Mike Moutray - St.Louis MO
Member
My life has been pretty dismal lately... going through a divorce, moving out on my own to a small apartment, and dealing with worsening health problems I had decided to do something I hadn't done in 8 years. Go cruise the country for a week long detecting trip. I had been sort of planning one for a while, but too many things got in the way. I finally cleared out a week and took off.
I decided to drive north and east to hunt sites that I had been to before as well as new ones I had researched. I went through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts searching mostly parks, squares, commons, and the like. I expected tough hunting in most places as I'm sure they had been hit hard. Most sites I tried were pretty beat to death, but I did find a couple good spots and picked up a nice trove of finds for the week.
Weather forecasts were pretty good for the week, but most of it had turned into rainy weather that killed a lot of hunting time. Of the 8 days I was gone, it rained on 5 of them. Here's a short diary of the trip:
Saturday - I drove out to NE Ohio, to hit a few spots for the first day. Most of the places I stopped were soaking wet with rain from earlier and I had a very hard time getting any clean signals from the Explorer. I managed a total of a few wheats was all. I did get a nice silver tiger's eye ring on the last spot of the evening.
Sunday - I took off for the east coast and ended up in Connecticut. I tried a few greens and commons with little luck until I found one in the New Haven area that gave up a few Indian cents and a Barber Dime - the first silver of the trip. I also found a Civil War Token.
Monday - A very frustrating day. I bounced around several different places in Eastern Mass. Rain and one bomb of a site after another left me without even a wheatie. My lower back and legs were not in the best of shape before the trip and by now they were really barking! :veryangry:
Tuesday - The only nice, rain-free day of the week. I started off by driving around more greens and commons. Some were very crowded with people and I didn't even try them. One particular small square in the middle of a busy town looked neat. At first glance it looked like all fill dirt, but something told me I needed to check it out anyway. I decided to try a couple other sites first, and come back in the evening to hit this place when traffic died down. I did very lousy everywhere I went. I got pretty frustrated and I wasn't feeling well, and I was seriously considering ending the trip early and driving home. With about 2 hours of daylight left, I remembered that one little square... I was 40 miles away and I convinced myself that it would be a waste of time. I thought about it... "this whole day has been a waste of time, might as well cap it off in grand style!" So I went back to that square.
There I stood in the middle of it with twilight upon me, metal detector in hand... I could see rocks and tan clay everywhere in the ground - a sure sign of fill dirt.
This was a long, narrow square and I started skimming along the middle toward one end of it... nothing but constant nulling and falsing - just as I thought. Just then the street lights pop on in the square and my machine goes haywire with interference. I dialed the sensitivity way down to kill a little of it and started to hunt my way back to my car at the far end of the square. I get to the other end and get a clean dime hit about 4-5 inches deep. I bent to dig a clad dime, and noticed that the dirt was dark black and not fill dirt.:O I decided to slow down the pace and listen for any good deep signals. Pretty soon I had a very deep coin hit. I plugged the hole and dug down to about 8" when the probe sang out a high sweet sound. 
More dirt comes out and I'm holding a Large Cent in my hand. 
By now it was dark out and I couldn't make out a date, but I pocketed it and kept hunting.
All of the sudden finds come fast and furious! Indian cents start popping out of the ground. Then I get as sweet of a deep silver signal you will ever hear that locked on quarter! About 8" down up comes a Seated Quarter!
I think I pretty much forgot about my aches and pains by now... Right away another silver hit produces a Seated Dime. Then yet another Seated Dime in the hole with 2 Indians! I get to the end of the square and dig a Merc. then I go back over the area and grid it in the opposite direction. The area of good dirt was about 20 X 20 feet. A couple more Indians and a third Seated Dime came out of the ground!
It was 10 PM by now and I exhausted all the signals I could get. What a swing for the better from a week that was going dismally up until now.
Wednesday - Complete rain out. I started driving back westward... stopped by Cooperstown, NY to visit the baseball hall of fame to kill time, but I felt really ill today and I decided to drive as far as I could to try and get somewhere DRY to hunt tomorrow.
Thursday - Day started off gray and dreary, I hunted a neat little square in NW Pennsylvania. It had very few signals, but the ground looked good. I kept hunting, feeling I had a good chance at something old here. Then the rain started...... Right away, I find a spot that gives up a few signals - a couple Indians, one of them a fattie, and a neat little silver heart charm. I tried to keep hunting but the rain was too heavy and I gave up for the day.
Friday - I woke up in the morning and flipped on the TV in the motel to see what the weather was doing. I was in the Erie, PA. area and the weather radar showed a few showers around me that was moving away. "Good" I thought, "No rain today!
" I showered, packed up my stuff and took one last look at the TV to see no rain in the area, I opened the door outside and WTF??? POURING DOWN RAIN!!! I looked back at the TV and wondered "Where the Hell are they getting that satellite picture from???" I went back inside and layed on the bed and stared at The Weather Channel for 3 hours wondering what to do next.... just drive southward at top speed all day and night until I find SOMEWHERE that isn't being rained on... I decided that I had enough of this trip and packed the car and drove home for St. Louis. When I got around Toledo, OH., I finally drove out of the rain. I stopped at a couple sites in the area, but it was nothing but swamp land. "Enough already, go home." I told myself.
