Frodov
Bronze Member
Three Mice, Three Wise Men, and a HOLE in ONE !
Have you ever had one of those days that everything seems to be going your way? I mean EVERYTHING! It’s the little things that you might just not notice now and then, but when they keep adding up you have to take notice. Today was one of those days for me, or it has been up till this very moment as I write down my thoughts and reflect on my adventures of the day.
First of all, I’m on vacation. I might have mentioned that the other day when I posted here at TreasureNet. Being on vacation is oh so relaxing indeed! It doesn’t mean that I get out of doing everything though, I mean little things like mowing the yard still have to be done. Fortunately I did that chore, and many others, yesterday, so today I was free from obligation and had nothing that required my attention. I was awakened by the sweet tones of my darling wife, after being dragged from my pleasant slumber by the nerve jangling ringing of the phone. My wife is away attending the National Convention for her organization in Washington D.C. We’ve been keeping in touch via the phones of course, so I get to speak to her between seminars and in the evenings and in the morning like today.
After a pleasant chat, I rolled out of bed and greeted the day with enthusiasm that only a fellow metal detectorist or an avid fisherman might appreciate. I was dressed, loaded up and out the door in minutes, just as the morning sun was breaching the horizon to the east. With yesterday’s chores and errands I had no time to get out and play, but today I was free to explore the possibilities. Rather than wander the countryside as I did earlier in the week, I thought I might stay a little closer to home today and take in some of the local elementary school playgrounds that I’ve been letting lay fallow for a few months. Hopefully my grade school coin gardens were ripe for harvesting. And you know what? They WERE! BOY HOWDY!
I was at the first location in minutes and was bagging coins and other goodies from the get-go. I hadn’t walked two steps from my car before I had the first target register on my detector, and two steps seemed to be the theme for the next hour and a half or so. Beep! <kneel, pin-point, retrieve, pocket, stand up.> Step... Step... BEEP! (repeat).
Of course not all finds are made by the detector, sometimes they are by the detectorist. Eyeball finds. I pick up the plastic bottle caps with the Coke Rewards codes on them for my wife, brownie points you might say. But occasionally I pick up other things too. Like this little Green Plastic “jewel” heart. I’ve been finding a LOT of hearts this year, metal ones, plastic ones, real gem stones carved or cut into hearts. Whenever I find one I pick it up, it’s kind of like a lucky charm I think.
Sure, a lot of the targets were pennies, a lot of the targets were buttons and snaps or pull tabs. That’s normal. Aggravating , sure, but normal. What’s really aggravating is getting a target signal for a coin and not being able to locate it, with the pin-pointer or your eyes. I did this I don’t know how many times today. Oh I found them eventually, but as you can see, tiny little snaps and rivets make for bigger targets than they actually are.
But I persevered, somehow. Oh yeah, it was finding all the coins and goodies that did the trick! I’ll tell you my finds total for the day later, but this first playground alone netted me almost $9.00 in coins! Yeah! One of those days! Eventually I cleaned out the woodchips and surrounding area enough that the finds slowed down to something less than a fevered pitch. I figured I was beating a dead horse by this point and it was time to move along to another venue. So back in the car and down the road I went.
Schoolyard Number Two, about one and three quarters of an hour into the morning now, almost 8:20 A.M. now. The rest of the world seemed to be moving a little slow this Friday morning for some reason. The kiddies were nowhere to be seen, traffic was light, even the birds didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to catch those worms and bugs and things. I was beginning to think that I was the ONLY one digging anything this morning. More pennies, more and more pennies. What’s more, DIMES! Between the first school and this second one I was really bagging a LOT of dimes today. WOW! Not that I minded, not at all! They add up too. I was in for a surprise though. School yard number two offered up a second Presidential Dollar Coin for the day. Cool ! One is great, two is outstanding! This playground also gave me the first Whatzit for the day. A coin, but of what nationality I wonder. It’s about the same size as a U.S. Dime, only three times as thick. I’m thinking Spanish, but I might be mistaken, anyone have a clue?
Oh... Did I mention I found a lot of pennies? Not just run of the mill, ordinary pennies but a bunch of the newer Lincoln Pennies. I found nine of these “shield” variants, as well as a couple of the “Log Cabin” and one of the “Reader” variants. Cool.
Speaking of pennies, after searching the playground of the second schoolyard, I moved on to a nearby park to search the woodchips there as well. It was at the park that I found yet another interesting penny. Some of you might have seen the “Blank” or planchet penny I found earlier this week, well I didn’t find another of those, but I did find another unusual penny. A “SILVER” penny?
It looks as if someone has drilled or punched a hole in a regular Lincoln Memorial cent and then dipped it in silver or something. It weighs the same as a regular penny, 2.0 grams so I’m wondering if it’s a very thin plating perhaps. I don’t know what to think about it really, but it’s neat and another conversation piece to be sure. After clearing the tot lot at the park and detecting around one or two of the really big oak trees (shade trees are coin magnets if you didn’t know that already)... I loaded back up into the car and headed off for my third schoolyard and what would be my final search for the day.
