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Coming over from another site... New person

Skippy SH13

Forum Supporter
Joined
May 8, 2015
Messages
3,852
Location
Pacific NW
Hi All,

I'm coming over from another forum website, which recently has had a spate of 10 year plus threads all getting "bumped" to create what looks like new content. It was so irritating, I figured I just needed to cut the cord, and find a new forum website. After checking out a few, I've decided that Friendly Metal Detecting Forum might be the place for me!

I'm relatively new to the hobby, but have hit it with a passion. This last Christmas, with a work bonus and weeks of research, I bought an ACE 350.

My first few outings were pretty typical for normal newbies... you know the type, *8 cents on the first trip, 13 cents on the second* and then it started to get good. I was (and continue to) only hitting local parks, and on my 4th outing, I found a silver ring! I was so incredibly excited. Dreams of $$ filled my head, I went out to Amazon, and discovered it was worth about $3 new. LOL

Still, though, I was completely hooked! By the end of January, I'd bagged 3 gold rings, 2 silver ones, a titanium, and a tungsten-carbide, along with $81 in clad. I was hitting the parks about 3 times a week.

Since that time, I've probably found several dozen rings (mostly junk, but fun anyway), another gold, and a couple more tungsten carbide and titanium rings.

Early February, I sold the gold rings for $300 and took part of it and bought my son an ACE250 so he could come along. I'd already had two Garrett Pro Pointers though (he would dig points I found, and then I'd continue on). Up till that point, my family and friends would just snicker at my "hobby," even when I told them I was finding gold rings... they'd say things like "well, it's only worth something if you SELL it. *snicker snicker*"

Well, selling them got the snickering stopped pretty darn quick! In fact, now they take an active interest with "what did you find this week?" My nieces and nephews are always asking for trinkets that get found (my nephews for example each received about a half dozen scout neckerchief slides for their cub-scouting!)... and the ladies in my life are enjoying rings, too. Heck, I have 3 rings that I now regularly swap out for my wedding ring. :)

YES... I've tried to find owners... all the valuable ones get posted on Craigslist for a while... no luck, yet. Someday, it'll work out though! That being said, I don't have any problems with people keeping their finds either... to each their own. :0)

This year, I've easily cleared $250 in clad, along with sales of rings over $350.

In all that digging (again... all local parks), I've never found a silver coin. Sometime in early April, I decided I'd "had it" with not having some history, and decided to purchase my coins on eBay. I now take my clad, and quite literally convert it to old coins.

When you take $325 of clad and buy US coins, carefully looking for good coins at sniped low prices, it's amazing what you can come up with!

To date, I have $18.65 in Silver coins, and am working on a type set of US coins through the 19th Century (excepting Dollars).

I have:
1 capped bust half Cent
1 draped bust Large Cent
4 Coronet Large Cent
5 Braided hair Large Cents
2 Two Cent pieces (1 VF details... it's amazing... full "In God We Trust" (that WE is a tough find!)
1 Three-Cent Trime (AMAZING deal on this one... advertised as "no date"... got it for $6 and when it arrived, I discovered it was just covered in grease. Turned out to be Fine detailed!)
2 Three-Cent Nickels
5 half dimes: (2 capped, 3 seated)
Dimes: Capped, Seated, Barber, Mercury, and Roosevelt dimes (several examples of each of the early, about dozen Mercury and Rosies).
1 Twenty Cent pieces (has a touch of damage but VF/EF details... amazing coin... got it on a "make me an offer" for $40... was listed at $169 originally, couldn't believe my luck!)
Quarters: 1 Capped, 2 Seated, 5 Barber, 2 Standing Liberty (including one Type 1 1917), Washington
Half-Dollars: 1 Capped, 1 Seated, 1 Barber, 4 Liberty Walking, 2 Franklin, 1 Kennedy 1964, and 4 40% Kennedy
Dollars: 3 Morgan, 1 Peace, Examples of Eisenhower (proof and bicentennial), and Modern

Additionally, during this time, I got the bug to fill up some coin folders (the Whitman kinds)... I ended up finding several silver dimes doing that, and a war nickel as well.

Some of the eBay finds are incredible... such as paying $4.38 (Shipping included) for a "nifty nickel collection plus rocks!" that ended up having a bunch of War nickels, excellent Liberty V nickels, and 5 full date Buffalos along with some proof Jeffersons. The War nickels alone were worth more than $5 in melt. I have no idea about the polished rocks... I just gave those to a neighbor who collects them for a shelf. LOL

My point is, there's LOTS to be had with Clad finds. I LOVE finding clad coins! (sure beats pull-tabs anyways... I don't collect those.)

My best clad find-fest ever was a $28 2-hour fest at a snow-cone shack hill (permissioned by the owner). It was so much fun, but my knees were killing me by the end of it.

Anyhow... I'll be posting regularly, and be active. Glad to have a new home!

Cheers!

Skippy
 
nice information
thanks all
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