Tell Us About Your "Trash" Signal That Turned Out To Be A Good Coin

[ikandiggit]

This happened to me a couple of weeks ago. My hunting partner and I were working an area in a park that we've been hunting in for the entire season. The finds are getting kind of sparse so we return to areas that have produced in the past.

At one point in the hunt, I got an "iffy" signal that repeatedly chirped but also had the low tone of junk. I had to dig it to see what it was. At about 2 inches there was a big piece of ratty tinfoil spread out off-center of the hole. I removed it, re-scanned the hole and this time there was a nice clean high tone at 4.5 inches. I dug down and found a 1920 dime. I filled the hole and got up to continue my hunt.

Then, just as I swept the hole I had just filled, I got another signal. It was about less than six inches away from the one I had just dug. It wasn't a solid, clean signal but good enough. My buddy stayed to watch as I dug down to the indicated 6.5 inches. Standing up against the side wall was a large coin. "Large cent", I said and went for the camera. I took a shot and then pulled the coin out of the hole. It wasn't a large cent. At first I thought it might be a token but then I saw the profile on the back of a king and knew it was something else. We examined it and determined it not to be French or British and way too old to be Canadian.

After some research, I identified it to be an 8 Maravedies 1817 FERNANDO VII (Spanish) coin. As far as I know, Spanish money wasn't used in this area so it was more than likely to be someone's good luck piece.

I surmised that both the dime and this Spanish coin were missed because of the large piece of tinfoil. Both coins were relatively close together and would have been masked somewhat by the foil as I swept over it.

Another quick story.... I was hunting a "Hot Spot" where I had pulled out a lot of pre-1930's coins and I got a scrambled, jumpy signal. There's a fair amount of junk in this area and I've dug my share of rusty bottle caps, nails, wads of foil etc.. But something made me go after this signal. The ground was bone-dry and hard to dig in but when I got down to the softer soil (five or six inches down) I spotted a 1912 five cent silver and sitting next to it was a 1902 Indian Head!

Now, without hesitation, I dig a lot more questionable signals and quite often I get surprised with either a coin or a cool relic.

 

[pisco1266]

About 10 years ago I was hunting an old little park and for some odd reason I decided to run my coil over a dried up pile of dog **** near a tree. Oddly enough I got a signal... so I dug up the pile and just under 3" into the soil there was a very nice Brazilian 2.000 R

 

[silversmith]

Now it depends how you look at it, I guess. In my early detector days, I found my first Indian Head under a large Pine tree. In my excitement, I went over and showed my find to some friends, but didn't go back where I'd found the penny. A while later my friends were detecting where I'd been. In the same hole they detected then dug up a nice gold ladies ring. All I could say was Oh S..T !!!!! This was at a 'logging" whore house in the Sierra's. Yeah, that's different.........I thought you'd enjoy it though. Tell you what, I never fail to re-detect a hole now!

 

[Pops]

I hunt a large grass parking area that has produced a lot of coins and jewelry pieces including gold rings. This parking area is only 12 years old and was a cultivated field prior to that. Most of the finds are new but it has produced a few older coins like a 1903 IH and a 1857 seated liberty dime. On one trip I decided to dig all signals to get them out of the way in case a good target was down deep. I got a pull tab signal at 4 inches on my T2 and half-heartedly dug the signal. I got a small disc shaped object about the size of a dime and put in my "good" stuff instead of the trash. After several days of cleaning the heavy patina it turned out to be a bronze or brass Arcadius Roman coin from about 400 A.D. I still wonder what a Roman coin was doing in NE Oklahoma.

 

[Furious T]

There must be a few, but something happened this weekend which might fit the bill. Was out with the F4 (only had it for about 2 and a half months), going over an area which was recently been graded and pushed around by the local Council; didn't get a lot of signals and only a couple of coins, then I found a 1929 halfpenny (Aust.), shortly after I got a signal which was also promising. Dug a bit and then gave it up as the signal was moving, so I wrote it off as an aluminium can; about 7 or 8 swings later, got another signal with the same reading (71) and it sounded good..dug it an out came a 1947 Florin (50% silver); thought that maybe the last signal was also one, so went back and re-dug my hole and dug a bit deeper; found a coke can. The florin was my first silver with the F4, so I was happy.

 

[silversmith]

Hey pisco, if you could just find that dog and follow 'em around, you might be rich in a week

 

[mike from Illinois]

was out hunting a field that used to be a fairgrounds in the mid 1800s up until about 1900, had found some pretty silvers, indian heads, and shield nickels. all of these came in high tone on my cz3d. then i got a mid tone that locked in on foil, since this was an old area i was digging pretty everything. glad i did it turned out to be a 1866 three cent piece.

