Tom_in_CA
Gold Member
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2007
- Messages
- 13,803
- Reaction score
- 10,339
- Golden Thread
- 2
- Location
- Salinas, CA
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 2
- Detector(s) used
- Explorer II, Compass 77b, Tesoro shadow X2
- #1
Thread Owner
commissioned "tame" hunt find
( Hey Jeff, I don't see a "post new topic" tab, at the top of this honorable mention forum. So I'm not exactly sure how this subsection works.
In any case, I'll put this commissioned "tame" hunt find here: )
The local Whites dealer here has rental units. Occasionally though, they get a customer who asks for a referral to someone who can actually come hunt for something. In those cases, the local dealer sometimes refers them to me. Some materialize into hunts, some don't . Some are successful, some are wild goose chases, etc....
Well I got a call last week, from one such referral. A fellow here in in my county explained to me that his wife's father had passed away in 1998. The father was in his 70s at that time. Before he passed away, he had, in earlier years, told his daughters that he'd buried coins and silver dollars in the basement. He was a coin-collector. When he passed away, they weren't really sure if he'd been serious about that, or if he'd retrieved them already subsequent to those passing comments, etc... Just to be sure, they looked around under the house. They even tried a metal detector themselves. To no avail. So they sort of dismissed it for a number of years.
Finally now, the family is going to sell the house. They decided they better make one last effort, just in case the rumor was true.
I was able to get to their house and take a try. I decided to use a Tesoro Silver Sabre II, since it is light-weight and easy to handle in cramped spaces. I also figured I didn't need the disc, and bells-&-whistles of the Minelab Explorer anyhow. The family members thought the stash might be in a coffee can, which is, of course, iron. The Sabre would let a larger iron object "bleed through" the disc. circuits. The Sabre is good at this. An annoying tendency if you're trying to pass larger cast iron junk, but a good trait if you're purposefully looking for larger items that might have an iron exterior.
Within a minute, I got a big clear signal right in the corner of their basement. At about 6", my blade ripped into some plastic wrap. Clearing away the dirt, and giving it a tug, out pops a dinner plate sized plastic wrapped- black-taped-up bundle. Bingo! :beers:
I spent the next 20 minutes scanning anywhere else a person could have wriggled to under that house. But nothing else was there.
The couple was kind enough to let me take some before and after pix. You can see the location it was found. The package before opening The man un-wrapping it, etc.... There was about 110 silver dollars. Seems to be just common ones, like peace dollars and common morgons. Some were loose, but others were in paper sleeves. They are going to check over the coming days, to see if there's any better numismatic ones. Also was some wheat pennies, steel cents, random silver washingtons, a 1967 proof set from Canada, etc.... All told, assuming 18x face (if they shop it around at the current melt value?) we figured about $2k just in melt value, just on the silver dollars alone. Brick & mortar "buy-sell" places are currently going as high as 15x face, so I figured the mail-in smelter places might be approaching 18x face?
My usual fee for this, is just the rental cost that the dealer here charges: about $30 or $40 per day, which I simply give the dealer (because afterall, they could have rented a machine, instead of referring out). Then if I'm successful, I just tell the person "whatever tip you think is fair". If I'm not successful, I don't ever charge, or accept a tip, as it's just a hobby and I enjoy the challenge.
The couple gave me $250. I will split 50/50 with the dealer, for the referral.
1st pix: The couple posed with the freshly retrieved package.
( Hey Jeff, I don't see a "post new topic" tab, at the top of this honorable mention forum. So I'm not exactly sure how this subsection works.
In any case, I'll put this commissioned "tame" hunt find here: )
The local Whites dealer here has rental units. Occasionally though, they get a customer who asks for a referral to someone who can actually come hunt for something. In those cases, the local dealer sometimes refers them to me. Some materialize into hunts, some don't . Some are successful, some are wild goose chases, etc....
Well I got a call last week, from one such referral. A fellow here in in my county explained to me that his wife's father had passed away in 1998. The father was in his 70s at that time. Before he passed away, he had, in earlier years, told his daughters that he'd buried coins and silver dollars in the basement. He was a coin-collector. When he passed away, they weren't really sure if he'd been serious about that, or if he'd retrieved them already subsequent to those passing comments, etc... Just to be sure, they looked around under the house. They even tried a metal detector themselves. To no avail. So they sort of dismissed it for a number of years.
Finally now, the family is going to sell the house. They decided they better make one last effort, just in case the rumor was true.
I was able to get to their house and take a try. I decided to use a Tesoro Silver Sabre II, since it is light-weight and easy to handle in cramped spaces. I also figured I didn't need the disc, and bells-&-whistles of the Minelab Explorer anyhow. The family members thought the stash might be in a coffee can, which is, of course, iron. The Sabre would let a larger iron object "bleed through" the disc. circuits. The Sabre is good at this. An annoying tendency if you're trying to pass larger cast iron junk, but a good trait if you're purposefully looking for larger items that might have an iron exterior.
Within a minute, I got a big clear signal right in the corner of their basement. At about 6", my blade ripped into some plastic wrap. Clearing away the dirt, and giving it a tug, out pops a dinner plate sized plastic wrapped- black-taped-up bundle. Bingo! :beers:
I spent the next 20 minutes scanning anywhere else a person could have wriggled to under that house. But nothing else was there.
The couple was kind enough to let me take some before and after pix. You can see the location it was found. The package before opening The man un-wrapping it, etc.... There was about 110 silver dollars. Seems to be just common ones, like peace dollars and common morgons. Some were loose, but others were in paper sleeves. They are going to check over the coming days, to see if there's any better numismatic ones. Also was some wheat pennies, steel cents, random silver washingtons, a 1967 proof set from Canada, etc.... All told, assuming 18x face (if they shop it around at the current melt value?) we figured about $2k just in melt value, just on the silver dollars alone. Brick & mortar "buy-sell" places are currently going as high as 15x face, so I figured the mail-in smelter places might be approaching 18x face?
My usual fee for this, is just the rental cost that the dealer here charges: about $30 or $40 per day, which I simply give the dealer (because afterall, they could have rented a machine, instead of referring out). Then if I'm successful, I just tell the person "whatever tip you think is fair". If I'm not successful, I don't ever charge, or accept a tip, as it's just a hobby and I enjoy the challenge.
The couple gave me $250. I will split 50/50 with the dealer, for the referral.
1st pix: The couple posed with the freshly retrieved package.
Great photos!
