AirmetTango
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Today I headed back to a nearby trashy park that was good to me earlier this year with a few silvers and some other good finds among lots of junk. The last couple hunts there have been slow going and not really turning anything up - the best find in the previous two hunts was a '40 Wheat and a couple broken pieces from an old pocket watch, the rest was just a few clad coins and plenty of pull tabs.
Today pretty much continued that theme, but the park continues to prove that it still has a few fun finds hidden among the trash. Within about 15 minutes of starting, I ran across a high tone right in the copper penny range - the depth was indicating 6", which was consistent with where I find Wheaties on the site, so there was no question to dig. I ended up having to go a little deeper than that, maybe 7", but I suddenly saw the shine of silver, and it clearly wasn't a coin! The seashell shape was obvious as soon as I popped it up from the bottom of the hole. I was so excited to have my first silver in a couple weeks that I completely forgot to take a field pic - but boy, did it look pretty in the hole! It's one of those earrings that just clips to the earlobe, and it was in one piece when I took it out of the hole - but as I swished it around in a bucket of water at home to get the mud out of the back, the clip separated from the rest of the earring Don't know if I put too much pressure on it while I was rinsing, or if it was just being held together by the mud Regardless, it's pretty big - can't imagine you wouldn't notice that baby falling off! The flat button next to it in the picture is exactly the size of a penny to give an idea of scale. The screw marked "sterling" that adjusts the clip to fit to the wearer's earlobe still easily turns in and out!
After the earring, I spent an absurd amount of time chasing pulltabs and other trash. For some reason that I can't figure out just yet, pulltabs have suddenly decided to false high on my machine for the last few hunts...each of the pull rings and beaver tails in the full hunt pic rang up in the silver range - bouncy for sure - but on the high side enough to entice me to dig, especially since the silver coins I've found at the park were all in spills which caused very bouncy VDI readings. They mostly bounced around from high 60s to low 80s in the ground, some less bouncy between mid 70s to low 80s - sounded just like the spills, and indicating at the same 6" depth. Once out of the ground, they rang their standard solid 50-55 or so, depending on the tab. I re-ground balanced several times, even reset the machine, but I continued to get "fooled". I'm really not sure why the machine is "up-scaling" the tabs - I know it wasn't doing it before, and I've hunted this site many times now - but it's probably some noob mistake I'm making!
I was getting a little tired of the trash, and my time was running low, so I decided to scout an area of the park I hadn't hit before to finish up the hunt.
I picked a random area and swung in a line for a bit, just to gauge the area for my next hunt. I hit on a barely high tone - in fact, it was right on the border, fluctuating between mid and high tones. Numbers were between 73 and 76, but sometimes dipping as low as 68. I fully expected another pulltab or maybe a relatively deep Zincoln - so I was amazed to see a full flat button pop out from 6" down, shank and all! Cleaning it up at home, the backmark is pretty cool - I love that it uses the British spelling in "Real Gold Colour" along with the fairly intricate embellishments on the back. Clearly the button was gilt originally, but the "Real Gold Colour" made me chuckle - I couldn't help but think of an old wallet I had growing up that was actually stamped "Genuine Imitation Cowhide" I also never cease to be amazed that these flat buttons are often plain and blank on the front, and all the embellishment was placed on the back where no one but a metal detectorist a century and a half into the future would see it!
Today pretty much continued that theme, but the park continues to prove that it still has a few fun finds hidden among the trash. Within about 15 minutes of starting, I ran across a high tone right in the copper penny range - the depth was indicating 6", which was consistent with where I find Wheaties on the site, so there was no question to dig. I ended up having to go a little deeper than that, maybe 7", but I suddenly saw the shine of silver, and it clearly wasn't a coin! The seashell shape was obvious as soon as I popped it up from the bottom of the hole. I was so excited to have my first silver in a couple weeks that I completely forgot to take a field pic - but boy, did it look pretty in the hole! It's one of those earrings that just clips to the earlobe, and it was in one piece when I took it out of the hole - but as I swished it around in a bucket of water at home to get the mud out of the back, the clip separated from the rest of the earring Don't know if I put too much pressure on it while I was rinsing, or if it was just being held together by the mud Regardless, it's pretty big - can't imagine you wouldn't notice that baby falling off! The flat button next to it in the picture is exactly the size of a penny to give an idea of scale. The screw marked "sterling" that adjusts the clip to fit to the wearer's earlobe still easily turns in and out!
After the earring, I spent an absurd amount of time chasing pulltabs and other trash. For some reason that I can't figure out just yet, pulltabs have suddenly decided to false high on my machine for the last few hunts...each of the pull rings and beaver tails in the full hunt pic rang up in the silver range - bouncy for sure - but on the high side enough to entice me to dig, especially since the silver coins I've found at the park were all in spills which caused very bouncy VDI readings. They mostly bounced around from high 60s to low 80s in the ground, some less bouncy between mid 70s to low 80s - sounded just like the spills, and indicating at the same 6" depth. Once out of the ground, they rang their standard solid 50-55 or so, depending on the tab. I re-ground balanced several times, even reset the machine, but I continued to get "fooled". I'm really not sure why the machine is "up-scaling" the tabs - I know it wasn't doing it before, and I've hunted this site many times now - but it's probably some noob mistake I'm making!
I was getting a little tired of the trash, and my time was running low, so I decided to scout an area of the park I hadn't hit before to finish up the hunt.
I picked a random area and swung in a line for a bit, just to gauge the area for my next hunt. I hit on a barely high tone - in fact, it was right on the border, fluctuating between mid and high tones. Numbers were between 73 and 76, but sometimes dipping as low as 68. I fully expected another pulltab or maybe a relatively deep Zincoln - so I was amazed to see a full flat button pop out from 6" down, shank and all! Cleaning it up at home, the backmark is pretty cool - I love that it uses the British spelling in "Real Gold Colour" along with the fairly intricate embellishments on the back. Clearly the button was gilt originally, but the "Real Gold Colour" made me chuckle - I couldn't help but think of an old wallet I had growing up that was actually stamped "Genuine Imitation Cowhide" I also never cease to be amazed that these flat buttons are often plain and blank on the front, and all the embellishment was placed on the back where no one but a metal detectorist a century and a half into the future would see it!
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