washingtonian
Gold Member
Hey folks,
It's good to be back in the fold. My brother and I first discovered metal detecting back in 2005 as adolescents. We detected pretty seriously from about 2008-2010. During those years, we hunted mainly parks and other public areas. During our best year we found 15 silver coins and 76 wheat pennies.
Prior to this year, we hadn't gotten out since 2011. I stumbled back into the hobby doing some shipwreck hunting with a friend in June and have been sneaking detecting into my downtime since early July. My brother (washingtonian jr) came out of retirement a few weeks ago and we've been rolling since.
That brings me to today's hunt. My goal on the year was for us to beat our previous best year of 15 silver coins. I know that doesn't sound like much to some of you, but that's harder than you think in the Seattle area. I've switched strategies this year and started hunting almost only permissions. Every once in a while you get a dud, but overall the payout per hour is much higher than public spaces.
I got a text from my neighbor two days ago that read:
Well, I took Barrett up on his offer and went there late this afternoon. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to be had, my only decent find was a 1947-S wheat penny. He was really kind and was telling me about an 1850s battle that took place on the Indian reservation where he works and that he might get us permission to be able to hunt it. I told him that would be awesome and that he'd be welcome to use my spare detector!
Well, I was a bit disappointed but am not one to be easily deterred. I saw a pretty dilapidated house on the way there with some "For Rent" signs outside so I figured I'd introduce myself and double-check that hunting the sidewalk strips outside the house (technically public property) would be alright. No one answered the door and it looked pretty empty inside. I figured I'd probably be fine so off I went.
I booted up my DFX and my first good signal was a wheat penny. "Great!" I thought, "this place has some real potential!". In the next 20 minutes I found 3 more Wheaties. Then things slowed down for about 45 minutes. I was digging a lot of junk and getting weird interference in the ground.
I kept at it and out popped this perfect looking earring. I figured it was silver by the look of it and sure enough there's a 925 on the back. I ambled on for a while longer and wasn't getting anything old. I was running late to meet up with some friends and was about to pack it in when I got a decent signal. "If this isn't something old, I might just call it a day" I was thinking.
Bam! It's a 1963-D Roosevelt Dime! That put my brother and I at 16 silvers on the year! So cool to hit the accomplishment and still have so much good hunting ahead this fall. Shortly after I pulled out both the large tokens within a couple feet of each other. They are good for one dollar in trade at the Seattle World's Fair of 1962 when the Space Needle was built. Such a cool piece of history! Oddly enough, I was at Joe's house (my neighbor who texted me above) and his wife showed me one of these tokens that's in their collection just two days ago so I knew exactly what it was.
A little while later I got my 6th and last wheat of the day which put us at 77 on the year, one higher than our total in 2009.
All in all, it was a surprisingly good day to be on the hunt! Here are my finds:
-1 Silver Dime (1963-D)
-6 Wheat Pennies (44 S, 44 D, 46 D 47 S, 49 S, 52 D)
-2 Seattle World's Fair Tokens
-1 Silver Earring
Thanks for looking and for all your support over the last couple months. You guys are awesome!
-Washingtonian
It's good to be back in the fold. My brother and I first discovered metal detecting back in 2005 as adolescents. We detected pretty seriously from about 2008-2010. During those years, we hunted mainly parks and other public areas. During our best year we found 15 silver coins and 76 wheat pennies.
Prior to this year, we hadn't gotten out since 2011. I stumbled back into the hobby doing some shipwreck hunting with a friend in June and have been sneaking detecting into my downtime since early July. My brother (washingtonian jr) came out of retirement a few weeks ago and we've been rolling since.
That brings me to today's hunt. My goal on the year was for us to beat our previous best year of 15 silver coins. I know that doesn't sound like much to some of you, but that's harder than you think in the Seattle area. I've switched strategies this year and started hunting almost only permissions. Every once in a while you get a dud, but overall the payout per hour is much higher than public spaces.
I got a text from my neighbor two days ago that read:
Well, I took Barrett up on his offer and went there late this afternoon. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to be had, my only decent find was a 1947-S wheat penny. He was really kind and was telling me about an 1850s battle that took place on the Indian reservation where he works and that he might get us permission to be able to hunt it. I told him that would be awesome and that he'd be welcome to use my spare detector!
Well, I was a bit disappointed but am not one to be easily deterred. I saw a pretty dilapidated house on the way there with some "For Rent" signs outside so I figured I'd introduce myself and double-check that hunting the sidewalk strips outside the house (technically public property) would be alright. No one answered the door and it looked pretty empty inside. I figured I'd probably be fine so off I went.
I booted up my DFX and my first good signal was a wheat penny. "Great!" I thought, "this place has some real potential!". In the next 20 minutes I found 3 more Wheaties. Then things slowed down for about 45 minutes. I was digging a lot of junk and getting weird interference in the ground.
I kept at it and out popped this perfect looking earring. I figured it was silver by the look of it and sure enough there's a 925 on the back. I ambled on for a while longer and wasn't getting anything old. I was running late to meet up with some friends and was about to pack it in when I got a decent signal. "If this isn't something old, I might just call it a day" I was thinking.
Bam! It's a 1963-D Roosevelt Dime! That put my brother and I at 16 silvers on the year! So cool to hit the accomplishment and still have so much good hunting ahead this fall. Shortly after I pulled out both the large tokens within a couple feet of each other. They are good for one dollar in trade at the Seattle World's Fair of 1962 when the Space Needle was built. Such a cool piece of history! Oddly enough, I was at Joe's house (my neighbor who texted me above) and his wife showed me one of these tokens that's in their collection just two days ago so I knew exactly what it was.
A little while later I got my 6th and last wheat of the day which put us at 77 on the year, one higher than our total in 2009.
All in all, it was a surprisingly good day to be on the hunt! Here are my finds:
-1 Silver Dime (1963-D)
-6 Wheat Pennies (44 S, 44 D, 46 D 47 S, 49 S, 52 D)
-2 Seattle World's Fair Tokens
-1 Silver Earring
Thanks for looking and for all your support over the last couple months. You guys are awesome!
-Washingtonian
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