To the Beach! 22 Coins!!!

I'm pretty sure I still have plenty of metal in my backyard, but I wanted a little change of pace.  I wanted to head somewhere public...where I could possibly find some valuable items!  So with three days off, I decided to head to the beach!!!  Now I have to give some necessary details here...I woke up to a dusting of snow on the ground.  The windchill was 23 degrees when I headed out.  And the wind from Canada coming over that water...oh boy.

But I wanted to dig a beach!!!  So I headed out.

I headed to the middle of the beach...where I was basically alone!  It WAS windy, and outside of an ambitious kite surfer (I couldn't believe it!) and a couple of walkers, that was it.  A perfect time to dig.  I arrived around 10:40 A.M.  Within less than a minute, I had my first beep.  That surprised me!

That guy was even more crazy than me!

A piece of metal.  I would dig up several unidentified pieces of metal this morning.  I had NO idea what most of them were.  Junk washed up from Lake Erie.  And let's talk about junk.  The beach was FILTHY.  Just downright dirty...dead fish everywhere (I dug up more than just one), trees and braches everywhere, and just dirty.  Oh, Cleveland...you have so much potential!!!

The first thing I realized with beach detecting is that digging out an object is SIMPLE.  Sand is soooooooooooo easy to move!  That was a much welcome relief to digging in dirt!  What a difference!

Then I hit it.  My first penny!!!  And then a nickel!  And then another penny...and another!  It was obvious to me that this was a coin spill.  My first one!  Someone had lost the money out of their pockets (or off of his towel) right in this exact spot.  I pulled out a few pennies and a nickel within just a few feet of each other.

My first beach coin...a penny!

My first beach nickel in the same coin spill location.  Dated 1999.

But the trend of the day was junk.  Junk, junk, junk.  Plenty of unidentified metal, pull tabs galore, and tops and bottoms of aluminum cans...with the rest eaten out by the churning sea of water.  The entire time I searched I just wondered how much it would cost the City of Cleveland to buy a beach comber.  Granted, this IS Lake Erie but still.  It's a mess.

Kind of my luck on the beach.  Outside of that coin spill, just junk...including this very dead fish.

I also concluded that my hopeful finds of rings or watches was probably not going to happen on this beach, either.  Again, this is Cleveland...AND this was one of the "poorer" beaches.  I've been here in the summer, and the demographic is certainly no Florida beach.  Oh well.  I kept searching.  I searched the middle...then headed right up the water.  The finds along the water were consistently aluminum cans.

I decided to head to the grassy park next door and get out of the wind...and get off of the beach.  While I found several items, the finds were pretty blah.  So I searched the grass!  On the walk off of the beach, I swung the detector back and forth and was pleasantly surprised to find this 2012 nickel on TOP of the sand!  Well, mostly.  :)

A nickel on top of the sand but easily missed by the naked eye!  Dated 2012.

In the grassy area, almost instantly I hit my second coin spill!!!  By far the biggest one yet!  My Ace detector just went crazy over this short area, and I was certain these were accurate reads.  Very quick, pointed, abrupt, and loud.  COINS!!!  So I dug.  :)

A penny!  Another penny!  A nickel!  A dime!  A penny!  A nickel!  A penny!  This was just getting crazy!  Within a space of about four feet, I pulled out several coins.  The first penny was 1969, the next two 1964, the fourth a 1964 nickel, and I was excited that I had possibly found an old spill.  But the next one was a 1983 dime, and yet another was a 1976 penny, so I think maybe that's just what the person had in the pockets!

The first coin pulled out of the park spill.  A 1969 penny.

Two more pennies...both dated 1964!

But coin finds are so much fun.  I spent a solid half hour in that little area just picking up signals and digging up coins.  I pulled out two beautiful 1964 nickels in that same spot.

1964 nickel in decent shape.

The second 1964 nickel with great detail.

My body was getting tired, though, so I started making my way back to my truck.  Of course, it's very difficult to not detect as you walk, so I swept the ground on the way back.  Bad idea.  I hit so many targets...and a couple more coins.  I finally just had to tell myself to walk with the detector off!  I was spent.

I'm pretty terrible at telling time while detecting, and I thought it might be approaching 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon.  After all, I was getting hungry.  I was nothing short of SHOCKED to realize that it was 2:30!  I had spent FOUR HOURS walking around digging!  I couldn't believe it.  It felt like two!  I headed home to categorize the finds...but not before stopping for some lunch!

The day's bounty!

Mostly junk...but 22 more coins!!!

 The final tally comes in as follows...11 old-style pull tabs, 1 stay-tab, 4 metal pop lids, 6 tops or bottoms of aluminum cans, one partial hanger, too-many-to-count foil and miscellaneous metal, one obscenely large piece of metal, some sort of foil housing what used to be some sort of liquid (now sand), 15 pennies, 6 nickels, and 1 dime!!!

So while a bit frustrating with junk today, I did manage to find 22 coins!  Of course, I found no wheaties (grr!) or anything older than 1964 (no silver!), but a coin is a coin, right?!  All in all, not too shabby.

The items of value today...22 coins worth a whopping 55 cents!

What I find so intriguing, though, is the difference between two coins.  I found two 1964 pennies in the same hole basically.  Most likely in the same coin spill.  But what a difference in striking between the two.  Was it the soil after they were dropped in 1964?  Or was one used and abused through life and one pampered and then dropped in 2013?  We'll never know!

A 1964 D penny found in the park today.

A 1964 penny found in the same spot but so much more detail!

I'm itching for my first elusive silver, though!  And I'm learning that it's probably going to have to be at some older site.  My backyard and this park just might not do the trick.  HOWEVER, in the same breath, those pull tabs tell me that this site has not been detected in a very, very long time.  The stay-tab was introduced in the late 70's or early 80's, so it's possible this park has gone undetected for more than 30 years!  As I quickly learned on my walk to my truck, there are oodles and oodles of coins just waiting to be found!

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!  :)

Day 2 (Continued!)

After grabbing some lunch, I came back and decided to dig some more.  I only lasted about a half hour this time, and I was ready to call it a day.  I was able to pick up two more pennies, though.  Still no wheaties!

I also had my first bottle cap...the company was hard to miss.

 

The finds in my second round of the day in the order found...



My yard is full of nails!  agh!!!  But two more pennies.

It was a quick little search, but after the couple hours from earlier, I was just done for the day.  I'm gettin' tired of these nails, though, I can tell you that!!!

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.