DIGGER27
In Memory Of
In an small park near my house that I have hit a million times that I knew there used to be an neighborhood built on this spot that was all knocked down when they built a freeway near here.
I have found a ton of clad in this park in the past, some wheaties and even 3 steel cents on one hunt which was crazy but never anything else much older.
This morning it was cool so I thought I would just pop over here and dig a few things in the short time I have today.
I was hunting in a small strip near the street, this would have been the front lawns of some of those small houses.
Mostly came across junk, tabs, pop and screw off tops, can slaw, but then I got a decent high tone around the quarter area on my F70...also still using the new Nel Sharpshooter coil.
Unusually solid and not jumpy and even though it painted huge like a can i went after it anyway.
Up comes this large heavy watch case, no guts, made of nickel silver...which is not silver, just a name of the cheaper alloy using combinations of copper, nickel and zinc.
Info I found states this particular case is made out of mostly nickel.
Later I scraped off the crud on the inside back and got a name and serial number, the Illinois Watch Case Co. and found a website with those serial number dates but those were for their movements...there are no surviving lists for dates on watch cases from this company.
Still, gotta believe this is an 1800's model.
The company moved from Chicago to Elgin in the late 1880's and started to use the name Elgin on their cases in 1891 and the Elgin Watch Co. was not too happy about that so they ended up in court several times over the years.
Still, no Elgin on this case so a big clue and I am pretty confident this case is pre 1900
A few minutes later I got a bit bouncy nickel signal and from very shallow, maybe only about 2", up comes a nickel sized disc but so crusted over I thought it might be just junk.
This soil does a real number on coins sometimes that have been sitting in the dirt for about 100 years.
After a bit of cleaning using a twig I found on the ground lots of that crust came off and I see stars around one edge and part of a bust.
Holy Moly, I think I got a V nickel here!
A bit more scrubbing with that twig and I see a date, a little wrecked and scarred but I believe it is 1888....might be 1892.
Either way I am thrilled to hit the 1800's.
I found 2 other V's in the past but both were so smooth it was difficult to ID them, this one is way better and eventually I could make out the V on the back.
A bonus is I got a few contests going with bruinvikes for the whole year, not a bet for anything else but glory...I figure it will keep us both pushing forward for the whole season.
One is for oldest coin and he had me beat with a 1906 Indian...till now.
He has his work cut out for him after this one, even at his older sites in his nice Ohio soil.
Broke into the 1800's for the first time this year in a surprising way on a nothing hunt...don't you just love when that happens in this hobby?
I have found a ton of clad in this park in the past, some wheaties and even 3 steel cents on one hunt which was crazy but never anything else much older.
This morning it was cool so I thought I would just pop over here and dig a few things in the short time I have today.
I was hunting in a small strip near the street, this would have been the front lawns of some of those small houses.
Mostly came across junk, tabs, pop and screw off tops, can slaw, but then I got a decent high tone around the quarter area on my F70...also still using the new Nel Sharpshooter coil.
Unusually solid and not jumpy and even though it painted huge like a can i went after it anyway.
Up comes this large heavy watch case, no guts, made of nickel silver...which is not silver, just a name of the cheaper alloy using combinations of copper, nickel and zinc.
Info I found states this particular case is made out of mostly nickel.
Later I scraped off the crud on the inside back and got a name and serial number, the Illinois Watch Case Co. and found a website with those serial number dates but those were for their movements...there are no surviving lists for dates on watch cases from this company.
Still, gotta believe this is an 1800's model.
The company moved from Chicago to Elgin in the late 1880's and started to use the name Elgin on their cases in 1891 and the Elgin Watch Co. was not too happy about that so they ended up in court several times over the years.
Still, no Elgin on this case so a big clue and I am pretty confident this case is pre 1900
A few minutes later I got a bit bouncy nickel signal and from very shallow, maybe only about 2", up comes a nickel sized disc but so crusted over I thought it might be just junk.
This soil does a real number on coins sometimes that have been sitting in the dirt for about 100 years.
After a bit of cleaning using a twig I found on the ground lots of that crust came off and I see stars around one edge and part of a bust.
Holy Moly, I think I got a V nickel here!
A bit more scrubbing with that twig and I see a date, a little wrecked and scarred but I believe it is 1888....might be 1892.
Either way I am thrilled to hit the 1800's.
I found 2 other V's in the past but both were so smooth it was difficult to ID them, this one is way better and eventually I could make out the V on the back.
A bonus is I got a few contests going with bruinvikes for the whole year, not a bet for anything else but glory...I figure it will keep us both pushing forward for the whole season.
One is for oldest coin and he had me beat with a 1906 Indian...till now.
He has his work cut out for him after this one, even at his older sites in his nice Ohio soil.
Broke into the 1800's for the first time this year in a surprising way on a nothing hunt...don't you just love when that happens in this hobby?
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