Montana Silver! Best day EVAH!

LovestheShiny!

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I had a great day metal detecting last Friday, and a good day on Saturday! I headed up north to Central Montana for an antique bottle show, and brought the AT Pro with me as I knew I would have a lot of free time. A detecting buddy who lives here in the Bitterroot Valley went with me, and we did get in about 8 hrs detecting on both Friday and Saturday, with 6 hrs more on Sunday afternoon before returning to Hamilton MT.

Friday started out with a front yard permission and I pulled out a Mercury dime and a very worn 1872 dated Canadian silver quarter with Queen Victoria on the front. A 1903 "V" nickel also came out of that yard, also a Montana trade token, a clad Kennedy half, a Chinese coin, and some Wheaties. We then went across the street to another front yard permission, and what a yard! My first back to back Standing Liberty quarters followed by a back to back pair of Mercury dimes! Lots of wheaties, a nice 1935 Buffalo nickel, a 1895 Indian Head cent, a 1907 dated G.N.R.R. employee tool check, and two more Mercury dimes rounded out that yard. A couple of more front yard permissions produced a small sterling silver ring with stone, and the usual clad and a few wheaties. We finally caught a guy home that had a huge front yard, and secured permission there, with the caveat that we could keep all the coins but he wanted the relics to stay with him, as part of the history of the home. No problem! Carefully searching in the grass, I found two Mercury dimes, and a nice looking 1909 Barber quarter. One unusual find... near the front sidewalk about 15 feet into the yard I got a screaming signal, a bit large for a coin but based on the quality of what we were finding, I decided to dig. About 12" down, I saw what might have been a large block of lead or silver. Digging it out, it turned out to be a 5 lb ingot of lead. Stamped on top was "BUNKER HILL / PAT. APP'D FOR." Very cool and unusual. This famous mine was located in Kellogg, Idaho. I gave that to the homeowner and don't have a pic. I also found a few lead toy figurines and odd stuff. My buddy found a very nice brass G.N.R.R. marked key that he did get to keep. I was very thankful for my finds, my best day ever with 11 silver coins and a silver ring, along with lots of cool stuff!

Saturday started slowly, but as the day went on I did well, first silver coin from a curb strip was a Standing Liberty Quarter. The rest of the day produced lots of clad and modern coins, along with 4 more Mercury Dimes and a Silver Rosie.

On Sunday, we decided to try a different neighborhood that just looked juicy. The detecting wasn't that "juicy" unfortunately! We had a few permissions and did a lot of parking strips, there were tons of copper memorial pennies, I found 56 of those, along with just one Mercury dime that day, and an interesting Franklin Mint Sacajawea Shoshone Indian coin. We ran into a few folks that had detectors or had watched others detect that area and we did not find much older stuff. I had to work hard for about 12 wheaties and that one silver dime.

Totals for me for the 3 days were 124 Memorials, 55 Wheaties, 9 Jefferson nickels, 27 clad dimes, and 21 clad quarters, 18 silver coins and 1 silver ring, along with the other items I mentioned rounded out the weekend. Am very happy and grateful for some wonderful finds!
 

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Wow! Some amazing coinshooting! Nice work. Congrats.


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Thank you for the comments! Was a bit sore today but not too bad. Lots of deep knee bends getting those coins!
 
Cellrdwellr! Hah! - no, though I was recently back in Pittsburgh for my favorite uncle's 100th Birthday party, maybe that will count!

Actually, there is a large billboard near Superior, Montana along I-90 that advertises for a tourist shop in St. Regis, MT, for Huckleberry Milkshakes, with the words "Best - Shake - EVAH!" and that came to mind for the title of my story.
 
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