Cut Penny and Random Finds

Here are some more of my random finds while search the old park.  A big chunk of lead is at the top.  A washer with some yellow paint that may have come from one of the carousel at fairyland.  My first half penny, a small pocket knife, a water turnkey, and an old ring.

Detecting Home Built 1890

Me and my Dad spent a hour or two hunting the home of one of their neighbors.  The lady was kind enough to give us permission, but said that it had been hunted before.  The yard was dry so I was reluctant to recover any targets, but I did want to see if I could hear any good signals with the metal detector.  The yard was covered with ferrous iron signals, but I did manage to make out a couple good signals.  Once I saw that my Dad was had his metal detector going I decided to dig up the first good signal.  It happened to be under the clothes line, which I had heard was a good place to look.

First signal I check was a 1969 half dollar, not bad for a yard that was not suppose to have any coins.  I dug a couple other coins and a few relics that I could not identify. 

This old motor thermometer gauge says: Boyce THE MOTOR METER CO INC Long Island City, NY.

I thought it was kind of cool.  Not sure what kind of vehicle used this type of gauge, but I think it is old.

John Deere Tractor Found with Metal Detector

Okay, I never said it was a full size tractor.  A little evening trip with Dad to Northridge park.  The highlights of the hunt were Dad's Tractor and dog tag, and I found a Washington presidential dollar, wheat penny, junk ring, and key.

Coin Findings by Decade

I went back to the park where I had found some silver coins.  I made special effort this time to try for the old coins, which means that I make sure to recover all the targets that are more than 6 inches deep.  It is a lot of work to get the deep coins out and make the grass look nice when you are done.  I thought it might be interesting to show the ages of the coins.  The oldest coin of the bunch was a 1919 wheat penny.  Then we skip a couple decades, then we have coins from every decade from the 40's to 00's.  Found a total of 4 wheat pennies, which is a personal best, but no silver coinage.

Found/Lost My First Buffalo Nickel

I had a landmark outing this past weekend.  I found my first buffalo nickel.  I was lucky to be able to take a picture of it before handing it over to the land owner (or at least she said she was).

It's kind of a long story.  I have had my eye on an abandoned house that was built in 1900.  The house was boarded up and painted with graffiti.  A "No Trespassing" sign sat along side the little dirt road leading to the house. My daughter and I tried to get a hold of the land owner to see if they would consider letting BYU use it for a film project that my daughter was involved in, but they never returned our call.  I figured that the sign was there to protect the land owner from liability from someone getting hurt in the old house.

Well, within the past few weeks the house was turned into a pile of rubble and a realty sign was put up.  

I decided that no one would care if I did some metal detecting, I was wrong.  I spent about an hour there and had found about 8 coins, most of them modern clad, but I did get one wheat penny and my first buffalo nickel.  Shortly after I found the buffalo a woman pulled up in a van and asked me what I was doing.  I told her I was metal detecting and asked if she was the owner.  She said that she was and that I was trespassing.  I apologized and told her that I would leave immediately.  I explained how I did not think anyone would mind, but she explained that she had family that wanted to hunt the site.  I totally understood, and started for my car.  She asked if I had found anything.  I wanted to tell her "No", but I confessed that I had found a few coins and handed them over to her.  She was very interested in the buffalo nickel and the discussion became much more cordial.  She told me to call in a couple weeks and she would have a talk with her grandmother.

I hope that my honesty pays off when I call her back.

I need to find a good way to approach the owner of old properties like this to get permission.  I don't think this was the best way.

Third Time Nets 3 Silvers and a Wheat

My first 2 trips to this park got me one silver coin each trip.  This time I manage 2 silver coins, a silver ring, and a 1946 wheat penny.

False Pocket Watch

Got a signal that my metal detector thought was a dime.  About 7 to 8 inches down I found what looked like a pocket watch.  I was stoked!  After flipping it over and washing off the dirt, found out it was not a watch after all.  I am still not sure what it is, maybe a locket or a pill box.  If you have any ideas on what it is, let me know.

Ficha Sin Valor

It was a nice night outing, other than the Scera Shell had some sort of singing competition going on, and a lot of the people competing could not sing.  Luckily we were not there to listen to the performances, so pull on the headphones and turn up the metal detector volume.  At the end of the night I came up with 40 coins, not a bad haul for a few hours.  Dad was feeling bad about his take - only 30 coins, an earring, and a token, but I think he did great.  Maybe it is all those years of being an accountant, the total sum of all the coins matters.  For me, I love to find unusual things.  For example, the token Dad found was our first Spanish token, it reads: ELECTROMECANICA - FICHA SIN VALOR.  Which I think means that it is a token without value.  All-in-all, I would trade digging up a bunch of quarters for something unique like that.

