There was one at the park and one at the school today. Got out with Suzanne and got our arms sore swinging detectors and not doing much digging. I got the 1936 dime early on and then just a few wheats and clad. We decided to pack it in for the day and I was driving away when I thought of the school. So, I called her up and we headed over there. Just a few minutes in I got the 1941 dime and then Suzanne dug a crazy silver pin. Kids started to show up to play on the field so we moved off to the sides and I was getting deep clad Then she calls me over and says, "look at this" and I'm staring at a Walking Liberty half. I look and say that's cool, blah blah blah, and then she says, "yeah, but what *is* it" So a little more explaining about her great "big silver" we kept at it for a bit but not much else turned up so we headed out. I stopped off at another little street park on my way home and harvested a few more wheats before calling it a day.
Met up with Suzanne for a bit this afternoon at an old school site we were at before. Picked up some wheats but targets were sparse. She took off and I gave it a few more minutes. Of course that's when I hit some deeeeeep targets. A 1900 Indian head, with a V nickel (well worn, but maybe a 1904?) in the same hole. Then a few steps away, an old green wheatie at similar depth and then another Indian... 1896! Kept going and picked up a few more "newer" wheats and then I hit the road. Not a bad finish for the day.
Went out with Suzanne for a bit between the sprinkles, we hit a park and two schools. The last school was the best, that's where Webbie got her Mercury dime and I picked up a Sacajawea dollar coin, the sterling silver bracelet and ring and and old watch (guess it was jewelry day?). Also got a Shell Antique car token, an aluminum disc dated 1964 (with nail) that I think is from a telephone pole, and a token like object that I think is actually a tag off of something. It says "Loopit" on it and it was deeeeeep. The Loopit token is a stumper for me, and I don't get stumped that often.
Suzanne and I headed out today and tried our luck at six different sites, none of which produced a heck of a lot. I finally picked up the 1905 Indian head and 1915-D wheatie. After that we tried another park (site six, I think) with some sports fields and the little flat button turned up. It says "GILT" and "LONDON" on the back. I headed over to my standby park after that to squeak something out of the remaining daylight and found two more wheats, a 1911 and 1920.
Got out for a bit with Suzanne and we tried one park that had potential, but not a whole lot of signals so we decided to move on to an old ballfield/school site. After spending some time in an area where we thought the school might have been and finding only clad, we moved to the ballfield area.
Early on, I found a 1943 dime, a few clad and then a better quality gold filled old kids' ring. Soon after I called Suzanne over to take a look at the big shiny disk in one of my holes... a 1942 half dollar! So now I was feeling bad, as I was doing quite well. I tagged a spot I thought was a silver quarter and another that I thought was a silver dime to see if her F2 would pick 'em up, but one turned out to be clad and the other was a piece of canslaw. A little more hunting turned up some wheats. After a short break we returned to the field and I was getting deep, iffy signals that turned great as soon as I pulled the plugs and waved the probe in them. First was a 1948 dime, then a wheat, then a 1941 dime (registered a 01-24 on the E-Trac but just sounded good and had depth) and more wheat. I then hit a spot where Suzanne had pulled a plug and found a wheat which I handed over. I then rescanned the hole and 4 more coins popped out, all pennies mostly wheats with one memorial cent. Got out for about an hour today, first coin was the 1943-D Mercury dime from under a bench. I used to run away from benches and picnic tables in parks as those areas were littered with trash and pulltabs. Not with the E-Trac! I walk right up to them.
Wandered around a bit more and picked up a few wheats... 1937, 1939, 1941, 1956-D. Then I got an iffy signal with a little high tone peeping through and boy was I surprised when this 1916 Barber quarter popped out! Heavily rusted on both sides, I can see why it had been missed all this time! Got the button which was deep and the also deep Vess screwcap. Not sure when Vess went out of business here in Columbus, but it's been a long time. No clad, no memorials, just two other screwcaps and a few pulltabs. Enjoyed the great weather with Dave and hit a few places we had been before, but different areas. A little over a buck in clad and these keepers. A nice scalloped edge aluminum token and a 1920s era Menter Clothing Co. token. Two silver dimes, 1946 and 1956-D.
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 cents 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. Got out with Mr. Stuff yesterday and we tried hard to find some silver, but it was hiding really well. We did a lot of swinging at a variety of sites. I did pick up some wheats, this neat horse buckle, my oldest dog license yet, a 1924, and a 1908 Indian head that has been made into a love token, kinda. The Indian has the back smoothed off, and what looks like an arrow and the initials PL scratched into it. Neat finds, and definitely a day of detecting I would be happy with, had I not been looking for just one silver coin before the year ends.
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. Update: William and John S. Johnston are listed in the 1862 Cincinnati City Directory as die sinkers at 429 Central Avenue. They also live at that address. William Johnson is listed in the 1863 Directory at 154 Everett Street as a machinist. 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.” |
AuthorI'm Nick A. and I am a metal detector hobbyist in Central Ohio. I have been metal detecting since 1990, and currently use the Minelab E-Trac detector. Archives
February 2016
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