I have my favorite park where I have found well over 700 silver coins. The last couple of years have not been real successful for silver, but tons of wheats. This park dates back to the early 1900's and my oldest coins from this park have been Indians and V nickels. Without checking my records, the oldest silver has been from the early 1900's. In one of my previous posts, I wrote about going back to the trashiest parts of this park where I have had success with silver coins and gridding and creeping.
I started making some real good finds with the Etrac by creeping along real slow and listening for deep squeaks. I do not max out my gain and have some fine headphones(Gray Ghost Platinums). I can gauge the depth by the faintness of the signals. I have a theory about the different depths of silver coins in this particular park. Silver from the 30's to 1964 seems to be 7-8 inches deep and that has been the bulk of my silver coins. But, this fall's new creeping method in the trash seems to have opened up a new layer of silver.
In the last 5-6 weeks I have found 16 silver coins with 7 being Barbers. All 9-10 inches deep and todays only find was my oldest bigger silver. Today's weather was partly cloudy and low 40's. I dressed in several layers and wore my warm gloves. As I was driving to the park, the sky darkened and the temperature gauge in my truck dropped 7 degrees to 37. The wind picked up slightly, but since I just drove 12 miles, I gave it a shot.
It was actually too cold for me with the wind. It started snowing, but I gave it some time and glad I did. Third pass in a section I have hunted hard, I got the familiar signal I was looking for. This ground is funny and the numbers on the Etrac are always lower than the typical silver numbers. This signal was clear in one direction, but broken and faint as I circled it. I dug a 8inch deep plug and got a faint chirp on my Carrot, but slightly off to the side of the bottom. I made scoup with my digger and saw the rim of silver at about the 10 inch depth. I could not tell what it was, but was surprised to see a quarter with an eagle on the back. My brain immediately thought standing liberty quarter, but it was one of the nicest Barbers I have ever dug. 1892 and sharp!
At this point I was shaking from the cold and that coin made my day, so I headed home. Next year I am going to rehunt this park and try my new method. I really don't have to find loads of coins to be satisfied, but one or two like this makes this old guy happy. I am probably done for the year so I really look forward to seeing and reading about the people who can hunt all winter finds. Have a great holiday season!
I started making some real good finds with the Etrac by creeping along real slow and listening for deep squeaks. I do not max out my gain and have some fine headphones(Gray Ghost Platinums). I can gauge the depth by the faintness of the signals. I have a theory about the different depths of silver coins in this particular park. Silver from the 30's to 1964 seems to be 7-8 inches deep and that has been the bulk of my silver coins. But, this fall's new creeping method in the trash seems to have opened up a new layer of silver.
In the last 5-6 weeks I have found 16 silver coins with 7 being Barbers. All 9-10 inches deep and todays only find was my oldest bigger silver. Today's weather was partly cloudy and low 40's. I dressed in several layers and wore my warm gloves. As I was driving to the park, the sky darkened and the temperature gauge in my truck dropped 7 degrees to 37. The wind picked up slightly, but since I just drove 12 miles, I gave it a shot.
It was actually too cold for me with the wind. It started snowing, but I gave it some time and glad I did. Third pass in a section I have hunted hard, I got the familiar signal I was looking for. This ground is funny and the numbers on the Etrac are always lower than the typical silver numbers. This signal was clear in one direction, but broken and faint as I circled it. I dug a 8inch deep plug and got a faint chirp on my Carrot, but slightly off to the side of the bottom. I made scoup with my digger and saw the rim of silver at about the 10 inch depth. I could not tell what it was, but was surprised to see a quarter with an eagle on the back. My brain immediately thought standing liberty quarter, but it was one of the nicest Barbers I have ever dug. 1892 and sharp!
At this point I was shaking from the cold and that coin made my day, so I headed home. Next year I am going to rehunt this park and try my new method. I really don't have to find loads of coins to be satisfied, but one or two like this makes this old guy happy. I am probably done for the year so I really look forward to seeing and reading about the people who can hunt all winter finds. Have a great holiday season!
