Thirteen Coins!!!

I just want some silver!!!  That's basically how I woke up.  But it was not meant to be.

I woke up on my own at 8:12 this morning.  I had the entire day off, and I figured I might as well waste some time finding some gold and silver, right?!  I was out the door around 9:30 A.M. to dig more of my backyard.  I tell you, what a difference weather can make!  We had a little bit of ice crystals on the ground...the air was biting cold...the ground was wet...and did I mention the cold?!  About 30 degrees.

No bother.  I wanted to dig!  So I started goin' at it today.  I ended up having a pretty enjoyable time, although the day's finds just weren't too profitable!  I ended up pulling 42 metal objects out of my yard today...with eleven of those being coins!!!  I wish I could say those coins were worth something...but I think the going rate on a penny these days is...about a penny.

I've noticed that my yard has a little bit of a pattern to it.  If I dig close to the house, I am bombarded with nails.  The middle of my yard there's no tellin' what I'm going to get.  And in the back center around what I expect to be the old clothesline is where I regularly pick up change.  Is it possible that the coins simply fell out of pant pockets while being folded?!  That's a new thought to me, but it's quite feasible now that I mention it!  Come to think of it, both of those rings were found in the area where I find the most coins, too.  Hmm...maybe these objects are simply falling out of clothing as they dry!

Interesting.

My first coin of the day!  Buried right there in the top center.



Not worth much but a coin is a coin!

My morning ended up being pretty productive in terms of coins.  I was still hitting TONS of nails and wires (a bad roofing company?!), but the pennies were showing up fairly often, too.  Then I had another hit...and I found my second dime!  These dimes always have that recognizable color to them.  I was hoping for silver but was shocked to see it was fairly new!  It was cast in 2000!

My first dime of the day!  Top left.

Ol' Roosevelt being raised out of his muddy grave.

The Ace 250 just kept ringing hits today.  I picked up two older pennies...1961 and 1965.

The oldest coin for me yet.  A 1961 penny.

A 1973 penny with excellent striking.

The hits were coming fairly frequently still (I still can't believe how much metal is in my backyard), but I was spoiled from last week!  I wanted silver!  Or bigger coins!!!  And I was eager to see what it's like to dig in a public area rather than your own yard.  So I grabbed a second cup of coffee and headed to a public ball diamond about a mile away.  I did notice that I cover a little bit larger area before I get a beep, and I was encouraged by my first find being a penny!  But the ground was just too wet to get much done today.  I was leaving a little bit more mud than I wanted, and the mud was hard to uncover anyway, so I opted to just head back home.  But not before I found two pennies and some sort of chrome-covered knob.  The last thing I want is to leave a park in worse shape than how I found it.  Another day.



My first public park experience...VERY short-lived due to mud

Back at home, I dug for a couple more hours.  I had nothin' else to do, so why not!  The nails were as prevalent as ever, but I kept hitting coins, too!  On one of the holes, I was thrilled to find my first NICKEL!!!  Just as exciting as finding the coin is taking your fingers to wipe off the mud!  Again, my mind was just screaming for silver, but today just wasn't to be the day.  The more coins I find, the more I realize that I may not have any silver back there anyway!  But even without the silver, I was happy to see a very nice 1962 nickel with great detail.  My first nickel!  I've now found all of the major circulated coins (penny, nickel, dime, quarter) in just my first three days of detecting.  My detector went crazy over this hole, and I actually thought that I had found an electrical wire after digging (that smooth root looked like a cable!).  But in this one hole, I found three coins...this nickel, a 1983 penny, and another penny!  I'm learning to ALWAYS check the hole over even after pulling out metal!  So many times I find two or more items in the same dig.

The nickel found underneath a tree root.

Absolutely beautiful clarity.  That date is EASY to read!

I told myself that I should call it a day with three coins in a row, but finding coins only makes you want to dig more!  But after pulling up a nail next, I decided to call it for the day.  I had been out for around three or four hours.

As always, I placed my finds in the order found, top to bottom, left to right.  Some of the more interesting finds from the day were a Dad's rootbeer cap, a clothespin spring-wire, a shower curtain hook (what's the story behind THAT one?!), a pull-tab, and two vintage stay-tabs.  I ended up with thirteen coins from today...eleven from my backyard and two from the park.

The various finds from the day!  SO MUCH METAL IN MY YARD!!!

Junk, junk, junk!  But the coins on the right made it all worthwhile.

In terms or productivity, I was hitting finds left and right.  In terms of profitability, I found only 26 cents worth of clad coins!  But I guess it wasn't a wasted day.  (Two of the pennies shown below were from my second round on March 10 that I never catalogued).

13 pennies, one nickel, one dime.  No silver.

 I was encouraged by two of the pennies in terms of date.  My yard seems to produce mostly 1970's and later coins, but as mentioned above, one penny was dated 1961 and the other 1965.  Of course, the 1962 nickel was quite an encouragement, too!  These are the oldest known items found in my backyard with exception of the 1956 dog tag found last week.  I am still hoping to find silver or a wheatie in there somewhere, but that may just not happen.  It's even possible those coins would be buried deeper than my detector can pick up!

The best find of the day.  A 1962 nickel in great shape.

It wasn't the most of exciting days, but thirteen coins is good news.  It tells me I must be doing something right.  Now all I need to find is an older home...or cabin from the 1800's!  My yard is too new!  :)