Old Parks

[IndianHead97]

Hi I have been doing some research and have found 4 parks in the same town that date back to 1885. I know some people say that in an older place that you should dig everything, but what about a park that has been in continuos use since 1885. Do I still dig everything? Or just the deep signals? I have an Ace 250 and I'm into looking for older coins/tokens so any advice would help!

Thanks

 

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[gleaner1]

Dont fuss over digging anything good and old. Those parks are hammered out I am sure, its tough to find old coins, but not impossible. So just dig everything, its the best approach nowadays. Old parks notwithstanding.

 

[kshollywood]

A park is NEVER EVER EMPTY!!! You just have to think outside the box. Hunt places that are hard to get to, hunt the outside edge of the parks, hunt from one corner to the next( north corner to south corner, then east corner to west corner) go really slow and overlap every swing, dig everything up and take everything with you so in the future there is more "good targets " in the ground. Turn your sensitivity up until you hear chatter then back off one step at a time until the chatter goes away. NEVER jump up and down and scream when you find something good. If someone walks up to you and asks if you found anything good ALWAYS say nope!!! Good luck and I hope you find a lot of great treasure!!!

 

[IndianHead97]

Only the repeating signals though right?

 

[gleaner1]

Just dig em all, even the iffy ones. That way, the park will surely be cleaned out of the last remaining good old coins and goodies. Forever.

 

[wingmaster]

I have a few parks like that old but still in use on my MXT I listen for the deep faint signals and only dig those or some of these places your time would be wasted digging alot of clad plus the trash you always dig. Unless its just 6 or 7" then if its perfect VDI I dig it but have pulled deep silver dimes,wheats, and a couple IH's from well pounded parks its just places like this sometimes your not going to find silver as sometimes I only get a wheat or two.

 

[jeff of pa]

on occasion those iffy, & Obvious junk sounds can be big surprises.

My suggestion is always "Dig everything"

don't forget areas of the park
that look like they have been grown up for the past 50 years.
those areas have scared detectorists away for the past 50 years

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Hi I have been doing some research and have found 4 parks in the same town that date back to 1885. I know some people say that in an older place that you should dig everything, but what about a park that has been in continuos use since 1885. Do I still dig everything? Or just the deep signals? I have an Ace 250 and I'm into looking for older coins/tokens so any advice would help!

Thanks

Hey Indian head97, I notice that you say you're looking for "coins/tokens". As such, you know that most of them are mid conductors and higher, on the TID scale (assuming not masked, etc....). This is true even for gold coins (of $5 denomination and higher, anyhow). The only exception therefore, is going to be nickels (of which seem to always come out of the ground worthlessly corroded, and very few have numismatically good dates anyhow). Thus if you really, as you say, want to increase your odds at coins (verses being a hero digging junk to get nickels and gold rings), then I would do as wingmaster says: Be a little selective. Only go for the deeper sounds (which tend to be the older targets, afterall). Skip the shallow clad and junk sounds. Heck, I'd even go a little pickier, and even only chase the mid to high conductors (electing to pass the low conductors, even if deep), in junky parks.

Sure you can be a hero and "dig all" as gleaner1, kshollywood, and jeff of PA say. And sure, you'll eventually bag a few orange corroded buffalos or V's to add your collection. Heck, even a gold ring now and then.

But here's what will happen if you do the "hero" route of "digging all" in junky parks: You will end the day with 50+ pieces of trash (shallow foil, tabs, corroded zinc, clad, etc...), a single dateless buffalo or corroded V, 2 or 3 wheaties, a single silver, etc.... In other words, you spent all your time digging junk, when you COULD have honed in on only those signals which had more promise of being the very thing you were after: coins and tokens!

I have had this debate with persons I've hunted with, who BRISTLE at the thought of not digging all, in junky parks. In their mind, they think they are getting the "best of both worlds", by digging all. Ie.: all the deep coins PLUS gold and nickels. But it never works out this way in the end. They look with envy on my apron of 10 or 15 oldies, while they only have 2, and they perpetually wonder how come that is? The reason is, they spent all that time on their knees digging foil. Oh sure, eventually, as I say, they'll get that shallow item I passed, which admittedly could be something good. But Las Vegas odds tell you, that if old coins is what you're after, then "digging all" in junky urban parks, is not the recipe to increase the end-of-the-day count. If a person is that h*ll-bent on getting some gold jewelry, then if you ask me, why are they hunting junky parks to begin with? You ought to simply go to a swimming beach, if jewelry were your goal, to begin with. Much less junk, and digging is much easier in sand. Doh!