This school’s playground is a fairly new one, being less than two years old now. They have some of the older equipment, swing sets, halfway around the building as well so you might consider this location as TWO hunts rather than one. Up to you I guess... still the same school to me. <laughing> Anyway, this last location turned out to be another producer as well. I’ve not hunted this school any this year, well, since January anyway. And, as with the other two schoolyards, this one was giving up coins left and right. More pennies of course, but a couple those were Wheaties.
Another Presidential Dollar Coin made three for three today! WOW! I hit the Trifecta or something. Three different schools, three different Dollar Coins.
Three wise men for sure. Or were anyway. But it seems that the dollar coins weren’t the only threes I was going to find today. I unearthed, or rather, un-chipped (woodchips) three Chuck E Cheese tokens as well. Three Mice !
Almost found three keys today too... but I found a fourth and blew the three threes ... Oh well.
After cleaning out both “tot lots” at the last school and detecting around some of the shade trees just to be thorough, I decided that I was pretty much done for the day. I still have the next six days off from work so I wanted to save a few locations to hunt on a couple of those days as well. <smile> Besides, my finds bag was starting to get a little heavy and was pounding dents in my leg every time I took a step. So I headed on home, via the grocery store to do the one chore that I didn’t do yesterday, a little refrigerator resupply if you will. Once home I emptied out the old finds bag and sorted and tallied and counted. I separated out the tabs...
... separated out the junk and odd pieces of metal dug up during my hunting...
... and of course, sorted and counted up all the coins. WOW! A productive day INDEED!
Now you may recall that I said I stayed pretty close to home for today’s adventures in metal detecting. That I did. So, I didn’t really burn much gas at all running around today, maybe half a gallon if that. So you might say that I more than covered my gas expense, and my lunch with the $19.40 in clad that I found today. Another fine addition to the Vacation fund to be sure. I did run into a bit of a dilemma however. After rolling up the coins found today, I found I didn’t have any more room in my “vacation fund” bank bag. So, I took the whole thing down the street to the bank and cashed in the rolled up coins for paper money to make more room for MORE FINDS! Over $350.00 for the year so far. WOOHOO! Might have to rent a chalet or a cabin anyway for my wife and I for our anniversary in August. At least for a weekend. <smile> Yeah. You’ve got to LOVE a hobby that pays you to play. Here’s hoping that the rest of you can get out and have some fun this weekend, Happy Independence Day! Have a safe and happy holiday weekend.
~HAPPY HUNTING~
Frodov
Have you ever had one of those days that everything seems to be going your way? I mean EVERYTHING! It’s the little things that you might just not notice now and then, but when they keep adding up you have to take notice. Today was one of those days for me, or it has been up till this very moment as I write down my thoughts and reflect on my adventures of the day.
First of all, I’m on vacation. I might have mentioned that the other day when I posted here at TreasureNet. Being on vacation is oh so relaxing indeed! It doesn’t mean that I get out of doing everything though, I mean little things like mowing the yard still have to be done. Fortunately I did that chore, and many others, yesterday, so today I was free from obligation and had nothing that required my attention. I was awakened by the sweet tones of my darling wife, after being dragged from my pleasant slumber by the nerve jangling ringing of the phone. My wife is away attending the National Convention for her organization in Washington D.C. We’ve been keeping in touch via the phones of course, so I get to speak to her between seminars and in the evenings and in the morning like today.
After a pleasant chat, I rolled out of bed and greeted the day with enthusiasm that only a fellow metal detectorist or an avid fisherman might appreciate. I was dressed, loaded up and out the door in minutes, just as the morning sun was breaching the horizon to the east. With yesterday’s chores and errands I had no time to get out and play, but today I was free to explore the possibilities. Rather than wander the countryside as I did earlier in the week, I thought I might stay a little closer to home today and take in some of the local elementary school playgrounds that I’ve been letting lay fallow for a few months. Hopefully my grade school coin gardens were ripe for harvesting. And you know what? They WERE! BOY HOWDY!
I was at the first location in minutes and was bagging coins and other goodies from the get-go. I hadn’t walked two steps from my car before I had the first target register on my detector, and two steps seemed to be the theme for the next hour and a half or so. Beep! <kneel, pin-point, retrieve, pocket, stand up.> Step... Step... BEEP! (repeat).
Of course not all finds are made by the detector, sometimes they are by the detectorist. Eyeball finds. I pick up the plastic bottle caps with the Coke Rewards codes on them for my wife, brownie points you might say. But occasionally I pick up other things too. Like this little Green Plastic “jewel” heart. I’ve been finding a LOT of hearts this year, metal ones, plastic ones, real gem stones carved or cut into hearts. Whenever I find one I pick it up, it’s kind of like a lucky charm I think.
