MTtrashdigger
Elite Member
Went out curbstripping today in one of out oldest neigborhoods, The strips in this neighborhood have all been narrowed over the years and the curbs replaced , so I have pretty much stayed away from them , figuring they have all been scraped and filled. I feel a little leery door knocking with all that's going on with the Wuhan Flu but curb strip hunting has led to some good yard permissions when curious folks see me. I started on a corner in front of a big old home with a stone foundation so I figured it was at least pre 1915. As expected, I picked up a couple of modern coins and some trash,and not much else. I worked my way down the block and not a soul came out of any house. With the weather pretty nice for April in Montana I was surprised at the lack of activity. I finished the block with less than a dollar in clad and was walking back to my truck when a old man came out of the house where I had first started. He kept his social distance and asked what I was looking for. My standard answer is " stuff that other people have lost". After a couple minute chat I asked if anyone had ever detected his yard. He said not that he knew of but that I was welcome to give it a shot. Now many of these big old houses in this area have tiny front yards and big backyards as many of them had carriage houses in the rear. This house was no exception. He told me that his front yard was original dirt but the back yard carriage house had been torn down 25 years earlier after his youngest son moved away. The side yard and back yard had all been replaced soon after. I figured the front was better than nothing and would probably take less than 30 minutes to grid it in two directions. Targets were reasonably plentiful and after about 15 minutes I had dug 5 wheats, all from the 40s. Then got a deep 19-20 on my Equinox jumping to 28 and then back to 19-20.I couldn't get it to lock on 28 despite scanning and wiggling in multiple directions. I decided to dig but this was a deep target and the Equinox pinpointer feature lacks accuracy on deeper targets, necessitating larger plugs. Not keen on digging too big of a plug in a private yard, I started out small and dug a hole the depth of my Lesche , pulled the plug and went to the bottom and stuck my Lesche down to the hilt again, carefully cutting out a second plug in the clay from below the first.
I laid them both on my towel and started to fish around with my pinpointer and the target was on my towel in clay. Green and crusty, there was the 1905 Indian Head penny, my third IHP so far this year. Curious about the jumpy signal, I kept stirring in the dirt and got a hit on a clump of clay . In the clump was the 1904 Barber dime, my 10th silver of the year, my second Barber of the year and now my oldest silver coin ever. After filling in the hole I went back to scanning what little was left of the yard. Not finding anything else, I called out a loud thank you to the old man and called it a day. Thanks for looking and stay safe and healthy!!
I laid them both on my towel and started to fish around with my pinpointer and the target was on my towel in clay. Green and crusty, there was the 1905 Indian Head penny, my third IHP so far this year. Curious about the jumpy signal, I kept stirring in the dirt and got a hit on a clump of clay . In the clump was the 1904 Barber dime, my 10th silver of the year, my second Barber of the year and now my oldest silver coin ever. After filling in the hole I went back to scanning what little was left of the yard. Not finding anything else, I called out a loud thank you to the old man and called it a day. Thanks for looking and stay safe and healthy!!