Jared, a coin to die for!

halfdime · Dec 4, 2011

Kiros32 and I met at my aunt's house this afternoon; she has an old foundation on her property that dates, I believe, to the first half of the 19th century. I've found lots of old wheats there, and an Indian, as well as two mid-20th century privies. To date, I haven't found an early one there, and we gave it a shot today (without success, I might add). We did find either a well or a cistern right next to an old summer kitchen, and discovered that it had been filled in with a rather clean mix of dirt and stone. At about four feet, with perhaps three feet to go, our probe told us there wasn't anything worth continuing for; it was so narrow that digging it out just wasn't worth it. We ran a detector around the bottom and didn't get any signals that way, either. As luck would have it, my detector is on the fritz, so I had to improvise to find treasure. I'm a fan of soil sifting, so I pursued that for a while. Jared cleared a small area next to the old foundation that hadn't been detected yet and discovered quite a few junk signals. It was a slow day in many ways. Finally, shortly after three, Jared had to get going. As he was walking out, I found some buckshot on my screen. At the very worst, even if I didn't find much, I was creating some nice mounds of very rich screened topsoil. This is a commodity I need myself and which I've also found to be in great demand by some folks I work for. My aunt can use a few extra $$$, so I didn't mind screening the topsoil of a yard that goes back perhaps 180 years :wink:

. Shortly after Jared left, I got the first, and only coin of the day! I don't usually insert text between pictures, but I'm going to try it here: Okay, it didn't work, and I will probably need advice on how this is done. Trying to build drama, I posted the back side of a wheatie first. Unfortunately, it's a 1956D, which just doesn't do much for me. It came out of the area Jared had cleared, but found full of scrap signals. Having netted a coin, I hoped next to find a marble. A short time later, there it was! I was counting on clay, but I like them in all varieties so I'm not complaining. With those two in my pocket (three, counting the buckshot), I set my next two goals: silver and a clay marble. Unfortunately, darkness fell too quickly, but I'll be sifting a lot there in the future: my aunt is going to put the property on the market in March.
At the beginning of our day, Jared surprised me with a very cool gesture. Last year, at one of the many privies we've done together, he found a beautiful green ink bottle that I'd dug out, put on the pile and hadn't even noticed! It was a good lesson to me to check my diggings more carefully!

It was his find, fair and square. Today, he gave it to me as an early Christmas gift! Very cool, Jared. We're still both itching to get into a good privy again; there's nothing like it, as those who've dug one can testify!

worldtalker · Dec 4, 2011

halfdime, Never see a green one,NICE glass!!! God Bless HH Chris

bottlebum · Dec 4, 2011

Nice story and find's. The ink bottle is super sweet. Nice of Jared to give it to you. HH-bottlebum

Kiros32 · Dec 5, 2011

Henry, glad you were able to salvage something from that soil. As many years as I have been in this hobby, I guess I am still a newb at heart, because even Wheat Pennies still do it for me... :icon_thumright:

While Henry was sifting, I swung the detector around the foundation where he had pulled several coins before. I managed my first U.S. Collar Disk, with the rear attachment, fully operational! Many of these are found without the backs which explains why they were lost. I will post a picture this evening.

halfdime · Dec 5, 2011

Kiros32 said:
Henry, glad you were able to salvage something from that soil. As many years as I have been in this hobby, I guess I am still a newb at heart, because even Wheat Pennies still do it for me...

While Henry was sifting, I swung the detector around the foundation where he had pulled several coins before. I managed my first U.S. Collar Disk, with the rear attachment, fully operational! Many of these are found without the backs which explains why they were lost. I will post a picture this evening.

I didn't even see the back of the U.S. piece; hopefully, someone will be able to put an era to it when you post the picture.

allen · Dec 5, 2011

old silver is waiting for you to find !!!

halfdime · Dec 5, 2011

allen said:
old silver is waiting for you to find !!!

So far, on that end of the property (around the old foundation), only a Merc and war nickel in silver. At the modern end, I've pulled some Rosies and a Franklin Half. I'd be happy with a Bust or Seated Half on this end!