Found Virgin Territory

qtrs-xcite-me · May 31, 2025

I mostly metal detect tot lots and public parks. Return trips to local lots usually don't produce much because they don't seem to get refreshed with new lost items fast enough or I am competing with other detectorists hitting the same spots. Today, I drove to a smaller town a few miles away and hit the elementary school playground. I apparently hit virgin ground because in about 3 hours I dug 123 coins from about a 30 by 50 foot lot. Total - $11.15. I know I left some behind because when I started getting tired and hot, I did a fast scan of about the last 20% of the lot just digging potential quarter signals.

Digger RJ · May 31, 2025

qtrs-xcite-me said:
I mostly metal detect tot lots and public parks. Return trips to local lots usually don't produce much because they don't seem to get refreshed with new lost items fast enough or I am competing with other detectorists hitting the same spots. Today, I drove to a smaller town a few miles away and hit the elementary school playground. I apparently hit virgin ground because in about 3 hours I dug 123 coins from about a 30 by 50 foot lot. Total - $11.15. I know I left some behind because when I started getting tired and hot, I did a fast scan of about the last 20% of the lot just digging potential quarter signals.
View attachment 2210681

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

oldmxrat · May 31, 2025

Nice haul, way to go!

E-Trac-Ohio · Jun 1, 2025

That's a lot of digging - well done !

qtrs-xcite-me · Jun 2, 2025

E-Trac-Ohio said:
That's a lot of digging - well done !

Not so much digging as scraping. I was lucky this lot was mulched with recycled rubber pellets. I love detecting in this mulch because it is so easy to find the target. However, the pennys that came out were in worse shape than I usually encounter.

qtrs-xcite-me · Jun 22, 2025

Yesterday, I went back to the site I hit three weeks ago.

In about 5 hours of hunting (300 minutes) for both trips, my total take was 184 coins - 32 quarters, 45 dimes, 16 nickels, and 91 pennies for a total of $14.21. This was probably the most fun I have had with a metal detector as I was averaging a coin retrieved about every 1.5 minutes. This was from a grade school playground about 1500 square feet. Gold or silver would have been nice, but can't beat the action. Wish there was some way to predict when a site will be so target rich.