Street Project Bucketlister - 1871 Seated Half

milco · Oct 22, 2020

I made it out for about 90 minutes at a street project last night before dusk and into the dark and made some great finds, including this solid and sweet 33-34 on the Nox. I pulled out a large grey disc and I knew I had a coin and suspected it was a half. When I got back to the car I could see the seated liberty design and was blown away. Earlier this year I found two 1876 seated dimes at this same spot on the other side of the street, now I just need to find the quarter

Unfortunately, the half being under a sidewalk for the past 125+ years, was not kind to it and it is very pitted and a bit toasted on the back, but I'm not complaining one bit.

Other finds included 1901 and 1905 V Nickels, three IH's, a Merc, a Wash Q and quite a few wheat cents. And yes, that is the top to an empty coin purse clasp with bits of leather still inside.

This definitely made, what has been an awesome year of MDing, even better!
Thanks for looking!

Tom_in_CA · Oct 22, 2020

Luv those old-town demolition projects. Great pix and play-by-play.

deeper · Oct 22, 2020

How you keep coming up with these construction projects is amazing. I’m sure the seated half is on nearly everyone’s bucket list. Congrats!

milco · Oct 22, 2020

deeper said:
How you keep coming up with these construction projects is amazing. I’m sure the seated half is on nearly everyone’s bucket list. Congrats!

Thank you! These are the same street projects. I and others just go back often, even daily, as you just never know what’s going to be dug up!

GroundSweeper · Oct 23, 2020

Congrats on the seated half! That’s a dream find for me!

AIRFORCEMIKE · Oct 23, 2020

Toast or not toast that’s a great save buddy! Has been a awesome year for you! Even having the pleasure of hunting with you and catching up was great! Keep it up and hope to see again soon!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

sube · Oct 23, 2020

One thing about street projects those coins are pitted because well in the old days they had horses piss !!!! and concreate leaching down from above . I don't know if it's the concreate that gives them the gray color or horse stuff.

Fairgrounds give the same grey disc maybe horse stuff or just being in the ground for over a 100 years but coppers really take a beating (horse stuff i guess) sube

davedude · Oct 23, 2020

groundsweeper said:
congrats on the seated half! That’s a dream find for me!

+1000!

Jamflicker · Oct 23, 2020

Awesome seated half. Still looking for my first one of those. Congrats!

milco · Oct 23, 2020

AIRFORCEMIKE said:
Toast or not toast that’s a great save buddy! Has been a awesome year for you! Even having the pleasure of hunting with you and catching up was great! Keep it up and hope to see again soon!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Mike! Been a crazy year and look forward to seeing you out there the next time!

Wom 27 · Oct 23, 2020

Lots of fun !!!

ToySoldier · Oct 24, 2020

Goes to show how many pre-1920's coins are locked away under streets and sidewalks.

Around here they never take the street out down to the dirt. They just grind it down a bit and pour another layer. As for sidewalks, very rarely do I see a tear out get left open over night. They either fill them in with gravel the same day they tear them out or they fasten down this heavy fabric to stop rain from filling it up. If they're doing several blocks then they'll finish what they start before moving on to the next instead of leaving them unfinished for days on end.

Tom_in_CA · Oct 24, 2020

ToySoldier said:
Goes to show how many pre-1920's coins are locked away under streets and sidewalks.

Around here they never take the street out down to the dirt. They just grind it down a bit and pour another layer. As for sidewalks, very rarely do I see a tear out get left open over night. They either fill them in with gravel the same day they tear them out or they fasten down this heavy fabric to stop rain from filling it up. If they're doing several blocks then they'll finish what they start before moving on to the next instead of leaving them unfinished for days on end.

Good post. And as someone who works around the asphalt paving industry, you're right : When streets are being worked on, they only "grind" the asphalt down to a few inches, and then repave. They do NOT go down to native dirt. But only to the DG ("decomposed granite compressed-fill) layer.

But to the un-trained eye, if the grinding took it down to the DG layer, it might *look* like native dirt. But it's not.

Contrast to sidewalk demolitions, they were often laid right on the native dirt back-in-the-day. Contrast to asphalt streets, which were engineered to handle the weight of heavy motor vehicles. VS sidewalks which only support pedestrians, did not need the engineering of a layer of compressed DG back when built.

Therefore old-town street tearouts /grinding are rarely, if ever, any good. Sidewalk tearouts have much better odds.

metaladdict · Oct 24, 2020

GroundSweeper said:
Congrats on the seated half! That’s a dream find for me!

Yeah, me too!

milco · Oct 25, 2020

Tom_in_CA said:
Good post. And as someone who works around the asphalt paving industry, you're right : When streets are being worked on, they only "grind" the asphalt down to a few inches, and then repave. They do NOT go down to native dirt. But only to the DG ("decomposed granite compressed-fill) layer.

But to the un-trained eye, if the grinding took it down to the DG layer, it might *look* like native dirt. But it's not.

Contrast to sidewalk demolitions, they were often laid right on the native dirt back-in-the-day. Contrast to asphalt streets, which were engineered to handle the weight of heavy motor vehicles. VS sidewalks which only support pedestrians, did not need the engineering of a layer of compressed DG back when built.

Therefore old-town street tearouts /grinding are rarely, if ever, any good. Sidewalk tearouts have much better odds.

Around here they sometimes due basic concrete work on the edge and then grind down and resurface the streets like you mention. But often, in other cases, they do tear out the entire street down to the original road grade. In some cases you can tell what the original road grade is and other times not. I usually also speak to the contractor and they have the plans from the city and can tell you if they are getting down to old road bed or not. You are correct, sidewalk replacements are usually more productive, but every once and awhile a street project in an old part of town can be very productive.

Here is one of my earlier posts with pictures and finds exclusively from the street, that according to city plans dated back to the 1880's and had never been torn up since, only built up upon the top over the years.

https://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=285520

Thank you for looking!

Street Project Bucketlister - 1871 Seated Half

milco

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Tom_in_CA

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deeper

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milco

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GroundSweeper

AIRFORCEMIKE

sube

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davedude

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Jamflicker

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milco

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Wom 27

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ToySoldier

Tom_in_CA

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metaladdict

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milco

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