I thought you guys might find this story interesting. It happened last July, before I joined this forum. Some of you may have seen it on the Findmall forum.
My son Dave, my buddy Mike, and I went to an old gold mining town a couple of hours from home. There are TONS of square nails and other ferrous trash, and lots of bullets of various ages, mostly very shallow. We hunted for about 7 hours, and the only thing I found worth keeping were 2 dimes. The 1850 was only about an inch deep. The 1860 was under about 3" of forest duff plus maybe a half inch of dirt.
Mike and Dave got skunked, if you don't count bullets and square nails.
A week later, Mike and I went back to the same place. We hunted again for about 7 hours, and the only keepers were this quarter and a barrel spigot. The spigot was basically in the same hole as the quarter, off to the side about 4 inches. There was also a 1" square of rusty sheet metal in the same hole, so the original signal was really confusing. The quarter was only down an inch or two. The spigot was about 4" down, partially under a buried rock.
Poor Mike got skunked again, but a couple of weeks later, we went back, and he got a target that ID'ed as a quarter. I watched him dig it, and when it turned up, we thought it was an aluminum slug, it was that worn. The only detail visible on the obverse side was a man's head in profile, and the last 2 digits of the date. We thought it read '96, but that made no sense, given that the town was built way before that, and abandoned after about 3 years. After looking at it with a magnifying glass, we concluded that the "9" was actually a very scrolly "2". The reverse side had no detail to speak of. When I got home, I looked in my red book, and there were no US quarters with that profile on it. I think I next checked Canadian coins, and finally found a match in the 1826 British shilling. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of it to post.
We'll go back this summer after the snow melts (this is in the mountains). We have to find a way to break through the nails, cans, and other ferrous trash. We both tried switching to ferrous tones. It was helpful, I think, but we didn't find any coins that way. I bought my 8"X6"SEF coil since then. Maybe it will help.
My son Dave, my buddy Mike, and I went to an old gold mining town a couple of hours from home. There are TONS of square nails and other ferrous trash, and lots of bullets of various ages, mostly very shallow. We hunted for about 7 hours, and the only thing I found worth keeping were 2 dimes. The 1850 was only about an inch deep. The 1860 was under about 3" of forest duff plus maybe a half inch of dirt.
Mike and Dave got skunked, if you don't count bullets and square nails.
A week later, Mike and I went back to the same place. We hunted again for about 7 hours, and the only keepers were this quarter and a barrel spigot. The spigot was basically in the same hole as the quarter, off to the side about 4 inches. There was also a 1" square of rusty sheet metal in the same hole, so the original signal was really confusing. The quarter was only down an inch or two. The spigot was about 4" down, partially under a buried rock.
Poor Mike got skunked again, but a couple of weeks later, we went back, and he got a target that ID'ed as a quarter. I watched him dig it, and when it turned up, we thought it was an aluminum slug, it was that worn. The only detail visible on the obverse side was a man's head in profile, and the last 2 digits of the date. We thought it read '96, but that made no sense, given that the town was built way before that, and abandoned after about 3 years. After looking at it with a magnifying glass, we concluded that the "9" was actually a very scrolly "2". The reverse side had no detail to speak of. When I got home, I looked in my red book, and there were no US quarters with that profile on it. I think I next checked Canadian coins, and finally found a match in the 1826 British shilling. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of it to post.
We'll go back this summer after the snow melts (this is in the mountains). We have to find a way to break through the nails, cans, and other ferrous trash. We both tried switching to ferrous tones. It was helpful, I think, but we didn't find any coins that way. I bought my 8"X6"SEF coil since then. Maybe it will help.
