Have you ever damaged a good find because of poor digging techniques?

[bk]

Am I the only one who ever damaged a nice find because of poor pinpointing, or just plain carelessness?
Here are a few pics of some of my better "mistakes".

Ouch!

 

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[Sandman]

I think all of us have made a few mistakes and damaged a target either with the screwdriver, knife, probe, trowl, or just from banging around in the pocket. I have sliced through a couple of gold chains too.

HH,
Sandman

 

[Michigan Badger]

O BOY bk, does this bring back bad memories.

I can say that my most valuable digs came up in fine shape. But I've creamed my share of good finds.

It seems like when I'm all tired out and digging that last hole through nasty rock and roots that I get careless and then it happens. I cut the plug too small or don't pinpoint correctly and up pops a near perfect coin with a new fresh scratch or nick.

I've kept a few and maybe I'll post a couple tomorrow if you'd like to see them.

 

[Gypsy Heart]

I know how you feel....kind of ....I usually stab the worthless junk I find after I pull it from the hole and see what it is that kept me digging for twenty minutes.

 

[jeff of pa]

Who ?

Me ?

No Never !



Seems to me, the better the find, the more likely it is going to
be in hard clay. and the more likely, I'm going to end up
chopping into the ground with my trawel trying to get at it.

and of course the second I reach it, I am right on target.

What realy hurts is when the trawel takes the date off
an otherwise great detailed coin.

 

[Mainedigger]

BK...I think if you haven;t ruined or damaged something good, then you really haven;t been out enough (or you have been very lucky)...Unfortunately, even with pinpointing and todays technology..its not perfect and there is also just our plain carelessness. Last good thing I ruined was an old antique toy Army Jeep, was digging in hard gravel and pushed my digger down hard to try to get some depth and I got it alright...drove my digger down right thru the middle of the jeep, not only broke it in half, but shattered one of the half's...after swearing loudly for a few( property owner even opened the door to ask if I was alright) I realized it was nothing but careless digging on my part and no ones fault but my own. Even with the most careful digging you can ruin something, goes with the territory (hard sharp intstruments driving into the ground in search of softer metal coins, is not a good combo)...but fortunately we get alot of our digging techniques right and find some nice stuff occassionally....and that's what makes this hobby all the more enjoyable...

 

[Davisdog]

I've dinged up a bunch of coins, but they were all modern clad, so no big deal. Here's the one good find that I put my special touch on:

 

[skierbob]

The worst one I ever did was when I hacked right into the edge of an 1890 Morgan Dollar. It was on edge in frozen ground and it was pin-pointing about three or four inches over from where it actually was. I was calling myself all kinds of names. Ended up selling it for bullion. Here's another bad digging job, a semi-key merc that I scraped right accross the fasces on the reverse.

 

[bk]

The worst one I ever did was when I hacked right into the edge of an 1890 Morgan Dollar. It was on edge in frozen ground and it was pin-pointing about three or four inches over from where it actually was. I was calling myself all kinds of names. Ended up selling it for bullion. Here's another bad digging job, a semi-key merc that I scraped right accross the fasces on the reverse.

Ouch! Thats gotta hurt.
Thats a very sweet looking Merc dime too.
I also cut a coin into two pieces using a hatchet and hammer to cut through frozen ground. It was a Barber half. As I recall it was only a well worn 1912, so no biggie. I don't know where it is anymore. I think I sold it back in 1980 when the price of silver peaked, so even though I ruined the coin, I probably got a good price for it anyway.

 

[Born2Dtect]

In the past three years of serious metal detecting, I can honestly say I have not damaged a good find while digging it. This could just be luck, or the fact that I used to dig larger holes, than I should have, if I thought the signal was good. Maybe I should change my name to Lucky!

Ed D.

 

[hollowpointred]

In the past three years of serious metal detecting, I can honestly say I have not damaged a good find while digging it. This could just be luck, or the fact that I used to dig larger holes, than I should have, if I thought the signal was good. Maybe I should change my name to Lucky!

Ed D.

now youve done it! you went and jinxed yourself . i know i have ruined a few finds with my digging. i think it happens to all of us sooner or later.

 

[TORRERO]

I have one seated liberty quarter in my 20 year collection, and it has a beautiful
groove straight accross the front....
really, really sad.....

 

[Ocean7]

well sometimes you're just fatigued, electrolyte imbalanced from being in the heat, and at the end of your day when you get a quarter signal at 3" and you figure it's just another rag-tag clad rusted quarter. Then you plunge your brass coin probe into the spot a little too hard and you're top dead center over the coin.

and then you dig and find a 1796 Large Copper where you never expected to find one!
This mark looks a lot worse magnified than it really is but sure - shite happens! i find it happens a lot less with X-1 probe to use in the hole.

 

[Blackjack77]

Being a newbie this spring, using My previous detector and not having a pinpointer, caused Me to groove a 1898
Barber dime that was on edge-- course it saved the 1881-O Morgan dollar next to it!!
Lose a few, but .....
Now the Morgan is My Avatar!!!