Hello everyone! I had a new find inspire me to share it with you all.
I live in rural North Dakota (not in the oil patch), and as far as good finds go it can be quite challenging. The area in which I live was settled mostly shortly after 1900, and therefore the hope of finding pre 1900 coins/jewelry is quite low I would estimate. On top of this is the fact that most of the people of the region were very poor and watched every dime, the type that when they butchered their pig they ate "everything from the squeal to the tail". I live in a very small town, 85 people, and every town for 50 miles is quite the same as this. Its 70 miles to a Walmart, and 125 to a sonic.
But this has never discouraged an addicted Md'er from stomping around in the snow and chopping out old beer cans looking for that "big silver" now has it!
I have pulled a few gold rings, Lbs. of clad, and a beautiful copper wristband down at a swimming spot, but there are very few swimming spots around, and that exact spot has been scheduled to be flooded with 30 feet of water and now access is strictly forbidden....
There are a few plus sides to being in the middle of nowhere, when I first started Md'ing I went to all the spots you should if you can (park,playground,school,) and sure enough I found coins! Clad coins.... to my surprise, quite a lot of them in fact, I once found $23.52 in clad in 4 hours where people sit on a slope during an annual hill climb. I quickly realized that no matter where I went, I found coins in the most obvious places to search, often dimes and quarters from the early 70's, and I believed most of the spots I hunt are/were completely virgin. I had so much fun digging all those coins I never realized that I wasn't finding silver coin...ever. I found silver rings, silver spoons, and a silver button but the coins eluded me. I had found Wheaties going back to the 20's in my good old spots. I also have hunted many abandoned farmsteads and usually only pull a few clad, maybe a wheaty and always lots of junk.
So I wondered, maybe someone had been over these places? How could people lose so much clad and not 1 silver quarter or dime? Was my technique off? I can easily tell what a target will be before I dig 80% of the time (its that 20% that keeps my bag full of mystery items!), and I have a good language with my machine. I felt I was looking in the right places, but with no luck. Heck it was easier for me to find 2 gold rings than 1 silver screamer!
I had a spot that I had tried to sweep on multiply occasions, an old dance hall. It was one of the places I had in mind when I bought my first detector. Built in 1901, it was one of the first large buildings in the area. It was a sort of fraternal lodge for the Czech people of the region. It had been the place where my parents as well as my fathers parents held their wedding receptions, along with very many parties and polka dances. It was to be demolished years ago and my uncle purchased it to save it from the match, and now I can thank him for doing so.
I have been around and around this building many times with different machines and its literally unsearchable, the amount of trash in the ground is phenomenal. There was obviously a throw it on the ground policy here, a single 6"square hole in the ground will yield 4-5 colors of broken glass, around 5 pull tabs, 3 bottle tops, 1poptop and nails and every other square hole a golden colored whisky bottle top that hits like a quarter no matter how it lays. I have around 100 gold colored whisky tops with a ship and sails on it....
Finally, while I was reading on these forums I came across someone searching UNDER the old buildings!
My heart stopped, I know what it's like in crawl spaces, we had one under the house I grew up in. I also know that while sweeping there before I smelled a skunk and had seen his entrance to the crawlspaces.
Soooo how bad do I need to find a silver? Headlamp, check, facemask, check .22 LR, check.
I decided to go scope it out before I came bumbling in with my headphones on looking for a spray to the face, and found a small door on the side of the building. I opened the door which entered under the stage, which was quite a relief as I wasn't so sure I wanted to be on my belly right off the get go and this provided a "hunching" space to move around in and look for Mr. Skunk. Once I decided Mr. skunk must be under one of the side buildings, I knew he would avoid me and my noisemaking as long as I stayed under the main hall.(does anyone know what that vertical box in the 3rd pic is? I was thinking for lowering the podium but don't see any way it worked?)
There was some junk laying around, lots of old bottles and cans.
I moved a little bit so I could detect around the most open part, I thought about making a video of all this but thought "eh, I doubt ill get anything but sick from this place.", now I wish I had gone through with it. I got my detector and wiped off a bunch of cobwebs thinking about how over the top I go sometimes but whatever the ground outside is still frozen.
I used my 5x8 coil and zero mode, I started in my standard 7\8 sensitivity which was a mistake. I moved very slowly over the ground, it was a very fine dust covering a compact dirt floor. "Good" I thought, "it hasn't been messed with in years.". Two steps in the ground is full of sounds, tons of iron hits and mids, so I sweep my retriever II's magnet and it picks up a couple of rusty bottle caps - bummer - I scrape the dirt a little and listen again. This time there's a mind-numbing copper tone and I could see lots of broken light bulb bottoms that read like that outside in hear as well and figured I found yet another place they dumped glass and tabs.
I gave the ground a good whack and right under the dust was a 1911 wheaty, which I scratched a little thanks to my overaggressive digging technique. Hey good sign I said, too bad I had to scratch it trying to dig to china... I better turn down my sensitivity, everything is on top.
1 more step, 1 more wheaty, then another. Then I hear a beautiful sound between two irons, its like my machine came alive!
And there, just 1/8 of 1 inch under the surface were these beauties! 2 - 1935 D Mercury Dimes both in very good condition
Now I know its not exactly the stuff of legends, but I feel I have found something that would almost certainly have been lost forever, and in my perspective, quite the find.
My other finds of interest are a lodge button, and a 1929 Canadian one cent.
p.s. if anyone is still reading this should I go crawl under the rest of this place or what?
