Mayo South Elgin
Sr. Member
In a manner of speaking... actually they were worth lots more!
The Elgin/South Elgin faction (and friends) have been digging into the sidewalk and parkway tear outs this past week or two. I didn’t track how many times I went or how many hours each day – I’ll leave that to the people who have excess room in their brains for statistics.
It wasn’t easy getting the oldies in the midst of all the memorial cents, miscellaneous metal debris like car battery cable connectors, can slaw, pull tabs, pop tops, wads of foil – you know – the usual.
I had gone months and months without getting an Indian head penny. As I was detecting, I was thinking I had forgotten what they sounded like and what numbers I would expect to see on the screen – and I was seriously considering asking Tim (Lowbatts) to bury one and let me detect it so I would remember what to look for, and then my very next target was an Indian Head! Maybe I should do the same thought process with seateds and SLQ’s.
The highlight (so far) was a first for me. I got a nickelish sounding signal but it was a little bouncy. I was thinking “trash but maybe nickel” as I was digging, and when I popped out the coin, all I saw at first was the shield. My first thought was Shield Nickel! And just then Tim was walking over and without looking further at it, I handed it to him, saying that I thought it was a shield nickel but it seemed a bit large. Tim looked at it and said “TWO CENTER!”
It’s in pretty good condition considering it’s 146 years old and who knows how many of those years it’s been in the ground… I researched it online and that particular date – the first year for the 2 cent coins – there were two varieties. Large motto is the more common and unfortunately that’s what this coin is. So it’s worth about $10.00 or so. Had it been the Small motto, it would have been worth a minimum of $90, up to maybe $200 or more depending on condition. Being that it’s my first 2 cent coin, I wasn’t planning on selling it anyways. I couldn’t get the corrosion bumps off of it but I only cleaned it with dish detergent and then some orange oil/water mix.
I had just finished the last of one section that I hadn’t done the day before. and it was about 10am. The construction crew was removing another block of sidewalks two streets north. There were 6 to 8 guys with shovels frantically going at it and tossing the old bricks which used to be the street. I figured I had better stay out of their way since I didn’t have a hard hat and I no longer had the extra padding of the bushy hair. I had gotten the semi-annual haircut a week earlier.
I figured to come back about 2 or 3pm and they would have the ground ready to detect – free of bricks and chunks of sidewalk, and workers. Sometime around 1:30 I check emails and messages and Rich (Dirt Fishing Wolf) said he was planning on being there about 2:00 so I headed over there.
We get over there and meet up with Tim and I look down the street to where the nice virgin ground should have been and they had already formed it and put a layer of recycled asphalt down and had rolled and compacted it! Impossible to detect! This was premium dirt which I’m sure would have given up many goodies. Just one proof of that was the really nice 1890 seated dime that Rich got on the one corner that had not been back filled yet. That was yesterday.
Today they already poured concrete, so whatever was there is still there – but lost to history for another 75 years or whenever they decide to replace the sidewalks again. Tell your grand kids you remember when...
So all told, I got a heap of memorial cents, a bunch of junk not pictured, 5 wheats, the silver washington, the silver rosey, the 3 little Indians, the amazing 2 cent, some jeffersons, an Elgin pocket watch face, an interesting small tag which should have been destroyed, and some assorted relics.
The sidewalk and parkway work is not done yet, so I hope this will be like those late nite infomercials and I get to say, "BUT WAIT - THERE'S MORE!"
The Elgin/South Elgin faction (and friends) have been digging into the sidewalk and parkway tear outs this past week or two. I didn’t track how many times I went or how many hours each day – I’ll leave that to the people who have excess room in their brains for statistics.
It wasn’t easy getting the oldies in the midst of all the memorial cents, miscellaneous metal debris like car battery cable connectors, can slaw, pull tabs, pop tops, wads of foil – you know – the usual.
I had gone months and months without getting an Indian head penny. As I was detecting, I was thinking I had forgotten what they sounded like and what numbers I would expect to see on the screen – and I was seriously considering asking Tim (Lowbatts) to bury one and let me detect it so I would remember what to look for, and then my very next target was an Indian Head! Maybe I should do the same thought process with seateds and SLQ’s.
The highlight (so far) was a first for me. I got a nickelish sounding signal but it was a little bouncy. I was thinking “trash but maybe nickel” as I was digging, and when I popped out the coin, all I saw at first was the shield. My first thought was Shield Nickel! And just then Tim was walking over and without looking further at it, I handed it to him, saying that I thought it was a shield nickel but it seemed a bit large. Tim looked at it and said “TWO CENTER!”
It’s in pretty good condition considering it’s 146 years old and who knows how many of those years it’s been in the ground… I researched it online and that particular date – the first year for the 2 cent coins – there were two varieties. Large motto is the more common and unfortunately that’s what this coin is. So it’s worth about $10.00 or so. Had it been the Small motto, it would have been worth a minimum of $90, up to maybe $200 or more depending on condition. Being that it’s my first 2 cent coin, I wasn’t planning on selling it anyways. I couldn’t get the corrosion bumps off of it but I only cleaned it with dish detergent and then some orange oil/water mix.
I had just finished the last of one section that I hadn’t done the day before. and it was about 10am. The construction crew was removing another block of sidewalks two streets north. There were 6 to 8 guys with shovels frantically going at it and tossing the old bricks which used to be the street. I figured I had better stay out of their way since I didn’t have a hard hat and I no longer had the extra padding of the bushy hair. I had gotten the semi-annual haircut a week earlier.
I figured to come back about 2 or 3pm and they would have the ground ready to detect – free of bricks and chunks of sidewalk, and workers. Sometime around 1:30 I check emails and messages and Rich (Dirt Fishing Wolf) said he was planning on being there about 2:00 so I headed over there.
We get over there and meet up with Tim and I look down the street to where the nice virgin ground should have been and they had already formed it and put a layer of recycled asphalt down and had rolled and compacted it! Impossible to detect! This was premium dirt which I’m sure would have given up many goodies. Just one proof of that was the really nice 1890 seated dime that Rich got on the one corner that had not been back filled yet. That was yesterday.
Today they already poured concrete, so whatever was there is still there – but lost to history for another 75 years or whenever they decide to replace the sidewalks again. Tell your grand kids you remember when...
So all told, I got a heap of memorial cents, a bunch of junk not pictured, 5 wheats, the silver washington, the silver rosey, the 3 little Indians, the amazing 2 cent, some jeffersons, an Elgin pocket watch face, an interesting small tag which should have been destroyed, and some assorted relics.
The sidewalk and parkway work is not done yet, so I hope this will be like those late nite infomercials and I get to say, "BUT WAIT - THERE'S MORE!"
Nice!
