LovestheShiny!
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I wanted to share a story about one of my more unusual finds from 2017...
I was out hunting parking strips in Hamilton, Montana, and noticed a really old man "attempting" to mow his yard. I do keep my eyes open for homeowners, in case I get a chance to ask permission to do a front yard. This guy was having physical difficulty with the mowing, so I put down my AT Pro and offered to mow his yard. He appreciated that and I finished it up right away (and a short lawn is easier to detect than tall grass!). I then asked permission to detect the front lawn, which was not that big. He looked at me and said he was a retired government archeologist! He then laughed and said he used to run people like me out of some of the National Parks! But... he said, go for it on his private property. Coins were very sparse, and near the front sidewalk I got a great signal on the AT Pro, low 90's. About 4-5" down I pulled out a 1951-S Franklin Half! Wow, what a great start!
About 2 feet away, I got another low 90's signal, and thought... this can't be, two silver halves? About 6" down, I pulled out a silver dollar sized round object, with what looked like a bullet hole through it. I took it over to an outdoor faucet and rubbed it a bit, and took a fine toothbrush to it while under running water. It definitely was not silver, and looked like some sort of soft steel coin. I could see writing on one side of the coin... "ALWAYS SHOOT / U.M.C. / CARTRIDGES" - so after finishing the front yard I headed home for research. As it turns out, the Union Metallic Cartridge Company was founded in 1867 in Bridgeport CT. They sold out to Remington Arms in 1912.
These silver dollar sized coins were given away as advertising by Remington, Winchester, UMC, even Annie Oakley had her own marked coins, to be used at the old Wild West Cowboy shows as targets to be shot... tossed up in the air and shot, or set up for trick shooting. Someone had gotten one of these as a souvenir of a visit to one of these shows, and had lost it a long time ago in the front lawn area of this house. It is cool to think about the back story on this great old Western find!
Thank you for your comments and hope folks find this interesting!
I was out hunting parking strips in Hamilton, Montana, and noticed a really old man "attempting" to mow his yard. I do keep my eyes open for homeowners, in case I get a chance to ask permission to do a front yard. This guy was having physical difficulty with the mowing, so I put down my AT Pro and offered to mow his yard. He appreciated that and I finished it up right away (and a short lawn is easier to detect than tall grass!). I then asked permission to detect the front lawn, which was not that big. He looked at me and said he was a retired government archeologist! He then laughed and said he used to run people like me out of some of the National Parks! But... he said, go for it on his private property. Coins were very sparse, and near the front sidewalk I got a great signal on the AT Pro, low 90's. About 4-5" down I pulled out a 1951-S Franklin Half! Wow, what a great start!
About 2 feet away, I got another low 90's signal, and thought... this can't be, two silver halves? About 6" down, I pulled out a silver dollar sized round object, with what looked like a bullet hole through it. I took it over to an outdoor faucet and rubbed it a bit, and took a fine toothbrush to it while under running water. It definitely was not silver, and looked like some sort of soft steel coin. I could see writing on one side of the coin... "ALWAYS SHOOT / U.M.C. / CARTRIDGES" - so after finishing the front yard I headed home for research. As it turns out, the Union Metallic Cartridge Company was founded in 1867 in Bridgeport CT. They sold out to Remington Arms in 1912.
These silver dollar sized coins were given away as advertising by Remington, Winchester, UMC, even Annie Oakley had her own marked coins, to be used at the old Wild West Cowboy shows as targets to be shot... tossed up in the air and shot, or set up for trick shooting. Someone had gotten one of these as a souvenir of a visit to one of these shows, and had lost it a long time ago in the front lawn area of this house. It is cool to think about the back story on this great old Western find!
Thank you for your comments and hope folks find this interesting!
