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POUNDED park gives up super sweet silvers!

Plug Martian

Elite Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2011
Messages
1,057
Location
Marlborough MA
Hi all. I know haven't posted anything in quite a while, just haven't found much I felt like showing off this year. At least until recently that is. :D

Albediggin and I have become regular partners in crime. He lives in Worcester and a few weeks back we decided to hit a park he has been thinking of doing for a while. Upon arriving, several things were obvious to me right away. The park was OLD, the park sees a lot of use, and the park has been pounded. The absence of signals and evidence of at least one fresh plug confirmed the latter. Our hopes were admittedly lowered in the first few moments but, as we all know, no place is ever hunted out so we swung on. After maby 40 minutes there was little to show for the effort. A handful of bottlecaps, 3 stink pennys, 1 quarter, 1 dime, and 1 gaming token. I had worked my way over to a small group of trees that I had a good feeling about. I made a slow careful circle around the base of each tree. I found nothing. Feeling a bit disappointed I picked a random direction and started to walk away from the last tree. No more then 5 feet from the trunk I finally got a good signal. Nice solid high tone. Numbers from 10-42 to 14-45 mostly 12-43 at 7 inches deep. I dug a deep plug. Nothing with the pinpointer. Dig out some dirt. A little hit. Dig some more dirt and now I'm right on it. Move a little dirt with my fingers and there it is. Silver dime in the hole! I think to myself, that's too deep for a Roosevelt, I bet it's a Merc. Pull it out and put it in my palm. Can't see anything on that side. Turn it over and this was staring back at me:
20139-291877ccSeatedLibertyDimeObversesmall.jpg

So I call All over and show him my second ever Seated coin. Woo Hoo!! After a moment he goes back to his spot and I am about to put the coin in the pouch when I realize I haven't checked for a mint mark. Is there one?
20139-291877ccSeatedLibertyDimeReversesmall.jpg

Heck yes there is! My first ever Carson City! So awesome. By the end of the hunt I had a couple bucks in clad, the Seated, and an 1904 Indian.
We made plans to return the following Sunday.

On Sunday I got out a little early and hit a park near me before meeting Al in Worcester. Got some clad and this nice Greek coin.
20139-29Greek2DrachmaObversesmall.jpg
20139-29Greek2DrachmaReversesmall.jpg

And my first gold of the year.
201310-0614Klocket.jpg
20139-2914Klocketopen.jpg

Then I met Al in Worcester. Same story as before. Not many signals. Concentrating on areas around/near trees. Get a nice signal close to a big tree in an area with a lot of roots. In one direction a solid squeaky 12-44 12-45. In another direction an iffy 12-41 sometimes not there. Down 5 inches. Dig the plug. Nothing. More dirt. Nothing. Long story short my pinpoint was off and it was on edge in the side of the hole. This time it was a very nice Barber. Only the second one of those I have found as well.
201310-061913BarberDimeObversesmall.jpg
201310-061913BarberDimeReversesmall.jpg

Also managed a couple old Wheats and another crusty Indian.
201310-61911amp1927WheatCentObversesmall.jpg
201310-61905IndianHeadCentObversesmall.jpg

I'm liking this place a lot. But wate, there's more.
We made plans to return the following Sunday.

This is getting long so I'll try to make this part short. We returned on Sunday and continued our trek across the park. I got a solid 12-44 just under the surface and bent down to get another Memorial. This popped out insted:

201310-13SilverTurtleRings01small.jpg
201310-13SilverTurtleRings02small.jpg
201310-13SilverTurtleRings03small.jpg

A jewelry spill. Sweet! I don't think I have ever seen that before. 3 hunts in a row with silver. Needless to say I was in very high spirits at this point. But it gets even better. A little way further on, a dime signal produced another foreign coin.
201310-131976Sweedish1KronaObversesmall.jpg
201310-131976Sweedish1KronaReversesmall.jpg

At last we come to the reason I made this post. After another hour we had worked our way to the opposite side of the park from where we had started 3 weeks earlier. I was working around the base of a large tree about 10 feet from a sidewalk. Began to walk away towards the next tree and got a good signal next to a root. Solid, crisp 12-43 in all directions. Down about 5 inches. 90% of the time this is a penny signal and I thought it was probably a Wheat. Started digging and the ground is packed full of small stones. After much chopping, prying, scooping and a little cursing I get down to where it should be. Al had noticed I was really going at it and came over to watch the fun. I told him about the signal and that I thought I should be getting it by now. "Maby it's in the side like that Barber was." he said. Sure enough, that's where it was. I took a scoop and along with more rocks out poped a black penny sized coin. "Yup, it's a Wheat penny." I said. I picked up the coin an held it in my palm. I couldn't see anything on it. But Al said "No, I think that's a tarnished silver, look at the edge." Sure enough, a little gleam of silver showed in 1 spot. My brain starts going a million miles an hour. Size of a penny, black like a penny, and a penny signal. I handed the coin to Al. He says "You know, I bet it's another Seated. Hey does that say 20?" At this point the dirt on the coin had dried and was falling off and details were beginning to show. He handed me back the coin and I saw clearly a 20. In the next split second I realized it said 1820, was silver, was the size of a penny, and had a very classic outline.
That's not a Seated.
THAT'S A CAPPED BUST!!!
I could go on and on about how I felt at that point but I bet you can all guess. I was one very happy coin shooter. Here is my best find to date no doubt. She's a bit worse for wear but she's purdy, purdy, purdy, to me.
201310-131820CappedBustDimeObversesmall.jpg
201310-131820CappedBustDimeReversesmall.jpg

How in the world did no one get this coin after all these years with how pounded this park is. Who dropped it almost 200 years ago? What were they doing? I had to think about these things for a moment before continuing the hunt. The last thing I dug for the day was another Indian.
201310-131903IndianHeadCentObversesmall.jpg

It's been a heck of a spot for me and I hope to get back again before the ground freezes.
Thanks for looking and sticking with me through a long post. Hope you are all having as much fun as I have been lately. Good luck and HH everyone!


Hunt Happy!
Plug Martian
 
Awesome

You had an awesome hunt there. Nice going digging all those old coins. I was wondering how deep that 1820 coin was? Today I found a wheat penny that had to be less than a quarter inch deep. Keep up the awesome hunts.
HH everyone
 
Still looking for my first seated, and a capped bust is almost only a dream..

Way to go, some killer finds there for sure!! I wonder what happened to those turtle ring's backs?

Congrats on all that loot!!

<*)))>{
 
Great hunt! You should come back down to CT and bring some of that luck with you.
 
Awesome to see those posted!!! Those were some unbelievable hunts that don't happen much :yes:. Great job on the pics everything looks great!!! Great place and hunts that I won't forget :cool: :roll:
 
How in the world did no one get this coin after all these years with how pounded this park is.

Only about half of the coins in an old spot like that are detectable, because the others are masked by junk. The soil along with the junk shifts over time, revealing some previously undetectable items, and hiding others. It would be interesting to go back to that immediate area 10'x10' and dig every signal, especially deep iron, but dig shallow stuff too.
 
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