Tennis park help.

[brucebob]

So there's this pretty old park in the town where I live that has some 4 tennis courts that we built in the 60s I'm guessing. The town decided to redo the courts and add 4 more. So they tore out all the fencing around the courts and bulldozed the ground where the new courts are going to be. I went out there Saturday night for about an hour and started around the fence line. I was literally getting a hit every step I took and everyone was those stupid lids to tennis ball containers. I did manage to find 1 Lincoln penny. I tried turning the sensitivity down but it kept reading them.

I later moved on to the spot where the news courts are going to be and didn't have any luck there either. It looks like the removed 12 inches of dirt and it's all piled up. I'm guessing all the coins are going to be in the huge dirt pile

Anybody have any suggestions??

 

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[SeaninNH]

Detect the pile. I got an 1854 seated liberty quarter from a pile that came out of a tot lot.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Bob, if your courts there were ...... as you say ... built in the 1960s, then is the park itself where the courts are located, also from the 1960s? (ie.: a fairly new park)? If so, then the paved courts were probably layed on virgin dirt, back when they were built, so I don't know why you think coins would be *under* the courts, to begin with (perhaps I'm not understanding your question).

However, if, let's say, the park dated to the 1920s, and the courts were only added in the 1960s, then it's possible they "cap" an earlier turfed portion of the park. In which case, there might be coins underneath.

But even then, a few "gotchas": When const. companies go to pave, they don't just lay asphalt (for the tennis court surface, is a type of paving) right on top of virgin dirt. On the contrary, there is usually a compacted layer of DG (decomposed granite). Now granted, in the case of a tennis court (as opposed to a street designed to handle auto weight traffic), the DG may not be very deep. But the fact is, it's there, and any demolition to scrape off the surface, may not go below that DG layer. Also be aware that depending on the way it was engineered back in the 1960s, they might have scraped off several inches (so that the incoming courts match the grade of the existing turf, sidewalks, etc...) to prepare for the DG, paving, etc.... Thus a previous generation, back then, might have been scraped away, depending on how deep that preparation scraped too.

But as far as the perimeters, around where bushes and fences were removed, sounds like you're simply in a junky area. Either you're going to have to dig those aluminum tennis ball container fragments, or disc. them out. If they're big enough blobs of aluminum (like the base of those cans) that read up into the penny/dime range, then you may be scr*wed. Might simply be a lame area to detect. And another thing: the fact that such recent junk is there, tells me they CERTAINLY didn't "scrape" very deep there. Recent trash like that would simply have been bladed away, with even a mere 2" of scrape. Sounds like a lame demolition site to hunt, if you ask me.

 

[Dwight S]

You may not find too much around the tennis courts, most players would remove their jewelry or pocket change and put it in their tennis bag or leave it in the car or at home because they find that the jingle and movement in their pockets is distracting. As Tom said, descriminate out the can tops if possible, if that isn't possible, find somewhere else to hunt.

 

[brucebob]

Bob, if your courts there were ...... as you say ... built in the 1960s, then is the park itself where the courts are located, also from the 1960s? (ie.: a fairly new park)? If so, then the paved courts were probably layed on virgin dirt, back when they were built, so I don't know why you think coins would be *under* the courts, to begin with (perhaps I'm not understanding your question).

However, if, let's say, the park dated to the 1920s, and the courts were only added in the 1960s, then it's possible they "cap" an earlier turfed portion of the park. In which case, there might be coins underneath.

But even then, a few "gotchas": When const. companies go to pave, they don't just lay asphalt (for the tennis court surface, is a type of paving) right on top of virgin dirt. On the contrary, there is usually a compacted layer of DG (decomposed granite). Now granted, in the case of a tennis court (as opposed to a street designed to handle auto weight traffic), the DG may not be very deep. But the fact is, it's there, and any demolition to scrape off the surface, may not go below that DG layer. Also be aware that depending on the way it was engineered back in the 1960s, they might have scraped off several inches (so that the incoming courts match the grade of the existing turf, sidewalks, etc...) to prepare for the DG, paving, etc.... Thus a previous generation, back then, might have been scraped away, depending on how deep that preparation scraped too.

