Second Double Silver Coin Day of my Career

[cwilk]

I didn't write it, but I told myself that Monday was a chore day. NO DETECTING! I did some chores during the morning, including washing all my dirty MD clothes, cleaning my GTI 2500, sorting the weekends finds, shopping, banking etc. I rewarded myself with a nice 2 1/2 hunt back at the old ice skating rink and surrounding area. First half hour I found one clad dime. I did a thorough search of the dried up pond. Lots of junk, no coins, I finally got a solid coin signal, cent at 6 inches but size A. I knew it was a dime and it turned out to be the 1953 Rosie. I was very pleased. I continued in the area and found nothing else. Not one coin. I must have done a much better job yesterday than I thought. I moved to another area (where always find the clad halves) and started finding early 1960s copper cents and 1965 and 1966 clad coins. Deep. I picked out a spot about 50x50 and started a more thorough search. Switched to All Metal and got a nice strong signal. Probable target copper cent. Pinpointed between size B and C. Depth 8 inches. Dug down and at 8 inches out popped 1926 Winged Liberty dime. Now my day was looking perfect. A few town workers, one who detects, came over and asked how I was doing. I fibbed. I showed them all the trash I had dug and a few clad coins. I want a few more shots at this site. As I was leaving I got a nice deep quarter hit which turned out to be the coin spill below pictured the toy car. A half dollar, 3 quarters, and 2 dimes. Oddly my last three digs were coin spills. One was 3 quarters at 4 inches (thought I had a second half) and the final was a quarter a dime, a nickel, and a Zn cent right on top of the grass.

Summary. I need to hit areas where I suspect there is silver in All Metal Mode. I was wondering why I was finding so few Lincoln cents. I know there used to be a fair in this area. Probably nothing at the fair cost less than a dime. That's why so few coins less than a dime. Sound right, Bill? There had to be some game or booth that required half dollars. Maybe the beer tent. I have found 9 clad halves at this site in 5 hunts. All but one in a fairly small area. Maybe an acre.

Now my MD clothes are dirty again. The detector is dusty. Looking over my log I notice I had 8 hunts over 2 hours each in the past 5 days. Man, I have a lot of free time. Not even considering a second job either! Life is pretty good.

Chris

The dime is not a 1926S.

 

[treasurefiend]

Wow sweet, you gotta love finding silver!!!! Great 1926 merc

 

[csolley]

Looks like you sure did have a nice Monday!!

 

[Uncle Willy]

If the old fairgrounds goes back to the thirties and forties most everything cost a nickel. If you had fifty cents you were rich and good for the whole day.. Pennies were used mostly at the penny pitch booths where you pitched pennies on a big board with numbers on it in squares just slightly larger than a penny. They had variations of these where you pitched pennies onto plates or into jars.

Virtually everything at the old fairs and carnivals cost a nickel ( all rides included ) except the side shows which were a dime and up. Cotton candy, ice cream cones, soda pop, etc. were a nickel. No games or booths that cost a half buck. Depending on the era beer was a nickel or dime for a schooner. During the thirties a half buck was a half day's wages for most. During WWII it was more than an hours wages. Up into the fifties it was wages for half an hour. When you hunt an old area you have to equate all this with the time period. Remember, in the thirties a new car cost only a few hundred bucks..

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah in 1926 that Merc had the purchasing power of ten bucks or more today and was an hours wages for many so you can see why not many were lost and if they were they were diligently searched for.

Bill.

 

[cwilk]

The fair wasn't that old. 70s 80s 90s then stopped and is off and on again depending on the mood of the fire company. There has to be some connection to that event and all the clad halves I'm finding there. I am still leaning toward the beer tent. I bet beers were 50 cents a cup and rather than deal with two quarters they gave out 50 cent pieces. Shoot when I started going to those type things you could get really drunk for 3 or 4 bucks. Early 80s. I'm gonna ask around at the bar tomorrow and someone will remember.

Good information you provided. It is fun thinking about what that old coin might have meant to somebody way back when. That 1926 dime probably would have bought a couple of big beers or been enough for a movie. I know the old timers at the bar I work at had a place they went for lunch where they served a big bologna sandwhich and a beer for 15 cents. I think that was just after the war.

Chris

 

[Parkit]

Nice finds, Chris. Sounds like you're on the right track to figuring out all the halves, my bet also is that they were given out at the ticket gate or somewhere else at the fair. They're just not a coin carried around much, and to find that many in one area is a tip-off.
I've tried in the past to figure out what types of coins I could expect to find in a given area, knowing the general dates the area was in use, but I stopped doing that after finding coins that were older and "had no business being there". A site from the mid-50's gave up a 1917 Mercury dime and plenty of stuff from the 20's and 30's. Like they say, you just never know.
Good idea on changing up the detector settings, too. Hopefully the worker you talked to was unimpressed and won't horn in on the action. I "mislead" curious people all the time, even fellow detectorists. I figure that if they really wanted to know what I'm pulling up they'd check it out themselves.

Steve