time4me
Bronze Member
- Aug 30, 2005
- 1,296
- 44
- Detector(s) used
- E-Trac, Explorer II, Excalibur
Back in the 1970's when I was a kid growing up in Michigan, Mr. Warner lived across the street from my house. Mr. Warner was probably in his late 40's to early 50's, but to my brother and I, he was the "old man" who was always off deer hunting, snow mobiling, visiting his cabin "up north," and metal detecting. One day my mom told my brother and I to go across the street and see Mr. Warner's treasure. Reluctantly, my brother and I walked across the cul-de-sac to see the gruff, pipe smoking Mr. Warner and learn about his treasure.
Ok, if you've seen the movie National Treasure, there's a scene at the end where the characters enter into a huge room loaded with every kind of treasure imaginable. While Mr. Warner's "treasure horde" was not quite as extravagant, there is no doubt that my brother's and my eyes were popping out of our heads when we saw the boxes of coins, rings, other jewelry items, and relics that Mr. Warner had found over many years of metal detecting. We were HOOKED!
After bugging our mom incessantly, she bought us our own metal detector, and thus began our treasure hunting adventures. Mr. Warner was kind and patient enough to take us out with him on many journeys around Bay City, Michigan, and even took us "up north" to a Michigan ghost town.
Here is a picture of my brother and I (I'm on the right) at one of the locations Mr. Warner took us to...
My brother and I enjoyed many years metal detecting together, but then other things like goofing with friends, highschool, summer jobs, etc., resulted in the metal detector settling into a corner of the garage for many years to follow.
Fast forward to the mid 1990's. Reminiscing about my childhood and the memories of metal detecting with my brother Tim and Mr. Warner rekindled a flame that had been dormant for far too long. I bought myself a new metal detector and rediscovered the thrill of dreaming about and finding treasure, while being able to explore some really neat and historic places in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Over the past 12 years, I have armed myself with some of the latest and greatest metal detectors that today's technology has to offer...
(missing from the above photo is the new Excalibur Minelab 1000 I purchased this summer)
My biggest problem, though, is that I never have enough time to get out and detect. Work, family, etc., all takes priority, and it is only every now and then that I slip out for a couple of hours here and there to hit a park or, more preferably of late, some shallow water and sand. I have an 11 year old son who has a Garrett Ace 250, but he doesn't seem to have the patience that I had at his age. He has fun when we go out, and he's uncovered some good finds, but he doesn't want to stay out for hours and hours like his old man.
So, today I was looking back through a couple of boxes full of stuff that I've found all the way back to when I was a kid, and realized that I have not done to bad at all with this "part time" hobby. So I've taken some pictures to share of the interesting stuff. I have hundreds and hundreds, maybe even into the thousands of clad coins - I am not going to bore you with photos of these dirty coins.
First up is an interesting collection of dog tags I've found over the years...
My favorite one is the "Livingston County Dog Tax - 1927" tag I found at my in-laws' old farm house in Pinckney, Michigan...
I now live in Marin County, California, and I've found several neat dog tags from the sixties...
Next up is this interesting mix of odds and ends that ended up under my coil at one point or another over the years...
Close ups of a few of these items reveal some neat stuff...
I've found a few interesting foreign coins as well. Each time I dig one of these odd foreign coins, I wonder how it got to its final resting place before being dug by me...
Jewelry
Yes, I've found a fair share of rings and things over the years too. Here is a batch from when I was exclusively hunting on land...
And since I've started hunting in shallow water here in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Cape Cod for two weeks each summer, the jewelry finds have improved with a neat 14K crucific ring, and my first ever platinum in a large men's wedding band...
Besides wheat cents, I have not found very many other old or silver coins in all of the time I've been detecting. Pretty much all of them fill up one page in a coin binder sleeve...
My brother and I did find a 1941 Walking Liberty Half Dollar at a high school back in Michigan when we were kids, but it got misplaced over the years. I have pretty much everything else we found back then, including this V Nickel we found in a farmers field...
And the only Indian Head I ever found, but WOW is it ever in nice condition. Found it at an old school house in Pickney, Michigan down the road a ways from my in-law's farm house. The school house has been a regular residence for a very long time now, but the owner let my father-in-law and I detect around it a bit. He told us that others had been there over the years to detect, but they left this beauty behind...
As much as I'd love to find more old coins and more silver coins, I have found several pretty neat tokens over the years. These three I found at my in-law's old farm house in Michigan...
Light's Golden Jubilee - Thomas Edison - 1879-1929
Marquette Musical Company Player Piano Token
Half Dollar-sized Good Luck Token (note the swastika in the crystal ball)
My strangest find to date has got to be what appears to be very old metal dental work. Not sure if this is platinum or palladium, or some other special metal that starts with a "p" that dentists use, but you can definitely see the shapes of the teeth this thing covered...
And now I come to the end of my walk down memory lane. But not before I share my oldest coin to date - an 1837 Canadian Bank Half-Penny found in the woods far behind my in-laws' farm house in Michigan...
... and my BEST find ever, found about five years ago in the back yard of a house my mother was renting in Marin County, California while showing my then 6 year old son how easy it is to find coins with a metal detector...
