Hunting in playgrounds

[hockeyplayer]

Looking for some advice. Playgrounds that use woodchips are the easiest to find loose change. Sand playgounds work ok but playgrounds that use peagravel or small stones are impossible. What is going on? I'm sure just as may kids lose money at the stone playgrounds but I can't find it unless its laying on the surface. I'm using a White DFX. Any suggestions?

 

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My experience with this gravel, is that the coins do not sink easily and are picked up right away because they are seen on the surface(there always pennies to be found of course). Fine sand is the best. Your probably not doing anything wrong, just nothing to be found. Dave.

 

[Chiz]

I try to stay away from the newer playgrounds and focus on the older ones. Tooooooo many saftey features on the new ones, lol. unless they built the new one over the old one, there prolly won't be a lot of coins due to the fact that they just can't go into the ground without being seen. Try along the edges........

Chiz
8)

 

[lab rat]

Out here they are paving the newer playgrounds with rubber mats! Thick stuff they pour like concrete. I just look in the sandboxes or hunt in the usual grassy areas.

 

[wayne]

hockeyplayer - i work the sand and peagravel play areas. after i pinpoint the target, i place my ice pick like tool (an awl that i have worked over with my grinding machine) right on the target area and start turning it in about a 1 inch and expanding it to 2inch circle. many times the coin will rise to the top of the sand or gravel. wayne

 

[S Hardy]

Not sure why but I seldom find anything in kids playground. I figfure it's because they don't have any money to loose, because they don't have jobs.
There's a volleyball court at my local park and theres alwas teenagers playing volleyball. Jumping up and down hitting the ball.
And do you think I can go over there when thier done and find anything. Nothing is what I find.
Maybe they need jobs!

 

[Cal G.]

I hunt several woodchip,gravel playgrounds when the ground is hard or frozen. They are a good place to try out a new machine. I always hunt with low disc. You will find lots of zincs, but you will be amaze at the amount of nickels also. I can usely tell if one is being hunted by competitors by the number of nickels and pennys found and the lack of dimes found. At one small playground, I found a small 10k gold necklace,10k small ring, a buffaloe nickel (bent from the chipper) and 88 pennys in plastic baggy cover with chips.These were on 3 different trips. It does seem that some playgrounds are hot with coins and others never are. You never know what your going to find. HH Cal

 

[Lowbatts]

I originally considered playground hunting to be "maintenance hunting" where I could always find enough change to keep me in battery and lunch money.
But since I find far more gold there than on any beach or grassy area, it is now a weekly ritual. The benefit is the area is more compact. Go there early in the morning, make sure you beat the local competition. And do 7 to 10 of them in short order.
Woodchips- Bad for the Saca dolls but fine for other coins, keeps them fairly clean and easy to find, downside is lots of nails and cans get ground up with those chips so it will be a while cleaning out a first fill or refill in a playground.
Sand- Same as most non-saltwater beaches, pretty easy to detect and find except for the hairpins, grommets and small button snaps that go through sifters but sound good.
Pea gravel- Wow! Got about 200 dimes out of one dime-toss from a carnie site in pea graqvel once. I swear you could not see the dimes in as they blended very well into the white gravel. Don't like the gravel because it damages jewelry quickly, but don't discount it.
Playgrounds are one of my favorite places to hunt when I am not looking for older finds, relic or coin. I've got the gold to prove it.

Best spots, baby swings. Early spring & late fall moms drop rings and bracelets when removing gloves to play with baby. For some reason other people believe their kids must wear gold and this inevitably ends up in the playground.

I am two monogram rings away from spelling out my daughter's first and last name with these rings and she keeps insisting I just go buy them to fill out the set, sorry, I know we'll find a "Z" and a "L" one of these days I tell her.

 

[hockeyplayer]

Thanks for the input. Lowbatss, I can't wait to test your experience on the baby swings this spring. I actually have found 7 Sacs in the woodchips around here. Still waiting to find my first silver coin. They must be to new.

 

[Dbeard77]

I've always done well at school playgrounds. I think it's kinda funny, I'm always finding the middle part of zippers from the kids coats. Once I found 5 of them on the same trip. I tend to do better at middle schools than grade schools. There's usually no playground equip. but the kids hang out or play b-ball during lunch. I guess the kids are growing up and getting jobs or there parents give them more money.

 

[Lowbatts]

Well I don't want to paint any pictures too broadly but I find the playgrounds closest to public housing and in the poorer neighborhoods to have the hands down highest concentrations of jewelry and cash. When I go to one of the higher end or newer neighborhoods there is very little change in the ground and the jewelry is all that cheap stuff from the mall. Disposable I suppose. Silver jewelry seems to be more evenly distributed across the social and economic landscape.

I find the most real gold in the poorest neighborhoods. While it isn't high end gold jewelry it's yellow and marked the right way and weighs in the same.

 

[lab rat]

I think the 'low-end' neighborhood dwellers keep their money in gold rather than the bank. At least the Latinos in the LA area do that... as the 'undocumented immigrants' don't have a lot of bank access-- though that will change now due to Davis' signing into law allowing them to get drivers lisences, of all things! Like giving them approval for breaking the law...