Saturday - Woke up in Joliet, Illinois. My whole body was killing me and I would have paid a thousand dollars to have woken up at home in my bed this morning instead of a rest area in Illinois. I was 4 hours from home, but the day was clear and I decided to hit a few courthouses along the way that I had done good at in the past. The first one gave up a Barber Dime and a couple Indians. The second one was even better...
I've hunted this second courthouse several times over the years and it had been one of my best sites out of the scores of courthouse squares I've hunted in the past. I've dug a very high ratio of silver quarters and barber coins here before and it is always a fun site to hit. The grass was thick and heavy today, but in the thin spots I got plenty of signals to dig. I ended my trip here with a Barber Quarter, Seated dime, and other goodies. I'll be back when the grass has died down to see what else I can find.
And so my trip is at an end. 3,400 miles of driving and a nice assortment of finds to show for it. I went for quality instead of quantity as the Seated coins outnumbered all the other silver coins, combined!
This will be my last week long road trip though... It's getting too much for my body to handle. I'll have to stick with the long weekends closer to home in the future.
Thanks for reading this long post... here's the pics of the goodies:
I'll start with one of the few scenery shots I could get inbetween the rain showers... a valley scene in the PA. Alleghenies:
[attachment 213658 23oct11scene.JPG]
This pic shows my 1847 Large Cent, 1860 "Fattie" Indian, and 1863 Civil War Token - "The Flag of Our Union" on the front, "If Anybody Attempts to Tear it Down - Shoot Him on the Spot" around "DIX" on the reverse side.:
[attachment 213659 23oct11copper.JPG]
Here's a dozen Indians... no special dates:
[attachment 213661 23oct11indians.JPG]
And now, the silver... 1856 Seated Quarter 1902-S Barber Quarter (1 year late!) 1872, 1875-S, 1886, 1891 Seated Dimes 1898, 1909 Barber Dimes 1920 Merc Dime Nice Silver ring with Tiger's Eye stone Silver heart charm that opens up.:
[attachment 213663 23oct11silver.JPG]
Last but not least, a few odds and ends - buttons, religious charm, P.R.C. - "Pupils Reading Circle" Pin, a neat token - "Fashion Saloon T. M. Vaughn Prop." on the front and "Good For 12 1/2 Cents in Trade" on the back:
[attachment 213664 23oct11misc.JPG]
Now to heal my aches and pains... and dream about the next trip!
Take care and HH, Mike.
I decided to drive north and east to hunt sites that I had been to before as well as new ones I had researched. I went through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts searching mostly parks, squares, commons, and the like. I expected tough hunting in most places as I'm sure they had been hit hard. Most sites I tried were pretty beat to death, but I did find a couple good spots and picked up a nice trove of finds for the week.
Weather forecasts were pretty good for the week, but most of it had turned into rainy weather that killed a lot of hunting time. Of the 8 days I was gone, it rained on 5 of them. Here's a short diary of the trip:
Saturday - I drove out to NE Ohio, to hit a few spots for the first day. Most of the places I stopped were soaking wet with rain from earlier and I had a very hard time getting any clean signals from the Explorer. I managed a total of a few wheats was all. I did get a nice silver tiger's eye ring on the last spot of the evening.
Sunday - I took off for the east coast and ended up in Connecticut. I tried a few greens and commons with little luck until I found one in the New Haven area that gave up a few Indian cents and a Barber Dime - the first silver of the trip. I also found a Civil War Token.
Monday - A very frustrating day. I bounced around several different places in Eastern Mass. Rain and one bomb of a site after another left me without even a wheatie. My lower back and legs were not in the best of shape before the trip and by now they were really barking! :veryangry:
Tuesday - The only nice, rain-free day of the week. I started off by driving around more greens and commons. Some were very crowded with people and I didn't even try them. One particular small square in the middle of a busy town looked neat. At first glance it looked like all fill dirt, but something told me I needed to check it out anyway. I decided to try a couple other sites first, and come back in the evening to hit this place when traffic died down. I did very lousy everywhere I went. I got pretty frustrated and I wasn't feeling well, and I was seriously considering ending the trip early and driving home. With about 2 hours of daylight left, I remembered that one little square... I was 40 miles away and I convinced myself that it would be a waste of time. I thought about it... "this whole day has been a waste of time, might as well cap it off in grand style!" So I went back to that square.
There I stood in the middle of it with twilight upon me, metal detector in hand... I could see rocks and tan clay everywhere in the ground - a sure sign of fill dirt.
