YESTERDAYS HUNT SITE

[joe dirt_1]

HERE IS A PICTURE OF THE SITE WE GOT PERMISSION TO HUNT YESTERDAY, A HOUSE BUILT IN 1854 ACCORDING TO THE OWNER. IT SETS SECLUDED OFF THE ROAD ABOUT A HALF MILE AND I'M SURE IT NEVER HAS BEEN HUNTED BEFORE. WE SPENT ABOUT 4 HOURS HUNTING THIS YARD WHICH COVERS WELL OVER AN ACRE AND MY TOTALS FOR THE DAY......1- '36 WHEATIE, 1- 1909 WHEATIE, 1- 1901 INDIAN HEAD PENNY, AND 1 MEMORIAL CENT. THIS PLACE SHOULD HAVE SOME NICE COINS BUT WE COULDN'T SEEM TO FIND THEM. WE WERE USING FISHER ID EDGE MACHINES AND A GARRETTS GTA 1000 AND A TESORO SILVER UMAX. I FOUND THE '36 WHEATIE AND THE MEMORIAL CENT WITH THE EDGE AND THE 1901 INDIAN AND THE 1909 WHEATIE WAS FOUND WITH THE SILVER UMAX.
THE SOIL WAS VERY SANDY WITH SOME DIRT MIXED IN AND POSSIBLY THE COINS HAD SUNK DEEPER THAN OUR MACHINES COULD REACH. I COULDN'T BELIEVE A FEW SILVER COINS DIDN'T SHOW UP AT THIS SITE. SOMETIMES THOSE SITES THAT LOOKS SO GOOD JUST DON'T SEEM TO PRODUCE ANYTHING. I'M GOING BACK AGAIN TO TRY TO FIND THE OLD COINS I KNOW ARE THERE.....ROGER

 

[Hombre]

I agree Roger, that place looks good, but even the best looking sights don't produce sometimes. You might consider running loose paterns until an old coin shows up, then tighten the pattern around where it was found. At least ya found an Indian head, I like finding those. HH...........Hombre

 

[joe dirt_1]

hi hombre, this site just screamed old coins but nothing showed up...yet. i'm getting a new machine...fisher cz70...and will go back over the site with it. if nothing shows up with the cz70 i'm gonna be very surprised as the cz is very deep. curious to see what happens. take care ........roger

 

[tvr]

Look around and see if there are indications of, or ask if they know where the cloths line used to run and where the out houses used to be. Then search those areas carefully. Also, the line between doors and house corners and those areas where people walked and maybe hurried carrying things. Where I haven't found a lot of coin, I have turned up silver rings when hunting those areas.
Good luck.
tvr

 

[joe dirt_1]

tvr, the outhouse is still standing about 50' behind the house and the clothes line still had one post standing against the back fence line....i searched the clothes line area first and nothing showed up. same with the outhouse, nothing. i'm going to go back soon and give it another shot. there has to be a few old coins in the yard someplace, seated , barber, mercs....something. hopefully a different machine might make a difference but my fisher edge is deep enough it should have found them...........roger

 

[Neil]

Id see if you can find out where the pathway was that lead from the house to the road, that should be the most traveled section of the property.
sometimes topsoil is added, easy enough to tell if there are some old sidewalks sunk deep in the ground, that would put finds down deep.

What state are you in?

Neil

 

[amcjavelin]

hey that is a decent sight if you have to try using all metal mode if your well aquinted with it but i here you man when some places don't produce

 

[joe dirt_1]

neil, i'm in west central illinois. there were sidewalks in front of the house and around the back area. the front walk was down a few inches lower than the surrounding ground so i guess over the years sand has blown in and filled in the yard some putting targets deeper down. i'm going to take a fisher cz 70 pro to the site next weekend and see if it will produce anything. i'll have 5" coil, 8" coil and 10" coils to try there.........roger

 

[holey dollar]

Hi There
You said the Soil is Sandy with a dirt mix, maybe this area has been leveled, are most houses in this area on such big blocks of land, thinking maybe could of been more than one house here, knocked down and leveled out,what sort of soil is deep down hardcore soil, that grass looks Very Good for a Sandy Soil mix, the Grass maybe pulling up nutrients from deeper down, Grass like that is hard to get in WA West Australia, with there Sandy soil mix. Where are you From, those Trees look like they have been planted for shade in front of the house, there new not very old, does the house look that old to you ???

