Cladiator (OR)
Member
Hi everyone,
I had a good 2 hour hunt today--not in terms of quantity, but in terms of quality. I found my first silver coin with the E-Trac which happened to be my first Barber dime and then I found my first V nickel.
I decided to hit an area at a local park I had covered earlier this year with my DFX to see if the E-Trac could coax out a coin or two that was beyond the range of the DFX's 6X10DD. The park dates back to the mid-1800s' and I was working a narrow strip along an old concrete sidewalk that borders the central open area of the park. This area is used quite a bit for concerts and such and as it happens, last night was concert night so I figured I might collect some clad at the very least. I was there for less that 5 minutes, running Auto+3 multi-conductive and I got a good, consistent, 12-11. Sure enough, out comes a 1961 Jefferson from 5" that I had missed previously. Ten minutes later I get a weak, but consistent, 13-44. I pull a 5" plug and check with the X-1 and it indicates a 13-44 off one side of the bottom of the hole. I take another 5" plug along side the first and now the X-1 is telling me it is directly in the bottom of the hole and I'm getting close. I pull another 1.5" and crack open the plug--there to my delight are the beautiful words "ONE DIME" and a grin from ear to ear comes across my face--my first Barber!. Since it was caked in dirt, I figure clean-up can wait until I get home, so I place it into my "soft" pouch for safe keeping.
Now I'm pumped and I'm looking at Auto+3 which is only running at 15, so I say to myself "this ain't gonna cut it, better go to manual 20 and learn to deal with the occasional false signal". Now I'm digging anything with a hint of a good tone. Needless to say, I start chasing rusty nails. After a few 8" deep nails, I settle down and try to do a better job of cross checking iffy, but good sounding signals with a wide-open quick mask along with 2 tone ferrous. My next good signal is another 13-44 indicated at 6". Well..you know what I'm thinkin', so I take my time pinpointing and pull a 5.5" plug. Dang--a rusty clad dime in the bottom of the hole! Oh well, better than a rusty nail. About a half hour later I hear an iffy lower tone, and the display is pretty much all over the place, but I'm getting the occasional 10-11, 12-10, 11-13 along with the corresponding tone. I pinpoint the target and it is telling me it's down there in the neighborhood of 8". I'm thinking maybe I'll hit paydirt twice and find a Buffalo (something I haven't found yet). Down I go to 7" and check with the probe. It indicates it is slightly deeper and off to one side. I work the plugger into the side of the hole and take a deeper chunk out the side. Out pops what looks like a rusty, featureless, slug that is about half as thick as a standard nickle. Now nickles that have been in the ground any length of time in this area get completely covered with rust, but you can still identify them by their thickness and surface features. I look it over but can't really identify it on the spot, so it'll have to wait for a good cleaning at home. Well, so as not to belabor this any longer, the slug turned out to be another first for me--an 1883 V nickle (obviously in really bad shape) that someone, somewhere along the way, stamped "83" in the face of it. Still a nice find for me though.
Sorry about rambling on so long. Thanks for looking. H.H.!
[attachment 170858 8_19_10.JPG][attachment 170859 8_19_10_V.JPG]
[attachment 170860 8_19_10_BarberF.JPG][attachment 170861 8_19_10_BarberB.JPG]
I had a good 2 hour hunt today--not in terms of quantity, but in terms of quality. I found my first silver coin with the E-Trac which happened to be my first Barber dime and then I found my first V nickel.
I decided to hit an area at a local park I had covered earlier this year with my DFX to see if the E-Trac could coax out a coin or two that was beyond the range of the DFX's 6X10DD. The park dates back to the mid-1800s' and I was working a narrow strip along an old concrete sidewalk that borders the central open area of the park. This area is used quite a bit for concerts and such and as it happens, last night was concert night so I figured I might collect some clad at the very least. I was there for less that 5 minutes, running Auto+3 multi-conductive and I got a good, consistent, 12-11. Sure enough, out comes a 1961 Jefferson from 5" that I had missed previously. Ten minutes later I get a weak, but consistent, 13-44. I pull a 5" plug and check with the X-1 and it indicates a 13-44 off one side of the bottom of the hole. I take another 5" plug along side the first and now the X-1 is telling me it is directly in the bottom of the hole and I'm getting close. I pull another 1.5" and crack open the plug--there to my delight are the beautiful words "ONE DIME" and a grin from ear to ear comes across my face--my first Barber!. Since it was caked in dirt, I figure clean-up can wait until I get home, so I place it into my "soft" pouch for safe keeping.
Now I'm pumped and I'm looking at Auto+3 which is only running at 15, so I say to myself "this ain't gonna cut it, better go to manual 20 and learn to deal with the occasional false signal". Now I'm digging anything with a hint of a good tone. Needless to say, I start chasing rusty nails. After a few 8" deep nails, I settle down and try to do a better job of cross checking iffy, but good sounding signals with a wide-open quick mask along with 2 tone ferrous. My next good signal is another 13-44 indicated at 6". Well..you know what I'm thinkin', so I take my time pinpointing and pull a 5.5" plug. Dang--a rusty clad dime in the bottom of the hole! Oh well, better than a rusty nail. About a half hour later I hear an iffy lower tone, and the display is pretty much all over the place, but I'm getting the occasional 10-11, 12-10, 11-13 along with the corresponding tone. I pinpoint the target and it is telling me it's down there in the neighborhood of 8". I'm thinking maybe I'll hit paydirt twice and find a Buffalo (something I haven't found yet). Down I go to 7" and check with the probe. It indicates it is slightly deeper and off to one side. I work the plugger into the side of the hole and take a deeper chunk out the side. Out pops what looks like a rusty, featureless, slug that is about half as thick as a standard nickle. Now nickles that have been in the ground any length of time in this area get completely covered with rust, but you can still identify them by their thickness and surface features. I look it over but can't really identify it on the spot, so it'll have to wait for a good cleaning at home. Well, so as not to belabor this any longer, the slug turned out to be another first for me--an 1883 V nickle (obviously in really bad shape) that someone, somewhere along the way, stamped "83" in the face of it. Still a nice find for me though.
Sorry about rambling on so long. Thanks for looking. H.H.!
[attachment 170858 8_19_10.JPG][attachment 170859 8_19_10_V.JPG]
[attachment 170860 8_19_10_BarberF.JPG][attachment 170861 8_19_10_BarberB.JPG]
Hawkeye Jim.