This was a long, narrow square and I started skimming along the middle toward one end of it... nothing but constant nulling and falsing - just as I thought. Just then the street lights pop on in the square and my machine goes haywire with interference. I dialed the sensitivity way down to kill a little of it and started to hunt my way back to my car at the far end of the square. I get to the other end and get a clean dime hit about 4-5 inches deep. I bent to dig a clad dime, and noticed that the dirt was dark black and not fill dirt.:O I decided to slow down the pace and listen for any good deep signals. Pretty soon I had a very deep coin hit. I plugged the hole and dug down to about 8" when the probe sang out a high sweet sound. More dirt comes out and I'm holding a Large Cent in my hand. By now it was dark out and I couldn't make out a date, but I pocketed it and kept hunting.All of the sudden finds come fast and furious! Indian cents start popping out of the ground. Then I get as sweet of a deep silver signal you will ever hear that locked on quarter! About 8" down up comes a Seated Quarter!
I think I pretty much forgot about my aches and pains by now... Right away another silver hit produces a Seated Dime. Then yet another Seated Dime in the hole with 2 Indians! I get to the end of the square and dig a Merc. then I go back over the area and grid it in the opposite direction. The area of good dirt was about 20 X 20 feet. A couple more Indians and a third Seated Dime came out of the ground! It was 10 PM by now and I exhausted all the signals I could get. What a swing for the better from a week that was going dismally up until now.Wednesday - Complete rain out. I started driving back westward... stopped by Cooperstown, NY to visit the baseball hall of fame to kill time, but I felt really ill today and I decided to drive as far as I could to try and get somewhere DRY to hunt tomorrow.
Thursday - Day started off gray and dreary, I hunted a neat little square in NW Pennsylvania. It had very few signals, but the ground looked good. I kept hunting, feeling I had a good chance at something old here. Then the rain started......
Right away, I find a spot that gives up a few signals - a couple Indians, one of them a fattie, and a neat little silver heart charm. I tried to keep hunting but the rain was too heavy and I gave up for the day.Friday - I woke up in the morning and flipped on the TV in the motel to see what the weather was doing. I was in the Erie, PA. area and the weather radar showed a few showers around me that was moving away. "Good" I thought, "No rain today!
" I showered, packed up my stuff and took one last look at the TV to see no rain in the area, I opened the door outside and WTF??? POURING DOWN RAIN!!! I looked back at the TV and wondered "Where the Hell are they getting that satellite picture from???" I went back inside and layed on the bed and stared at The Weather Channel for 3 hours wondering what to do next.... just drive southward at top speed all day and night until I find SOMEWHERE that isn't being rained on... I decided that I had enough of this trip and packed the car and drove home for St. Louis. When I got around Toledo, OH., I finally drove out of the rain. I stopped at a couple sites in the area, but it was nothing but swamp land. "Enough already, go home." I told myself.Saturday - Woke up in Joliet, Illinois. My whole body was killing me and I would have paid a thousand dollars to have woken up at home in my bed this morning instead of a rest area in Illinois. I was 4 hours from home, but the day was clear and I decided to hit a few courthouses along the way that I had done good at in the past. The first one gave up a Barber Dime and a couple Indians. The second one was even better...
I've hunted this second courthouse several times over the years and it had been one of my best sites out of the scores of courthouse squares I've hunted in the past. I've dug a very high ratio of silver quarters and barber coins here before and it is always a fun site to hit. The grass was thick and heavy today, but in the thin spots I got plenty of signals to dig. I ended my trip here with a Barber Quarter, Seated dime, and other goodies. I'll be back when the grass has died down to see what else I can find.
And so my trip is at an end. 3,400 miles of driving and a nice assortment of finds to show for it. I went for quality instead of quantity as the Seated coins outnumbered all the other silver coins, combined!
This will be my last week long road trip though... It's getting too much for my body to handle. I'll have to stick with the long weekends closer to home in the future.Thanks for reading this long post... here's the pics of the goodies:
I'll start with one of the few scenery shots I could get inbetween the rain showers... a valley scene in the PA. Alleghenies:
[attachment 213658 23oct11scene.JPG]
This pic shows my 1847 Large Cent, 1860 "Fattie" Indian, and 1863 Civil War Token - "The Flag of Our Union" on the front, "If Anybody Attempts to Tear it Down - Shoot Him on the Spot" around "DIX" on the reverse side.:
[attachment 213659 23oct11copper.JPG]
Here's a dozen Indians... no special dates:
[attachment 213661 23oct11indians.JPG]
And now, the silver... 1856 Seated Quarter 1902-S Barber Quarter (1 year late!) 1872, 1875-S, 1886, 1891 Seated Dimes 1898, 1909 Barber Dimes 1920 Merc Dime Nice Silver ring with Tiger's Eye stone Silver heart charm that opens up.:
[attachment 213663 23oct11silver.JPG]
Last but not least, a few odds and ends - buttons, religious charm, P.R.C. - "Pupils Reading Circle" Pin, a neat token - "Fashion Saloon T. M. Vaughn Prop." on the front and "Good For 12 1/2 Cents in Trade" on the back:
[attachment 213664 23oct11misc.JPG]
Now to heal my aches and pains... and dream about the next trip!
Take care and HH, Mike.
Nice story too, I wish you had a little less rain and pain to deal with but you still did well.
one more time this year....but not sure if it will happen.
