Day 2 of Metal Detecting My Backyard

It's hard to describe childish excitement as a 30-year-old.  But suffice it to say that after church was over, I had my mind on one thing:  more digging!!!  It's still goofy to me how excited I get over this silly hobby, especially since this was just Day Two!  But I just feel like there is a hidden story in my yard!  Objects await to be found, hidden by mud for decades...if not centuries!!!

The best way I can describe it is "childhood for grown-ups."  I mean, what boy does NOT want to dig for buried treasure?!

So I arrived home around 11:00 A.M. and immediately headed outside.  The weather was absolutely fantastic...mid-60's in March!  I can sure get used to that.

I headed to the back part of my yard, and I had a hit almost immediately.  So much metal lies below the surface!  But I was on to more of the same...a rusty nail.  I had another hit almost immediately.  A screw.  Sigh.  So this is how it's going to be again, huh?

Then a third hit.  Beep.  Beep.  Time to dig.

A PENNY!!!  My third hit was a coin!  This is just too fun!  I tell you, if someone had told me several years ago that a cent would make me this excited, I would never have believed you.  But I just can't get enough of finding coins.  Too fun.  The penny had been eaten away but years of soil abuse, so the date portion was missing, but a penny is a penny!

My first coin (a penny) on Day Two in my backyard

Just to the left of this hole, I hit another signal.  I dug down, and surprise slapped me upside the face yet again.  This is probably normal for avid diggers, but I had found another favorite...MY FIRST NON-PENNY COIN!!!  I found my first QUARTER!!!  It was about six inches down and red in color, but I could make out the eagle on back.  I was hittin' on some coins quickly today!

My first quarter!!!  1972.

My first quarter!  That eagle was dirty, but those wings are impossible to mistake.

After that, my metal detector showed a rather large area of metal.  I honestly thought that it must be some sort of malfunction, as the Pinpoint feature showed an area of several inches.  But I dug anyway!  About four or five inches down, I hit a solid piece of something.  Hmm.  I dug some more.  This object was huge!  Several inches wide!  What could it be?!  I dug some more!  My handheld pinpointer showed the entire thing being metal!  Was it a shield?!  A box?!  A gas line?!  A manhole cover?!  It had some sort of shape on top, but I couldn't make it out.  More digging. and clearning.  My hole was getting rather large, but the pinpointer kept on telling me this was metal!

Oh, the excitement!!!

It's huge!!!  Agh, what could it be?!  A shield?!  Safe?!  Manhole cover?!

After a few more minutes, I finally realized what I had found.  I had found not a treasure at all, but rather a very large piece of concrete.  How disappointing!!!  This hobby really IS full of ups and downs!!!  The reason for my detector finding it was simply because the previous owner had decided to cut the fence off at the top of the concrete and keep the concrete buried.  Quite understandable, but what a bummer!  I couldn't tell if it was a chainlink post or some other sort of post, but at that point, I didn't care.  Stupid post!  ha!  I did find some sort of unidentified metal object in there, though...it was some sort of multi-pronged piece of something!

Stupid concrete-foundation post!  So frustrating!  And what a big hole in my yard!  (I elected to cover it up, too).  :)

Just a few feet to the left of that hole, I picked up a good signal.  I'm still way too new to this to really care about how many inches down or what it's beeping (mostly anyway), and I dig everything!  My curiosity is just way too high to say no.  I should probably hone my skills in the future, but for now, I just dig away!  So I dug.

And once again, I was just not ready for what I found!  "Unbelievable."  It's funny when you say words out loud by yourself.  But I did.  There in the hole, I found yet another find that just floored me.  Can you see it?!

Can you see it?!

Several feet away from where I had found the sterling ring yesterday, I found another RING in the mud!!!  But this one was much bigger.  I picked it up and noticed the very ornate design.  Then I rotated it, and I was shocked (and thrilled!) to see a green stone in the mud.  This ring was fancy!  I really think the stone is fake, but it was huge!  I would never have thought I would have found one ring...let alone two...in my very own backyard.  This was just too much.

My second RING!!!  Look at that green stone!

Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled!  So beautiful!

Of course, the only problem with finding rings and coins is that you just can't stop searching!  Just one coin makes you dig every beep thereafter.  Is it another penny?!  Nickel?!  Dime?!  Ring?!  Quarter?!  Silver?!  Gold?!  Of course, it's usually disappointing, but I still can't stop my excitement every time I dig!

But two rings.  In two days.  Just incredible.

After pinpointing the hole after the ring, I found two more objects.  One was an unidentified piece of metal.  At first I thought it was some sort of animal trinket (like for a necklace), but I just couldn't make out enough to be sure.  Maybe when I clean it up.  I also found in the same hole...ANOTHER PENNY!!!  Just unbelievable.  What a find!

