Stone Foundation in the Woods & an 1925 School Site

[ANTIQUARIAN]

A couple of days ago I received an email from a man asking me to help him better understand his Teknetics 4000 detector. He had been detecting the stone foundation of an 1820 homestead in a heavily wooded area on his property, but had only been able to find square nails and a horseshoe. He wasn't able to meet me until noon so I decided to hit the front yard of a 1925 school for a few hours first. This building has been sitting empty for a number of years and is likely to be torn down soon.

I hunted here for 2 hours and only covered a third of the yard, as I was being careful not to miss anything. My first find was a 1962 Panama Silver Quarter Balboa, at first I thought it might be a 'school coin' of some sort, but it felt too heavy. It was only when I got home and researched it that I found its .900 silver, weights .20oz and was minted in Philadelphia, PA! At noon, I headed over to meet my new friend Todd and we proceeded to hike a mile into the dense woods behind his house to the stone foundation site. He told me that through his own research, he had found there had been farmhouse located here before 1820 and it was gone by 1900. The area was heavily forested and had a large swampy area close to it, consequently, swinging was a real challenge here. To make matters worse, the foundation was located on the side of a hill; there were mounds of dirt and very few flat areas near the house. I detected here for a little over an hour and feel fortunate for what I did find here... unfortunately Todd only found more square nails and trash!

My first find was the large pendant / brooch, next came the brass saddle shield or rosette, lastly I found the iron horse buckle. After making these finds I didn't find anything else, so I decided to call it a day!

Thanks for looking,
Dave

 

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[Ia.FurTrade]

Those are some nice finds! Love the "Balboa"!

 

[pepperj]

The building has a familiar ring to it, but many of them have the same looking facade to them. Nice going to the silver!, a different find for sure.
Some of the remote cellar holes are so overgrown that swinging a coil isn't much fun, more like lift and place the coil between the saplings. That and the folks were so dirt poor that there was little lost in the first place as every cent counted in life.
You managed a few finds and it might be worth a return hunt in the early spring before the undergrowth has a chance to grow.

 

[Old Dude]

Great job in giving your friend his first lesson in detecting ~ your partner will get the good stuff, no matter that the site is yours, lol! I like the Balboa cause 1962 was such a good year. It produced me!
Very good finds Dave.

 

[I-DIG-IT]

Nice digs.

 

[Gridwalker306]

Looking good man, cool balboa.

 

[Carolina Tom]

The Balboa is really nice. Relics are good also. Congrats. GL&HH!

 

[BurntBear]

Nice finds!

 

[WheatWaffle]

Nice finds!

 

[Steve in PA]

Dave, I love the big silver coin and the rosette is really cool too!

 

[The Rebel]

WTG Dave on sniffin out the goodies! Looks like you really were out in the middle of nowhere.

 

[46Wheat]

Thank you for sharing your hunt and those pictures with us

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Awesome coin Dave, funny how some of those old CHs just don't produce. I guess that these people were not that wealthy and very careful with what little money they did have.
ZDD

 

[Argentium]

Very nice on the Balboa - really a nice sight coming out of the ground no doubt ! Makes you wonder how hard that school yard has been worked ?

 

[RJ55]

Those are some nice finds, big chunk of silver,

 

[bootybandit]

Awesome finds!

 

[coinman123]

Nice of you for helping him learn how to use his detector. I once saw a 1967 Panama quarter in my coin shop's foreign coins, it had a clad edge the same as an american clad quarter's. Congrats on the silver. It appears that Panama followed america in 1966, and minted clad dimes, and quarters, and 40% silver half dollars and dollars.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Nice score on a great looking silver coin and other goodies! Congrats!
So did you at lest give him a few pointers? There should be more rusty relics there. They may not have had a lot of coins back in the day but they did have a lot of metal items.

 

[Greylock]

Nice finds. My favorite kind of detecting is in the middle of no where. Those old farmers picked some strange places to live.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Those are some nice finds! Love the "Balboa"!

