AirmetTango
Forum Supporter
I had a couple hours to hunt today, and I decided to give a local park another try - I had been here once before last summer, and basically got skunked. This time I felt like I was armed with better information - old aerial photos revealed that a home once stood on a section of the park that I hadn't hit previously - so I figured it'd be worth a shot to try again.
The first hour or so was pretty painful - partially because of the hunt, but made worse by the cold slowly searing through my clothes from a constant northeast wind (the cold always seems to feel worse and seep through faster when nothing is getting found, doesn't it??). I zeroed in on an area that seemed to coincide with the main yard of the former house first, but the whole area was decidedly trashy. I dug a few iffy signals just because there was nothing but iffy signals to choose from, and ended up with a half dozen mangled can parts and some other trash. The better signals yielded a 10" length of 5/8" copper pipe, and I ended up digging down more than 8" deep to recover an old, 3" diameter brass door knob base plate.
Needless to say, I was sensing that I was about to get skunked again by the same park, and I started looking around at what my options were to cut my losses: I could hit the sledding hill or the tot lot sections of the park and hope for some clad before I had to hightail it home to meet my daughter's bus, or double down on the old house area and likely walk away disappointed. Being a glutton for punishment, I decided to stick with the home site, but I at least had the brains to realize that I had to move to a different part of the former yard. I had been hunting what was the north side of the house, so I walked over to the what I judged to be the southern sideyard.
Well, I wasn't swinging for more than 10 steps on that sideyard area when I hit a solid, ear shattering "99" signal - on the Garrett Ace series, that's full scale. My reaction...I actually rolled my eyes
With what I was seeing so far from the site, plus my past experience with 99 signals in general, this was trash. Especially since the target was showing 2" depth. But wait a minute....swinging back and forth in each direction, this was the sharpest, most compact 99 signal I've ever heard on the Ace. I checked with the handheld pinpointer before digging, but it didn't sound off - still, I dug a small, fairly shallow plug. On flipping the plug over, I got tone in the plug, and I eventually pulled out a big, coin shaped, dirt encrusted disc less than 2" below the grass. I could tell it was bigger than a quarter - I even started wondering for a split second if a Presidential or Sacagawea dollar coin would ring up a 99 - they were the only things I thought it could be at that depth. But as soon as I flipped the coin over, my eyes locked on the "One Cent" emblazoned on the back - and euphoria hit! 
My very first Large Cent - a 1853 Braided Hair, and my current "oldest" coin! And barely beneath the surface on a public park site that wasn't even yielding a zincoln up to that point! It was so shallow, I could almost trip over it! Interestingly, about 5 minutes later I did finally dig another coin just 10 feet away - a 1969 Memorial...a full 5" down!!
I even got the opportunity to share the find with a fellow FMDF member - Dan B happened to be driving by on his way to work and pulled in to chat about 20 minutes after I dug the LC. I was overjoyed to be able to display that Largie - it would have been far less impressive if all I had was that length of copper pipe!!
I never cease to be pleasantly surprised and amazed by this hobby - how on Earth that Large Cent sat undetected for so long in a public park at that shallow a depth is mind boggling! And why it didn't sink while a Memorial a few feet away burrowed down deep is a mystery, too. You just never know what you'll find - and there really are still nice, old finds just a couple inches down in public parks!
Here's a shot just out of the hole - you can see a little of the plug in the background:
After cleaning with soapy water:
The first hour or so was pretty painful - partially because of the hunt, but made worse by the cold slowly searing through my clothes from a constant northeast wind (the cold always seems to feel worse and seep through faster when nothing is getting found, doesn't it??). I zeroed in on an area that seemed to coincide with the main yard of the former house first, but the whole area was decidedly trashy. I dug a few iffy signals just because there was nothing but iffy signals to choose from, and ended up with a half dozen mangled can parts and some other trash. The better signals yielded a 10" length of 5/8" copper pipe, and I ended up digging down more than 8" deep to recover an old, 3" diameter brass door knob base plate.
Needless to say, I was sensing that I was about to get skunked again by the same park, and I started looking around at what my options were to cut my losses: I could hit the sledding hill or the tot lot sections of the park and hope for some clad before I had to hightail it home to meet my daughter's bus, or double down on the old house area and likely walk away disappointed. Being a glutton for punishment, I decided to stick with the home site, but I at least had the brains to realize that I had to move to a different part of the former yard. I had been hunting what was the north side of the house, so I walked over to the what I judged to be the southern sideyard.
Well, I wasn't swinging for more than 10 steps on that sideyard area when I hit a solid, ear shattering "99" signal - on the Garrett Ace series, that's full scale. My reaction...I actually rolled my eyes
With what I was seeing so far from the site, plus my past experience with 99 signals in general, this was trash. Especially since the target was showing 2" depth. But wait a minute....swinging back and forth in each direction, this was the sharpest, most compact 99 signal I've ever heard on the Ace. I checked with the handheld pinpointer before digging, but it didn't sound off - still, I dug a small, fairly shallow plug. On flipping the plug over, I got tone in the plug, and I eventually pulled out a big, coin shaped, dirt encrusted disc less than 2" below the grass. I could tell it was bigger than a quarter - I even started wondering for a split second if a Presidential or Sacagawea dollar coin would ring up a 99 - they were the only things I thought it could be at that depth. But as soon as I flipped the coin over, my eyes locked on the "One Cent" emblazoned on the back - and euphoria hit! My very first Large Cent - a 1853 Braided Hair, and my current "oldest" coin! And barely beneath the surface on a public park site that wasn't even yielding a zincoln up to that point! It was so shallow, I could almost trip over it! Interestingly, about 5 minutes later I did finally dig another coin just 10 feet away - a 1969 Memorial...a full 5" down!! I even got the opportunity to share the find with a fellow FMDF member - Dan B happened to be driving by on his way to work and pulled in to chat about 20 minutes after I dug the LC. I was overjoyed to be able to display that Largie - it would have been far less impressive if all I had was that length of copper pipe!!
I never cease to be pleasantly surprised and amazed by this hobby - how on Earth that Large Cent sat undetected for so long in a public park at that shallow a depth is mind boggling! And why it didn't sink while a Memorial a few feet away burrowed down deep is a mystery, too. You just never know what you'll find - and there really are still nice, old finds just a couple inches down in public parks!
Here's a shot just out of the hole - you can see a little of the plug in the background:
After cleaning with soapy water:
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