Not much time to hunt but some goodies from last 2 hunts.

[Ray-Mo.]

I have been getting things in order before my wife and son and daughter go to VA next week to visit the oldest daughter and 3 grandsons along with my son inlaw who is training in the army there.Any way I found the seated quarter and dime last sat. at an old fairgrounds that is now a hayfield with the grass to tall but it was worth it.Found the barber ,3 indians and wheaties this evening in about an hour before the baseball players showed and I had to leave By the way the top left penny is a 1914D but is in terrible shape but the second one with the E-Trac so far.I hope to get some detecting in while in VA and will report if I have any luck,Ray.

 

[ken-ks]

I like the seated quarter, I've found a half dozen seated dimes thru the years, but never a seated quarter, congrats. Good luck hunting in VA. Hope you find all kinds of stuff to post. HH ken-ks

 

[deepseeker]

way to go Ray,love those seated and barber coins.

 

[I a thr]

I have found many seated dimes, a couple of half dimes, and a seated half, but no seated quarter in my 37 years of hunting. In fact it's been on my list to find along with a large cent and a gold coin.
Ray-Mo, Good finds I do believe I would hit that hay field this fall or after a cutting. Looks very promising!!

 

[JohnnyI]

"Hope you all find the end of the rainbow!!!
HH Bill"

Ha! I shouldn't admit this as you'll think I'm nuts, but I will. Years ago I hunted for arrowheads. I spent every afternoon in one field, and eventually detected it with great results (In fact I wrote an article years ago for 'treasure mag." called "tresures of the plow" about this field...this was before the rainbow). There was a storm one afternoon while my detecting buddy and I were heading towards the field. there was a rainbow. When we approached the field, the rainbow's end lay smack in the middle of the field amid the mist. people say you never can see the rainbow's end, but I swear on my life and all that is holy that we both did. We parked. The field was covered in mist from the rain hitting the warm ground. We both rran into the field and stood within the rainbow's end, maybe within twenty or thrity feet of mist the faint colors were visible even near the ground around us. Cars were parked on the road viewing the whole thing, and I have a witness who will swear the same.

To make a long story short, my superstitious Irish blood caused us both to drive the next day to east orange n.j. to rent a twin box from "geoquest". (maybe some of you remember Harry who ran the place). All we fouind when we returned to the little rock marker we'd left was a plowshare.

I could say I found the "treasure' though on account of that rainbow. I got hired along with another guy to search for the "golden horse" (never found it) because White's recommended me as someone who "knew their twinbox" . I got paid with a little cash, and another twin box that the couple who hired us bought, didn't want to walk out. Several years later I was contacted to go on the expedition to the Bolivian Yungas to look for the Plazuela treasure. Again, it was a recommendation given by white's because they knew I used the twin box. (there we did find many Inca artifacts, but no treasure.) Anyway, the end of the rainbow is very real. For me it led indirectly to adventure I would never have experienced otherwise.

 

[gibsondan]

You did great for not having much time to hunt! Super finds!

 

[3RINGER]

Great hunt Ray, that SQ is sweeeeeet!

good luck in VA! and HH

 

[ken-ks]

No half dimes for me, I'd like to find one for sure, no gold coins yet, I did find a large cent, kinda sorta, in a yard here in town. The house was along the railway tracks, and I found this thin copper disk, about the size of a half dollar, wondered what the heck it was, got ti cleaned up and you could just make out the figure on it.....some kid had gotten into mom's or pops coins I'd say, and put a large cent on the tracks, for the train to smash. Our history here only goes back to 1879, so lots of the old coins weren't in circulation any more by the time the towns were founded around here. Seated coins and indian heads are far a few between. But I'm not gonna give up hope'n an looking for my half dime, 2 cent piece, 3 cent piece, or a gold coin. Just have to find that yard where the kids got into the coin collection and lost some of it out in the yard, gotta luv kids that wouldn't stay out of stuff. HH ken-ks.

 

[Ray-Mo.]

I hope to get another shot at it.Back in the 80s it was farmed and we pulled a lot of good coins out but they quit farming and went to grass growing.We never got enough snow and ice this past winter to nock the dead grass down enough to hunt.I was very tempted to set it on fire this spring as nothing around it was in danger but decided to let it be .

