scaupus
Hero Member
Oops...title should read "First US silver coin from any park...and first gold from a pre-ww2 park"
Saturday, I stumbled onto an old 1920's park while I was detecting parking strips. That was a nice surprise.
The very first signal I dug after entering the park was a mercury dime only an inch under the athletic turf! Booya! And that is the first US silver coin I'd ever recovered from a park. My theory about this lack of silver coins in parks, is that the soil is so shallow in S. Florida, that the silver in the public parks and schools has most all been found. I have hunted private residences and parking strips with much better success.
As regards this park, I was primarily going for gold; the park is located in an affluent neighborhood. That's probably also why I encountered so few trash targets. I decided to do a grid, and I plowed three lanes before I gave it up. I didn't have time to cover even a quarter of the park, and I preferred using the time I had just following my intuition.
Good choice, because it led me very shortly to a petite 14k size 4 ring with a big sparkly clear stone - my first gold from an old park. All my park gold had previously come from 10 to 25 year old parks in newer developments.
The ring was definitely gold, so I figured the stone for a diamond. I also thought the style of the ring was too old for a CZ, and the age of the park along with the recovery of a 1942 mercury dime reinforced that notion.
But then I gave the stone the condensation test and it failed; it behaved like a CZ. When I breathed on it, I had to wait several seconds for the condensation to lift. A real diamond would have evaporated the condensation as fast as I could take it away from my mouth and focus my eyes on it.
My brother had reading glasses so he took a look at it, and then he asserted that the mount was inadequate in quality and substance (ie, too cheap) to be matched with a real diamond that size - about half a carat.
I borrowed my brothers reading glasses and saw "14kcz" inside the band. That was the nail in the coffin of my "big diamond" dream. Well, gold is gold and the "big diamond" provided a thrill, however briefly.
About the title...I meant that this was the first silver US coin I'd found in any public park.
Saturday, I stumbled onto an old 1920's park while I was detecting parking strips. That was a nice surprise.
The very first signal I dug after entering the park was a mercury dime only an inch under the athletic turf! Booya! And that is the first US silver coin I'd ever recovered from a park. My theory about this lack of silver coins in parks, is that the soil is so shallow in S. Florida, that the silver in the public parks and schools has most all been found. I have hunted private residences and parking strips with much better success.
As regards this park, I was primarily going for gold; the park is located in an affluent neighborhood. That's probably also why I encountered so few trash targets. I decided to do a grid, and I plowed three lanes before I gave it up. I didn't have time to cover even a quarter of the park, and I preferred using the time I had just following my intuition.
Good choice, because it led me very shortly to a petite 14k size 4 ring with a big sparkly clear stone - my first gold from an old park. All my park gold had previously come from 10 to 25 year old parks in newer developments.
The ring was definitely gold, so I figured the stone for a diamond. I also thought the style of the ring was too old for a CZ, and the age of the park along with the recovery of a 1942 mercury dime reinforced that notion.
But then I gave the stone the condensation test and it failed; it behaved like a CZ. When I breathed on it, I had to wait several seconds for the condensation to lift. A real diamond would have evaporated the condensation as fast as I could take it away from my mouth and focus my eyes on it.
My brother had reading glasses so he took a look at it, and then he asserted that the mount was inadequate in quality and substance (ie, too cheap) to be matched with a real diamond that size - about half a carat.
I borrowed my brothers reading glasses and saw "14kcz" inside the band. That was the nail in the coffin of my "big diamond" dream. Well, gold is gold and the "big diamond" provided a thrill, however briefly.
About the title...I meant that this was the first silver US coin I'd found in any public park.
Attachments
Last edited:
Upvote
2
Your video shows that more gold is lurking in short grass than I'd ever imagined.