Good Luck
Dave/Holey Dollar

 

[joe dirt_1]

yes, the house is very old, the owner said it dates from 1854. this area where the house is located is along the illinois river and sand is very common until you get away from the river a few miles where it becomes rich black dirt. this is rural countryside and it's common to see old homes with huge yards. as far as the grass being green we have had lots of rain to keep it green. if i took the same picture in say august it would more than likely be brown and dry. the trees in front aren't real old and they are for shade i'm sure, but there are some huge oak trees in the north side of the house that are well over 100 years old. the yard does have coins, i just have to figure out the trick to finding them........roger

 

[Gunnar MN]

dont miss theold out house they are full of bottles

 

[marcomo]

Roger - Stuff sinks fast in sandy areas, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were a lot of good coins beyond the reach of your detectors.

If you found more clad, you'd have a better idea from how deep it was. If you're finding deep clad and memorials in undisturbed soil obviously that's not a positive sign as far as old stuff still being in detecting range.

Assuming you found some, how deep were the pulltabs? Pulltabs didn't come into use until 1962, so if you're finding deep pulltabs that's not a good sign either.

If you haven't already, I'd try around those old oak trees. In the days before AC, people used to sit under them regularly when it was hot. Plus the root system usually slows or stops the sinkage.

You didn't really say how much trash was in the yard. I've found most of the old homesites I detect are loaded with iron. That causes masking and slow, methodical detecting doing one small area at a time with a small coil works the best for me in iron infested areas.

You may not have hit the mother lode, but it was hardly an unsuccessful hunt. You did find an Indian and a couple old wheaties.

If you haven't done so, check the back of that 1909 to see if it has a VDB. Not especially valuable without the "s" mintmark, but still a fun find of a one year only type coin.

I sure wouldn't be discouraged. If this yard has over an acre you know there's more good stuff to be found!

 

[joe dirt_1]

marcomo, there were no other coins found here than what i found and i did find one round pulltab about 4 inches deep. i had a pouch full of trash and found several zinc fruit jar lids with the white glass liner. i hunted all the most likely spots slow and at different angles. the 1909 penny ( no vdb ) was found in the front yard by checking the area at a different angle. rusty iron was plentiful in the yard but seemed to be worse in the back corner of the yard. the property owner was there tending his garden and he told us about a dump site behind the house in the timber, so there could be some nice old bottles and artifacts there. will have to wait till fall to check that out because of the critters that live there. i had 2 ticks crawling up my leg just from being in the yard and wasn't about to go into the weeds and brush searching. it may take a few trips cleaning the trash out of the yard to start finding coins but i'm thinking of taking a 10x10 square and working it in all metal and totally cleaning it of signals to see what shows up. i just have feeling that this site has some nice coins just waiting for me to find them and finding the 1909 and 1901 pennies tells me there are more coins to be found from the turn of the century or before. good hunting........roger

 

[magpies]

Other sites around the house. garden/vegetable patch beds, where women especially lost rings and necklaces. yes to the old trees as kids also played under them in summer. if you are going to look for bottles, get a steel rod that you can use as a probe and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE wear clear protective glasses if you are even thinking of digging for glass - I have heard too many horror stories of people getting glass shards in their eyes from a pick/shovel strike.

 

[jhettel]

You said "I don't think it has been hunted before". I think the main problem is that it has been hunted before. You should have found much more. I have been to many sties like that and nothing. However, in the 1970's I can remember going to old houses like that and finding lots of coins. People have been everywhere.

 

[marcomo]

You said "I don't think it has been hunted before". I think the main problem is that it has been hunted before. You should have found much more. I have been to many sties like that and nothing. However, in the 1970's I can remember going to old houses like that and finding lots of coins. People have been everywhere.

That's a good point. You can never be sure a site hasn't been hunted before.