My yard was still ringing up beep after beep.  My next find was part of a broken toy vehicle.  Only the rooftop was found.  Then I hit what I knew to be a coin.  In just two days, I had started to learn my Ace.  Coins have a higher-pitched sound, and ding very quickly.  When I pinpoint them, it's sudden.  Usually when I find a nail, the pinpoint is an inch or so longer.  A coin is "fast-up, fast-down" on the pinpoint feature.  So I was sure this was a coin.

And I wasn't to be disappointed.  I had found a DIME!!!  It was a later-model dime with a date of 1975, but this was now my second non-penny in just two days!  So much fun.  But what was just as encouraging was the fact that I "knew" this was going to be a coin.  Learning the machine is vital, and I was happy with the quick pick-up.  Thanks, Ace, for being simple!

My first dime!!!

What a beauty!  1975.

I had several other pieces of wires and junk and nails, but my day wasn't over yet.  I was spreading out over my yard with a very non-methodical search.  I just wanted to dig good pings now!  But most of what I thought were good hits ended up being nails.  Nails, nails, nails!  I guess I have more to learn about my machine after all.

I ended up finding two more pennies but was nearing the end of my search.  I was getting quite hungry (it was going on 1:00 o'clock), and even though I was having fun, this hobby requires some work, too!  Digging isn't always easy!  Anyway, I was ready to call it a day...for now.

But not without one more hit.  So I waited for another good hit, then dug.  I was actually quite intrigued by what I found.  It was a small two-inch metal plate with two holes in it on the ends.  Hmm.  I didn't know what to make of it, but that would change after an hour.  But my day was done.

I had found 32 objects in two hours.  32!!!  My yard is a metal-detecting playground!!!  Fine by me!!!

I headed inside to clean up the finds and figure out what I had found.  That ring ended up being a real treat...by far my favorite find of the day.  The valuable finds were separated from the junk, and my pile of fun finds is quickly growing!  Not bad for two days!!!

The 32 finds from today.  In order as I found them, top left down, then columns left-to-right.

My finds a bit better organized.  Junk on left, valuables on right.  As taken out of the ground.

I cleaned up the coins to find dates and the ring and metal plate.

The items of value:  Six pennies, one dime, one quarter, one ring, and one dog tag!

I used hot water to clean up the ring, and I just couldn't believe how quickly it polished up.  The mud quickly fell off, and I was left holding a very ornate and very clean sterling silver ring.  I haven't been able to locate any information on the ring, as no other marks outside of "Sterling" are stamped on the inside of the ring, but it looks like new.  It was found within close proximity to the other sterling ring found yesterday, and one can't help but imagine the story behind these two.  I was half-expecting to find bones of the couple during my dig!  Is the couple buried in the backyard?!  Was it a secret love with the rings buried?!  Or was it simply an activity where the rings were taken off?

[After much thought, it's quite possible that these could even be two female rings.  That concrete post was followed by a second concrete post about teen feet to the left.  Did the wife take off her rings as she hung laundry on the line?  We'll never know...and I think this THIS is why I love this hobby so much.  The earth holds stories...but stories of intrigue that will never fully be known.  It's imagination at its finest!].

The stunningly ornate sterling silver ring!  I was shocked at how well it cleaned up.

Not a clue what type of (fake?) stone this is.  Or who made it.  But ornate nonetheless!

Stamped with a Sterling mark

My first dime!  1975.

My first quarter!  1972.

I really didn't consider my last find to be much.  I thought it might have been a tag set on the sides of telephone poles for identification.  And it looked completely flat, so I didn't really think that much was going to happen when I ran it under water.  So imagine my surprise when I noticed some numbers engraved on the tag!  Under the right light, I finally made out what I had found:  a dog tag!!!  Not as in military...but as in an original dog tag!  Dogs used to have to be registered in this county, and this was the little pooch's proof of registration!  The date read 1956.  Incredible.  This is quite possibly my oldest find thus far.  67 years old.  Incredible.

A dog tag for Cuyahoga County, Ohio, from 1956!  Ol' Fido was registered!

All in all, I spent just two hours on my second-ever day of detecting.  I am quickly experiencing the highs and lows.  It is soooooooooooo frustrating to dig nails, and that is what I hate the most!!!  It's like opening up a birthday present you don't want!!!  But finding a ring or coin is just the opposite.  You just can't wait to dig up the next treasure!

I also realize the fatigue that can come with detecting!  Digging thirty holes in just two hours wears on you!  It's fun, but I was so eager to go grab some food.

But what a fun, fun hobby.