Thanks IA and it's heavy too!
I like the fact that these were minted in PA!
Dave

The building has a familiar ring to it, but many of them have the same looking facade to them. Nice going to the silver!, a different find for sure.
Some of the remote cellar holes are so overgrown that swinging a coil isn't much fun, more like lift and place the coil between the saplings. That and the folks were so dirt poor that there was little lost in the first place as every cent counted in life.
You managed a few finds and it might be worth a return hunt in the early spring before the undergrowth has a chance to grow.

Thanks for your post J, I'm heading down your way next week!
I love hunting old school sites like this, you never know what's going to show up.
I found the silver on the hill in front of the school, I figured that's where the kids would've sat before class.

I'd definitely like to make a return trip to the stone foundation in the spring... with lots of Muskol!
Dave

Great job in giving your friend his first lesson in detecting ~ your partner will get the good stuff, no matter that the site is yours, lol! I like the Balboa cause 1962 was such a good year. It produced me!
Very good finds Dave.

Thanks for your post Dave!
He's only had his detector for a month and wants to find silver RIGHT NOW!!
As we all know, this isn't how it works, you have to put in the time to learn your machine.

Take care buddy,
Dave

Nice digs.

Thanks.

Looking good man, cool balboa.

Thanks buddy!
Dave

The Balboa is really nice. Relics are good also. Congrats. GL&HH!

Thanks very much Tom, best of luck to you as well!

Nice finds!

Thank you!

Nice finds!

Thank you Sir!

Dave, I love the big silver coin and the rosette is really cool too!

Thanks very much Steve... only a couple of weeks left till the 'big freeze'!
Dave

WTG Dave on sniffin out the goodies! Looks like you really were out in the middle of nowhere.

Thanks for your post Rebel!
It just amazes me why people would choose to live in a remote location like this.
But back then maybe it was part of a now long gone community.

Best of luck to you,
Dave

Thank you for sharing your hunt and those pictures with us

You're very welcome, thanks for your post!
Dave

Awesome coin Dave, funny how some of those old CHs just don't produce. I guess that these people were not that wealthy and very careful with what little money they did have.
ZDD

As you well know Dave, we all want to find an old silver or copper coin when we get the opportunity to detect a spot like this.
But the reality is, "that we get what we get and we don't get upset"!

Take care buddy,
Dave

Very nice on the Balboa - really a nice sight coming out of the ground no doubt ! Makes you wonder how hard that school yard has been worked ?

As always, I'm grateful for your post and insight Arg!
I think most of these old school sites have all been heavily detected over the years.
All I can hope for is that they missed something... like this quarter Balboa!
Dave

Those are some nice finds, big chunk of silver,

Thanks very much RJ!
Dave

Awesome finds!

Thanks!

Nice of you for helping him learn how to use his detector. I once saw a 1967 Panama quarter in my coin shop's foreign coins, it had a clad edge the same as an american clad quarter's. Congrats on the silver. It appears that Panama followed america in 1966, and minted clad dimes, and quarters, and 40% silver half dollars and dollars.

Thanks for your post and for the information coinman!
I thought it was so cool when I found out this coin had been minted in Philadelphia!

Glad I found it dating before 1966!
Dave

Nice score on a great looking silver coin and other goodies! Congrats!
So did you at lest give him a few pointers? There should be more rusty relics there. They may not have had a lot of coins back in the day but they did have a lot of metal items.

Thanks for your post BB!
I gave Todd the same advice given me when I started detecting 4 years ago... dig everything!
This is the only way you're going to learn what's under your coil!

He's going to do just fine, he's been bitten by the same detecting bug that got us!
Dave

Nice finds. My favorite kind of detecting is in the middle of no where. Those old farmers picked some strange places to live.

I love detecting in the woods too GL, it's quiet and you never know what you'll find at an undetected site.
Best of luck to you,
Dave