3 firsts, My new oldest coin and then big disappointment.

MTtrashdigger

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Montana
So, I have been cruising an old neighborhood for the past couple of weeks, driving by this 1900ish Victorian home that has been undergoing renovation. The yard is a wreck, dried grass and bare dirt from the construction going on. I figured that if I could catch the owner outside, they wouldn't care if I detected before they put in the landscaping.
Well, today was the day. The owner was outside, and I stopped to ask her. For the purpose of this post, I will refer to her as Ms. Tease. She was intrigued, but like most people who aren't familiar with our hobby, Ms. Tease had her suspicions as to my motives. I showed her some pics on my phone of some of the stuff I had found in parks and curb strips but that I had never detected a yard as old as hers. She said I could "do my thing" but she was very leery of any "digging” that might take place. I explained my extraction method and told her she likely wouldn’t even be able to tell that I had disturbed anything, especially since her yard was already basically destroyed. She agreed but told me that she wanted to watch me "dig anything up" and to come and get her before I did.
So, I made 15-20-minute random scan of her front yard. There were some good high tones, lots of low tone grunts and trash signals everywhere due to the construction. I picked out 4 diggable signals and stuck a wire flag in the ground at each spot, then went to her door and told her I was ready to retrieve a couple of targets.
Spot 1 was a shallow solid repeatable smooth 10. I told Ms. Tease it was probably trash, but that there was a chance it was gold. She laughed at the prospect and told me find out and indeed, it was a piece of old aluminum. She was unimpressed.
Spot 2 was a fairly deep 23-24 signal. I told Ms. Tease it was likely a penny and older than 1982. She looked at me with extreme doubt on her face but told me to get it out. From about 4-5 inches down I pulled a wheat penny. My eyes couldn't make out the date, but she looked and proclaimed it a 1916. Now, her doubt turned back to intrigue. Ms. Tease was definitely interested and said let’s go to the next one.
Spot 3 was in bare dirt under a big Ponderosa pine, shallow and a solid 30-32. I told her it was likely a modern quarter. I couldn't have been more wrong. Less than 2 inches down, I uncovered my first silver half dollar ever, a 1928 Walker. I almost pissed myself, I was so excited. This was my first silver any coin other than a dime. Well now Ms. Tease was more than amazed and couldn't believe anything like that came from the dirt in her yard. After a few minutes of calming down, we went over to the last marked spot.
Spot 4 was in grass near the sidewalk, a jumpy 23-28, and fairly deep. I told her it might be a dime, or it might be another penny. I cut a nice clean plug and popped it out. Laying on edge in the plug was 1907 Barber dime. I couldn't believe it, this was my new oldest coin, and my second ever Barber anything. Unfortunately, I scratched it, but it was still awesome to find. Ms. Tease had never heard of or ever seen any coin like it. Well now, I didn't have any other spots marked so she assumed we were done. Then came the deep disappointment. She told me I was welcome to take pictures of the coins but that she wanted them to stay with her house as part of its "history". How could I argue with that?
In the end, I made the finds, had some exciting recoveries, and got to share them with someone who appreciated them. I guess that is what this hobby should be about. But I would be lying if I said I wanted Ms. Tease to keep those coins rather than take them home and put them in my treasure chest. Thanks for looking and Happy hunting. May all of your finds be yours........
 

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Congrats on the nice finds. Sorry you couldn't keep at least a couple.

HD
 
Sorry you lost out on the coins. but still a great outing. Congrats on your biggest and oldest Silver's. Hope you can find more in the near future. Trapper
 
Great finds! Right when she said “she wanted to watch me "dig anything up" and to come and get her before I did” I would have thanked her for her time and moved on....
 
So, I have been cruising an old neighborhood for the past couple of weeks, driving by this 1900ish Victorian home........

Nice write up, and congrats on the silver whether you got to keep it or not. The Walking Liberty half is the best looking coin ever made anywhere, as far as I'm concerned. Look at it this way....if you hadn't played her game, then you might not have had a chance to dig at all that day.

Clearly, she didn't trust you and thought you would pocket whatever you found. Not only that, she didn't keep the coins because they "went with the history of the house".
She kept them because she had no clue how much they were worth and was afraid you were going to hoodwink her out of something worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Maybe she'll have a chance to figure out she was worried about 25 or 30 bucks tops and was a jerk for not letting you keep at least one or all of them. Go knock on her door in a few days and tell her that Barber was the oldest coin you'd ever dug, it's not really worth much given it's condition, but you'd like to pay her a fair price for it. Maybe she'll even let you detect some more after she realizes she was being a ninny. Nothing for you to lose, really.

Lesson learned. If there's no agreement in place then you simply have to accept the possibility you are doing it for the experience and fun. The door was still open to make a deal after that Wheat or the Half. "Wow....your yard has a lot of potential and I'd love to keep finding some more coins for you. If I can have this one coin then you can have the others and anything else I find." Or, tell her she can keep what you found so far, but she can "trade up" if you find something she likes better. This might not have worked with her in particular, because she would just think it was all some elaborate con to give her the short end of the deal.
 
