AirmetTango
Forum Supporter
Got the opportunity to hunt a private home in town today - a colleague of my wife's bought the house recently, and I actually helped her put a better age on the house based on Sanborn Fire Insurance maps. There was a fire at the court house in our town at some point, and many of the records for the early 20th century were lost. So many of the older homes in the area have their build date listed as 1900 even when they are much older or newer. The Sanborn maps helped narrowed her "new" home down to between Jan 1915 and August 1925.
Anyway she was thrilled to have me come out and see what I could find with the detector. Although my time was short today, I couldn't pass up the great weather and at least get started at the property. I started in the front yard, which was pretty small - I figured I probably had enough time to do the front, then leave the back for another day. Well the front was almost void of all targets! I had a little problem with EMI, but I think the real problem might have been fill dirt. Anyway, the only arguably "non trash" target out of the front was a big, brass number "8" about 5" down - clearly an old street address marker. Odd thing is, the only house with an "8" in the address anywhere nearby was across the street and several doors down! Kinda makes you wonder, why did it end up here?!?
My time was running out for the day, but I was pretty disappointed with the front yard - just the "8", some trash, and two Lincoln cents: one copper, one zinc. I decided to move to the back for my last 15 minutes, mainly to try and decide if it would even be worth coming back. Within a couple minutes, I got over a high tone 78-79...a little to high for most but not all zincolns, and a little too low for a copper Memorial. Depth was showing only about 4", so I was assuming I'd be popping a zincoln. I was surprised to see a coin the size of a quarter with a green tinge come out...a quick swipe showed the hole was empty, and this was no quarter. A closer look at the dirt crusted coin showed a prominent "2" superimposed on a "C" - I started excitedly thinking, "is this a 2 cent piece??" Then I could see a partial date, too - a "19" was pretty prominent, so I knew this couldn't be a US 2-cent. Maybe Canadian? Nope...clean up at home revealed my new oldest foreign coin - a 1939 Mexican 2 Centavos coin!
Soon after that came the 1900 Indian in pretty nice shape, only 2-3" below the surface. The signal wasn't great thanks to the pollution in the hole - the nail next to the Indian in the full hunt pic was in the hole with it!
I found a few more pennies after that, oddly at 4-6" depths - deeper than the Indian. Regardless, it looks like the backyard will be well worth returning to hunt again!
Anyway she was thrilled to have me come out and see what I could find with the detector. Although my time was short today, I couldn't pass up the great weather and at least get started at the property. I started in the front yard, which was pretty small - I figured I probably had enough time to do the front, then leave the back for another day. Well the front was almost void of all targets! I had a little problem with EMI, but I think the real problem might have been fill dirt. Anyway, the only arguably "non trash" target out of the front was a big, brass number "8" about 5" down - clearly an old street address marker. Odd thing is, the only house with an "8" in the address anywhere nearby was across the street and several doors down! Kinda makes you wonder, why did it end up here?!?
My time was running out for the day, but I was pretty disappointed with the front yard - just the "8", some trash, and two Lincoln cents: one copper, one zinc. I decided to move to the back for my last 15 minutes, mainly to try and decide if it would even be worth coming back. Within a couple minutes, I got over a high tone 78-79...a little to high for most but not all zincolns, and a little too low for a copper Memorial. Depth was showing only about 4", so I was assuming I'd be popping a zincoln. I was surprised to see a coin the size of a quarter with a green tinge come out...a quick swipe showed the hole was empty, and this was no quarter. A closer look at the dirt crusted coin showed a prominent "2" superimposed on a "C" - I started excitedly thinking, "is this a 2 cent piece??" Then I could see a partial date, too - a "19" was pretty prominent, so I knew this couldn't be a US 2-cent. Maybe Canadian? Nope...clean up at home revealed my new oldest foreign coin - a 1939 Mexican 2 Centavos coin!
Soon after that came the 1900 Indian in pretty nice shape, only 2-3" below the surface. The signal wasn't great thanks to the pollution in the hole - the nail next to the Indian in the full hunt pic was in the hole with it!
I found a few more pennies after that, oddly at 4-6" depths - deeper than the Indian. Regardless, it looks like the backyard will be well worth returning to hunt again!
Attachments
Last edited:
