Met up with some old friends and Dayton Diggers at an old park in their city. The 1920 dime was my first target of the day, the Wheats and Indian Head were all in one small area.

Discovered in the side yard of an old school.

Copper or brass spike marked "CITY" on top about 2" long. No clue what it marked or when it dates from, but being solid and heavy, it's got some age to it. Nothing else today except a bit of clad and some trash. The coin in the picture just for scale.

This saloon token was found at a 1920s school. John Clendenin is listed in the 1913, Newark, Ohio City Directory as a bartender for White & Meier Cafe. White & Meier also had the Bazaar Saloon. White & Meier issued their own aluminum tokens for that saloon in about 1917.

John B. Clendenin, Jr. was born October 22, 1880 in Gallipolis, Ohio, son of John B. and Elizabeth McGuery. He married Mildred Myrtle Houke (Houck) at the First M.E. Church in Newark, Ohio, on October 7, 1915.

The Newark Daily Advocate of June 15, 1895, reported that John's father, (Captain) John B. Clendenin, Sr. had started serving a sentence of three years for grand larceny at the Ohio
Penitentiary.

By 1915 the Clendenins had moved  to Gallipolis, Ohio. In 1917, John was manager and owner of the Libby Hotel at 444 Second Avenue. The Clendenins lived in the back of the first floor of the hotel. The Clendenins ran the hotel until the mid 1960s. John died December 22, 1967.

Some construction and excavation at a local park turned up the Spirit of 1776 watch fob, a 1931 Canadian cent, a folded aluminum AA token and a sterling silver spoon with the name Irene engraved on the handle. There were also a few Wheat cents and some clad coins.

This pinback enameled badge from the Columbus Dispatch Playground Safety Council dated 1934 was discovered in what was the backyard of a razed house. Over the course of a number of hunts at this site, I kept turning up Wheat cents. I could probably head over there again tomorrow and find another one or two more. Other notable finds from this house site included a silver Roosevelt dime and a 1945 Washington quarter. Two good merchant tokens turned up. One was an aluminum 5 cent token from Henning's Cafe in Elyria, Ohio, circa 1915-1920. The other was a great Columbus token for a saloon located in a building I had already done research on for another non-detecting project. The brass token was good for 5 cents at Maggie (Margaret J.) Donovan's Saloon, located in the building she owned at 1533 Mt. Vernon Avenue and dates from circa 1893-1908.