AirmetTango
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Today I paid another visit to a park that I've been spending a good amount of time on lately. The park is quite trashy, so there's a little bit of self-torture involved with continuing to go back so often - for the past several visits, the finds-to-trash ratio really hasn't been very good. But just enough nice old finds trickle in to keep me intrigued - plus the site is close to home, which is important while my kids are out of school and my free time is limited!
By an hour and a half into today's hunt, odds were starting to look pretty bleak for finding any keepers this time around. The best things I had in my pouch at that point were a couple pieces of crushed copper piping and a weird "U" shaped do-dad At two hours in, the only difference was that the pouch was laden with even more trash, and I was ready to accept the skunking and pack up for the day.
Hunting my way back to the car, I got over a bouncy signal (mostly between 68-74, though occasional 40s jumped in) - it really didn't sound any different than some of the other trash I had already dug, and the depth indicated only 4" which reinforced my suspicions of can slaw/junk. But it was still one of the better signals of the day, so I had to dig it even though my day's luck had me jaded to fully expect another folded up bit of a Mello Yello can. I dug the plug a little deep, and wedged right at the bottom about 5" down was the rim of a coin. Plucking it out of the plug, I immediately saw the center hole, and some lettering through the caked dirt - a token!! Tokens are my favorite find, so suddenly my beat down hunt was a resounding success!
Clean up at home revealed what other sites ID as an old slot machine token, likely used in the 1920s or 30s. It's exactly the same size as a US quarter, and the number on the back possibly identifies the owner or location of use. Lots of similar tokens all over the internet, just with varying numbers on the back.
The Slaymaker lock key came shortly after the token, adding one more keeper to the hunt. I once had an old Slaymaker combination lock that my Dad had given me back in the 80s after he found it in a box full of his old things. After several moves, I eventually lost that lock. Seeing the "Slaymaker" name pop up on that key brought back the memory immediately!
Pics below show the full hunt, plus before and after cleaning shots of the token and key:
By an hour and a half into today's hunt, odds were starting to look pretty bleak for finding any keepers this time around. The best things I had in my pouch at that point were a couple pieces of crushed copper piping and a weird "U" shaped do-dad At two hours in, the only difference was that the pouch was laden with even more trash, and I was ready to accept the skunking and pack up for the day.
Hunting my way back to the car, I got over a bouncy signal (mostly between 68-74, though occasional 40s jumped in) - it really didn't sound any different than some of the other trash I had already dug, and the depth indicated only 4" which reinforced my suspicions of can slaw/junk. But it was still one of the better signals of the day, so I had to dig it even though my day's luck had me jaded to fully expect another folded up bit of a Mello Yello can. I dug the plug a little deep, and wedged right at the bottom about 5" down was the rim of a coin. Plucking it out of the plug, I immediately saw the center hole, and some lettering through the caked dirt - a token!! Tokens are my favorite find, so suddenly my beat down hunt was a resounding success!
Clean up at home revealed what other sites ID as an old slot machine token, likely used in the 1920s or 30s. It's exactly the same size as a US quarter, and the number on the back possibly identifies the owner or location of use. Lots of similar tokens all over the internet, just with varying numbers on the back.
The Slaymaker lock key came shortly after the token, adding one more keeper to the hunt. I once had an old Slaymaker combination lock that my Dad had given me back in the 80s after he found it in a box full of his old things. After several moves, I eventually lost that lock. Seeing the "Slaymaker" name pop up on that key brought back the memory immediately!
Pics below show the full hunt, plus before and after cleaning shots of the token and key:
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