to realize that when people say "my uncle bob or aunt suzie has already detected here" that it means next to nothing. Heck, I even hunted the yards of some guys who'd say "I already hunted it with my own metal detector" for example. But I'd persist that I still want to give it a try anyhow. And then upon popping up old coins, they'd look on in shock and say "all I got was a few pulltabs and a penny!!". To which I'd ask what type machine they had. I remember one guy brought out a radio shack special (from the days when R.S. sold machines that could scarcely find a hubcap). Or they'd bring out an old Bounty Hunter TR dinasour, etc.... But still though: In their mind, it's already been hunted, so obviously "there couldn't be anything left" haha

And the converse has happened: Someone says "No one's ever hunted here before, so you should do real good!" But I would know, for a fact, that others, or even I myself, had already hunted it (I didn't bother correcting the current owner or tennant, or family member, etc... )

 

[TokenDigger]

Glad to hear everything worked out OK. You did all the right things - polite to the owners and police, apologized, etc.

Tom in CA is right - so many people think their place is "hunted out" because someone else detected it and there are almost always a few keepers to be found.

If I get permission to do a house and find some relics (and even coins) that I don't really want, I clean them up and put them in a small butterfly box and give to the owner. They are usually tickled pink and it can open a lot of doors. You'd be surprised how far a few Wheaties, buttons, suspender parts, etc, can help your cause. I did this at a place in VA (even included a nice large cent) and they gave us permission to hunt almost whenever we're in town.

That was some hoard of Chinese coins you found earlier. We find them periodically in NE Ohio. I read somewhere that these were used as decorations, sometimes to adorn baskets.

What is that large item (medal?) with the horse on it? Is there anything on the other side?

Thanks and happy hunting!

 

[drkp88]

Thanks TokenDigger.
At that time I found about 10 of the chinese coins a bit spread out over a small area. The rest were concentrated in one spot like they had originally been buried in a cloth sack or something that had deteriorated long ago. The item with the horse on it seems to be a lid from some type of cannister or container.
Bruce

 

[TokenDigger]

Thanks for the reply. That horse lid is really neat - I wonder what it was used for? It seems too nice to be part of an ordinary container but then again, there was more craftsmanship in everyday things then there is now.

I was fooling around on eBay a few months back and saw what was termed an "antique sewing basket" being offered. There were a bunch of those Chinese coins tied onto the lid as decoration. I have also heard of these coins being found at Western mining sites and old work camps that helped build the Western railroads. Who knows?

All of the the stuff we find probably have neat stories behind them.

 

[Hotcz70]

Nice finds Bruce. Glad it all worked out for you. The Yeti and I ran into a similar problem at one of his sites...but the tenant ended up purchasing the property...so now we can hunt it whenever we want.