Saturday, my detecting buddy and I met up for a morning of dirt fishing. Our first stop was an old vacant lot in a nearby town that he had found, on the corner of a fairly busy street. We went out early, in very cold conditions, and beat the bush for finds. They were meager, but I managed to pull a beaten up iPhone and a ceramic coat hook in the shape of a torso in a polka dot dress (sorry, no pic of that one... it's off to good will after a good cleaning). Not finding much worth keeping, other than some scrap bits of metal, we decided to head someplace else.
We drove toward another older part of town, and he asked me if I had ever looked at this area to detect. I told him that I had looked at it, but never really considered putting it high on the list because it wasn't as old as some of the other parts, and I was after silver. He and I took a look around, and I started to notice that many of the homes looked to have been built in the 20s and earlier. Hmm... Potential!
We pulled off near a vacant lot, and grabbed our gear. He chose to work his way around a public facility, where he found a couple of wheaties, but no silver.
I decided to work the other side of the street, keeping to the curbs. Right away I found coins. They were mostly modern, but coins just the same. Then I pulled a wheatie by a tree. Success! There must be silver around here, somewhere! Alas, such was not the case. However...
About a half hour into working the curb, I got a very solid tone and 60/61 on my Deus. Had it been my ATP, I thought, this would be right where big gold should be. I put my Lesche into the ground, and down a couple of inches was what was absolutely a ring. Nice! I hefted it, but it felt light so I figured it must be a plated ring, and quickly pocketed it and moved on. Not much else in that strip beside a LOT of pennies (my Deus LOVES pennies and bottle caps!), so I walked over to where my buddy was working the vacant lot. I showed him my find, and his eyes got big. I handed it to him, and he said he was pretty sure it was real. I looked closer at it, and it did seem clean, with no signs of plating coming off, so I was hopeful. Sure enough, once we got back to the truck, we confirmed that it was gold! It didn't seem heavy enough because when I originally hefted it, I was wearing gloves, which spread out the weight across my palm. Once the gloves were off, I could definitely feel the pressure against my skin, and what lovely pressure it is!
I cleaned up very nice, and weighed in at a respectable 11.6 grams of 14K goodness, with a lovely onyx stone center. My wife thinks it's ugly, but it's a real stunner in my book!
If only I'd had my GoPro with me! Gah! Would have loved to have caught this on video.
We drove toward another older part of town, and he asked me if I had ever looked at this area to detect. I told him that I had looked at it, but never really considered putting it high on the list because it wasn't as old as some of the other parts, and I was after silver. He and I took a look around, and I started to notice that many of the homes looked to have been built in the 20s and earlier. Hmm... Potential!
We pulled off near a vacant lot, and grabbed our gear. He chose to work his way around a public facility, where he found a couple of wheaties, but no silver.
I decided to work the other side of the street, keeping to the curbs. Right away I found coins. They were mostly modern, but coins just the same. Then I pulled a wheatie by a tree. Success! There must be silver around here, somewhere! Alas, such was not the case. However...
About a half hour into working the curb, I got a very solid tone and 60/61 on my Deus. Had it been my ATP, I thought, this would be right where big gold should be. I put my Lesche into the ground, and down a couple of inches was what was absolutely a ring. Nice! I hefted it, but it felt light so I figured it must be a plated ring, and quickly pocketed it and moved on. Not much else in that strip beside a LOT of pennies (my Deus LOVES pennies and bottle caps!), so I walked over to where my buddy was working the vacant lot. I showed him my find, and his eyes got big. I handed it to him, and he said he was pretty sure it was real. I looked closer at it, and it did seem clean, with no signs of plating coming off, so I was hopeful. Sure enough, once we got back to the truck, we confirmed that it was gold! It didn't seem heavy enough because when I originally hefted it, I was wearing gloves, which spread out the weight across my palm. Once the gloves were off, I could definitely feel the pressure against my skin, and what lovely pressure it is!
I cleaned up very nice, and weighed in at a respectable 11.6 grams of 14K goodness, with a lovely onyx stone center. My wife thinks it's ugly, but it's a real stunner in my book!
If only I'd had my GoPro with me! Gah! Would have loved to have caught this on video.
