The rain has stopped :clapping:

[Larry (IL)]

So I went out to Lake Eureka that is being drained for a fish kill next week. There was lots of holes dug so I was not the first to get out there but plenty of goodies left to find. I had a great morning with 13 silver finds, 3 quarters, 7 dimes, two war nickels and two silver rings. 13 Wheats and the usual water finds of sinkers, lures and a cheap bracelet. The rest is clad in the second picture which was the shallow finds for the most part. The silver was pretty deep, 12 to 16 inches at the swimming beach because I think more sand was added sometime after 1965 because that is the latest dated clad quarters that I found at that depth.

I only hunted the beach so there is a lot of lake left to hunt if you wanted to give it a try before it fills back up again. The old beach is around the corner to the right of the newer beach and I have found some goodies there in past years when the lake was down but it is very hard hunting with lots of cans and iron as someone found out from their huge holes dug there. Some of them were two feet round and just as deep with iron sticking out of the bottom of the holes. One hole in particular is about four feet wide with a piece of reinforced concrete sitting at the bottom... I should have taken a picture

[attachment 361166 lake1.jpg][attachment 361167 Lake.jpg]

 

[Nancy-IL]

Way to go Honey! That safety pin type thing brings back some old memories. They use to use them to match up a basket of yours that held your clothes, money, and what not. You had the pin with the number and they had the basket number that corresponded with it. Yeah, great memories as a kid.

Congrats on all the silver! I love that old silver ring with the black mineral stone in it. I know it's not onyx but something else and is at the tip of my tongue. I'll think of it at 3:00 in the morning.

All in all, you had one very nice hunt. That's so pathetic about the big holes. They must not know what the hell they're doing. Sad, very sad.

 

[Larry (IL)]

I used the aluminum foil and hot water method with baking soda and salt for the first time to clean up the silver finds. It turned out great, at least for me. They still needed a little rubbing between the fingers with baking soda to get the loose oxide off, but very pleased with that method. I went back to the lake this morning to take some more pictures of the holes I was talking about too......... really kind of funny. Also took pictures of the newer beach and old beach for those who wanted to go hunting them. Pictures have weird shapes because I had to reduce size to post, but you get the idea

I forgot to mention the war nickels didn't come out very good with the foil method but I had to try it. The stone in the silver ring is Hematite, pretty ring.

[attachment 361188 Lake6.jpg][attachment 361187 Lake5.jpg][attachment 361186 Lake4.jpg][attachment 361185 Lake32.jpg][attachment 361184 Lake22.jpg]