Big Boys Hobbies

Slim Pickings at 1930 School

Chroma

Chroma

Elite Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2020
Messages
549
Location
East TN
A couple days ago I got permission at a school building I have had on my radar since January. It was built in 1930, closed in the 1970s, and has been privately owned since. I asked the owner back in January and got a no, but the property sold earlier this month to an LLC. I tracked down the email address of one of the partners in the LLC, and I expected this person would say no or just ignore my email altogether. But to my surprise I got a yes.

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I went out there for a little over two hours last night. I did not have high hopes because I can only imagine how many times this school has been detected. As I predicted there were not many good signals, but previous detectorists did miss a few things. The two nickels (1935 Buffalo & 1941 Jefferson) were a few feet apart and I am guessing someone skipped them because that part of the yard had no other signals.

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Went back this morning for about four hours and tried to cover some more ground. I went around the edges of the schoolyard in the brush and found a few high tones that were missed. Two vintage National Keys (one stamped with someone's initials I'm guessing), a 1946 wheat cent, and an aluminum play money dime dated 1970. The aluminum Woodmen of the World token wasn't on the outskirts but it had kind of a bad signal because there was a piece of junk in the hole with it.

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So not a whole lot for two days, and I don't think I'll be going back, but it was worth a shot. Next time I'm going to try a spot that I doubt has been detected heavily if at all -- an early 1900s house demolished in the late 1960s. Thanks for reading
 
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Reelfoot Relics said:
I like the WOW token, it may be older than the ones I've found. Nice.
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I'm not really sure how old the token is but my guess would be 1940s or 50s.

kingman mikey said:
I think you did great, anytime you find a token & a buffalo nickel it's a good day, congrats.:wow:
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Thanks, I am happy about the buffalo nickel because it is the second one I have found detecting, and the first with a legible date. The token is pretty cool, too. It is bent but I am going to try to flatten it out.

At first I thought the "F D" stamped into the leftmost key in the photo was someone's initials, but now I'm pretty sure it just stands for "Front Door." Duh :lol:
 
Yes, that place just screams, "somebodies already been here to dig up my silvers". Fortunately, still some good stuff to be found and you're finding it, congrats!
 
Silverhorse65 said:
Yes, that place just screams, "somebodies already been here to dig up my silvers". Fortunately, still some good stuff to be found and you're finding it, congrats!
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Hats off to the previous detectorist(s)... They didn't leave much behind. There was almost nothing there except for shallow can-slaw, foil, and a couple zinc pennies. The two older nickels and the wheat pennies were not deep, so it wasn't a depth issue either. Know the feeling when it has been so long since a good coin signal that iron falsing starts sounding good? Yeah, I dug a bunch of nails... :lol: :no: I'm glad I gave it a shot though.
 
Even tho it’s been hunted in the past, the things you found would incent me to hunt it again, and try some different detector settings and see what else I could scare up. There may be another few gems in there for the extra effort.
 
Congrats on the Buff, wheats and token. Very cool token I might add. I think I would try that spot a time or two again. Good luck. Mark
 
Very nice finds! Some hunters will cherry pick the high tones, and leave the mid to low in the ground. Might be a good idea when hunting higher conductors, but they are leaving nickels and gold in the ground, no doubt about it.
 
Leave-No-Coins-Behind said:
Congrats on the dated buff with is something that isn't found too often!
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Yes, if it had been a 1910s or 20s nickel the date would probably be gone. A lot of 1930s Buffalo nickels have legible dates, probably because they didn't circulate as much.

FLOOD said:
Even tho it’s been hunted in the past, the things you found would incent me to hunt it again, and try some different detector settings and see what else I could scare up. There may be another few gems in there for the extra effort.
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I probably will try it again despite what I said. When I swear I won't go back it usually means 5-10 return trips are in order. :laughing: Definitely didn't cover everything in the first two trips. But now that I have sampled some different areas, I know where to concentrate.

markinswpa said:
Congrats on the Buff, wheats and token. Very cool token I might add. I think I would try that spot a time or two again. Good luck. Mark
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I'll probably go back and focus on the side of the building where I found the keys, wheat cents, and the token. The road-facing side had almost zero signals except for the two older nickels, and the other two sides were fill dirt.

jhanson said:
I'd be happy with a Buff with great detail like that!
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I got lucky finding a latter-date Buffalo nickel that didn't circulate as much.

cellrdwellr said:
Very nice finds! Some hunters will cherry pick the high tones, and leave the mid to low in the ground. Might be a good idea when hunting higher conductors, but they are leaving nickels and gold in the ground, no doubt about it.
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There weren't even very many deeper sub-penny tones which surprised me. I think I only found one old-school pull tab, but I expected there would be tons of them. Someone already dug them apparently. I only starting getting more signals when I went along the very edge of the schoolyard where it sloped down to the street, which previous detectorists must have neglected to do.
 
diggin4clad said:
Very nice hunt.......the token is really nice.
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Thanks, debating whether to try removing the brown corrosion spots on the token. Doing that would leave it pitted though. I'll probably just leave it as is.

longbow62 said:
Nice finds. Nice Buffalo with a date even. I myself would go back and give it at least one more try.
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Thanks, I probably will go back, maybe later today. The previous 'tectorists surely missed a few more things.

KingTotsalot said:
KT likes the keys, especially the one marked FD, could be initials, or meaning Front Door, or Fire Department, as they often have a set of keys for public places, like schools and public offices!
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I like the keys as well. Whenever I get a zinc penny signal, I am hoping it is a key (or even an Indian cent) and not a corroded Zincoln. I thought FD was initials at first, and it could be, but Front Door might be more likely.
 
I love the buffalos.
This could fit under the title of the post too.
 

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