I have been in a park scrape (where they scraped off all the turf to prepare to install astro-turf), and we had the opportunity to treat it like "relic mode" (ie.: "dig all"), since the park (which dated to the 1870s, but is currently in a blighted district) was all torn up. I took the opportunity to save every single piece of metal I dug up, even the junk, for an entire week. At the end of the week, yes, I had about 3 or 4 pieces of gold jewelry, by the dig all method. But I'm not kidding that the junk ratio was about 200 to each single gold item. Simply not worth it, if it hadn't been a scraped park. And by the end of that week, I had perhaps 30 V nickels, buffalo nickels, etc.... All of the worthless orange cr*p, d/t nickels suffer the worst corrosion in some soil types. In the meantime, there were some nights during this project that we simply could not cover all the ground, before the tractors took away prime soil. It occured to me, when this was over, that my time would have been much better spent honing my time for silver and copper, as there were key date good shape silver coins showing up (and were right near SF, so most of the coins had the potential of being a good key date S mint ).

Anyhow, I side with the viewpoint of being a little selective in junky urban turfed parks, as you can tell

 

[cudamark]

My view is taking a little from both camps. If you have limited detecting time, do as Tom suggests and go for the deep silver and copper. If you're retired and are going to hunt every day, I'd grid the park and dig everything that makes a noise. I've found some nice coins and jewelry that way as they were masked by surface/shallow junk. It's also a good way to learn what your detector is telling you.

 

[ticm]

Hey Indian head97, I notice that you say you're looking for "coins/tokens". As such, you know that most of them are mid conductors and higher, on the TID scale (assuming not masked, etc....). This is true even for gold coins (of $5 denomination and higher, anyhow). The only exception therefore, is going to be nickels (of which seem to always come out of the ground worthlessly corroded, and very few have numismatically good dates anyhow). Thus if you really, as you say, want to increase your odds at coins (verses being a hero digging junk to get nickels and gold rings), then I would do as wingmaster says: Be a little selective. Only go for the deeper sounds (which tend to be the older targets, afterall). Skip the shallow clad and junk sounds. Heck, I'd even go a little pickier, and even only chase the mid to high conductors (electing to pass the low conductors, even if deep), in junky parks.

Sure you can be a hero and "dig all" as gleaner1, kshollywood, and jeff of PA say. And sure, you'll eventually bag a few orange corroded buffalos or V's to add your collection. Heck, even a gold ring now and then.

But here's what will happen if you do the "hero" route of "digging all" in junky parks: You will end the day with 50+ pieces of trash (shallow foil, tabs, corroded zinc, clad, etc...), a single dateless buffalo or corroded V, 2 or 3 wheaties, a single silver, etc.... In other words, you spent all your time digging junk, when you COULD have honed in on only those signals which had more promise of being the very thing you were after: coins and tokens!

I have had this debate with persons I've hunted with, who BRISTLE at the thought of not digging all, in junky parks. In their mind, they think they are getting the "best of both worlds", by digging all. Ie.: all the deep coins PLUS gold and nickels. But it never works out this way in the end. They look with envy on my apron of 10 or 15 oldies, while they only have 2, and they perpetually wonder how come that is? The reason is, they spent all that time on their knees digging foil. Oh sure, eventually, as I say, they'll get that shallow item I passed, which admittedly could be something good. But Las Vegas odds tell you, that if old coins is what you're after, then "digging all" in junky urban parks, is not the recipe to increase the end-of-the-day count. If a person is that h*ll-bent on getting some gold jewelry, then if you ask me, why are they hunting junky parks to begin with? You ought to simply go to a swimming beach, if jewelry were your goal, to begin with. Much less junk, and digging is much easier in sand. Doh!

I have been in a park scrape (where they scraped off all the turf to prepare to install astro-turf), and we had the opportunity to treat it like "relic mode" (ie.: "dig all"), since the park (which dated to the 1870s, but is currently in a blighted district) was all torn up. I took the opportunity to save every single piece of metal I dug up, even the junk, for an entire week. At the end of the week, yes, I had about 3 or 4 pieces of gold jewelry, by the dig all method. But I'm not kidding that the junk ratio was about 200 to each single gold item. Simply not worth it, if it hadn't been a scraped park. And by the end of that week, I had perhaps 30 V nickels, buffalo nickels, etc.... All of the worthless orange cr*p, d/t nickels suffer the worst corrosion in some soil types. In the meantime, there were some nights during this project that we simply could not cover all the ground, before the tractors took away prime soil. It occured to me, when this was over, that my time would have been much better spent honing my time for silver and copper, as there were key date good shape silver coins showing up (and were right near SF, so most of the coins had the potential of being a good key date S mint ).

Anyhow, I side with the viewpoint of being a little selective in junky urban turfed parks, as you can tell

Looks like I am going to agree with Tom on this one. I say this for most of all the above and I am to lazy to dig up trash and clad. And yes I will miss some good stuff, I know. I am not much of a park hunter.

 

[New Orleans Relic]

on occasion those iffy, & Obvious junk sounds can be big surprises.