But as far as the perimeters, around where bushes and fences were removed, sounds like you're simply in a junky area. Either you're going to have to dig those aluminum tennis ball container fragments, or disc. them out. If they're big enough blobs of aluminum (like the base of those cans) that read up into the penny/dime range, then you may be scr*wed. Might simply be a lame area to detect. And another thing: the fact that such recent junk is there, tells me they CERTAINLY didn't "scrape" very deep there. Recent trash like that would simply have been bladed away, with even a mere 2" of scrape. Sounds like a lame demolition site to hunt, if you ask me.

Hey Tom,

Thanks for the reply, let me clarify a few of the details. The park itself has been around for 100+ years and has quite a bit of history behind it. The tennis courts were added in the 60s. The city is going to resurface the existing 4 courts and then add 4 more right next to it. So far they have ripped out the fencing around the existing courts and that's where I was finding a ton of those tennis ball container lids. I was hoping to find some coins cause when they have tennis matches there, they don't have bleachers or anythig so people with just bring blankets and sit on the ground.

They bulldozed about 12 inches of fresh land where the new courts are going and I wasn't getting any hits there, I'm going to head back there and try scanning the dirt pile.

I guess my question is, does this spot have some potential or does it sound like a waste of time? Thanks

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Bob, to answer your question, ANY park that's "100+ yrs. old" and is getting tractor work done, is worth time to try

So a couple of thoughts: the courts from the 1960s may not have perfectly "capped" an un-disturbed layer underneath them. There may have been extensive scraping out in the 1960s, thus carting off any older coins, and filling a base-layer... beneath the courts, of compacted DG. You should be able to tell by looking to see if the soil has a "native" appearance, or a "fill dirt" appearance.

If it is native dirt, it still may have been scraped too deep either now, or back in the 1960s, and you're still looking at sterile dirt, from the results of scraping too deep in the 1960s.

Also, you say they "bulldozed 12" , but are you sure it's not just bulldozed around, yet left in place? You can compare to the grade of the surrounding un-disturbed soil (adjacent sidewalks and turf, for example) to see if they're truly deeper, or if they just "did donuts" with their tractors that appears to be 12" deep, but is simply loose fill-dirt still left in place, and thus not deep enough.

You also don't make clear if they've only demolished the existing courts, yet have not cleared land yet, for the 4 new ones (to be added to the 4 existing ones, to make the total of 8 ). If they haven't yet scraped off to get ready for the incoming 4 new ones, be sure to be there for that RIGHT on the first night they scrape. Because they may quickly add fill-dirt DG the very next day. And perhaps a virgin scrape on un-disturbed (ie.: no previous tennis courts) may be good, since it's not been previously scr*wed around with, as an existing new tennis court would have been.

I got in on the tail end of such a scrape, in San Francisco, at Delores Park years ago. They notched into a slope, to make ready to install hand-ball courts. So at the front of the scrape, it might only have been a few inches deep. But the further back it got, the scrape went deeper (since it was being installed where there was a slope/hill). By the time it reached the back-most part of where the courts were going in, the cut was several feet deep (guaged by comparing to the existing turf). It was quite an eye opener! At the beginning, where they just started to shave in, was still clad, and '50s wheats. Then you'd walk a little further in, to where it was reaching 6 to 10" deep, and it was '20s/30s stuff. The going further, was the IH's, barbers, seateds, etc.. Then going a bit further, and ....... it became sterile! I only got in on the tail end of that, after several other guys had hammered it. But from talking to them, it appeared that well over 100 silver coins and hundreds of wheaties, buffalos, V's, etc.... had been pulled from there for those who stumbled on to it first.