I've long wondered how doing some detecting in older areas of the United States would work out, so my friend Jason from Helena (Nox 800) and I (AT Pro) got plans together to make a road trip to Eastern Indiana to do a week of detecting. I settled on Richmond Indiana as a "base of operations" to sample different towns in the area and to see if the techniques we use here in Montana would work back in the eastern Midwest. Rather than relate each find or days' finds, unless something special, I'll let the pictures do the talking, and lots of pics to show the goodies found!
Our first stop for detecting was in the small town of Waynetown Indiana, just across the Illinois border. Nice friendly people, lots of permissions, and nice weather gave us a chance to hunt a couple of half days there. The curb strips produced silvers, Indian Head cents, and my first Shield Nickel ever found, 1866 with Stars and Rays, an almost impossible find in Montana. The yards were not as productive as here in the West. Other finds of interest were 1928 and a 1942 Indiana Chauffeurs badges.
We looped around Indy to the north and hopped on I-70 to Richmond for our base. I did manage to get a permission from a large organization that managed about 30 old homes, and got the OK to detect ALL of the yards! That was a great help, as these homes dated from 1850 to 1950. My best find there was a nice 1917 Type 1 Standing Liberty quarter, and my friend Jason did well also. We got Silver Rosies, Merc Dimes, Indian Head cents, and the usual wheat cents and modern stuff. Another thing we learned was that "old" didn't mean the yard hadn't been disturbed or already detected. Some of the nicer larger old mid-1800s home had the soil moved around and we could find no older coins. In the first curb strip I tried, my first target was a Silver Rosie, then a Silver GW Quarter, and then a 1876 Seated Liberty Dime! Things in the curbs cooled down after that with only the odd Indian Head cent and Mercury Dime.
In a nearby town west of Richmond, I was able to get permission at a beautiful 1850 mansion on a hillside, owned by some great folks. We struggled at first, I found a 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific 1909 Seattle pin (wonder how that got to Indiana!) but not much else. We met the groundskeeper and he told us that a lot of dirt had been moved around, but to try this one hillside overlooking a flat area. Bingo! Lots of coins... my friend Jason found the oldest coin of the trip, a gorgeous 1829 US Half Cent! This hillside had wheaties, Mercs, Rosies, Barber Dime, medallions, skeleton key, Silver GW, Indian Head cents, some Indiana trade tokens, and some nice amethyst jewelry items, and a couple of Sterling Rings. In the two days we detected that area of the property, it was really fun as we had no idea what the next good signal might produce. Jason found 56 Wheat Cents in one day there! I did get us permission at an adjacent 1832 home, but the soil had been really reworked and my best find there was a Gillette Razor advertising coin, and Jason found a nice Civil War gold gilded officers button. We hope to go back to that property some day and check other areas.
I got us permission at many more homes, some dating back to 1850 or so, and we continued with Indian Head cents and many more silvers, along with lots of wheaties. The really early American coins were hard to find, not just jumping out of the ground into our pockets! I did get the OK for us at a couple of old country homes, and they did produce a 1893-O Barber Half for me, a 1893 Barber Quarter, along with a 1920 Walking Liberty Half, and a 1936 Walker for my friend.
We left Richmond after a week, and on the way west stopped at a small Western Indiana town. I was able to get permission for us on a huge 1868 Mansion that used to be an old nursing home. This was the first permission I ever was able to manage using the home's Ring Doorbell! The owner was out of town for a few hours and must have felt sympathetic seeming my homely face!
Well... targets were extremely skimpy and at one point I put my AT Pro back in the car and watched Jason detect. Along a sidewalk he got a 20-22 signal on the Nox, and it turned out to be a 1888 Seated Liberty Dime, his first Seated of the trip! Another signal along the sidewalk produced a 1902 Barber Dime! Well... I got my machine back out of the car and started in on the opposite side of the sidewalk. I managed a 1887 Indian Head Cent, then a very nice 1889-S Seated Liberty Dime, my 2nd Seated of the trip! We ended up only finding 6 coins on this huge property, as my friend also pulled a Merc Dime and a Wheat Cent. The owner came home and we had a great visit, he was a super nice guy, and told us that the property had been detected several times since he owned it. It felt good to snag a few goodies that others had missed!
On the way home we detected a bit in Eastern South Dakota, did well there, I got a Barber Quarter, Merc, some Indian Head cents, and my friend Jason found a THREE BARBER DIME spill in the curb strip, stacked right on top of each other! He had also found a 3 Merc dime spill back in Richmond Indiana. Our last stop was in Eastern Montana, I added more Indian Head cents and some silver, and Jason added one Indian and more silvers
It was sure a treat to see the beautiful architecture and buildings, and to learn of the history. Other than one grumpy lady who said "no" for "insurance purposes" we were able to get 100% permissions on every property we asked. Friendly people with history to share made for a very enjoyable time! Between the two of us, we ended up with 94 Silvers, 24 Indian Head Cents, the Half Cent, 3 Seated, Shield Nickel, tokens, medallions, watch fobs, Sterling, Jewelry, toy cars, cap guns, buttons, buckles, and more. We had a lot of fun finding some stuff that would pretty much be impossible here out west in Montana. Might just have to make this an annual trip! Thanks for your interest, more pics to follow!
You guys had an excellent trip! Those are some really impressive numbers... Nice work! 
