A farce to be reckoned with

[Mayo South Elgin]

"Mayo is becoming a force to be reckoned with."
Sorry if my deodorant wore off - that sometimes happens in the heat of the moment.

It's mostly dumb luck as far as me finding the coinage.
I find and dig as much or more junk as the rest of you guys I usually hunt with.
If anything, I cover less ground, but more thoroughly.
This all stems from my childhood upbringing actually.

When I was a small child, (the story goes), I was given one or two toys, placed in the center of the living room, and told to stay there and play with my toys. My family members told me I would do this for hours. Evidently this was one of the only times I listened to my parents and it sunk in because to this day I still stay in just about one spot and play with my toys. I have enough patience to listen to the machine gun chatter of various tones when in trash filled spots and occasionally I catch that one tone in between all the junk tones, and I dig it up and it's not the 40 ounce screw cap or the nail or the mem cent at 7 inches deep. Sunday just happened to be one of those days.
There's been plenty days when I got skunked and got a pouch full of junk.

I dug at least 25 to 30 beaver tails/pull tabs before I got my one and only nickel - my first buffalo this year. In the same hole was another beaver tail. I had been digging a lot of them which were folded over. Was it worth it? I don't know - my knees felt it later that night. I'll keep doing it as long as I see the occasional payoff. It's not pictured - date was unreadable and it's soaking in Thai hot sauce.

The merc dime was a surface find where some bushes had been torn out - on first glance I thought it was clad because of the pitting. I call it my first clad mercury. Photographed uncleaned - as I found it.

The one thin dime - an 1898 seated actually measured 0.032 in thickness. In contrast, the clad merc measured 0.05. It was about 4 inches down and the signal was not constant, but it did give me good numbers in between the bad numbers so I dug it up. When I saw the glint of the silver edge in the hole, my first thought was "I KNEW I should have brought my video cam" and then my second thought was "What if it's another one of those aluminum washers?" I'm glad it turned out to be the silver! Fairly worn out but still a great find for me because it had been the longest time since I got any silver from that park.

The Indian head was between 4 - 6 inches - I don't remember the details exactly. I was thinking it was another green wheat penny initially but when I rubbed the dirt off it I could see some of the headdress and part of the date. It was pretty encrusted - those of you that saw it fresh from the ground can see how it transformed from multiple soakings in hot peroxide, then overnight soaking in fresh room temp peroxide, and multiple cleanings with a toothpick. It's still not totally clean and I don't like how dark they get from the peroxide but I didn't want to leave it totally covered in corrosion.

Also found a strange button - any ideas? No markings on it.

Miscellaneous clad coinage totaled 4 quarters, 10 dimes, a handful of mem cents, and also got 3 wheats.


It was a fun hunt on Sunday and it was great seeing everyone at the BWW Wingo Dingo.

[Lowbatts]

Yes, a force to be reckoned with, just not in a dessert aisle.

Another purse or raincoat latch? The button may be one of those that had the twist-lock on a purse or garment.

I "cleaned" all the goodies out of that spot years ago. Hadn't even considered walking through there until this year, after seeing how much of the base had washed away. Those high tree roots were all under dirt when I started detecting there a couple decades ago. Lots of goodies came easy then, even in the trash.

It's cool that we have the gear once again to one-up what I did to the last generation of detectorists so long ago! I have no doubt I walked over the IH and buff I got there several times some years ago because I always worked those trees in that area to extremes yet there they were.

[Dirt fishing Wolf]

Don't know about the rusty button thingy. Nice digs Mayo.
Pulling those folded in beavertails doesn't seem to end.
These days I'm happy to pull'em because I've been finding
rings that were close by. My ring total for this year must be
around 30 or so. Gold, silver and junk.

[watercolor]

Sweet recoveries Mayo

Maybe I should force myself to spend more time in smaller areas. . . if that's what it takes to find what you're finding
It can't hurt to slow down a tad even it means digging beaver tails

[kimsdad]

Maybe I should force myself to spend more time in smaller areas. . . if that's what it takes to find what you're finding
It can't hurt to slow down a tad even it means digging beaver tails

Man, I've been trying to slow you down for a couple of years now, Mark - not so you can get more silver, but so there's some ground left for us slowbies to cover!

Never noticed the deoderant failure, Mayo. You were always at least a block behind us and too far to tell!

Great finds!!!

[twistidd]

Mayo, it was a blast seeing youe finds in person at BWW. That buffalo is sharp, but let me tell you, that crust can be found on many of mine too. Actually, it has been on all of my last 5 or 6 Indian Heads too. And like you, I'm hesitant to scan a crustified coin. Seems like a waste of energy.

You got yourself a nice variety from within the trash, you are a master of the Etrac!!

Joe