Yep - that's an 1886s $10 Eagle. Funny... my brother and I used to sit up late the night before a planned hunt with Mr. Warner, and we would talk about finding a gold coin. We never found one back then, but it was just as sweet to find one as an adult, while detecting with my own son.
So now I'm all jazzed up and ready to head out somewhere this week. I'll let you know what I find.
Ok, if you've seen the movie National Treasure, there's a scene at the end where the characters enter into a huge room loaded with every kind of treasure imaginable. While Mr. Warner's "treasure horde" was not quite as extravagant, there is no doubt that my brother's and my eyes were popping out of our heads when we saw the boxes of coins, rings, other jewelry items, and relics that Mr. Warner had found over many years of metal detecting. We were HOOKED!
After bugging our mom incessantly, she bought us our own metal detector, and thus began our treasure hunting adventures. Mr. Warner was kind and patient enough to take us out with him on many journeys around Bay City, Michigan, and even took us "up north" to a Michigan ghost town.
Here is a picture of my brother and I (I'm on the right) at one of the locations Mr. Warner took us to...
My brother and I enjoyed many years metal detecting together, but then other things like goofing with friends, highschool, summer jobs, etc., resulted in the metal detector settling into a corner of the garage for many years to follow.
Fast forward to the mid 1990's. Reminiscing about my childhood and the memories of metal detecting with my brother Tim and Mr. Warner rekindled a flame that had been dormant for far too long. I bought myself a new metal detector and rediscovered the thrill of dreaming about and finding treasure, while being able to explore some really neat and historic places in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Over the past 12 years, I have armed myself with some of the latest and greatest metal detectors that today's technology has to offer...
(missing from the above photo is the new Excalibur Minelab 1000 I purchased this summer)
My biggest problem, though, is that I never have enough time to get out and detect. Work, family, etc., all takes priority, and it is only every now and then that I slip out for a couple of hours here and there to hit a park or, more preferably of late, some shallow water and sand. I have an 11 year old son who has a Garrett Ace 250, but he doesn't seem to have the patience that I had at his age. He has fun when we go out, and he's uncovered some good finds, but he doesn't want to stay out for hours and hours like his old man.
So, today I was looking back through a couple of boxes full of stuff that I've found all the way back to when I was a kid, and realized that I have not done to bad at all with this "part time" hobby. So I've taken some pictures to share of the interesting stuff. I have hundreds and hundreds, maybe even into the thousands of clad coins - I am not going to bore you with photos of these dirty coins.
First up is an interesting collection of dog tags I've found over the years...
My favorite one is the "Livingston County Dog Tax - 1927" tag I found at my in-laws' old farm house in Pinckney, Michigan...
I now live in Marin County, California, and I've found several neat dog tags from the sixties...
Next up is this interesting mix of odds and ends that ended up under my coil at one point or another over the years...
Close ups of a few of these items reveal some neat stuff...
I've found a few interesting foreign coins as well. Each time I dig one of these odd foreign coins, I wonder how it got to its final resting place before being dug by me...
Jewelry
Yes, I've found a fair share of rings and things over the years too. Here is a batch from when I was exclusively hunting on land...
And since I've started hunting in shallow water here in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Cape Cod for two weeks each summer, the jewelry finds have improved with a neat 14K crucific ring, and my first ever platinum in a large men's wedding band...
Besides wheat cents, I have not found very many other old or silver coins in all of the time I've been detecting. Pretty much all of them fill up one page in a coin binder sleeve...
My brother and I did find a 1941 Walking Liberty Half Dollar at a high school back in Michigan when we were kids, but it got misplaced over the years. I have pretty much everything else we found back then, including this V Nickel we found in a farmers field...
And the only Indian Head I ever found, but WOW is it ever in nice condition. Found it at an old school house in Pickney, Michigan down the road a ways from my in-law's farm house. The school house has been a regular residence for a very long time now, but the owner let my father-in-law and I detect around it a bit. He told us that others had been there over the years to detect, but they left this beauty behind...
As much as I'd love to find more old coins and more silver coins, I have found several pretty neat tokens over the years. These three I found at my in-law's old farm house in Michigan...
Light's Golden Jubilee - Thomas Edison - 1879-1929
Marquette Musical Company Player Piano Token
Half Dollar-sized Good Luck Token (note the swastika in the crystal ball)
My strangest find to date has got to be what appears to be very old metal dental work. Not sure if this is platinum or palladium, or some other special metal that starts with a "p" that dentists use, but you can definitely see the shapes of the teeth this thing covered...
And now I come to the end of my walk down memory lane. But not before I share my oldest coin to date - an 1837 Canadian Bank Half-Penny found in the woods far behind my in-laws' farm house in Michigan...
... and my BEST find ever, found about five years ago in the back yard of a house my mother was renting in Marin County, California while showing my then 6 year old son how easy it is to find coins with a metal detector...
Yep - that's an 1886s $10 Eagle. Funny... my brother and I used to sit up late the night before a planned hunt with Mr. Warner, and we would talk about finding a gold coin. We never found one back then, but it was just as sweet to find one as an adult, while detecting with my own son.
So now I'm all jazzed up and ready to head out somewhere this week. I'll let you know what I find.
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