 

[jim tn]

A couple of year's or so ago, I was searching along a trash ladden foundation and received a high and mid tone signal with a jumpy vdi reading on my F 75. As I was still learning the 75, I decided to dig the signal and am quite glad I did. In the clod was a 1923 Peace dollar, a 1944 Walker half and a ten penny rusty nail. HH jim tn

 

[Critterhunter]

More great stories about trash signals that turned out to be treasure. Thanks for sharing once again. I've got a few more for you...

Just a week ago I was again hunting in the woods near a road. A large piece of chrome trim about the size of my hand was laying on the ground. Kicked it out of the way and swept over the spot. Got a nice clean and deep penny signal and sure enough it turned out to be a wheat. I know, wheats done really thrill me either. The only reason I like to see them is it indicates silver should be in the area. Still, it does prove the point about a good coin signal being under a piece of trash. It DOES happen.

Once in an old park I was getty a scratchy coin signal and figured it was a rusty bottle cap. Dug up a mercury dime that was laying with a hot rock. If you're just sick to death of digging bottle caps for the day at least pay close attention to how they sound and act. Dig a few that don't respond exactly like the other "trash" targets and they might be something else. I try to do this with other common trash targets that I'm simply done digging for the day. I'll look for that "pulltab" or "foil" signal that doesn't act like the others or sounds much more round and smooth. One trick I use for this is to dig targets that don't change where they are on the VDI much despite which way you sweep over them. An oddly shaped piece of metal or foil will often jump a good bit up or down the scale depending on which piece of it your coil is passing over (the wider or more narrow ends of the gob of trash), while a ring or other objects often will stay in or near one area regardless of which way you sweep over them due to their uniform shape.

Last week a friend and I were hunting a patch of woods on a hillside and he got a good coin signal. I swept over it and the target was reading like a clad dime or penny, yet out popped two silver dimes only a few inches deep. No other trash was in the hole. Sometimes soil conditions can cause a good coin signal to drop a bit on the scale. Those penny signals you are passing up might be silver. Always dig a few of those at a new site to figure out what kind of response you're getting.

 

[flash5153]

Years ago I would drive around looking for old houses and ask for permission to hunt the yards.One time,A guy comes out and says "Go for it" . Story was his mother owns it but does not stay there and he stays there on occasions. (1850 or so,,,farm house.)
Front yard first,didn't take long to figure out someone had detected this yard in the past.I couldn't find anything,it was clean. Few things I did find was weak signals and all small trashy items.

I noticed an area where ,one could tell, there was a large tree there not long ago.No stump,had been removed, a lower area where dirt was pushed back in a, and grass was different.I found 2 wheat pennies there.
After that spent another hour in the yard,not finding much of anything. Heading to the truck, I crossed this stump area again. Got a weak nickel signal,Since I wasn't finding much to dig I pinpointed it ,,,and dug a 1858 Flying Eagle penny.

I went back there on a different day. Spent 2 hours there and did not find another coin.

 

[deerman]

I had a lady do that same thing with a womans compact she hit the door and we never saw it again,But she did let us finish detecting her yard
we loaded up on loot that SHE never saw
anyway heres my story of a bad signal comming up good,while detecting at a school yard ou in the middle of the field i get a junky signal in all directions but one
so i dig and about 4 inchs down i find an old rusted tin can top so i pull it out of the hole swinging back over the hole i get a high tone on my I.D.Edge so i dig out
about 6 inchs more and the targets out of the hole so i sift thru the sand and see a L.C, as i pick it up i see it's bent on one edge the bend turns out to be a
musket ball dent and the coins an 1836 LC also found a cw card token in the same field

 

[Critterhunter]

Don't remember if I listed this story that happened to a friend. This is from memory but I know the response from the coin wasn't normal. If I remember right he said it was giving him a coin signal one way but was getting nothing the other way. Ended up being a seated quarter in perfect condition. Reason why it was only giving him a coin signal one way was the coin was standing on end. Can't believe the shape it's in.

Keep the trash to treasure stories coming!

