Fall Silver Finds 2017

There is still silver in those parks!  Those that are left are elusive, deep or in trash.  The most notable find was two Barber dimes in the same hole.  I went back to an area of the park where Barbers and Indian head pennies had been found before.  I figured I might manage to hit another Indian or stray silver.  After hunting a bit, I came across a target with interesting numbers.  The best, but infrequent set of numbers were 1-39, 1-40.  Those numbers deep are always “dig me” numbers.   As I pulled my plug I saw something silver fall to the bottom of my hole.  Much to my surprise it was a silver Barber dime.  I checked the hole with my pinpointer only to find silence.  When I scanned the plug the pinpointer started chattering towards the tip.  About a 1.5″ in the tip was another Barber dime.  A barber coin spill dating 1898 and 1899!  Thats why I still metal detect!  I don’t understand why the signal was so weak or with such bad numbers.  There was no other meatal in hole, but there was trash and iron around the hole.  I didn’t think it was close enough to have much of an impact.  Since my last post I’ve managed to find additional silver including silver rings.  One was my second boyscout ring.  My silver coin count is at 30.  A far cry from my previous successes.  I have about a month to add some more and we will see how it goes.  Good luck and good hunting.

 

 

 

Lucky September for Silver

I’m still alive and still digging, but not as much.  When I’ve been out, silver has been eluding me. Today I managed to find a silver coin spill.  I’ve had very few of those and as the others it was a total surprise.  I’d been out for about 45 minutes and only had a wheat to show for it.  Then there this weird signal.  Mostly iron, but as I circled the spot I would get a 12-47, 12-42 and a 12- 45 once for every five iron numbers.  I couldn’t pinpoint the spot which made me consider it wasn’t a nail.  I dug a wide plug and a silver dime was sticking out of the plug.  I managed to pull two more silver dimes and a wheat.  I ended up with 2 Mercs and a Rosie for silver.  I really needed that to remind there is still silver in those old parks.  I’m at 24 silver coins for the year and far short from my last years totals.  I suppose that how it works.  I hope your hunts have been going well and good luck.

A Few More Silvers and Another First

Silver is becoming as elusive as a winning lottery ticket for me.  I’ve been on a dry streak for about a month.  I haven’t been out as much as I would have liked, but I’ve been out enough.  I did visit a 1800’s park today and found my first Shield nickel.  It’s in rough shape, but I knew it wasn’t a Buffalo.  I assumed it was a V nickel, but after cleaning it I saw the number 5 surrounded by stars.  I had to look it up to identify it.  Its dated 1870 as best as I can tell.  Regardless, its another coin off my bucket list.  I also found a 1900 Indian head penny and a couple wheats.  I thought for sure I would break my silver dry spell today.  Nope.  I knew the park was going to be a challenge when I came across someone else’s plug within about 10 steps into the park. Bummer.  The old coins I did find today were deep and iffy.  So maybe the Etrac will give me an edge when I go back and find more old coins!  I hope everyone is doing well and out digging their own treasures.

 

 

Silver Dimes and a V Nickel

Silver has been turning up, but slower than I hoped.  I did find a little spot that turned up old wheats and a Merc.  So I decided to dig any signal that wasn’t normal trash numbers and was rewarded with a V Nickel.  I’m surprised I don’t find more Buffalo Nickels.  I’ve been taking the time to dig signals with a good sound, but not so good numbers.  I’ve managed at least five wheats that way. Some had trash in the hole with them and some with no trash.  So I can’t explain why they rang up differently.   I haven’t had the same luck with silver yet.  Work in progress 🙂   Good luck with your hunts!

Another Barber Dime and More…

I’ve been talking advantage of the warm weather and finding silver.  I picked up another Barber dime and three Mercury dimes.  Considering how much I’ve been out, I hoped for more.  The recent finds were in areas I hunted before and just flat out missed them.  They were deep and iffy, but I should have found them.  I noticed here recently if I go a while without hitting a good sound my sweeps are faster and sloppy.  I need to work on that.  I’ve been exploring new places trying to find a new hot spot without much success.  There out there and I will find it.  It just take a lot of time and perseverance.  I also picked up four Indian head pennies.  I love finding those.  Two of them were only about three inches deep, but in a wooded area.  I would love to pound that area, but it’s brushy and full of trash.   You can barely move around and there’s minimal room for sweeping a coil.  I hope everyone’s getting out and finding cool stuff.  Best of luck.

