Newb here looking for advice

[Lowbatts]

If someone is curious about what I'm doing, I go into chat mode. If I'm working the sidewalks and curb cuts it's because the area has older homes and consequently good potential. So opportunity does and will knock on your door, gotta recognize it.

I'm aware of a couple fairground sites around there. Seems those things moved through areas and sites a decade or so at a time and depending on what year or series of coins you want to hunt, there's a site for you. Very different up here, most things had fixed locations with the exception of July 4 festivities which also moved around a lot of towns at different periods.

If you can get old newspapers on film at the library, pick a year, check the weeks prior to July 4 and immediately after. Three site types available, the holiday observance, the circus circuit and of course the numerous church camps/chatauqua sites. The papers of the day will give you the info on where and how many attended, including notes of particular interest such as fires and strong storms, both of which left potential for a good hunt behind.

 

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[snowskate]

I'll have to look into that.

So, are any public sidewalks and streets free game? Including the grass area between the sidewalk and the curb? Seems like some people might not like that, and the city might be concerned about digging near gas lines?

Is there some kind of a legal reference for detecting specifically in Illinois? I've read through stuff, but I know different states have different laws etc..

Thanks again for the great info! I just recently started looking through the local paper index and have already checked out some great articles about possible sites on microfilm. Man this hobby is fun, now I just need to find some coins. After finding a couple 1919's in my backyard, I really want to get an IH penny.. gotta be one around here.. along with my gold coin

 

[Lowbatts]

30 years ago no one would notice much if you were detecting in a park or wooded area, nor would they have thought much of it. While many might have taken exception to hunting the parkway in front of their homes, which cities claim as right of ways but homeowners maintain.

People and priorities change though. Now there is every kind of Gladys Crabitz busybody imaginable and the roles have seemed to reverse. What passes for public action in the name of everything from environmental/ecological awareness (madness) to "civic pride" and of course the ever growing and inescapable reality of bureaucracy gone insane create unpredictable circumstances.

I've only had a couple people tell me to get off the parkway in front of their place, and I did. A couple other times police have been called, but upon arrival they just pulled up and asked if I was finding anything cool, reported back as a non-issue and rolled on. Most cops just know there are real bad guys out there, md'ers do not rank high enough on that list yet. I think we fall in somewhere below skateboarders and jay walkers with the exception of that group of eco-fascists in uniform who have drank the eco-cool-aid.

So yes, as with all things, some people will hate you because you usurp their precious Mama Earth for coins and they have spent their young lives being miserably misguided. Others will hate you because while in the woods, you do the worst thing of all, go off the designated path and make your own way. Time to roll that old fav movie "Brazil" in your head, if "1984" isn't available. Welcome to the underground. Literally....

People not caught up with designating what you should or shouldn't be doing with regard to their world view still outnumber the misguided so have fun first and reciprocate accordingly!

But hey, it's Christmas morning and I gotta get some breakfast going and wake the gals to show them their haul for this year so it's off this soapbox. God bless us every one.