 

[Critterhunter]

Yesterday I managed 2 rosies, about 8 wheats, and a nickle out of one hole. Normaly I can hear the seperate coin targets but this hole presented just one big coin signal. Unlike a can top, which can jump from coin to round tab and such, multiple coins usualy stay in the coin and penny range like this one did. Don't assume a huge coin signal is just another can or something. Notice how a can responds compared to a spill of coins. Also, on my machine a large target will tend to always reach as .5" deep, while multiple coins will tend to read the right depth or zero if they are close to the surface.

 

[Hombre]

This is a great post. It's a text book perfect example of target masking and one of the best I have ever read. This guy has been to the old school, and does a good job in the story. Thanks for sharing this tecnique..........Hombre

This happened to me a couple of weeks ago. My hunting partner and I were working an area in a park that we've been hunting in for the entire season. The finds are getting kind of sparse so we return to areas that have produced in the past.

At one point in the hunt, I got an "iffy" signal that repeatedly chirped but also had the low tone of junk. I had to dig it to see what it was. At about 2 inches there was a big piece of ratty tinfoil spread out off-center of the hole. I removed it, re-scanned the hole and this time there was a nice clean high tone at 4.5 inches. I dug down and found a 1920 dime. I filled the hole and got up to continue my hunt.

Then, just as I swept the hole I had just filled, I got another signal. It was about less than six inches away from the one I had just dug. It wasn't a solid, clean signal but good enough. My buddy stayed to watch as I dug down to the indicated 6.5 inches. Standing up against the side wall was a large coin. "Large cent", I said and went for the camera. I took a shot and then pulled the coin out of the hole. It wasn't a large cent. At first I thought it might be a token but then I saw the profile on the back of a king and knew it was something else. We examined it and determined it not to be French or British and way too old to be Canadian.

After some research, I identified it to be an 8 Maravedies 1817 FERNANDO VII (Spanish) coin. As far as I know, Spanish money wasn't used in this area so it was more than likely to be someone's good luck piece.

I surmised that both the dime and this Spanish coin were missed because of the large piece of tinfoil. Both coins were relatively close together and would have been masked somewhat by the foil as I swept over it.

Another quick story.... I was hunting a "Hot Spot" where I had pulled out a lot of pre-1930's coins and I got a scrambled, jumpy signal. There's a fair amount of junk in this area and I've dug my share of rusty bottle caps, nails, wads of foil etc.. But something made me go after this signal. The ground was bone-dry and hard to dig in but when I got down to the softer soil (five or six inches down) I spotted a 1912 five cent silver and sitting next to it was a 1902 Indian Head!

Now, without hesitation, I dig a lot more questionable signals and quite often I get surprised with either a coin or a cool relic.

 

[norman maassey]

A few years ago I was hunting a yard in a old black neighborhood in Abilene, TX. It was a real hot afternoon close to 100 degrees. All day i had $2.00 in clad. In the back yard my LT went NUTS in a area about 4ft. circle with area in the middle about half the size my coil was silent. I stood there and pass the coil on it for a minute or two. After listening to it walked off, then came back and listened again. After doing this maybe a dozen times. I just had to DIG IT. It was real sand y all I used was the side of my foot at 2 inches I found a 52 Franklin half. Passing the over the area again the it act the some way with 4 ft. circle of chatter with silents in the middle. Draw my foot of the small area again and out came a 51 Franklin half. these halves almost on top of each other. There was no more silent area. Running my digger around I saw a lot Charcoal all I can think of was Someone had Large wash pot and fire pit there at one time. After finishing they dump it and the coins had been in the bottom.

A few years earlier on a another hot summer day I was hunting with my GT1000. I only had the GT a few at the time and still learning it and WISHING I had a LT. All day after hit about 3 or 4 hunted out yard I run in a Friend who had a LT. After shooting the S--t a few minutes his ask me how I doing. Tell him I had been out 3 to 4 hours with only with 9 cents to show for it. He told ed me I had him beet with 6 cents. I stood there watching him, I just started in behind him in his side wonder tracks not really thinking about it. About 6 ft. I got a strong dime signal at 5 inch then a nil out signal in larger area almost at once. On the back swing it nil-ed out, cleared then hit the dime again. Digging down 3 inch i found it Hoe blade. Swing the coil again All got was the dime still a 5 inches.It was a 40 Merc. The blade was on top just hair off the dime.

Don't git me started on coins on edge of a side walk.