First Silver Coins for 2017 are Barbers!

My first silver this year came in the form of a man’s ring inscribed “Luther” accross its face.  It rang up a constant 12-47 on the Etrac. I didn’t find an old coin that day and only a couple modern coins in that area.
       I met my brother yesterday at large local park we’ve been pounding for the last couple months.  Despite everything being covered with a thin sheet of ice and being really cold, we set out to find our fortunes. I decided to go back to an area we’ve hit several times before and where I found a Barber dime, some Mercury dimes, silver Rosies and silver Washington Quarters. My brother picked up a couple of Barber Quarters and a Rosie.  I asked myself, “did we find it all?”  After picking up a couple clad quarters, some clad dimes and those 4 -5″ deep memorials that occasionally ring up 12-45 (one of these days someone is going to have to explain to me how that works) I hit an interesting signal.  12-41, 12-40 and 12-45 once. Nice constant tone, but not a screaming silver sound.  I dug the hole and in one of the chunks of dirt I see a silver rim.  A silver dime!  As I carefully picked away the dirt I see the date 1907.  My first silver coin of the new year is a 1907 O Barber dime.  How cool is that!  So I switched to all metal and interrogated every signal in the vicinity. No more coins.  So I switched backed to my discrimination pattern and started gridding the area.  A couple minutes later I hear a good tone and looked down and 8-46 is on the screen.  As I circled the spot I noticed my numbers were 6-46, 8-46 and my hopes for a silver quarter grew.  As I flipped the plug, a flat silver disc drops to the bottom of the hole. A very worn 1903 Barber quarter is my reward.  Really?  My second silver coin for the year is a Barber quarter!  I really started rubbing my coil on the icy grass then 🙂  I hunted about 30 minutes more and gave into my cold complaing fingers and toes and headed home.  Not a bad start to 2017.

New Silver Coin Finds Record and Another Walker

​Sadly, I didn’t hit my goal of a 100 silver coins for the year. I did manage to break my annual silver coin finds record.  I managed 87 silver coins this year compared to 84 last year.  I’m pretty proud of this accomplishment considering I live in an area of “hunted out” parks.  There’s no such thing as a hunted out park unless all the dirt is bulldozed and removed.  The Etrac has been a silver finding machine for me.  I cannot stress enough, learn your machine.  Two years ago when I first bought the Etrac, I remember wondering if I wasted my money. Then I started doing my part by researching old parks, hunting the whole park, not just the common areas.  I found my third Walking Liberty half dollar in area of a park nobody would have guessed it would have been there.  It was by itself with no other coins surrounded by pieces of tinfoil.  Who knows why, but I was glad to find it.  I’m determined to hit a 100 silver coins, so it will be my goal for 2017.  Good luck and happy hunting in 2017.

2016 year end totals:
Silver coins -87

Dollar:

SBA – 
Presidential – 
Sacajawea – 
Half Dollars:

Kennedy – 1

Walking – 3 (1918, 1945(2)

Barber – 
Quarters:

Clad – 251
Seated – 
Barber – 
Standing Liberty – 1 (no date)
Washington -9 (1936, 1940S, 1942, 1942D, 1943, 1947D, 1957D, 1958D, 1962D)
Dimes:

Clad – 262
Seated – 1 (1885S)
Barber – 9 (1892, 1893(2), 1900, 1901, 1903, 1903O, 1904, 1907D)
Mercury – 43 (1916S, 1917S(3), 1918S, 1919, 1919D, 1920S, 1923S, 1924D, 1928, 1929, 1929S, 1930S, 1934D(2), 1935(3), 1936D, 1937D(2), 1940D (2), 1940S, 1941(2), 1942, 1942D(2), 1943, 1943D, 1943S, 1944(5), 1944D(3), 1944S, 1945)
Roosevelt – 19 (1946 (3), 1946D, 1950D, 1951D, 1952, 1952D, 1953D, 1954, 1954D, 1963D, 1946, 1946D, 1956D, 1957, 1961D, 1963D, 1964)
Nickels:

Jefferson – 24
War nickels – 1944P
Buffalo Nickels – 5 (1918, 1919D, 1937D, no date(2)
V nickel- 
Pennies:
Memorial – 391
Indian Head – 7 (1892, 1896, 1898, 1902, 1905, 1907, 1908)
Wheat – 141  (1910(3), 1912, 1913D, 1915D, 1916(2), 1916D, 1918(3), 1918D(1), 1919(3), 1919D(3), 1920(3), 1920D(3), 1921, 1925D, 1926 (2), 1927D, 1929, 1929D, 1929S, 1930D, 1933D, 1934, 1936(2), 1937, 1940, 1940D(2), 1941, 1942, 1942D(2), 1944(9), 1944D(12), 1944S(3), 1945(4), 1945D(5), 1946, 1946D (2), 1946S(3), 1947D(3), 1947S, 1948, 1948D, 1949, 1949D(3), 1949S, 1950D(5), 1950S, 1951, 1951D(10), 1952D(6), 1952S, 1953D(4), 1953S, 1954D, 1955D(5), 1956D(4), 1957D, 1958, 1958D(2), unreadable (11)
Foreign coins:

Canadian silver dime – 1963

Canadian pennies – 2
Rings:

Gold – 3

Silver – 3

Silver pendent – 

Broach – 1

First Seated Dime and More Silver

I feel really fortunate having such great parks to hunt here in the Kansas City area.  Kansas City Parks and Recreation deserve a lot of positive credit for the work they have put into restoring the parks. If you have not visited our parks recently, I think you may be surprised by the improvements.

I’ve continued pounding the 1940’s park and I realized there were at least two old houses or structures there.  In two areas I’ve found deep square nails and a very worn seated dime.  I also found a 1903O Barber dime in the area.  I also managed to find three more silver quarters, two more Mercs and 6 Rosies.  My silver count is 80 for this year so far, but time is running out.  I guess I will have to hit 100 next year 🙂

Finally More Silver Quarters, Dimes and a Canadian Silver

A month ago I thought my silver coin finds were starting to peter out.  Then I went back to a large area park where I found quite a few wheats, but no silvers.  Then I hit a silver dime and my confidence grew at this site.  Then I hit another dime and another.  I know what my problem was, I didn’t hit it hard enough before and my confidence was too low.  It’s amazing how much better you will do when you believe silver is there.  What’s so astonishing about this park is I found 3 Indian head pennies, 2 silver Washington quarters, Barber dime, Mercs and silver Rosies.  This land wasn’t made a park until the 1940’s, but a small lake has been there since the late 1800’s.  So you NEVER really know whats in the ground where you hunt.  I did spend hours hunting finding nothing there and then you hit a hot spot that makes it all worth it.  Another interesting note is I hit a coin spill that rang up all ugly.  The numbers were all over the place, but enough silver numbers came through for me dig.  I found two silver quarters, six wheats and two memorials.  Amazing!  I’m glad I found the silver quarters since my quarter finds have been low this year.  I also found my first silver Canadian dime.  So a park I had no confidence in for silver turned out to be a winner.  You just never know……..

More Silver Including a Silver Half

First off, I’ve neglected keeping my Blog up to date.  It’s been going really slow with a long dry spell and now a ton of rain.  Finding new places to hunt has been tough.  I managed to find a couple of pockets in old parks that yielded a couple of Mercs, a Rosie and a very worn Standing Liberty Quarter with no date. (Thats two now with no dates, bummer) Mostly I’ve been hitting the same old places and picking up what we’ve missed.  I picked up a Barber dime that was only 3-4″ deep around a tree that was been hit before.  It was about 4″ from trash and I found it because I went from a different direction.  Makes you wonder how much is missed?  I guess that’s what keeps me going back to the same ole places.  I did hit an area park that was created in 1951.  I hunted for an hour or so and was about to give up when I got an interesting signal.  My numbers were 1-44, 1-45 and then 12-46 and trash numbers.  I previously dug two old smashed cans with similar numbers, but this target hit 12-46 a lot.  It was hard to pinpoint so I dug a large plug.  As I pulled the plug I saw a large silver coin fall back into the hole.  It was a Walking Liberty Half and I nicked it despite the large plug. A wheat and pull tab was in the plug also. The half was dated 1945 and the wheat was 1952.  I can only assume people were still carrying Walkers in the 50’s. Hopefully my finds will increase and I will try to do better with my blog.  I still have a long way to go to hit 100.