So now I take stock and look back at a really fabulous year of detecting thanks to the Minelab E-Trac, which has definitely paid for iteslf in just 9 months (I started the detecting year mid-March with my Minelab Explorer SE).

For a full photo gallery, click here.

$349.63 in clad coins
Over 4,700 total coins and tokens.
299 silver coins, 1244 wheat cent
Dozens of rings, most silver, two gold.

2009 was my 19th year of detecting, but by far this was truly the best year ever. In 2009, I found my first large cent and oldest coin, dated 1820. Then just a few weeks later, a second large cent, 1844. I found my oldest silver coin, a beautiful XF 1833 bust dime, which amazingly came from the most heavily detected park in the city.

Dog licenses dating back to 1924, a small tribe of Indian cents, two Civil War storecard tokens, nickels of every sort...

It's been great fun and a great challenge. I started the year aiming for 100 silver coins, thinking I would be quite lucky to get that many. Instead, with the E-Trac, I quickly surpassed my initial goal for the year. A friend and fellow E-Trac user, Dave and I have pulled over 550 silver coins from local parks and schools in 2009 and we both wonder what we will do in 2010, as many of our old haunts are not hunted out, but finds are few and far between. We muse about larger or smaller coils, what could possibly give us more of an edge to be able to do as well again in the coming year.

You can see in the first picture the silver coins I found using White's and Fisher detectors 1990-2007 (about 225), the silver coins found in 2008 with the Explorer SE (52) and the pile from 2009 with the E-Trac (and a little bit of the Explorer, 299). I'm still amazed when I look at these totals.

I find coin spills or pocket spills to be fascinating.  Especially older ones that show the mix of coins that were in circulation together. Indian head and wheat cents, Barber coins mixed with Mercury dimes or even Washington quarters.  Today's spill seemed to really capture a pivotal moment in our nation's coinage.  Circa 1965, I'm sure, it consisted of a clad 1965 quarter, a 1964 nickel and a silver 1964 dime. Neat to discover an example of the clad coins and silver coins circulating together, frozen in time.

Last week I picked up this quite nice 1926-S wheat cent from one of my local parks.  It is a scarce, low mintage date, and is in pretty good shape for a dug coin.  I thought this was my best wheat cent find for the year. I thought getting one semi-key date out of the almost 1,200 wheats I have dug this year was a great accomplishment.

But then I was going through some coins I had put in the rock tumbler for cleaning, and this 1914 wheat cent caught my eye.  I looked, I looked again, and darn if I can't see a really faint D mint mark on it.  Well, a 1914-D is one of the rarest wheat cents there is.  I check photos on the internet, and darn if that mint mark doesn't look like it's in the exact right position too.  It's a shame it's so worn and that I put it through the tumbler.  I doubt it is good enough to send out for authentication by one of the coin grading services, but it might be worth a $20 gamble to see if they see what I see.

I have been amazed that my two oldest coins have come from "hunted out" public parks.  These are parks where I regularly see other detectorists.  There was even another person's plug a few feet away from when I dug this coin.  And this is an area of the park I had been over many, many times over the years.  This 1820 large cent is now the oldest coin I have found while metal detecting.  It is in poor condition, but the date is clear.  This is also surprisingly, the first large cent I have found.

This is my second Civil War era token for this year.  The "Union" and shield definitely date it to the Civil War era.  I am really intrigued by the details in the shield, which is seems to have been hand engraved on the die (opposed to stamped, as the other elements of the design) - the upper points are not symmetrical.  This token is additionally interesting because of the small circular clip in the side of the planchet.

The other side says: "W. Johnston * Die Sinker - Cin, O."  Other tokens are cataloged with this die/maker, but not in combination with the "Union" side.  The ones I have seen have a Masonic symbol.  I have written to Russell Rulau, author of The Standard Catalog of United States Tokens 1700-1900 to see if he can shed any light on this variety.

My searches in the 1860, 1870 and 1880 Census records have not turned up our die maker Johnston. Maybe his name can be found in some Cincinnati City Directories of the era. Another token is seen with an Indian head design dated 1863.  The advertising side is a different design and gives an address of 154 Everett St.

At an older park this morning that typically yields little but trash, I found a dateless shield nickel (1866-1881) at a shallow 2.5 inches and some modern clad coins. Took a break for lunch and decided to head back over for a bit thinking maybe I could get some wheats and possibly even an Indian head cent. First target was the wheat... a 1910, nice. Second was an 1897 Indian head. Goals achieved. Next pass I get a blip at the end of the sweep, decide to check it out. 12-43, 12-44 on the E-Trac meter, a little depth, I'm hoping for a wheat cent.

So, I pull out this coin from about 5-6" deep, it's silver, yay! Ok, what the heck is it... I see what looks like a 106? It's bigger than a dime, thicker too with nice strong reeding on the edge... maybe one of those Philippines 10 centavos? No, wait, maybe it's a Barber dime? No, too big. Philippines... no, keep looking at it...  Holy freaking crap, it's a BUST DIME in AWESOME condition!  

I walk back to the car, gingerly place it on a soft towel I had in the trunk, try to calm my nerves and head back to detecting. Tried to stay focused, but did not find much else, a few modern coins. So, I come home, praying the whole way that I didn't hit this coin with the digger.  I gently rinse it under the faucet and pat it dry. Turns out to be my oldest and best coin after 19 years detecting, an 1833 bust dime in awesome condition. 

On a side note, there are at least 10 different dies/types for 1833 dimes.  The book that identifies these types is Early United States Dimes 1796-1837, by the John Reich Collectors Society and these types are generally referred to by their "JR" number.  A member of the John Reich Collectors Society was kind enough to look at my photos and identified this dime as JR-9 which has a rarity level of 2, so while not a rare type, it's still great to have this information.

Through some friends, I gained access to some private property that had a significant amount of history.  The site had seen use since colonial times, but also had a lot of construction, destruction and earth moving in 250 years.  Hope were high, but nothing from the earliest era surfaced.  Near an aged wisteria where a house stood at one time came these finds.  A Civil War era merchant's token, 1909 quarter and 1892 nickel.  Just by luck and a good guess, I was able to find a picture of what the token looked like, enabling me to identify it and learn some history of the merchant who issued it, Gilbert Beach. 

"Gilbert Beach came to Perrysburg, Ohio from New York state in 1835 while Perrysburg was still in an unimpressive oasis on the rim of the great Black Swamp. He opened a grocery store on Front Street, which was then the village's main thoroughfare, near the Exchange Hotel.  He remained there for the next 29 years, part of the time in partnership with Schuyler. At one point fire destroyed his store, but he built another that eventually was moved to where the Hood Park parking lot is now located and which later became the home of the Perrysburg Journal until it was razed in 1966.  In 1863 Gilbert purchased the building later occupied by the Munger Brothers Meat Market at 123 Louisiana where he added dry goods to his line of business. He continued there until closing the store in 1877.”

Three hour hunt in a park netted these d-e-e-p coins. Did I mention there were a lot of difficult tree roots to work around too? The best hit was the 1945S quarter, clear as a bell, no roots, right where I pinpointed it. Not so easy was the 1934 quarter under a lot of roots, the rim got a few little Lesche bites from my digger. Many of the signals read lower on the meter than silver usually comes in, but the tones were still interesting or the ID peeped the higher numbers in-between the lower numbers. So, take for the day was two silver quarters, 1934 and 1945S; four silver dimes, a toasted 1920, 1918S, 1944 and 1946. Assorted wheats and a few clad. The 1934 quarter is silver coin #150 for the year.