 

[Hombre]

n/t

 

[jccast11]

I was hunting an area that I thought wouldn't produce anything but to my surprise after getting a pulltab signal on my Explorer I pulled this 14K mens Wedding band with diamonds

 

[norman maassey]

n/t

 

[Critterhunter]

Well, I've found another honey hole and have a good trash-to-treasure story to boot! I've located a spot in the woods overlooking a valley with no real paths or easy way to get to it. I'm thinking it was a picnic grove at one time but was cut off by construction in the mid-1950s. Now there is only one way into this spot without walking on private land and it's a little tricky to manage the steep ridge to get to it, staying on public land.

Anyway, yesterday I was running out of time but wanted to explore this spot quickly before leaving the area. I managed my way onto this high/flat/"overlook" of a valley and only had about twenty minutes to hunt it before leaving. There was iron everywhere and I wandered around looking for any good coin signals. After about ten minutes I was getting ready to leave with plans to come back today, when suddenly I got a "ghost" coin signal between two iron signals. I must have swept over that target a good two minutes before deciding to dig it, and the only reason I decided to dig was because I hadn't dug one target yet at this new spot and wanted to dig at least one signal before leaving.

The "coin" signal as said was between two iron targets or perhaps hot rocks. Sweeping over it one direction it produced a soft coin signal like a deep silver dime. If I swept at it from a 90 degree angle from this I would mostly get the two iron or hot rock signals as the coil was starting over one, then going over the coin signal, then over the next iron or hot rock signal, so that direction it was just about a full iron hit with only a hint of high tone mixed in. Again I returned to the other direction and kept getting that soft "COIN" signal but could still hear the iron as well. Well, it didn't sound like a bottle cap as they tend to make a skipping or coin/iron chirping sound. Still, I figured this was probably a coin spike from one or both of the iron (or hot rock) signals that were roughly about 4 to 5" apart from each other. More sweeping and thinking...Then, like I said, I figured I'd at least dig this one signal and then leave for the day. If anything I'd know what these small iron signals all over the place were. Since I couldn't pin point it well I figured I'd just dig a nice big round plug and check out the myserious iron that's giving me this non-coin spike like response. I pulled the plug up and it crumbled as I lifted it. Out pops a 1904 barber dime! It was only three or four inches deep so the soft response was either the coin being on end or somehow the nearby iron was making it softer.

Today I went back to this spot with about an hour and a half of hunting time to burn. About thirty yards from the barber I get a scratchy bottle cap like response, jumping from round tab to penny. I figured it was worth digging based on the prior dime's antics and the amount of iron in the ground. Out pops a 1903 (?) indian head. Welp, I thought, I'm going to have to dig any signal above iron in this area no matter how scratchy it is or if it's jumping all over the place on the ID. Too much iron to trust that a coin is going to give me a clean response.

I do have plans to grid this area out and dig anything above iron, especially since I'm not getting any modern trash to bother me except for a round pull tab here and there, but I was running out of time so I figured I'd try to cherry pick a clean coin signal. No modern change has come out of here yet so I knew if I hit a good coin signal chances were good it's be a keeper. Sure enough, near a large oak tree I get a really good and clean coin signal. Hmmmm....I'm guessing either a large cent or maybe one or two silver quarters because it sounded a little bigger than a quarter, but I knew it wasn't a can lid as it stayed smooth sounding and didn't seem quite that big. Out it pops....A silver half! Up until this year silver halfs and eluded me for some reason, but I've dug a franklin and walking half this summer. Wonder what this one is, I thought, as I wiped away the dirt. Barber Half...1909S! Wow! A friend had told me that was I dug my first half they'd start coming faster and sure enough here was my third in about two months! Re-check the hole....Hmmmm, somethings in there but it's jumping from foil all the way up to nickle and round tab, acting like a 22 casing. Can't pass it up for sure, as I was thinking about the silver 3 cent piece that acted the same way a few months back. 1903 (I think) V nickle!

Needless to say this spot holds potential. I'm sure it's never been hunted based on how shallow the half was and how it read, not to mention that this spot is a pain in the shaft to get to without breaking your neck. I know where I'll be digging for the next month or so, gridding and digging everything above iron. The lack of large amounts of newer trash should make this a real fun spot.

By the way, nearby to this spot, within about 300 yards, I've dug a rosie and a sterling religous metal/chain. Down the road from there I dug a 1864 indian and another rosie, along with an old copper "luck" pendant. I've got some major hunting to do this winter. All 3 areas will take time to grid.

 

[icrsaa]

I dig iffy signals quite often.

There are so many times it turned out to be a coin that I am at a loss for what to say here. It is like how many times have I dug pop tops. So it is just ordinary to me to find a coin. I like other things. I think a better thread would be, if the find was not limited to a coin. crs