San Francisco SILVER

[Cal_Cobra]

Guess I scrapped enough of that pesky gold out of the way to let the silver shine through, and shine through she did

Got out to GGP with a hunting buddy this week and landed my third barber dime (1900S) of the year (in the same area I got the last one hunting with MT & RacerX last month...I seem to remember MT saying something like nobody ever finds Barbers here :bigsmile: We were trying some different areas and tried another spot and my first target was a nice 1942 merc, then a silver rosie. After a bit I got a high 80's low 90's signal on my F75 LTD and thought silver half, maybe? It was a jumpy signal, I dig down about 6" and out pops a toasty brown Jefferson nickel...WTH? I scan the hole again and I get another signal, but this time it's coming in more like a nickel'ish target, dig down deeper and out pops a 1906 Barber nickel!!

Later that evening I met up with Nightray, RacerX and a few others for a little inner city twilight hunting. Even though I've found other targets, including clad coins at equal or greater depths, I found my deepest silver yet with my F75 LTD, and it was a good one. At an honest Abe 10"+ I got a nice high silver signal. It actually sounded pretty good, wasn't that jumpy, and when pinpointing sounded small like a coin with the depth readout bouncing between 10-11". I dug, and dug, and dug some more and bam a big tree root :soap: I put the pinpointer in the hole and she's barely sounding off and the hole is now deeper then my Garrett ProPointer is long. I finally get the dirt loosened up under the roots and can feel a coin under there, couple of handfuls of dirt later I get her, and out pops a STANDING LIBERTY QUARTER, I did the happy dance She's worn, no visible date (stars on the back) but this is only the second one I've found in my two years of hunting. Also found a dateless buffalo and a wheatback that evening.

I brought my CZ70 to met up with Jim (aka time4me) on another day for little surf n turf - try the beach first and if it wasn't exciting we'd move to another spot I had for us to hunt. The beach was pretty sterile, but being an inner SF bay beach, I don't think anything moves much from where it's dropped. I managed to eek out a nice little wedding band that was down about three scoops marked .925 and the front is engraved... "S&M" which I'll assume are the couples initials and not some other funny business

Nothing else from the beach aside from a few coins, but targets were few and far between so we moved to another site for a few hours of turf action. I was getting a lot of wheats, and Jim was digging silver under the roots around an old tree. Finally I got a 1928S Merc, and then not far from there I pulled up a black coin cookie. I chipped away at the black cocoon with my finger and could see a smooth silver edge, and thought I might have a silver war nickel. Further chipping and I could see the mint mark at the top to confirm my suspicions, so I showed Jim and we both checked it on our machines and she was coming in much higher then a standard nickel. Went back and about ten feet away I got another one. What I find interested is that I've pulled buffalo nickels out of here that came out of the ground in awesome condition, nice green patina, not rusty brown like most sites, wheats come out in beautiful shape and silver looks great as well when it comes out. Being that silver and copper come out nice, it must be something to do with the Manganese alloy that's turns them into coin cookies Just before we left, I got a nice little sterling silver wedding ring, a fancy Victorian one that was down about 8" deep. Jim got it on video, but darn if I can find it now

Here's the loot:

BTW this week marks two years since I first started detecting I think I found more silver this week then I found my entire first year of hunting The second year was a lot better then the first year. What a difference getting the right machines and some experience under your belt makes. I still have plenty to learn, and more machines I want to try (what is it with that?), but my third year is shaping up to be a good one.

Thanks for looking and HH,
Brian

 

[Cal_Cobra]

I see what everyone is talking about on the 917, but that is not the date. I collect SLQ (have several slabbed MS in my collection, including 1917) and the "date" in the picture is completely in the wrong place. Since you can see the chain mail at her shoulders, definitely a type 2. Since the date is worn off , it is likely a raised date type (they wore off much more quickly than the recessed that started in 1925), it is either a 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1923 or 1924. Would be nice if there was some way of bringing the date out like nic-a-date does with buffalo nickels.

I understand what your saying but my point to the debate last night was that the die / plachet could have slid over while being punched.. it's not in completely wrong place just the date is pushed to far over... now isn't that possible? even tho there may not be a known variety this could be a unknown correct?

There's definitely something there, it very well may be a type 2 1917.