Mason Jarr
New member
Long story. I have this farmer friend that has an old stage coach station on his property and I talked to him last year about detecting it. He said I could get on the place anytime I wanted so I've been waiting for a good day to head over there. Today was that day. I picked up a friend who was going along with me and we drove over to meet the farmer. Of course it's planting season so when we go to the spot I called him on his cell phone and he had us drive down a maze of dirt roads to meet up with him. Then we followed him over to where he had to work on a broken tractor. While we were waiting on him to finish with the tractor the big boss drives up. We're waiting in my truck, and the boss walks by us (without saying a word) and goes out to talk to my friend. After they have a short conversation my friend walks over to my truck and says, "this is your lucky day. The boss hardly ever is in a good mood, but he seems to be today. He asked who you guys were and what you wanted, so I told him you were going over to detect the stage stop station on my place. He said there's an old homestead down the road that you guys can detect while I'm working on this tractor, so you need to follow him and he'll show you where it is." The boss walks back by our truck (again without a word), gets into his and turns around. We turn around also and follow him about 2 miles down the road until we get to a gate in the fence. He gets out and finally speaks. He says, "see those trees back up that hill? There's an old foundation from an early 1900s house up there. Follow the road to it. Let us know what you find." Then he gets into his truck and drives away.
Now on the way to this gate in the fence, we'd just driven by an old farmhouse that looked to be about 100 years old and abandoned. It looked like a great place to detect. But, since the boss didn't seem to be a very talkative person we decided not to push our luck about asking him if we could detect that place, also. So we went on down the road until we got to the foundation he'd directed us to. We spent about an hour tromping around in some high brush and neither of us ever got a promising signal. I told my detecting friend that it looked like a dud and we should head back over to meet my farmer friend and move on over to the stage stop location. As we're driving back towards the good looking farmhouse that we'd passed on the way to the old foundation, I see a car turn into the driveway. When we got even with the house I see that the car is backed into the barn and there's a guy sitting in it. I decided to ask him if we could detect the yard around the old farmhouse. Now this guy is super nice and he says, "sure, go ahead. Have a great time." We get our gear together and start working the edge of this fairly large yard. My buddy shouts out that something was wrong with his machine. Unfortunately, he was getting spurious readings and we couldn't get his machine to stabilize (a Teknetics T2). So for the rest of the hunt, he had to limp along with a barely functioning detector. I felt really bad for him, because this yard turned out to be awesome. In about 5 hours of working a grid pattern here's the old coins I found:
We finally finished the yard and I knocked on the door to thank the man for letting us detect around his house. I offered him one of the dimes and a Wheatie, but he declined. He said, "if you'd found some gold I might've taken you up on it, but you guys worked hard to dig those coins, so keep 'em." What a great person he turned out to be. As we continued to talk he said he'd grown up in the area and knew where there were several more old homesteads. He told us to come on back and he'd take us around and show us where they were. I told him, I'd bring my White's DFX backup machine next time and give him a short lesson on how to use it so he could join in the hunt with us. He said it sounded like it'd be a great time.
We eventually did meet up with my farmer friend and made it to the stage stop station, but it also turned out to be a dud.
Now, I think this was way more than a coincidence. Too many things had to happen in just the right way, for us to find these coins. If my farmer friend hadn't stopped to fix the tractor, if the big boss hadn't stopped to see what he was doing and hadn't been in a good mood, if we'd have left the old foundation sooner because we weren't having any luck, if I hadn't seen the car pulling into the driveway at the old farmhouse, if the man hadn't been sitting in the car as we drove by, and if I hadn't stopped to ask him if we could detect his yard the coins would still be sitting where they've been for many years. I truly think this was a case of destiny.
I will post some more pictures on here after I get the coins cleaned a little. The Walking Liberty half was a first for me. Eight silvers in one day was also a new one. I really do feel bad for my detecting buddy since his machine was acting up. He did find a few pennies, but all of them were modern Lincolns. He's at home right now, looking on the Internet for E-Trac dealers!!
Now on the way to this gate in the fence, we'd just driven by an old farmhouse that looked to be about 100 years old and abandoned. It looked like a great place to detect. But, since the boss didn't seem to be a very talkative person we decided not to push our luck about asking him if we could detect that place, also. So we went on down the road until we got to the foundation he'd directed us to. We spent about an hour tromping around in some high brush and neither of us ever got a promising signal. I told my detecting friend that it looked like a dud and we should head back over to meet my farmer friend and move on over to the stage stop location. As we're driving back towards the good looking farmhouse that we'd passed on the way to the old foundation, I see a car turn into the driveway. When we got even with the house I see that the car is backed into the barn and there's a guy sitting in it. I decided to ask him if we could detect the yard around the old farmhouse. Now this guy is super nice and he says, "sure, go ahead. Have a great time." We get our gear together and start working the edge of this fairly large yard. My buddy shouts out that something was wrong with his machine. Unfortunately, he was getting spurious readings and we couldn't get his machine to stabilize (a Teknetics T2). So for the rest of the hunt, he had to limp along with a barely functioning detector. I felt really bad for him, because this yard turned out to be awesome. In about 5 hours of working a grid pattern here's the old coins I found:
We finally finished the yard and I knocked on the door to thank the man for letting us detect around his house. I offered him one of the dimes and a Wheatie, but he declined. He said, "if you'd found some gold I might've taken you up on it, but you guys worked hard to dig those coins, so keep 'em." What a great person he turned out to be. As we continued to talk he said he'd grown up in the area and knew where there were several more old homesteads. He told us to come on back and he'd take us around and show us where they were. I told him, I'd bring my White's DFX backup machine next time and give him a short lesson on how to use it so he could join in the hunt with us. He said it sounded like it'd be a great time.
We eventually did meet up with my farmer friend and made it to the stage stop station, but it also turned out to be a dud.
Now, I think this was way more than a coincidence. Too many things had to happen in just the right way, for us to find these coins. If my farmer friend hadn't stopped to fix the tractor, if the big boss hadn't stopped to see what he was doing and hadn't been in a good mood, if we'd have left the old foundation sooner because we weren't having any luck, if I hadn't seen the car pulling into the driveway at the old farmhouse, if the man hadn't been sitting in the car as we drove by, and if I hadn't stopped to ask him if we could detect his yard the coins would still be sitting where they've been for many years. I truly think this was a case of destiny.
I will post some more pictures on here after I get the coins cleaned a little. The Walking Liberty half was a first for me. Eight silvers in one day was also a new one. I really do feel bad for my detecting buddy since his machine was acting up. He did find a few pennies, but all of them were modern Lincolns. He's at home right now, looking on the Internet for E-Trac dealers!!