The only way I was able to find the 2 seated coins was to hunt the lower edge next to a creek that had flooded a few days ago and had the grass stunted and water standing.It was a muddy sloppy mess and I scratched the back of the quarter a little trying to dig it out of the wet sloppy gumbo.The sight dates from the 1870s-1920s and I am sure there are more good coins at 8" + depth.Last year I hit it after mowing and got 2 nice seated dimes.If they would just plow it one more time I would camp out there for 2 or 3 day's.
Also had a change in plans as my mother inlaw fell ill and I wont be going to VA this week.Good luck to all,Ray.

 

[jbow]

How do you manage to find so much old silver? I don't think MO is older than GA and i'll tell you, the pickin's are slim around here, especially in the parks, but there is some in the parks still. I'm thinking I am not looking in the right places or maybe there is a lot more detecting pressure around here. Here in NW GA the ground is hard and full of rocks and in most places stuff isn't that deep. In SW GA, where I grew up the ground is sandy and with no rocks and I find 10 yr old clad at 10"... I may go and try hunting our old courthouse, they have been remodelling the outside and in SW GA, Moultrie, where I grew up, they used to have all sorts of gatherings on the courthouse lawn. I should hunt it huh... I guess i've been a bit timid about doing it. Not sure who to ask but i'll find out.

I think I need to try and hunt more old yards. With all the foreclosures it is easy to find them. So many in NW Atlanta, where my business is, (pest control, 20 years this month), I can get permission to a lot of lawns but I am really hesitant to hunt them because most are way upper scale and most are sod. I've experimented in my yard, it is sod, and I haven't found a good way to dig targets without leaving a brown spot. I've tried cutting a slit with a military knife and "popping" the target but I still get a brown spot, especially now with the 95 degree heat...

Anyway, how about some tips on how to think, what to look for to find the old silver. Obviously, an old enough site but anything else? I am using realquestinvestor.com to find foreclosures and auctions... it is nationwide and seem's pretty good so far. You can get an approximate location for free but for 40 bucks you can get the address and all the info about who owns the property, when it is auctioned or foreclosed, etc. Over the next few years while all the ARMs reset there are going to be a lot more foreclosures. Just a thought...

Well, I started out with a simple question and I think that the more I wrote, the more I answered my own question... laff. Still, what say ye? you seem to have great success at finding old silver.

Thanks for any advice.

Julien

 

[Ray-Mo.]

First off it would not seem like as much silver when you factor in the amount of long hard hours I sometimes put in for 1 or 2 old silver coins.One advantage I have over some is the fact that my dad is 83 and started hunting in the early 1960 and found a lot of places to hunt that are not even known by most today.I go back to those sights every time I get a new more advanced machine and find a few more goodies.The many places I hunt are all within 50 miles of my home and I hit them different times of the year .Wet weather,dry weather and in the spring when the grass is short and the ground is just thawing.I also hit them with a stock coil and a small coil and sometimes a large coil.
And then a lot of the time I just plain get lucky and find a hotspot by luck.The ball diamond I posted the barbers and indians from is a prime example.It is on main st. next to the RR tracks in a small town of less than 400 pop. and has been hunted a lot and the clad removed.I hate to admit it but I hunted it last fall for about 45 minuets and did not find any clad and decided it did not have any old coins as it looked to be less than 50 years old.I went back by it a couple of weeks ago and looked it over and saw some very old hedge corner post on the back corner of the field next to the RR and decided I would give it another shot.

I cranked every thing up for max depth on the E-Trac and started a line accross the outfield and about half way to the far side I got a faint nickle hit and got the V nickle at 8"+ and then my confidence went way up and I hunted slow and carefull for deep targets and it payed off.This ball field makes me wonder how many other places I gave up on to quick.

Never overlook the obvious but also always look for the not so obvious at the same time.

Another often over looked hiding place for old silver is old sidewalks in small towns.The old stone slab type have been the best for me and have no rebar to interfere.
I also learned from my dad to look for areas where they parked the horse and wagons or model Ts at old churches,country schools,campgrounds,fairgrounds and parks as they can pay off bigtime.Many times they parked accross the road from where most people would hunt and can produce some good finds.

I would have to attribute a lot of my finds to just plain hard work , pos. attitude and my burning desire to find one more old silver or indian before I call it quits for the day.
And of course the best old coin machine in the world gives me an edge for sure,Ray.

 

[SteveMN]

Very Nice! Love to see the seated coins!