Thought of a new place to Detect today, and it paid off!!!!!!!

[tommyboy72]

Hi, I went to what used to be a 6 or 7 stall car wash nearby. the car wash itself was torn down 4-5 years ago and I was driving by this the concrete lot where it used to be and I suddenly remembered that when the drains in the floor would become clogged with mud/dirt/etc. that they would clean out the drains that were in the bottom of each stall, and the owner would have the old guy that worked for him shovel everything into a wheel barrow and dump the mud and gunk onto this one spot and spread it out. Well, I also remembered in all the years that I used that car wash before it was torn down that many times when I was getting change out of my pocket to put in the coin thing on the wall and I would drop a quarter or two or some other piece of change in my pocket and because the floor of a car wash is usually sloped toward the long grate/dirt-trap thing in the middle guess where any change that was dropped would roll to!!! you guessed it!!!! anyway to make a long story short, I went there today and detected for about an hour or so and found a ton of 1970's-early 2000's era quarters,dimes,nickels, pennies, etc. and to top it all off these were all in an area about 4 feet long by 2-3 feet wide(about the size of ONE wheelbarrow dump!!!!). I actually stopped using my metal detector and just broke open the ground and used my pinpointer to find the coins!!! I only went down a couple of inches so I'm hoping that tomorrow if I go deeper I might find some silver or maybe at least some wheaties!!!! I would have found more, but it started raining and I had to quit. needless to say, I will be back tomorrow!!! I remember they used to clean those drains a couple of different times over the summer depending on how often they would get clogged up, and that car wash was operating for well over 25 years!!!!! needless to say I think there is a ton more change still to be found. what's really great about it is I am the only person allowed to metal detect there!!! it is all private property and seeing as how I live about a block from it and I keep an eye on things for the property owner, they let me detect it.
p.s. I also found this U.S. Grant coin it is a little bigger than a quarter any help on it would be great.

 

[Narthoniel]

That looks like a great site you have there. I hope the silver turns up for you. Here is a link tot he Mint webiste with information on that coin.
http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wc...1&parent_category_rn=10196&top_category=10196

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Nice haul! HH, Mike

 

[trikikiwi]

Congrats
It takes a real Hunter to find the Treasure.

Just remember tho' - you are dealing with a Waste Drain

You are likely to find all sorts of contaminants (including coins - YeeHahh ) have accumulated over time.
Just be aware of what you are digging into - maybe all you need is some gloves on, but do it right.
I speak from experience.
Cheers, Mike

 

[Detectingfreak]

That is a lot of change!!! Congratulations on such the great finds!

 

[Johnny Ringo Silver]

I have never been much on digging clad, but MAN THAT IS ALOT OF COIN!!!!! I dont think I could pass that up!! Way to go on the finds. I too have some of those presidential coins around here somewhere. 8)

 

[JP]

wow there's treasure everywhere, one just needs to know where to look.

Everytime I go to the car wash or the gas station I always check the area where the vacuum is or the air hose. 9 times out of 10 I walk away with a dollar or more in coins, all quarters and a few pennies.

That's excellent that you remembered about the sweet spot.

HH

 

[Mat in MA]

[size=14pt]Forget the metal detector. Get yourself a sifting screen and a small hand shovel.

1) Shovel the dirt and coins in the sifter
2) Sift gently
3) Remove coins and valuables
4) Repeat as often as necessary

This should make things go a lot faster than trying to use a pinpointer.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting !!!

 

[mistergee]

tommy...did you see what you started....
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,183210.0/topicseen.html
maybe you should start a "car wash diving" thread

 

[topdog]

Congrats on the Clad haul.

 

[relichunters]

Very nice! I've seen those president tokens before.

 

[JP]

Very nice! I've seen those president tokens before.

I believe back in the 70's or early 80's they were offered in magazines or the newspaper as a first and last time collectors issue...blah blah. If there was a cost to them it wasn't very much. My grandfather said he received one set for free for ordering something. When he passed away he had 2 1/2 sets of them.

I still have all of them in my garage because they fell out of the cardboard holder; it was very flemsy.

They are neat to look at but I believe they don't have much value. I could be wrong.

 

[pookie-princess of rust]

thats alot of clad.

 

[Ray S ECenFL]

The clad mother lode.... congrats.

It pays to think outside the box.

Ray S

Keep us posted on the silver, if any turns up.

I like the sifter idea.

HH

 

[Basset]

OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Basset

 

[Born Free]

You thought of a perfect place to treasure hunt and I can feel your excitement!

Regarding sifting the rest, my guess is that it's not soft fuzzy sand but a mass of dried crud. But if you made a sifter kind of thing, you could haul the dirt home in buckets and take your time. Like a 2' square frame of wood with some wire mesh inside just large enough to hold coins. Listen to us, it's like we want to go there and help you...

Enjoy every minute of it. And tell us your total $!

Born Free

 

[vegasmetsfan]

Great idea!! Great finds!!!

 

[crazyjarhead]

Now thats a great haul

 

[katper]

Fantastic thinking!!! I will be looking for torn down car washes from now on.
Good Luck tomorrow!!
Katper

 

[aa battery]

i missed this post but glad it came up. Good thinking