My first playground / tot-lot experience

Fooleeze

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2018
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340
Location
Copley, OH
Since I've been on a bit of a dry spell, I decided to get up early and visit a local playground. It's my first time trying out a playground / ball field, everything up until now has been private permissions for me. It's not an old playground, so I had no expectations of finding anything old.

I was surprised at the amount of coins I could pull in a matter of only and hour or two. It's amazing what kids will drop. I came out with about $3.07 in Clad, including a modern half-dollar that was sitting on the surface. I also found a Canadian Toonie just laying on the surface.

So it felt good to hear some good signals and pull some real coins. I'll go back and expand my search, this time I really covered the mulch beds under the playground equipment, and a few passes around the baseball field. I'm sure there is more to find.
 
I never 'diss those that do nothing but tot-lots and sand boxes. There was a older retired local hunter in my area, who did nothing BUT a continuous route of sand boxes and tot-lots. He had them on a map and calendar, such that he'd perpetually hit every single one on a monthly basis. This was his exercise and reason to get out every other day.

One day we were talking about md'ing, and I chided him that he was never going to get old coins in "sand boxes " like that. But then he opened up his collection boxes, and I was surprised at how many gold items he had amassed in a single year. Oh ... sure ... it wasn't that often (just a gold item every other week or so). But by the end of the year, he had hundreds & hundreds worth of clad, and 20-ish gold rings per year, etc....
 
If it wasn't for playgrounds and ball fields I'd become bored with this hobby. Not only that but they usually produce quite a bit of clad which can be converted to silver after cashing it in, not to mention sterling jewelry.
I'll take a pocket full of clads any day rather than spend 5 hours digging pull tabs hoping for a piece of gold that rarely ever pops out of the ground.
 
I love tot lots, if I'm traveling home from a job and I get caught in heavy traffic I find the nearest school or park with a tot lot and let traffic go by for an hour or so. Much more fun!
 
Usually easy digging and might produce all kinds of goodies.
Here in Bama they don't seem to be hunted so much, back in Kansas they were a lot cleaner so someone was hunting a lot of them often.
Still, out west I found a lot of clad and several foreign coins for some reason and here more clad and some decent jewelry here and there.
Usually fun to hunt for me but most are being covered up with those thick rubber coatings nowadays.
 
For some reason, I don't get a lot of clads at the playgrounds here. Most are smaller in size but usually do produce a few clads and a bit of gold or silver jewelry on a rare occasion. There are no larger cities in my general area.
 
I enjoy hitting the tot lots every now and again... haven’t found silver or gold in one yet, but I know it will come someday
 
Welp, I guess I'll keep going back!

I guess it IS worth it! Because I found a good amount in a short period of time, I went back today and found a moderate amount of clad, and found my first silver, 925, jewelry! A small charm, I believe, but stamped 925. Sweet!
And still PLENTY of ground to cover (It's quite a big park).
 
When ever I visit my grandkids I go to tot lots where they go to school at. A few years ago I went to visit and they had moved the monkey bars to a new location, about 30 feet away from where it was. They had new monkey bars and a little lower than the old one's. I got a nickel signal on my at pro and expecting a nickel and out pops two gold ring's, one inside the other. The smaller was a 14k and the larger one was a 10k, I guess you could say a gold ring spill. So I said all that to say that tot lots are cool.
 
Playgrounds are great. Whilst I find heaps more coins in the grass, I still hunt playgrounds every now and then. Mainly because it's easy digging, but most tot lots in Perth are hunted by other detectorists, or, as I've recently discovered, are getting cleaned by companies who specialise in "cleaning" playgrounds with sand sifters.

I've come across playgrounds which have produced incredibly well. At a country school playground I got over $52 in an hour, and at a nearby volleyball court I also got about $55 in 1.5 hours. Later this week I'm going on a short holiday to a place which is near one of the best producing playgrounds I've found. Usually you can find between $25 - $40 within half and hour, but unfortunately it's on private property (by a restaurant which accepts cash only) and I've been told to leave on one occasion. So you can imagine how quickly I go through that place! :lol:

That being said, I don't often find jewellery in playgrounds. One gold pendant last year (my first tot-lot gold) and only about a dozen silver pieces.
 
I like hitting the tot lots, easy digging and no can slaw, when you find one that hasn't been hunted and gets regular use they usually pay out pretty good. One lot I found last year gave up over 18 bucks in clad in about 4 hours, went back the next day and pulled another 6 bucks and a gold charm in about 2 hours.. If I had spots that regularly produced silver coins I might skip them but around here clad is king. I've only averaged about 5 silver coins a year, I think all my public spots must have been pounded for silver back in the 80s, but clad and jewelry hunting is good fun so I'm not complaining. Good luck on your next outing!
 
tot lots.

I love hitting the tot lot's, I have found lot's of clad, gold and silver in them and the grass strips around them where the parents sit.
 
I don't find a lot in Tot lots but more around the sport fields. I still check the Tot lots hoping for the gold. ;)

Ray
 
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