Sure, a lot of the targets were pennies, a lot of the targets were buttons and snaps or pull tabs. That’s normal. Aggravating , sure, but normal. What’s really aggravating is getting a target signal for a coin and not being able to locate it, with the pin-pointer or your eyes. I did this I don’t know how many times today. Oh I found them eventually, but as you can see, tiny little snaps and rivets make for bigger targets than they actually are.
But I persevered, somehow. Oh yeah, it was finding all the coins and goodies that did the trick! I’ll tell you my finds total for the day later, but this first playground alone netted me almost $9.00 in coins! Yeah! One of those days! Eventually I cleaned out the woodchips and surrounding area enough that the finds slowed down to something less than a fevered pitch. I figured I was beating a dead horse by this point and it was time to move along to another venue. So back in the car and down the road I went.
Schoolyard Number Two, about one and three quarters of an hour into the morning now, almost 8:20 A.M. now. The rest of the world seemed to be moving a little slow this Friday morning for some reason. The kiddies were nowhere to be seen, traffic was light, even the birds didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to catch those worms and bugs and things. I was beginning to think that I was the ONLY one digging anything this morning. More pennies, more and more pennies. What’s more, DIMES! Between the first school and this second one I was really bagging a LOT of dimes today. WOW! Not that I minded, not at all! They add up too. I was in for a surprise though. School yard number two offered up a second Presidential Dollar Coin for the day. Cool ! One is great, two is outstanding! This playground also gave me the first Whatzit for the day. A coin, but of what nationality I wonder. It’s about the same size as a U.S. Dime, only three times as thick. I’m thinking Spanish, but I might be mistaken, anyone have a clue?
Oh... Did I mention I found a lot of pennies? Not just run of the mill, ordinary pennies but a bunch of the newer Lincoln Pennies. I found nine of these “shield” variants, as well as a couple of the “Log Cabin” and one of the “Reader” variants. Cool.
Speaking of pennies, after searching the playground of the second schoolyard, I moved on to a nearby park to search the woodchips there as well. It was at the park that I found yet another interesting penny. Some of you might have seen the “Blank” or planchet penny I found earlier this week, well I didn’t find another of those, but I did find another unusual penny. A “SILVER” penny?
It looks as if someone has drilled or punched a hole in a regular Lincoln Memorial cent and then dipped it in silver or something. It weighs the same as a regular penny, 2.0 grams so I’m wondering if it’s a very thin plating perhaps. I don’t know what to think about it really, but it’s neat and another conversation piece to be sure. After clearing the tot lot at the park and detecting around one or two of the really big oak trees (shade trees are coin magnets if you didn’t know that already)... I loaded back up into the car and headed off for my third schoolyard and what would be my final search for the day.
This school’s playground is a fairly new one, being less than two years old now. They have some of the older equipment, swing sets, halfway around the building as well so you might consider this location as TWO hunts rather than one. Up to you I guess... still the same school to me. <laughing> Anyway, this last location turned out to be another producer as well. I’ve not hunted this school any this year, well, since January anyway. And, as with the other two schoolyards, this one was giving up coins left and right. More pennies of course, but a couple those were Wheaties.
Another Presidential Dollar Coin made three for three today! WOW! I hit the Trifecta or something. Three different schools, three different Dollar Coins.
Three wise men for sure. Or were anyway. But it seems that the dollar coins weren’t the only threes I was going to find today. I unearthed, or rather, un-chipped (woodchips) three Chuck E Cheese tokens as well. Three Mice !
Almost found three keys today too... but I found a fourth and blew the three threes ... Oh well.
After cleaning out both “tot lots” at the last school and detecting around some of the shade trees just to be thorough, I decided that I was pretty much done for the day. I still have the next six days off from work so I wanted to save a few locations to hunt on a couple of those days as well. <smile> Besides, my finds bag was starting to get a little heavy and was pounding dents in my leg every time I took a step. So I headed on home, via the grocery store to do the one chore that I didn’t do yesterday, a little refrigerator resupply if you will. Once home I emptied out the old finds bag and sorted and tallied and counted. I separated out the tabs...
... separated out the junk and odd pieces of metal dug up during my hunting...
... and of course, sorted and counted up all the coins. WOW! A productive day INDEED!
Now you may recall that I said I stayed pretty close to home for today’s adventures in metal detecting. That I did. So, I didn’t really burn much gas at all running around today, maybe half a gallon if that. So you might say that I more than covered my gas expense, and my lunch with the $19.40 in clad that I found today. Another fine addition to the Vacation fund to be sure. I did run into a bit of a dilemma however. After rolling up the coins found today, I found I didn’t have any more room in my “vacation fund” bank bag. So, I took the whole thing down the street to the bank and cashed in the rolled up coins for paper money to make more room for MORE FINDS! Over $350.00 for the year so far. WOOHOO! Might have to rent a chalet or a cabin anyway for my wife and I for our anniversary in August. At least for a weekend. <smile> Yeah. You’ve got to LOVE a hobby that pays you to play. Here’s hoping that the rest of you can get out and have some fun this weekend, Happy Independence Day! Have a safe and happy holiday weekend.
~HAPPY HUNTING~
Frodov
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