My suggestion is always "Dig everything"

don't forget areas of the park
that look like they have been grown up for the past 50 years.
those areas have scared detectorists away for the past 50 years

Grown up 50 years? Any brush over 4-6 inchs I find is very difficult to hunt. Perhaps I'd have a bush hog.
HH Ray

 

[kshollywood]

Ok so one time I hit an old site that has been hunted a billion times from trespassers, now that I have permission to hunt it I put a fence up and have had 2 people arrested for trespassing, so with that being said I went back there a couple of weeks ago and I found an old skeleton key( 2") ringtail sharps(2") and a friend found a Indian head (1") in an area that was hunted to death. I hunted it a lot but just missed what was in the ground, so I always dig everything when I go because you never know if there is a good coin next to a big piece of junk that everyone else didn't dig because they where cherry picking!!

 

[jeff of pa]

Grown up 50 years? Any brush over 4-6 inchs I find is very difficult to hunt. Perhaps I'd have a bush hog.
HH Ray

No I can't hunt tall grass either.

I Meant areas that have the type of Bushes you can swing your detector under, and in between.

Especially those painful Brier bushes, you can sometimes crawl in between.
that is if you don't mind having to extract an occasional thorn from your
arms or face,
or get a good 5 - 10 second bleed goin' if your a Bleeder, or your face is
important to you & those you talk to, you may want to avoid though.

Trust me most people do mind
and for some reason it seems Briers are the only thing that grow in areas that had high
foot traffic 50 to a hundred years ago

 

[richbat]

I'll take a good repeatable signal anyday and yes i am a "Dig it All" kind of person.

 

[jharhed]

The old stuff is not always deep especially in highly rooted areas

 

[ticm]

No I can't hunt tall grass either.

I Meant areas that have the type of Bushes you can swing your detector under, and in between.

Especially those painful Brier bushes, you can sometimes crawl in between.
that is if you don't mind having to extract an occasional thorn from your
arms or face,
or get a good 5 - 10 second bleed goin' if your a Bleeder, or your face is
important to you & those you talk to, you may want to avoid though.

Trust me most people do mind
and for some reason it seems Briers are the only thing that grow in areas that had high
foot traffic 50 to a hundred years ago

I have a couple of places in the woods I want to hunt. I am just waiting for a good lightning strike to burn them away. Gotta be them most worthless plant on the earth. I bet I have lost a pint of blood over the years.

 

[deepskyal]

I met a fellow in a club that won the most coins in a year contest, every year. He mainly worked one park and was a dig it all guy.

There is a ballfield in that park I decided to try one day last year. I didn't get a beep....anywhere...Not a pulltab, piece of foil, NADA! Apparently this was an area he worked hard...and I'm guessing he must have gridded it off to be so thorough. He is retired so I guess he has the time. I still find stuff there at a lot of the shelters and even areas where there are no shelters, like suggested. Think outside the box. I found silver in a grassy area beside a road in an area that was open but no benches. It looked like maybe one time it might have had a shelter...it was open...

Conversly, there is another big park that I find goodies, silver, jewelry, etc. It is full of trash and I do mean full...as in almost wall to wall bottle caps. It s one of the first parks in the area going back to the early 1800's and still in use. It's in an urban area so you'll get that.
I use a small 5" coil and swing slowly. I dig a fair share of bottle caps even though I try to disc them out. I don't want to miss out on old silver. But I don't dig pulltabs. I know, like Tom said, that I may miss nickles or maybe even the occasional gold ring...but I'm concentrating on silver which the ratio of that to jewelry or nickles would be higher. I try to maximize my finds.

I've been fooled by a big signal, thinking it was a piece of junk, only to find 2 quarters side by side. Thank god I was demonstrating my detector to a couple of old guys and even told them it was junk. Just to prove it, I dug and there were the quarters. I'm glad I learned that lesson many years ago. So I told them, that's why you should dig all iffy signals....lol

My point, all parks are going to be different and how I hunt each is different. Time and practice will tell you how to hunt where.

Al

 

[Catobra]

I have a couple of places in the woods I want to hunt. I am just waiting for a good lightning strike to burn them away. Gotta be them most worthless plant on the earth. I bet I have lost a pint of blood over the years.

Meant to carry over Jeff's post as well...

Years ago when I was researching bottle digging, I read that briar patches are where you look for bottle dumps/trash dumps (for whatever reason, trash begets trash). I have seen this proven many times over and have also cut myself up pretty badly, but come out of it smiling with some piece of something or other : )

 

[TheElementOfSand]

If i didn't dig everything I would have found nothing and wouldn't be into this hobby anymore. No silver or coppers yet but still happily digging for all treasure!

 

[dirtscratcher]

I think Tom in Cal said it best. I live in western Mt, The whole state has less people than some eastern cities. Our parks are fairly trashy, digging it all would mean more digging than I would feel comfortable doing. Would also think it would bring unwanted attention. I hunt some parks where i'll ignore 50 to 60 targets either shallow coins or trash for every deep coin, not always old but usually. Would those who say dig it all realy suggest someone new to this hobby to dig in park that many holes?