So I see everyone on here talking about all the silver they find in sidewalk strips. Well, I've been detecting since 2010 and I've *never* found a silver coin in the ground, so I figured "why not try." I'm trapped in a fairly tiny town dating back to the late 1880s, and the sidewalk strips in the oldest sections appear to date back to the 1930s. Lots of big pine trees, tons of pine needles, all abutting older homes. I had some spare time this afternoon and walked all down one side of the street scanning the 4-5' wide strip. It was dry, rock hard soil, very rocky, with plenty of tree roots. Targets were mostly surface or 1" down, eeeeexcept for this one quarter signal that rang up as 6" down.
Dug down to it and realized it was underneath a 1" diameter tree root. Ended up digging in an L shape to get under the root, propointer said the target was literally touching the bottom of the root, so I stuck my (ungloved) hand in there gingerly to see if I could feel it. Found a disc, pulled it out. Very minor scratches on the edge revealed it was copper, not silver (noooooo), but it was crazy dirty and had been stuck in the middle of a bunch of rocks. I tried to wash it off back at the car, but no joy. The dirt was old and VERY crusted on.
Got home, figured "well, it's not silver, eh why not" and attacked it with the green scrubby part of a sponge to see if I could reveal any detail.
Turns out, it's a 1813 British Copper Company half penny.
Oldest coin by a LOT; previous best was a chewed-up 1899 Indian that I found in change. It looks like someone tried to punch through it for whatever reason, but they didn't succeed because it just created a bulge on the other side.
Total hunt results are below. Not silver this time but I'll take it.
Dug down to it and realized it was underneath a 1" diameter tree root. Ended up digging in an L shape to get under the root, propointer said the target was literally touching the bottom of the root, so I stuck my (ungloved) hand in there gingerly to see if I could feel it. Found a disc, pulled it out. Very minor scratches on the edge revealed it was copper, not silver (noooooo), but it was crazy dirty and had been stuck in the middle of a bunch of rocks. I tried to wash it off back at the car, but no joy. The dirt was old and VERY crusted on.
Got home, figured "well, it's not silver, eh why not" and attacked it with the green scrubby part of a sponge to see if I could reveal any detail.
Turns out, it's a 1813 British Copper Company half penny.
Oldest coin by a LOT; previous best was a chewed-up 1899 Indian that I found in change. It looks like someone tried to punch through it for whatever reason, but they didn't succeed because it just created a bulge on the other side.
Total hunt results are below. Not silver this time but I'll take it.
Didn't miss this. Sometimes LC's get found in CA. I've got 2 so far. But ... sheesk ... that's in 40-ish years of md'ing ! 
