Erik in NJ
New member
But what a nice one indeed. Today is my birthday and I just told my wife that I was going detecting for a couple hours at 5PM. Went back to a little "park" that I'd written off about 8 years ago when I'd first started with my Explorer. The wife and I drove past it last weekend and I noticed an old barn nearby and just felt that maybe this place was a little older than I thought.
Not much trash at all and I wasn't even finding that many coins - just 4 wheats the oldest of which is 1929. Found a few clad dimes somewhat deep, but nothing good. Just the one relic which appears to be part of an old pulley or some sort of wheel maybe for an old toy (it's about the size of a silver dollar). It has heft to it.
As it was getting dark, I got a pretty good hit that was DEEP. It was reading kind of like a wheatie or an IH cent- I did not think it was silver, but it had a nice clean sound to it. I dug a big plug and then dug down further with my Lesche and finally a silver coin! My eyes aren't that good without my reading glasses these days and I didn't have them. Thought it was a silver Rosie, but a silver is a silver I thought.
As I gently cleaned it a little and looked closer I couldn't figure out what it was - thought maybe it was foreign - finally I see it's a Seated Dime! Wow, my first silver coin from this place and it's a Seated Dime! Actually my first Seated Dime (I've dug a Seated Quarter before, but like the Barber Quarter that I finally just dug, the Seated Dime has been eluding me. It's in real nice condition with a full Liberty on the front.
Right near the plug I was still getting an erratic signal, just one way and intermittant. I turned my IM down to AM and then the cursor was pegging the upper left corner. I figured it was a nail or old piece of iron, but what the heck, I was now in a good mood, and curious to see what had helped hide this lovely lady for so many years.
I dug another deep plug right next to where I found the dime and I pulled out half of an old skeleton key, but the X-1 was still screaming in the hole. Then I found a second whole skeleton key. X-1 still telling me there's more. A third full skeleton key! And still more - the other half of the first key - all in the same hole. This is the third time this summer that I have found multiple old keys in the same hole, but these are by far the oldest. They are very corroded and brittle. Did they make old skeleton keys out of iron? Wonder what they are made of?
Anyway, it was just a little 2-hour hunt with the SE and Pro Coil. Didn't bring the E-Trac as I figured I didn't really have enought time to mess with it - looking forward to it though. I now know I need to go back and hit this old spot a lot harder to see what's really there. Might try the SEF 12 x 15 to see if I can get some real good depth.
Anyway - it was a fun day digging my first (long awaited) Seated Dime in gorgeous condition on my 47th!
Best, Erik
Not much trash at all and I wasn't even finding that many coins - just 4 wheats the oldest of which is 1929. Found a few clad dimes somewhat deep, but nothing good. Just the one relic which appears to be part of an old pulley or some sort of wheel maybe for an old toy (it's about the size of a silver dollar). It has heft to it.
As it was getting dark, I got a pretty good hit that was DEEP. It was reading kind of like a wheatie or an IH cent- I did not think it was silver, but it had a nice clean sound to it. I dug a big plug and then dug down further with my Lesche and finally a silver coin! My eyes aren't that good without my reading glasses these days and I didn't have them. Thought it was a silver Rosie, but a silver is a silver I thought.
As I gently cleaned it a little and looked closer I couldn't figure out what it was - thought maybe it was foreign - finally I see it's a Seated Dime! Wow, my first silver coin from this place and it's a Seated Dime! Actually my first Seated Dime (I've dug a Seated Quarter before, but like the Barber Quarter that I finally just dug, the Seated Dime has been eluding me. It's in real nice condition with a full Liberty on the front.
Right near the plug I was still getting an erratic signal, just one way and intermittant. I turned my IM down to AM and then the cursor was pegging the upper left corner. I figured it was a nail or old piece of iron, but what the heck, I was now in a good mood, and curious to see what had helped hide this lovely lady for so many years.
I dug another deep plug right next to where I found the dime and I pulled out half of an old skeleton key, but the X-1 was still screaming in the hole. Then I found a second whole skeleton key. X-1 still telling me there's more. A third full skeleton key! And still more - the other half of the first key - all in the same hole. This is the third time this summer that I have found multiple old keys in the same hole, but these are by far the oldest. They are very corroded and brittle. Did they make old skeleton keys out of iron? Wonder what they are made of?
Anyway, it was just a little 2-hour hunt with the SE and Pro Coil. Didn't bring the E-Trac as I figured I didn't really have enought time to mess with it - looking forward to it though. I now know I need to go back and hit this old spot a lot harder to see what's really there. Might try the SEF 12 x 15 to see if I can get some real good depth.
Anyway - it was a fun day digging my first (long awaited) Seated Dime in gorgeous condition on my 47th!
Best, Erik