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Great finds! Right when she said “she wanted to watch me "dig anything up" and to come and get her before I did” I would have thanked her for her time and moved on....

I doubt many of us will ever run into such a request. There's a big difference between "Cool! Can I watch? This will be fun!" versus "OK, but I'm going to keep my eye on you!"

I've had the former happen a bunch of times. I've never had the latter situation happen. I guess if it did, then I might still hunt, but only after we work out a deal for the finds.

People just starting out should understand that it's a rare story. You'll almost never walk away empty handed even when a deal hasn't been worked out. The worry of walking away empty handed is not a reason to start carrying around a bunch of wheat pennies "for show" or to agree to show anything of value to the homeowner and then not make good on it.

Heck, I don't even mind handing over a few goodies as long as that was part of the deal, and it usually is with me, and I get a photo. While every deal is a little different based on the property and the owner's personality, not once where I offered to "show all of my finds and you can pick anything" has the person taken more than a few things, and it's usually not even the coins.
 
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I doubt many of us will ever run into such a request. There's a big difference between "Cool! Can I watch? This will be fun!" versus "OK, but I'm going to keep my eye on you!"

I've had the former happen a bunch of times. I've never had the latter situation happen. I guess if it did, then I might still hunt, but only after we work out a deal for the finds.

People just starting out should understand that it's a rare story. You'll almost never walk away empty handed even when a deal hasn't been worked out. The worry of walking away empty handed is not a reason to start carrying around a bunch of wheat pennies "for show" or to agree to show anything of value to the homeowner and then not make good on it.

Heck, I don't even mind handing over a few goodies as long as that was part of the deal, and it usually is with me, and I get a photo. While every deal is a little different based on the property and the owner's personality, not once where I offered to "show all of my finds and you can pick anything" has the person taken more than a few things, and it's usually not even the coins.

This may very well be a rare story and my inexperience in dealing with a reluctant homeowner probably cost me those coins. But you see , all of my previous dealings with property owners have been met with mostly indifference and probably the assumption that I wasn't going to find much of anything (and that has been mostly true). There was never any question as to whether I got to keep what I found or not, so no "deal" was ever needed. But the potential in this yard is different. It is on the same block as well known historic homes that belonged to some of the most influential founders of my town. Heck, I only marked 4 very obvious targets and 3 of them were keepers and two were bucket listers (for me anyway). I am positive that there is a lot more to be found there. My enthusiasm of being able to detect this particular yard was obvious but the owner appeared to be more interested in the method of extraction rather than the results. That changed when I dug the Walker. If I learned anything here, I learned not to offer too much in the way of expectations for what might be found.
 
Wow, MT Trashdigger.... great finds and great disappointment too! Would love for you to have been able to keep the Walker and the Barber, your first ones!

At least you know they are out there, and hope you score some keepers soon, that will take some of the sting away.

And I'll echo what a few others have said, if it looks like the owner wants the finds, I tell them "thank you" and walk away. They can buy their own Nox or AT, and spend a few years learning about their machines and how to make good finds.
 
The scratch looks old

Wow, MT Trashdigger.... great finds and great disappointment too! Would love for you to have been able to keep the Walker and the Barber, your first ones!

At least you know they are out there, and hope you score some keepers soon, that will take some of the sting away.

And I'll echo what a few others have said, if it looks like the owner wants the finds, I tell them "thank you" and walk away. They can buy their own Nox or AT, and spend a few years learning about their machines and how to make good finds.

Thanks,
I left this place on very good terms and the owner and I traded business cards. Now that I know the rules with her, I am going back and do a more thorough job before she puts in the landscaping. If I don't, I will always regret it. I have never sold anything I have found and don't plan to ,so I am not doing this for $$$. I just have to think of this place like a trophy trout lake. " Catch and release".. That's better than not fishing at all.
 
Thanks,
I left this place on very good terms and the owner and I traded business cards. Now that I know the rules with her, I am going back and do a more thorough job before she puts in the landscaping. If I don't, I will always regret it. I have never sold anything I have found and don't plan to ,so I am not doing this for $$$. I just have to think of this place like a trophy trout lake. " Catch and release".. That's better than not fishing at all.

Great attitude. There are homes I'll hunt just or the fun of finding out what's actually there versus my expectations. Still, here's hoping she lightens up a bit if and when she lets you back on.
 
I'll second that, great attitude despite losing some wonderful finds!

There are some historic mansions around here (Daly Mansion etc) that I would hunt giving all the finds to the historical society there, just to be able to detect and see how I would do!
 
Great story and excellent finds. It's a shame that you couldn't keep them though. But, you didn't burn any bridges, and maybe she'll let you back and you can keep what you find this time. Here's hoping for a double eagle when that happens :)
 
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