Old Broach and More Random

Here are some random finds from a metal detecting trip.  My favorites are the souvenir smash penny of a sea star from Scripts and the old broach the still has the 4 blue stones.  The heart pendant may be silver but it doesn't have a hallmark stamp.  A couple junk rings and a couple buttons.

Random Finds

Here are more random metal detecting finds.  It is surprising when you dig up a flashlight.

Mini-Mag Flashlight

Whistle

Copper wire

Metal Detecting Mysteries

Usually metal detecting finds can be identified as a piece of can or a coin, but sometimes it is just a mystery. Dad found this little chunk of metal and asked me what I thought it was.  I might have thought it was a fishing weight, but it was light, probably of aluminum.  I wasn't sure what it was, but it goes in the pocket with all the other chunks of metal.

A short while later I think I solved the mystery when I dug up a complete one.

All the little mysterious objects is one of the things I like about metal detecting.  Here were some of the ones from this past Saturday.

Both Detectorists Get Silver

Dad's Finds

My Finds

On the same hunting trip where I found the 1941 silver quarter my dad also found silver, a sterling CTR ring.

Fork and Staples

It is always interesting to see what comes out of the ground besides the expected coins.  Here are couple that showed up this past week:

Baby fork - about 4 inches long (Dad)

These staples showed up as quarters on the metal detector, so I just kept digging them up.

Giant staples - about 3 inches long

My Pile is Bigger

Saturday dad and I put in a full day of metal detecting.  I got up at 6 am, picked up some route 44 diet limeades with peach, and picked dad up.  

We started at Lion's Park, which we have hit many times before.  The coins were few and far apart.

We hit JDawg's for a polish dog and drink, which gave us the energy to hit one more spot called Harmon Field.  Which consisted of a small tot lot and 2 baseball diamonds.  We did much better here rounding up a number of quarters, including the 1948 silver quarter.

At the end of the day, my pile of coins was bigger.

A 1941 Silver Quarter

My dad and I spent some time metal detecting last night.  I found another silver coin.  This time it was a 1941 Washington quarter.  I love how silver comes out of the ground.  The clad (modern sandwiched) quarters come out brown and tarnished, but silver come out looking great.  This coin was only 4 inches deep.  I knew it was silver before I even pulled the coin out of the plug I had cut because I could see the nice silver edges.  Take a look:

New Spot Pays Off

Anytime I am driving around town, I look for good locations to go metal detecting.  Last week I noticed some carnival in a city park and made a metal note to go try it sometime.  Last night I had a hour and a half so went and gave it a quick try.  Much of what I tried was littered with iron, and difficult to detect through it.  I knew the park was old because of the size of many of the trees.  A plaque talk about construction in the park in the 1930's.

I need to go back when I have a little more time, but I did manage to find another Mercury Dime dated 1918 about 9 or 10 inches deep.

Silver 1948 Quarter

Saturday I got my first silver coin with my new E-Trac metal detector.  It was only 3 inches deep, must have been a recent drop.  Many people don't ever look at the dates on their coins, but with the price of silver over $34 an ounce, this coin is worth almost $6.50.  I did give a little shout of excitement when I saw it.  Better start checking your change for those 1964 and older quarters and dimes.

Keys and Cool Ring

Here are some of the recent metal detecting finds: some keys and COOL ring. Maybe the ring is not so cool

Silver / Ring Drought is Over

I was starting to get worried that my new Minelab E-Trac detector could not find any silver.  I usually find some sort of silver ring at least once a week.  A couple weeks have past without finding any silver or any ring.  Well finally my drought is over.  The other day while picking up quarters, I also found 3 silver rings, yay!

Quarters are Easy Pickings

This past week my dad and I have been searching hitting a new area that is producing a lot of modern coins.  There were so many coins that we started just picking up the quarters.  We will have to make another pass to get the pennies and dimes.

Dad's Best Find - Gold Wedding Ring

Joel, my dad found your wedding ring!

Just one of our normal metal detecting trips.  This time we headed up Provo canyon to detect at Vivian Park.  We started early to avoid the heat.  We didn't find anything too exciting, just your normal handful of change, and it was starting to get hot.  I worked my way back over to where dad was working a small patch of grass. I was about to suggest that we pack it in and go get some lunch when he found the ring.  Dad said it was 2 to 3 inches deep, so it had probably been there at least a few years.

The inscription inside the ring reads: Melissa and Joel 6/28/94.

We would like to try an get the ring back to it's owner, so if you have an idea of how we could locate them, please let us know.

Now if you think you would like to buy a metal detector and go find a gold ring for yourself, know this:  You have to dig a lot of garbage to find gold.  Each time we go we end up cleaning up a bunch of garbage.  Here is some of the garbage we collected the day my dad found the ring.

Plan on digging 1000+ pull tabs for every gold ring.

Find of the Day - Princess

Probably just a zipper pull, but it qualifies as a unique find.