Returned to the 1880 Myrtle School Site today - Found 1916 Merc!

ANTIQUARIAN

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Merry Christmas to all my friends here on Tnet! :hello:

I had a couple of hours to kill this afternoon, so I decided to head back to the old Myrtle School site. The last time I was here was on August 18th and the pickings were slim at best. :BangHead: I've spent a lot of time here this year picking out the trash, so now with the ground wet, it was time to turn up the discrimination and go deep! :thumbsup: I've always felt this site had more good finds to give up, I just had to grid it out and go slow. As Breezie once told me, "if you really want to go slow then detect while walking backwards"! :laughing7: You know what this theory really works! ;D

Here's a bit of background history of the site, as well some of my observations from my first hunt here back in June . . .

"I've been driving past a small park in the country for about 5 years now, but I've never seen anyone using it. I noticed a flat piece of vacant property next to it; the two properties are divided by a row of old pine trees. So I got to wondering . . . "the park is surrounded by 100 year old trees, so is the "flat" piece of property . . . did the two used to be one at some point?" So, I started to do some research and found the land used to be occupied by the Myrtle (one room) School House. The Myrtle School was built in 1880 on the south side of the 9th Concession of Whitby Township, a short distance west of Highway 12. It was a board and batten building covered with insubrick in the late 1940s. In July 1940 the building was raised and a basement was built underneath it. The old school was demolished in 1978."

Let me apologize ahead of time as I have no insitue photo's to post as I'm still waiting to get my email address attached to my new Blackberry. I accidentally washed my old blackberry in my pants 2 weeks back! :tongue3: I made some interesting finds today, though I really only concentrated on an area that measured 30' wide x 200' long. See the area indicated in red in one of the photo's. I started by digging the compact, at least that's what I think it is? :icon_scratch: I then found the chrome-plated over brass bell. This piece is interesting because at first I thought it was a bicycle bell, but it was far too heavy, then I figured that it might have been from an old telephone box. :dontknow: I took a picture of it placed in an old telephone box that I have on the wall in my basement.

My next find came from about 6" down, all I could think was, "finally another silver"! :o This silver coin turned out to be a heavily worn Mercury Dime and it looks to date from 1916, though it's kinda hard to tell as you can see. :-\ I then found the 1895 'Victoria' LC, then the 1920 'George', followed by a 1902 'Edward' LC! These were all found within a 5' radius of each other! :icon_thumright: Sorry to be so long winded! :laughing7:

Happy holidays everyone! :occasion14:
Dave
 

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Upvote 0
Sweet finds--nicely done!!

All the best,

Lanny
 

California Girl said:
Terrific pictures and finds of course. Nice stuff. :headbang:

Thanks for your post Cali Girl! :thumbsup:
I still really like that World's Fair sign you found! :hello2:

Dave

Lanny in AB said:
Sweet finds--nicely done!!

All the best,

Lanny

Thanks Lanny, best of luck to you in Alberta man! :thumbsup:
Dave
 

All your finds are great, it's the history and old photos along with your story that really sets a part a great posting from just a good post.. Really enjoyed all the history of the site..
 

Great post Dave, I imagine the first thing u did upon finding out that it was a 1916 was to take out a magnifying glass and look for a "D". Great job on all the pics, that 1892 Canadian Penny looks pretty good too :occasion14: :wink:i
 

Sonnydigs said:
All your finds are great, it's the history and old photos along with your story that really sets a part a great posting from just a good post.. Really enjoyed all the history of the site..

Thanks very much for your kind words Sonny! :icon_thumright: I love researching the history of old sites here in the Province of Ontario. The internet has made it so easy to access old pictures and research the history of sites, it just takes time that's all! :laughing7:

Best of luck to you out there! :thumbsup:
Dave

{Sentinel} said:
Great post Dave, I imagine the first thing u did upon finding out that it was a 1916 was to take out a magnifying glass and look for a "D". Great job on all the pics, that 1892 Canadian Penny looks pretty good too :occasion14: :wink:i

Hey Josh! :hello:
Thanks very much for posting man. To be perfectly honest, when I first saw the dime, all I could think was . . . wow another US dime here in Canada and my first Merc to boot! :o I wasn't until I got it home and went onto Tnet that I realized I should take a closer look for the letter 'D'! :laughing7:

This old school site has produced at least 8 Canadian LC's for me and I feel there's still more to be found! Unfortunately, this will now have to wait for the spring.

Take care buddy,
Dave
 

You're very welcome Dave, my pleasure ..
 

Great find Dave ! I think you find more U.S. silver than I do down here in California :laughing7:
Hope you have a Great New Year !!
Glen
 

Great finds...Looks like that Merc had been through quite a few hands.
 

Super Research pays off!!
 

Great Research.... Thats how it's done. :icon_thumleft: :icon_thumleft:
 

Sweet relics and coins :icon_thumleft:


Nice pics too :icon_sunny:

Blaze
 

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