I haven’t had a lot of time to invest in getting onto new sites lately, so I returned to my old stand-by … the 1960′s school that has blessed me with 13 silver dimes and over 250 coins.
Once again, she came through for me. I dug 50 coins total, including 6 wheaties and this little piece of sweetness – a 1947-D Rosie.
I’m on my way!
Happy hunting to all.
Yesterday I separated my pennies from my fake silver, worthless, American clad coinage that I dug this past year for tumbling. I loaded the tumbler before bed last night, ready for rinsing and drying this morning.
I was quite shocked when I found this shiny little disc in with my junk clad.
It’s a 1943-P 40% silver War Nickel! A surprise silver/gold find #98 for 2011! I must have dug it on my last day of hunting, December 28, before bad weather and my kitchen paint job (one of my Christmas presents for my wife … along story) kicked in. I dug a LOT of nickel signals that day and had a pouch full of nasty 5-centers. I didn’t look at any of them very closely. My bad …
The tumbler really did a number on that soft silver. I can barely make out the date.
Oh, well … it just goes in with all my other “junk silver” anyways. A nice surprise this morning, and I didn’t even have to go swinging to find it!
And I almost forgot … another surprise! I found a 1964-D silver Rosie in my daughter’s change last week. I saw it laying on her dresser and thought that it looked suspiciously like silver. I was right! Bonus find! I made the MXT “whump-whump” signal with my mouth as I waved my hand over the coin just to make it legal. 
That was silver find #97 for me in 2011.
Here’s a picture …
Thanks for looking. There’s still silver out there! HH
Chalk up two more today! Unbelievably, they were my first two targets out of the ground! One is my oldest find on the site … a 1936 Merc (nicely worn), and the other is a 1958-D Rosie. I also dug 6 wheats and $1.29 in old clad.
I’ll be hitting it again tomorrow afternoon, really slowing down and going for the gold signals!
These make silver/gold find #’s 95 & 96 for me in 2011! I only have three days to find four more and break 100!
I managed about an hour and a half of hunting right before dark yesterday. And that’s not easy, considering that the Winter Solstice day (Dec. 21) is the shortest day of the year. I am soooo tired of it getting dark at 4:30 here in beautiful Kentucky!
Anyhow … I hit another section of the very large schoolyard that I have been hunting this past couple of weeks. Right now I’m just “cherry-picking” the higher VDI signals, trying to clear out the silver. And so far my methodology has worked out just fine!
I added two more silver dimes, both (interestingly) 1964-D’s. Here they be:
That makes a total of 11 silver dimes from this school yard! I just wish I knew where the quarters are hiding!! Once again, I dug a pouch full of high VDI copper Lincolns. Every one of them read 78-80 VDI, and some even gave a whisper of 81-82. Must be the soil in this particular yard. I dug close to $3 in clad, including a very fresh drop of four shiny quarters, right on top of the ground. (Not sure where those came from … this place has been abandoned for over 40 years.)
But my “banner find” for the day was one of my very last digs, right before it got too dark for me to see. I got another 79 VDI and, expecting another 1960 Lincoln, was thrilled to roll over this gorgeous sterling Catholic four-way pendant medal. It’s a little bigger than a quarter, with roughly the same mass (weight) as two dimes. Here are front and back views:
It’s cool finding this piece of history, which has been in this ground for at least 40 … most likely for 50 … years.
And I might just be able to hit 100 silver/gold finds this year. These account for finds #92-94. If I can just pull out six more before next weekend!
I hit the jackpot this afternoon! I went for a couple of hours to hunt an old school that I’ve been working lately. It’s a school with an odd time period of use. It was in operation from the early 1960′s until the early 1970′s, then it was closed down. I found three silver dimes there last week. Honestly, I didn’t hold out much hope for finding any more.
Boy, was I wrong!
I dug 8 wheat pennies …
And, curiously enough, I dug 3 old Canadian pennies from our Wheat Penny period …
But the real “goods” was the 6 silver dimes that I found! All in a relatively small area!
I also dug a pretty good pile of clad. Actually, there’s not a Zincoln in the bunch. All of the pennies are genuine copper from the 1960′s. Every one of them gave a really high / borderline dime VDI. Frustrating …
I got out for just a little while between rain showers today. I dug 29 coins total, including four wheaties from the 1950′s and a single silver … a 1952-D Rosie.
