There's a grade school playground I hit now and then just trying to get better at identifying coin signals vs. trash since I'm a newbie. I've maybe found a dollar's worth of modern coins in the sand. But this small area with sand but no play equipment has given up at least 50-75 pennies, and nothing else except a Hot Wheels. I named it the Penny Garden because it's like somebody planted them and expected them to grow. New enough to have those weird shield back cents, but they've been there a while. All I can come up with is maybe they let the littler kids dig for "buried treasure" and a lot of pennies got missed. Picked another six or eight out tonight and didn't dig some tones that were probably more.
What is up with this "Penny Garden"??
- Thread starter Iggyks
- Start date
GLASSHOPPER1955
Elite Member
We have a city park/playground in our town where all you find are pennies. Pennies everywhere. Only pennies. I've given up detecting there.
Dirty Nails
Elite Member
Three theories:
1) Hard to tell from the photo, but the amount of foot prints indicates it's a heavy traffic area, perhaps a popular hang out during the drop-off/pick-up times.
2) Kids loves trees for hiding behind, leaning against, and climbing. Some of my most productive collection sites have been around old, large tree bases.
3) Perhaps that area is a ticket set-up area for fairs and events at the school.
Enjoy the finds...finding pennies is better than nothing.
1) Hard to tell from the photo, but the amount of foot prints indicates it's a heavy traffic area, perhaps a popular hang out during the drop-off/pick-up times.
2) Kids loves trees for hiding behind, leaning against, and climbing. Some of my most productive collection sites have been around old, large tree bases.
3) Perhaps that area is a ticket set-up area for fairs and events at the school.
Enjoy the finds...finding pennies is better than nothing.
DIGGER27
In Memory Of
I had a park in Kansas wherected an area around a pavilion there were like a million one cent coins...way too many to have just been dropped normally.
Turns out the kids around there played game called penny war where they chased each other around and they threw them to each other.
After years of this the place was saturated.
Turns out the kids around there played game called penny war where they chased each other around and they threw them to each other.
After years of this the place was saturated.
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Skippy SH13
Forum Supporter
I hit a middle school, last year, that had about $12 an hour in quarters dimes and nickels... I pulled close to $80 out of the back field, and my son close to $60, before it ran dry of them.
What was left? Pennies. Pennies, and more pennies. LOL
I went back this year, once, to start to clean them up, looking for small silver rings. No silver rings, but I still managed $6 in new drops in the hour I was there. But yeah, there's pennies everywhere, now. It probably looks like the middle school students only drop pennies, to someone coming behind me!
Silversmith45
Elite Member
When I was the president of a local metal detecting club, we decided to hold a hunt in a park at a nearby town. We chose a shelter house away from the others and began to set up the hunt. While we were doing this, one of the members decided to test her detector next to the shelter. She began finding pennies. She finally just sat down and kept finding more. She had over a hundred when she got tired and quit. Several other members took over and found a lot more. I don't know where they came from. We had just chosen the area to hold a hunt at random.
Another time I began finding wheat cents in a local tot lot. The coins were all in great shape. The ranged from about an inch deep to over six inches. I had hunted there before and never found any. The tot lot wasn't that old. In about two weeks I found over twenty of them. I can only guess that some kid got into his father's coin collection.
Another time I began finding wheat cents in a local tot lot. The coins were all in great shape. The ranged from about an inch deep to over six inches. I had hunted there before and never found any. The tot lot wasn't that old. In about two weeks I found over twenty of them. I can only guess that some kid got into his father's coin collection.
Seaking406
Elite Member
You may call me Mr Money Penny from now on, as all I find in tot lots lately are pennies.. Kids like to feel special by having 'money' in their pockets just like grown ups do but they can't be realistically trusted to carry next week's rent.. so moms and dads give them 'important' pennies to carry to teach them the value of money and how to safe keep them..
And kids being kids, they feel like they are special and the short attention span means that they don't even notice that they've lost it while playing..
Based on discussions with moms who take their kids to the tot lots I was scanning this past spring..
Kind of interesting..
OR.. someone saw you coming and tossed them out to make you feel special.. kinda like paying it forward..
And kids being kids, they feel like they are special and the short attention span means that they don't even notice that they've lost it while playing..
Based on discussions with moms who take their kids to the tot lots I was scanning this past spring..
Kind of interesting..
OR.. someone saw you coming and tossed them out to make you feel special.. kinda like paying it forward..
georgeinsc
Elite Member
Youngsters today want nothing to do with pennies. They will toss them anywhere and everywhere. When i was still working it was nothing to find 20 or 30 pennies on the tables in the break room.
At the beach i find nearly as many pennies as i do other coins;
I wish the Government would do away with those zinc pieces of junk and add a 1 and 2 dollar coin.
At the beach i find nearly as many pennies as i do other coins;
I wish the Government would do away with those zinc pieces of junk and add a 1 and 2 dollar coin.
GLASSHOPPER1955
Elite Member
Amen!!! I agree!
Seaking406
Elite Member
We did that here in Canada which saves the Royal Mint a lot of money, and to be honest, it's so much nicer not having to lug them around.. with our $2 and $1 coins
Some cash registers still rings prices as costing something with pennies in but then we round up or down to the nearest 5 cents.. Makes life so much easier..Similar threads