I failed at fixing the pictures ill have to try again.
I live in rural North Dakota (not in the oil patch), and as far as good finds go it can be quite challenging. The area in which I live was settled mostly shortly after 1900, and therefore the hope of finding pre 1900 coins/jewelry is quite low I would estimate. On top of this is the fact that most of the people of the region were very poor and watched every dime, the type that when they butchered their pig they ate "everything from the squeal to the tail". I live in a very small town, 85 people, and every town for 50 miles is quite the same as this. Its 70 miles to a Walmart, and 125 to a sonic.
But this has never discouraged an addicted Md'er from stomping around in the snow and chopping out old beer cans looking for that "big silver" now has it!
I have pulled a few gold rings, Lbs. of clad, and a beautiful copper wristband down at a swimming spot, but there are very few swimming spots around, and that exact spot has been scheduled to be flooded with 30 feet of water and now access is strictly forbidden....
There are a few plus sides to being in the middle of nowhere, when I first started Md'ing I went to all the spots you should if you can (park,playground,school,) and sure enough I found coins! Clad coins.... to my surprise, quite a lot of them in fact, I once found $23.52 in clad in 4 hours where people sit on a slope during an annual hill climb. I quickly realized that no matter where I went, I found coins in the most obvious places to search, often dimes and quarters from the early 70's, and I believed most of the spots I hunt are/were completely virgin. I had so much fun digging all those coins I never realized that I wasn't finding silver coin...ever. I found silver rings, silver spoons, and a silver button but the coins eluded me. I had found Wheaties going back to the 20's in my good old spots. I also have hunted many abandoned farmsteads and usually only pull a few clad, maybe a wheaty and always lots of junk.
So I wondered, maybe someone had been over these places? How could people lose so much clad and not 1 silver quarter or dime? Was my technique off? I can easily tell what a target will be before I dig 80% of the time (its that 20% that keeps my bag full of mystery items!), and I have a good language with my machine. I felt I was looking in the right places, but with no luck. Heck it was easier for me to find 2 gold rings than 1 silver screamer!
I had a spot that I had tried to sweep on multiply occasions, an old dance hall. It was one of the places I had in mind when I bought my first detector. Built in 1901, it was one of the first large buildings in the area. It was a sort of fraternal lodge for the Czech people of the region. It had been the place where my parents as well as my fathers parents held their wedding receptions, along with very many parties and polka dances. It was to be demolished years ago and my uncle purchased it to save it from the match, and now I can thank him for doing so.
I have been around and around this building many times with different machines and its literally unsearchable, the amount of trash in the ground is phenomenal. There was obviously a throw it on the ground policy here, a single 6"square hole in the ground will yield 4-5 colors of broken glass, around 5 pull tabs, 3 bottle tops, 1poptop and nails and every other square hole a golden colored whisky bottle top that hits like a quarter no matter how it lays. I have around 100 gold colored whisky tops with a ship and sails on it....
Finally, while I was reading on these forums I came across someone searching UNDER the old buildings!
My heart stopped, I know what it's like in crawl spaces, we had one under the house I grew up in. I also know that while sweeping there before I smelled a skunk and had seen his entrance to the crawlspaces.
Soooo how bad do I need to find a silver? Headlamp, check, facemask, check .22 LR, check.
I decided to go scope it out before I came bumbling in with my headphones on looking for a spray to the face, and found a small door on the side of the building. I opened the door which entered under the stage, which was quite a relief as I wasn't so sure I wanted to be on my belly right off the get go and this provided a "hunching" space to move around in and look for Mr. Skunk. Once I decided Mr. skunk must be under one of the side buildings, I knew he would avoid me and my noisemaking as long as I stayed under the main hall.(does anyone know what that vertical box in the 3rd pic is? I was thinking for lowering the podium but don't see any way it worked?)
There was some junk laying around, lots of old bottles and cans.
I moved a little bit so I could detect around the most open part, I thought about making a video of all this but thought "eh, I doubt ill get anything but sick from this place.", now I wish I had gone through with it. I got my detector and wiped off a bunch of cobwebs thinking about how over the top I go sometimes but whatever the ground outside is still frozen.
I used my 5x8 coil and zero mode, I started in my standard 7\8 sensitivity which was a mistake. I moved very slowly over the ground, it was a very fine dust covering a compact dirt floor. "Good" I thought, "it hasn't been messed with in years.". Two steps in the ground is full of sounds, tons of iron hits and mids, so I sweep my retriever II's magnet and it picks up a couple of rusty bottle caps - bummer - I scrape the dirt a little and listen again. This time there's a mind-numbing copper tone and I could see lots of broken light bulb bottoms that read like that outside in hear as well and figured I found yet another place they dumped glass and tabs.
I gave the ground a good whack and right under the dust was a 1911 wheaty, which I scratched a little thanks to my overaggressive digging technique. Hey good sign I said, too bad I had to scratch it trying to dig to china... I better turn down my sensitivity, everything is on top.
1 more step, 1 more wheaty, then another. Then I hear a beautiful sound between two irons, its like my machine came alive!
And there, just 1/8 of 1 inch under the surface were these beauties! 2 - 1935 D Mercury Dimes both in very good condition
Now I know its not exactly the stuff of legends, but I feel I have found something that would almost certainly have been lost forever, and in my perspective, quite the find.
My other finds of interest are a lodge button, and a 1929 Canadian one cent.
p.s. if anyone is still reading this should I go crawl under the rest of this place or what?
I failed at fixing the pictures ill have to try again.
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