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Amazing detecting trip - Montana to Indiana!

LovestheShiny!

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Joined
Jan 1, 2018
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Location
Montana
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!:lol: 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!
 

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more pics

more pictures of finds
 

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more pics

more pics!
 

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Ssshheeesskkk Louise ! This is your magnus opus post. And kinds of good finds and pix and play-by-play. Thanx for bringing us along !

And: IT'S ABOUT DURNED TIME some USA half-cents showed up on this side of the Mississippi ! :cool3:
 
Holy Moly David! That was the trip of a lifetime. And good to see some AT Pro action!!

Thank you PartyofOne! Yeah, I was wondering how the AT Pro would stack up for finding coins back there, but it did great! I ended up with 45 Silvers while Jason with the Nox 800 got 49 Silvers. I did get more Indian Head cents with 15 for me and 9 for him. I was really happy he found that 1829 Half Cent!

Ssshheeesskkk Louise ! This is your magnus opus post. And kinds of good finds and pix and play-by-play. Thanx for bringing us along !

And: IT'S ABOUT DURNED TIME some USA half-cents showed up on this side of the Mississippi ! :cool3:

Thanks Tom! It was a very fun and productive trip! And I actually hate to say this, but the Mississippi River runs along the Western edge of Indiana so... sad to say, the large Half Cent was found East of the Mississippi!
 
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.... the large Half Cent was found East of the Mississippi!


Oh duh ! I knew your profile says "Montana", so I failed to follow the text and see that the half-cent was found EAST of the Mississippi. In that case: I hate your post now !! :laughing:
 
Oh duh ! I knew your profile says "Montana", so I failed to follow the text and see that the half-cent was found EAST of the Mississippi. In that case: I hate your post now !! :laughing:

Hah! A little bit of consolation... a couple of my Montana detecting friends have found Large Cents here, 1854 found in Missoula, and 1855 found in Great Falls. That is about all though...

Epic hunting👍 I am a little jelly I can't find such abundant silver!

Thank you metaladdict! We did have to work for all that shiny, though the results were really good by the end of the trip!
 
Hah! A little bit of consolation... a couple of my Montana detecting friends have found Large Cents here, 1854 found in Missoula, and 1855 found in Great Falls. That is about all though...

Then I'm glad that you share in my misery. In 45+ yrs. of this in CA, I've found (drumroll) three LC's here. And zero half-cents. Contrast to hundreds of reales, 16 gold coins, etc..... !

I smell a conspiracy con job by those east coast guys. Don't you agree ?? :laughing:
 
Hey, you can even put me in the trunk, just so long as you take me along on all of your future road trips! Good Golly, Miss Molly!
 
Hey, you can even put me in the trunk, just so long as you take me along on all of your future road trips! Good Golly, Miss Molly!

Hah! Thanks Silverhorse65! Am grateful to have had such good results from taking the trip. Glad to know what works here in Montana mostly works well back there in the Midwest!
 
:wow:

I’m pretty sure I’m jealous, of all of it, the time, the trip, the hunting, the finds! Congrats and thanks for sharing, now to stop drooling.
 
AWESOME HUNT!
James Sheridan was born 1857 in Indiana. In the 1910 census, he and his wife Mary were grocery proprietors in Attica. By 1920, James was a carpenter at a steel mill in Sharon, Ohio.
 
WOW amazing finds.

My wife just today asked me if I had 2 metal detectors. I said yes and she said she wanted to go hunting sometime. Maybe we'll plan a detecting trip.
 
:wow:

I’m pretty sure I’m jealous, of all of it, the time, the trip, the hunting, the finds! Congrats and thanks for sharing, now to stop drooling.

Thank you GroundSweeper, for sure a very enjoyable hunt with good finds!

AWESOME HUNT!
James Sheridan was born 1857 in Indiana. In the 1910 census, he and his wife Mary were grocery proprietors in Attica. By 1920, James was a carpenter at a steel mill in Sharon, Ohio.

Thank you KeyaPaha for that info! I would guess that Attica token dates from when Sheridan owned the grocery store.

WOW amazing finds.

My wife just today asked me if I had 2 metal detectors. I said yes and she said she wanted to go hunting sometime. Maybe we'll plan a detecting trip.

Thank you Detector! I did get a Vanquish for my wife to use, she has gone on a few local hunts with me and likes finding the coins and targets!
 
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