Well I took the day off Wednesday to do lawn work, however I got up the courage to ask permission to dig an old 1728 house, I had enough self control to spend a couple hours raking leaves. I got the important spots that would just get plain annoying if I left them filled with leaves. After that I grabbed my gear and raced over to the house.
I started in the front yard full of excitement. The first 10 feet from the house was the standard iron nail minefield. I started from the front door, and worked my way to the road. I had about 15 memorial pennies and a few wheaties to show for my effort. Hrmm. .
So, I take myself to what used to be a carriage shed, and work around there. A few copper whazits, more memorial pennies, and a late 1960's pocket spill, no silver! Hrmmm.
I take myself over to some big fat trees that have been around for a while and check around there, more memorials. I glance over to the plastic jack o lantern pumpkins on the front steps and think 1980's UNICEF gone wrong!!!
So I head into the back yard, the women said she lost a gold ring 25 years ago in a certain section. So I start gridding it off, digging all those signals I normally wouldn't dig, such a pull tabs because they can read like a gold ring. More memorials, bottle caps, a few clad dimes, and nickels, but NOTHING old. HRMMM
I give up finding the ring as she proceeds to tell me it could have dropped off in this insanely overgrown area that I would not be able to detect.
I make my way to the back of the yard because I see a "T" shaped metal pole that looks like it may have been used as a clothes line at some point. I start scanning around there, but am picking up pieces of a shredded aluminum pie plate, I really dislike them!
So getting a bit frustrated, I head over to one side of the clothes where there is a fairly young/small apple. I get a nice signal behind the tree close to the edge of the property. It's reading 1 ferrous 29 cond. I'm thinking well, clad quarter is better than memorial penny. I was a bit hopeful that it may turn into a silver something. I cut my plug and flip it up, the X-1 tells me I have to dig a bit further. Because of the nice strong signal I was getting I made sure I pint pointed very well and dug very carefully. (come on, admit it, after a long day of detecting we all get a little bit sloppy when digging those last few signals, and out comes Doctor gouge) So, I pinpoint and dig extra carefully around it, flip up a section of dirt and a nice round greenish brown disc pops out.
I look at one side, it has pretty decent details left over, there's a date on it that made me think, great, a found another BS shell token that makes me think for a second I found something old. It wasn't very deep either, I don't think it was much more than 5-6 inches. I flip the coin over, and that's when I knew I may have something special. I see the faint outlines of 13 circles on the back. My ears started yelling as my smile started encroaching on their "turf"
I wasn't sure until I got home and rinsed it off, but I had found a
1787 FUGIO!!!!!!! Not only was it a Fugio, but it had Club Rays!!!! The side with the date and the sun rays is in really nice shape, the back side is a bit flat. It still has a bit of dirt embedded in it. I'm afraid to use my normal cleaning techniques on this puppy!!! I'm even afraid to use peroxide.
So, I sit here all giddy, giving this hunt the thumbs up for success. I'm still a bit curious as to why I did not find a lot more older items.
Sorry about the pics, it's hard to see the details unless it's wet, I couldn't get a good shot of the back to even make the rings show.
Jai
I started in the front yard full of excitement. The first 10 feet from the house was the standard iron nail minefield. I started from the front door, and worked my way to the road. I had about 15 memorial pennies and a few wheaties to show for my effort. Hrmm. .
So, I take myself to what used to be a carriage shed, and work around there. A few copper whazits, more memorial pennies, and a late 1960's pocket spill, no silver! Hrmmm.
I take myself over to some big fat trees that have been around for a while and check around there, more memorials. I glance over to the plastic jack o lantern pumpkins on the front steps and think 1980's UNICEF gone wrong!!!
So I head into the back yard, the women said she lost a gold ring 25 years ago in a certain section. So I start gridding it off, digging all those signals I normally wouldn't dig, such a pull tabs because they can read like a gold ring. More memorials, bottle caps, a few clad dimes, and nickels, but NOTHING old. HRMMM
I give up finding the ring as she proceeds to tell me it could have dropped off in this insanely overgrown area that I would not be able to detect.
I make my way to the back of the yard because I see a "T" shaped metal pole that looks like it may have been used as a clothes line at some point. I start scanning around there, but am picking up pieces of a shredded aluminum pie plate, I really dislike them!
So getting a bit frustrated, I head over to one side of the clothes where there is a fairly young/small apple. I get a nice signal behind the tree close to the edge of the property. It's reading 1 ferrous 29 cond. I'm thinking well, clad quarter is better than memorial penny. I was a bit hopeful that it may turn into a silver something. I cut my plug and flip it up, the X-1 tells me I have to dig a bit further. Because of the nice strong signal I was getting I made sure I pint pointed very well and dug very carefully. (come on, admit it, after a long day of detecting we all get a little bit sloppy when digging those last few signals, and out comes Doctor gouge) So, I pinpoint and dig extra carefully around it, flip up a section of dirt and a nice round greenish brown disc pops out.
I look at one side, it has pretty decent details left over, there's a date on it that made me think, great, a found another BS shell token that makes me think for a second I found something old. It wasn't very deep either, I don't think it was much more than 5-6 inches. I flip the coin over, and that's when I knew I may have something special. I see the faint outlines of 13 circles on the back. My ears started yelling as my smile started encroaching on their "turf"
I wasn't sure until I got home and rinsed it off, but I had found a
1787 FUGIO!!!!!!! Not only was it a Fugio, but it had Club Rays!!!! The side with the date and the sun rays is in really nice shape, the back side is a bit flat. It still has a bit of dirt embedded in it. I'm afraid to use my normal cleaning techniques on this puppy!!! I'm even afraid to use peroxide.
So, I sit here all giddy, giving this hunt the thumbs up for success. I'm still a bit curious as to why I did not find a lot more older items.
Sorry about the pics, it's hard to see the details unless it's wet, I couldn't get a good shot of the back to even make the rings show.
Jai
