Mike Moutray - St.Louis MO
Member
It's been a while since I got out detecting.... but since the weatherman totally botched the forecast for the weekend, I decided to head out to my favorite park to tempt the rain gods. I brought my 4 year old son in tow with his very own digger to help out Dad. It never rained a drop! 
I went to a spot that had been torn up for months now. Other local detectorists have hit it with some success, but I never got the chance to get out there and try my luck til now. They had been tearing up a 9 hole golf course, completely redesigning it, and I had driven through several times to check on the progress. I jumped out a couple times for some quick hunts since it began, but didn't get much.
Today, I saw some fresh digging that raised a huge red flag to me They had taken about an 8 foot wide scrape all the way around and through the course to lay new cart paths. It varied from less than an inch deep to 2 feet deep and roughly followed long lost paths from the past. I had a good feeling something old would turn up .....
This golf course dates back to 1903 but it was redesigned back in the mid 1970's, destroying most of the old-coin bearing ground. I was hoping they went through that newer layer down to the original ground from the early days...
I hunted about 3/4 - 1 mile of shallow trenchs and found several nice old coins - mainly in the areas I was expecting - around the greens and tees. the rest of the stretches were pretty sparse as far as targets. This course had been a favorite spot of the old time detectorists back in the 70's and 80's so not many targets of any kind were left from before that time, except where the digging took me down deeper than those old machines could go.
Some of the coins were in the ground immediately below an old lime rock pathway partially uncovered - and they were all older ones! It was hard chopping through the last couple inches of that stuff to get to the dark soil underneath, but it was worth it.
I got a Grand Slam in silver dimes! A feat that is all but impossible out here for me anymore. 1883 Seated 1902O, 1912D, 1915 Barber 1939D, 1941 Mercury 1954, 1963D Roosy Dimes. A couple high grade Buffalo Nickels - 1915D, 1916 1904 Indian Head Cent and V Nickel. An old brass token from The Chesapeake - an old, long gone hotel in St. Louis and an old brass padlock. That was the last thing I dug.... thinking it was a makeup compact at first, I saw where the hasp had broken off from my digging, so I recovered the pieces in the hole. I soldered it back together (That was hard to do with a rotted piece of 100 year old brass!) you can see it was broken off whatever it was on. Those old padlocks sure were flimsy! I also pulled up several wheaties, bullets, shoe spikes, trash and other stuff not worthy to put in the pic.
My boy had a blast hacking away at the dirt and finding golf balls for Dad! Enjoy the Pic.... Take care and HH, Mike.
I went to a spot that had been torn up for months now. Other local detectorists have hit it with some success, but I never got the chance to get out there and try my luck til now. They had been tearing up a 9 hole golf course, completely redesigning it, and I had driven through several times to check on the progress. I jumped out a couple times for some quick hunts since it began, but didn't get much.
Today, I saw some fresh digging that raised a huge red flag to me
They had taken about an 8 foot wide scrape all the way around and through the course to lay new cart paths. It varied from less than an inch deep to 2 feet deep and roughly followed long lost paths from the past. I had a good feeling something old would turn up .....This golf course dates back to 1903 but it was redesigned back in the mid 1970's, destroying most of the old-coin bearing ground. I was hoping they went through that newer layer down to the original ground from the early days...
I hunted about 3/4 - 1 mile of shallow trenchs and found several nice old coins - mainly in the areas I was expecting - around the greens and tees. the rest of the stretches were pretty sparse as far as targets. This course had been a favorite spot of the old time detectorists back in the 70's and 80's so not many targets of any kind were left from before that time, except where the digging took me down deeper than those old machines could go.
Some of the coins were in the ground immediately below an old lime rock pathway partially uncovered - and they were all older ones! It was hard chopping through the last couple inches of that stuff to get to the dark soil underneath, but it was worth it.
I got a Grand Slam in silver dimes! A feat that is all but impossible out here for me anymore. 1883 Seated 1902O, 1912D, 1915 Barber 1939D, 1941 Mercury 1954, 1963D Roosy Dimes. A couple high grade Buffalo Nickels - 1915D, 1916 1904 Indian Head Cent and V Nickel. An old brass token from The Chesapeake - an old, long gone hotel in St. Louis and an old brass padlock. That was the last thing I dug.... thinking it was a makeup compact at first, I saw where the hasp had broken off from my digging, so I recovered the pieces in the hole. I soldered it back together (That was hard to do with a rotted piece of 100 year old brass!) you can see it was broken off whatever it was on. Those old padlocks sure were flimsy! I also pulled up several wheaties, bullets, shoe spikes, trash and other stuff not worthy to put in the pic.
My boy had a blast hacking away at the dirt and finding golf balls for Dad! Enjoy the Pic.... Take care and HH, Mike.
I bet you were really excited when you seen the Seated Dime come to light!
Good to see you making some nice finds once again and good to hear your son had some fun digging them Golf Balls and helping his dad out detecting. Hope your able to hit more of that Old Ground soon and have more pics of some nice stuff Mike. Congrats on the finds and Continued Success, Good Luck and HH to you and your Son!
When I used to live by the park, I could keep daily tabs on it... now I only drive thru it about once a month. HH, Mike.