Short trip to favorite site

[Parkit]

Two hours at a military installation, another section of base housing ready to go under the dozer. 83 memorial pennies, 3 wheats ('41, '57d, '45), 3 Canadian pennies, Old Granddad whiskey bottle tag, rabies vaccine dog tag, odd button, gumball machine devils mask, 3 keys (always find keys), 17 dimes, 5 quarters. The big round coin is a 1906 Kind Edward VII one penny. Don't know how that got out there, but I don't think I've ever been to this site that I didn't find at least one foreign coin. 1906 is the oldest so far though.

Thanks for looking, going back tomorrow!

 

[cwilk]

A productive two hours! Can I go with you next time? I'm getting a little itchy.

Chris

 

[Old Katz]

Great finds!
Katz

 

[Parkit]

I went back to the same area today, and found another old penny. This time it's 1900 and has Queen Victoria on the front, and it's in a bit better shape. One silver ring, 2 wheats and a handful of memorial pennies rounded the trip out.
It's strange detecting this place. It feels like a ghost town with the military housing duplexes emptied out, some of the furnaces and appliances sitting on the carports after having been yanked out of their places, the wind blowing leaves around, and the occasional beeping of smoke alarms whose batteries are going dead. The area has only been abandoned for 6 weeks or so but it's eerie. There are maybe 200 houses to be demolished, and each has it's own yard and driveway to search. This is the third area of housing on this base that's being renovated or demolished, and it's the "newest" having been built in the early 60's. It's not giving up silver like the other two areas did, and far fewer wheat pennies. Still, I have the entire place to myself until the dozers show up (after asbestos abatement, prep work, etc) and then it'll be off limits until they finish. After they're completely done it'll be about 40 acres of park-like setting, there are no plans to rebuild housing on it.

Thanks for looking!
Steve

 

[RickIowa2009]

INteresting finds

 

[JOHNMARKHAM]

great finds..

 

[Roscue2]

Remodeling gives me a lot of new places to hunt , but the time slots are small.

 

[fongu]

They are tearing down an old school within 15 miles of me, but after reading that a man was beated to death there a few years ago, I think I will pass. It's a lonesome place too. Great finds and very productive. Sounds like you can metal detect there a long time and not get through searching 200 houses. Good
hunting.

 

[MAcle1997]

Sounds like the housing areas I got to search at Fort Ord near Monterey, California in the mid 1990's. They had been abandoned for a year or two by the time I got there, so the grass was a bit long in places. I had hundreds of houses to choose from, each with front and back yards, clothes lines, etc. Some of them dated back to just after WW1. Found of lot of goot stuff there. My first and only Standing Liberty Quarter to date (1929), gold and silver jewelry. Lots of foreign coins too. Panama, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Canada and a few countries I haven't identified yet. I called the federal police on post to get permission each time I went out detecting. They always had a few minor restrictions for me to follow, but always let me detect. I had about one month left on my assignment there and was out detecting when the police chief pulls up and says I can't detect on post any more. I guess someone finally got around to researching if it was legal or not. I had a lot more free time in my last month there and was planning on getting out as much as possible too. :sad: I've never had a few hundred yards to choose frome since then. I really miss that.

One area I avoided was a small subdivision of abandoned houses that were built shortly before the post closed. Most had appliances installed and were ready for someone to move in. There were all nice houses built for officers. When the post closed control of the land and houses went to the closest town which decided that since they weren't built according to the local building code they would all be torn down. Now thats what I call an example of government spending at its finest. :angry:

Mark

 

[Da Yooper]

Very nice finds

 

[Parkit]

Mark, sometimes the base police can be real idiots. I think most of the time (at least where I am) they're just too thrilled to finally have something out of the ordinary to do that they don't know how to act. I have all the access cards, paperwork and stuff to come and go as I please, yet I can be detecting within 20 feet of where I park, in the middle of the base, and they'll ask for ID and tell me it's because they want to make sure I didn't jump the fence. Which is a mile away. Once one of the E-3's made out a contact report, and he must have gotten his butt chewed because he was REAL friendly after that. Anyway, I know they have a job to do and they do it with great zeal, but one of the truely great things about having access to a military installation is that not everyone else with a detector does. Having so many yards, driveways and clotheslines to search makes me want to run around and hit what I think should be "hot spots", which worked in the other two housing areas but not in this latest one for some reason. So I'm going to have to simply plan it out, search each yard thoroughly, then move on. Another great thing is that I really don't have to fill my holes, since demolition machinery is going to tear the place completely apart. But I fill them anyway, I don't want to get out of practice. Armadillos do far more damage than I do and I've had to point that out a couple times, easily done when the critters are right there in broad daylight digging to China.
I don't really know how much time I'll have before they start actually tearing the houses down, but as with the previous areas I expect the earth-moving equipment will actually improve the finds. With a little recon and some photos now it's easy to remember where I've already searched and where I haven't touched. Your experience with Fort Ord sounds terrific, and since opportunities like that are rare I'm sure you'll remember it for a long time.

Steve

 

[Old Katz]

Those look like Russian coins. Are they?
I bet there are lots of them in some areas of Alaska.
There was a large Russian community that settled there
years back. Their descendants are still there.
I wonder if anyone has ever MDed the smaller Islands
on the coast of Alaska. I'd love to visit the Aleutions someday
with my MXT, if there are no laws prohibiting metal detecting there.
Katz

 

[Parkit]

As for the two large cents:

There were 32 million of these bronze British pennies minted that year (1900) and it features Queen Victoria (1837-1901) on one side and on the other side is the allegorical figure of Britannia with shield and a trident which symbolizes Britain's mastery of the seas and worldwide empire. The abbreviated Latin legend stands for By the Grace of God, Ruler and Queen of Britain, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India. In the shape it's in I figure the value is about 25-50 cents. The 1906 King Edward is is very sorry shape, I didn't even bother to look it up.

I'd imagine that SOMEBODY has detected the islands off Alaska, but I've never been there. I'm in Mississippi, both coins along with a total of three wheats and some regular clad were found quite shallow under an oak tree. In the same GENERAL area I've dug Memorial cents from the 60's and 70's from a depth of 7-8". The top 1" of soil under that oak tree is quite compacted, so I'd say the big cents were tossed there by some kid who got into his parents' coin collection and then dumped them instead of getting caught with them. They were within 6 feet of each other, same depth of about 1/2". It took two trips to find both of them because I found the first one (1906) just as the sun was setting and I only gave the very immediate area a few quick sweeps before heading home. The next day it took me maybe 3 hours to work my way back to that tree, and I found the 1900 in ten minutes. I hit that tree again New Years day (my third trip out there) and didn't get any signals after doing a grid search. I did manage a nice sterling St. Chistopher medal, two more wheats, an Asian (Korean, Chinese, something) 10-cent piece that is mower-struck, and 68 assorted Memorial and clad coins in the housing area. I'm going to wait until the dozers churn the ground up before I head back, and it's forecast COLD and WINDY today and the rest of the weekend anyway.

Steve