Love that silver!
I’ve been out on several short hunts lately. No stellar finds in recent weeks, but I have gotten onto a few decent digs.
Here is my latest video, with story and pics below.
I hit up an old school in my community that was only used for about 10 years. It was just after the “age of silver,” around 1965-1975 or so. I didn’t hold out much hope for finding anything good. But I managed to dig 57 coins, including 7 wheats and these two “bonus” silvers!
I also dug this old “Senior Key” from 1988. My heart skipped a beat when I rolled it over in my plug. I thought it was gold at first. It is initialed on the back, and with just a little detective work I managed to find out the name of the owner. She still lives here in this community. I’m waiting to get her number from a friend and reunite her with her lost jewelry this week. 
Finally, yesterday I hunted a trusty cornfield with my buddy, Western KY Digger. I pulled several flat buttons, pieces of buckshot and various small lead pieces, as well as a brass o-ring and j-shaped hook. Hard digging, but lots of fun. Digger dug a rather large flat button and the biggest zouave button I’ve ever seen.
Thanks for reading and looking! I hope to have more for you next week. I’m working on permission for a couple of new spots. 
My final day stunk through the first two hunts. I only managed four Indian Heads and two silver dimes. No tokens, which really stunk, since they were giving away detectors in all of the day’s hunts. It was getting ugly. I knew my luck was turning a bit when I found a dime on the ground while waiting for the afternoon hunt. It was, obviously, a drop by one of the other hunters. You can see it in the picture below, the 1957 at the top. The picture does not do it justice. It is brilliant uncirculated, if not a proof. I suspect that it is a proof that somehow was sold to a silver dealer. Anyhow, it was a good indicator that my luck was a-changin’!
I was VERY relieved when the final hunt field was much more spread out. It really made it more challenging for everyone, I think. In the final hunt I had my best total for the week … 13 silver dimes and two more Indian Heads.
All totaled, I finished with sixteen silvers and six Indians for the day. 57 silvers for the week. Not bad, but not quite recovering my expenses, either. I doubt I’ll do this type of hunt again. Old spots and actual digs are more my style.
Here’s the pic of my Saturday loot:
Thanks for reading, and happy hunting to all. More pics and stories will be on the way when the weather cools down a bit.
Well, this morning started out with a big thud.
Robert and I arrived to find that the morning hunt was a “Poker Hunt.” All hunters were divided into teams of five, and each went out one at a time to dig a coin with a playing card wrapped around it. Translation: I just got to dig one target. 
I dug the five of diamonds wrapped around an Andrew Johnson one dollar coin. My team did manage a pair of fives, but we only came in fourth place. The first three places received prizes. Again …
The second hunt of the day was tokens and Indian Head pennies. I dug six Indian Heads and absolutely no tokens, ergo, no prizes. Again, a big thud.
I hoped that I might redeem myself in the final hunt of the day. It was an all silver and token hunt. Reportedly, it would have the highest concentration of silvers for the entire week. I managed to dig 12 silver dimes and two tokens. For those tokens I received … get this … a set of meat scissors (who the heck thought that Dollar Tree meat scissors would make a good prize at a metal detecting competition?!!!!) and a 1988 U.S. Mint Uncirculated Coin Set. That’s pretty cool. Maybe I can sell it on EBay or something.
Anyhoo … here’s a picture of the total haul:
Well, I pretty much stunk right up until the last hunt today. In two hunts I only found six Indian Heads and a 3-ringer. No tokens. No special prizes. I was ticked and mighty frustrated.
I know … I know … pathetic.
But I will say this. The fields for all of the hunts today were TINY! The people running today’s hunt like smaller fields (for the sake of me, I don’t know why). Fifty people with detectors running into each other, with detectors interfering and chattering with each other. Drove me nuts.
But the last hunt today was the silver hunt. They saved all silver dimes until the last hunt. I chose a spot about half-way up the side of the field to start. I got on my first couple of targets really fast, and was thrilled when I glanced up and saw that my lane was completely clear. No one was coming toward me and no one had crossed my space yet. So, in a matter of ten minutes, I dug twelve dimes! Six Mercs and six Rosies.
Redeemed the day for me, as far as I’m concerned. That makes 29 dimes and 16 Indians for me this week.
Here’s my pic of today’s loot …
