Hopefully, May 1st is a sign of things for the rest of the Month/Year.
As for most of you, Saturday was a busy day with lots to do. I wanted to get in at least a few hours of detecting despite the lousy weather we've been having here in Salt Lake. Late in the day, the opportunity finally presented itself.
I put the E-Trac in the car and off we went in search of a place to hunt. The weather had been rainy earlier in the day and it was quite cool, in the high-40's. After driving past a couple of old homes and feeling completely uninspired to stop, I decided to stop wasting time and defaulted to an old park. Though fairly large, it has never been a big producer for me. I always made better use of my time hunting the yards of old homes. I had picked up a few odds and ends here over the years, but most everything good was DEEP and had only been found during construction when areas of the grass had been removed to install additional parking, volleyball courts and the like. I had found a 1909-S VDB Wheatie here several years ago with my Explorer XS and more recently, an early Merc dime and wheatie. But, volume of older coins was very low.
Well, I fired up the E-Trac and headed to an small area that I had a hunch about. I had found a few newer wheaties in the vicinity during a warm spell with a Sovereign I was trying out and had hopes there might be other missed targets there as well. I picked up a couple new quarters and continued to concentrate on deep targets. After 20 minutes or so, I finally picked up a deeper target I thought might be an IH penny that was reading in the 8" range on the depth meter. and 12/35-38 on the TID. I rolled over a deep plug and saw a silver edge of a very small coin only to discover it was a Utah Sale Tax Token (1 Mil variety) a good sign but a big let down. I checked for friends in the hole and didn't find any.
I moved on and within a few minutes had another deep target, this one right at the bottom of my meter; and I mean AT THE BOTTOM.
It was coming it with that higher coin sound (conductive, max variability) and reading in the 40-44 conductivity range. Ferrous was running between 12 and 26. I could pick up the signal from all directions, a good sign. I cut a deep 3 sided plug, rolled it back and took out another 4 inches of soil before even checking with the probe. The detector pro probe signaled the target was just left of center in the hole. According to my coin popper, I was already 9" deep. Out came 2" more soil, and I spied the silvery edge of a very thin coin. Or was it another sale tax token? Nope, the dirt had virtually fallen off the coin and I could see the decorative wreath and writing of ONE DIME. I had been hoping for something earlier than a Merc and I wasn't disappointed to see the date of 1902 on the Barber Dime. I flipped it over and no mint mark. I searched the hole for friends and didn't find any.
I stayed in the same little area and soon picked up another deeper target. This one a little over 3/4 of the depth meter.
It was reading a solid 12/34-35. I was hoping for an Indian Head penny. I discovered a nickel sized (21mm) brass token at 8". The obverse says: Jim Tedesco, 327 So. West Temple. The reverse says simply - 327 - . Come to find out later that Jim Tedesco was a Saloon owner operating the "SALT LAKE BAR" between 1907-14. The other two varieties of this token are: Good For 2 1/2
As for most of you, Saturday was a busy day with lots to do. I wanted to get in at least a few hours of detecting despite the lousy weather we've been having here in Salt Lake. Late in the day, the opportunity finally presented itself.
I put the E-Trac in the car and off we went in search of a place to hunt. The weather had been rainy earlier in the day and it was quite cool, in the high-40's. After driving past a couple of old homes and feeling completely uninspired to stop, I decided to stop wasting time and defaulted to an old park. Though fairly large, it has never been a big producer for me. I always made better use of my time hunting the yards of old homes. I had picked up a few odds and ends here over the years, but most everything good was DEEP and had only been found during construction when areas of the grass had been removed to install additional parking, volleyball courts and the like. I had found a 1909-S VDB Wheatie here several years ago with my Explorer XS and more recently, an early Merc dime and wheatie. But, volume of older coins was very low.
Well, I fired up the E-Trac and headed to an small area that I had a hunch about. I had found a few newer wheaties in the vicinity during a warm spell with a Sovereign I was trying out and had hopes there might be other missed targets there as well. I picked up a couple new quarters and continued to concentrate on deep targets. After 20 minutes or so, I finally picked up a deeper target I thought might be an IH penny that was reading in the 8" range on the depth meter. and 12/35-38 on the TID. I rolled over a deep plug and saw a silver edge of a very small coin only to discover it was a Utah Sale Tax Token (1 Mil variety) a good sign but a big let down. I checked for friends in the hole and didn't find any.
I moved on and within a few minutes had another deep target, this one right at the bottom of my meter; and I mean AT THE BOTTOM.
It was coming it with that higher coin sound (conductive, max variability) and reading in the 40-44 conductivity range. Ferrous was running between 12 and 26. I could pick up the signal from all directions, a good sign. I cut a deep 3 sided plug, rolled it back and took out another 4 inches of soil before even checking with the probe. The detector pro probe signaled the target was just left of center in the hole. According to my coin popper, I was already 9" deep. Out came 2" more soil, and I spied the silvery edge of a very thin coin. Or was it another sale tax token? Nope, the dirt had virtually fallen off the coin and I could see the decorative wreath and writing of ONE DIME. I had been hoping for something earlier than a Merc and I wasn't disappointed to see the date of 1902 on the Barber Dime. I flipped it over and no mint mark. I searched the hole for friends and didn't find any.I stayed in the same little area and soon picked up another deeper target. This one a little over 3/4 of the depth meter.
It was reading a solid 12/34-35. I was hoping for an Indian Head penny. I discovered a nickel sized (21mm) brass token at 8". The obverse says: Jim Tedesco, 327 So. West Temple. The reverse says simply - 327 - . Come to find out later that Jim Tedesco was a Saloon owner operating the "SALT LAKE BAR" between 1907-14. The other two varieties of this token are: Good For 2 1/2