angellionel
Elite Member
Late Saturday afternoon I grabbed my DFX and headed to another site I had recently scouted. The site is heavily wooded, with some partially open fields, and a few areas with groves of pine trees having grassy trails in between them. The trails weren’t covered with snow, though most of the open fields were.
I worked the trails and soon began to dig up memorial cents, clad dimes and quarters. Nothing was hitting deeper than 4 ? inches, and the tones were quite solid. As I detected near the pine trees, where the roots were rising from the soil, I hit on a few wheaties, the oldest being 1940. This heightened my confidence in the site, and so was carefully listening for the deeper sounding tones. After a long while I did hit on two deep sounding signals, with the depth reading between 7 and 7 1/2 in each case. The targets ended up being old wheaties, dated 1926 and 1928. It was now getting dark, so I headed back home, but fully intending to return early Sunday if the weather held up.
By 10:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, the temperature was holding at 33 degrees, it was cloudy, but there was no wind. I grabbed my DFX, checked the batteries, and headed back to the site. I picked up from where I had left off the prior day, and again began to hit on clad coins, all relatively shallow. After about 20 minutes, I hit on a strong tone, with a VDI of about 81, and registering at 7 inches. Digging up the target revealed a Barber dime, dated 1912-D. Not bad! Some 15 minutes later, DFX gave a strong signal near one of the pine trees, though the depth was reading at only 4 inches. A clad quarter, I thought, but out pops a silver Washington quarter, dated 1942-D!
Continuing on, I dug up a few more wheaties and clad coins, then, near the end of the trail, I received another nice tone, registering at 6 inches. After cutting a plug and removing some soil, I picked up a merc, dated 1926. Beautiful! I worked the remaining ground for the next 30 minutes, then I walked over to the edge of the wooded grounds. Much of it was covered in snow, so kept walking for a while, until I arrived at a clearing, where a few old trees midway down the hill beckoned at me. I had to be careful while walking down the hill, since the ground was wet, otherwise I would end up being a growing rolling giant snowball!
There were many shrubs and a few thorn bushes I had to contend with, but the area was workable. The ground was muddy too, due to the melting snow. I began by detecting over the more open areas, and hit on two wheaties, 1926 and 1940, as well as a few pieces of rusted metal. One gnarly tree, with branches stretching out over the shrubs caught my attention. I began to work my way towards it, when I hit on a good signal, with a VDI of 80 and registering at 7 inches. Working through the wet, muddy soil was a pain, and now my gloves where clogged with dirt. The target ended being a 1911 Barber dime. That made dealing with the mud bearable.
When I finally started to work the base of the tree, walking all around it, I received a very strong signal, with a VDI of 92 and the depth reading at 5 inches. Again, dealing with the muddy soil, I managed to retrieve a large coin, though I really couldn?’t tell what it was, due to the encrusted soil. I didn’t want to risk scratching the coin by scraping off some of the soil, so I wrapped it in tissue and placed it in my pouch. It wasn?’t until I was home that I was able to determine that it was a 1942 Walking Liberty half! It’s badly stained, due to the type of soil it was in, but otherwise it's in very nice shape. Swinging the coil in the immediate area, I hit on another strong signal, again with a VDI of 92. This time I was able to make out what it was, though it also was stained – a 1901-O Barber half! Two half dollars under that tree, incredible! 8)
I found a few more coins after that, including two wheaties, but no more silver. It was now a little after 2:00 p.m. as it began to rain. That ground was sure to become muddier, so I left, but I will be returning to that site, that’s for sure.
Angel
This is a scan of the half dollars before the encrusted soil was removed.
Here they are after removing soil. They are still stained, so I will have to work on that.
The rest of the silver.
The wheaties.
I worked the trails and soon began to dig up memorial cents, clad dimes and quarters. Nothing was hitting deeper than 4 ? inches, and the tones were quite solid. As I detected near the pine trees, where the roots were rising from the soil, I hit on a few wheaties, the oldest being 1940. This heightened my confidence in the site, and so was carefully listening for the deeper sounding tones. After a long while I did hit on two deep sounding signals, with the depth reading between 7 and 7 1/2 in each case. The targets ended up being old wheaties, dated 1926 and 1928. It was now getting dark, so I headed back home, but fully intending to return early Sunday if the weather held up.
By 10:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, the temperature was holding at 33 degrees, it was cloudy, but there was no wind. I grabbed my DFX, checked the batteries, and headed back to the site. I picked up from where I had left off the prior day, and again began to hit on clad coins, all relatively shallow. After about 20 minutes, I hit on a strong tone, with a VDI of about 81, and registering at 7 inches. Digging up the target revealed a Barber dime, dated 1912-D. Not bad! Some 15 minutes later, DFX gave a strong signal near one of the pine trees, though the depth was reading at only 4 inches. A clad quarter, I thought, but out pops a silver Washington quarter, dated 1942-D!
Continuing on, I dug up a few more wheaties and clad coins, then, near the end of the trail, I received another nice tone, registering at 6 inches. After cutting a plug and removing some soil, I picked up a merc, dated 1926. Beautiful! I worked the remaining ground for the next 30 minutes, then I walked over to the edge of the wooded grounds. Much of it was covered in snow, so kept walking for a while, until I arrived at a clearing, where a few old trees midway down the hill beckoned at me. I had to be careful while walking down the hill, since the ground was wet, otherwise I would end up being a growing rolling giant snowball!
There were many shrubs and a few thorn bushes I had to contend with, but the area was workable. The ground was muddy too, due to the melting snow. I began by detecting over the more open areas, and hit on two wheaties, 1926 and 1940, as well as a few pieces of rusted metal. One gnarly tree, with branches stretching out over the shrubs caught my attention. I began to work my way towards it, when I hit on a good signal, with a VDI of 80 and registering at 7 inches. Working through the wet, muddy soil was a pain, and now my gloves where clogged with dirt. The target ended being a 1911 Barber dime. That made dealing with the mud bearable.
When I finally started to work the base of the tree, walking all around it, I received a very strong signal, with a VDI of 92 and the depth reading at 5 inches. Again, dealing with the muddy soil, I managed to retrieve a large coin, though I really couldn?’t tell what it was, due to the encrusted soil. I didn’t want to risk scratching the coin by scraping off some of the soil, so I wrapped it in tissue and placed it in my pouch. It wasn?’t until I was home that I was able to determine that it was a 1942 Walking Liberty half! It’s badly stained, due to the type of soil it was in, but otherwise it's in very nice shape. Swinging the coil in the immediate area, I hit on another strong signal, again with a VDI of 92. This time I was able to make out what it was, though it also was stained – a 1901-O Barber half! Two half dollars under that tree, incredible! 8)
I found a few more coins after that, including two wheaties, but no more silver. It was now a little after 2:00 p.m. as it began to rain. That ground was sure to become muddier, so I left, but I will be returning to that site, that’s for sure.
Angel
This is a scan of the half dollars before the encrusted soil was removed.
Here they are after removing soil. They are still stained, so I will have to work on that.
The rest of the silver.
The wheaties.
I was stuck working in my garage today :o(
