Obtainable Coin Types (In your area)

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Seated Quarter Finds Part 2

I remember the first of the seated quarters I had found. I was detecting a section of sidewalk that was going to be replaced. My old friend (Bruce) had told me that if any section of town would cough them up that this area would be the spot. It was a night hunt and I was all by myself. I was moving along and received a good signal that I could not determine what it could possibly be due to it?s being dark. The object layed in a mud puddle near a chunk of cement. I dug it out and knew I had a coin, by feel I figured it was a barber and walked to be nearer the street light and discovered my first seated quarter. The coin was an 1876 or 1877, not quite sure anymore without checking what little records I kept, but it was a ?CC? mint mark too which was the first of that mint mark for me also.

 

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Seated Quarter Finds Part 2

Another Seated Quarter find I had made that I remember was at yet another sidewalk replacement site located right next to a church. The location was also the site of the first courthouse in the town, back in the early days. The actual signal was a bit weak and read a little lower too. But then this was due to depth of the target. I dug up this time an 1873 quarter, the crew working in the area was amazed and one of the fellows purchased a detector within two days. Within a day or two upon my return to the site he showed me his first barber dime. Finding the old coins when you are in a good spot is as simple as this. Imagine every couple of feet digging old coin after old coin, but yet the other side of the church was done several years earlier and I’ve been told an older gentleman had dug over 70 coins from the 1800’s in that section alone!

 

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Next post I'll tell about your everyday run of the mill Indian Heads and finding them and what worked for me.

 

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Let?s get some Indian Heads!

Let's get some Indian Heads!
Now I got my start with a Bounty Hunter model. It was a low cost machine, but I made some good finds with it. I figure many readers have these models due to they are affordable and they do work.
First off the Bounty Hunters do find Indian Heads, most of the ones that are found in grassy areas tend to read between Zinc Cent and Screw Cap. In fact in most cases they bounce between those two readings. The years of most of these finds are from the turn of the century post 1900 to the 1880's. My experience is the 1860's are a little easier to find than the 1870's. I kept records of the pre-1900 finds and more 1890's were found than 1880's, followed by 1860's and than the 1870's. I never did get the Flying Eagle but it is possible to bag one of these too.
I remember my first Indian was an 1887 found in a spot where I believe a bush/shrub was planted. I still think the grounds keeper had dug to plant this shrub and had brought the coin closer to the surface otherwise it should have been a bit deeper. The Indian head was a 1904 found just off the edge of a sidewalk only 3-4 inches down.
Later I'll list a selection of locations types where I have had very good luck finding Indian Heads.

 

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The list of site types that hold those Indian Heads is almost endless, but here is an interesting happen-stance that occured to me personaly. A fellow had told me that as a kid he would see them just laying in the alleys when he was playing. Now I don't think he was that old, rather he was minimizing the stuff I was finding in front of others. But one day I was hunting where this old house was torn down. Now I never seen the house ever, but the space between the existing ones told me one once was there. I had scanned the place pretty heavily and only found clad, there was a little dirt patch and I worked my way over towards that. I was scanning and seen a coin laying there at about the instance my coil passed over it. I bent down and picked an Indian Head right off the top of the soil. It was an 1898 Indian, must of been buried 70-100 years, been brought closer to the surface once the demo job took place and the wind and rain finished the job. I ended up showing it to the old fart right in front of his pals and told him how could I ever doubt him.
So there is one of my favorite Indian Head locations old house demo sites.

 

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Some coin finds

This nice coin was from a sidewalk replacement project. Back in the old days old wooden boardwalks were in the same spot as the cement ones in the business districts and the old coins fell between the cracks and are waiting to be found. These spots are well worth checking out, take the time to give them a scan.

 

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My Best BH Indian Head

This one was found at the site where an old brick house was torn down and the yard was shaved off. Several inches of top soil removed give those BH models an advantage. If hunted thru the topsoil that was originally there could a top of the line model have picked the signal up? Who knows, I am sure the spot was hunted at some time in the past. I forgot the picture, so I'll put it in the next post.

 

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Here it is, a good 1872 with a full liberty, found during a night hunt. I was the first one to get in this spot after the yard was shaved off. I did manage two more of this year but both were damaged from the years of laying in the ground. The other two were found under old sidewalks. Old yards seem to produce better shape coins.

 

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BH finds Seated coins Too

This dime was dug from the same yard as the 1872 Indian Head. It was my first Seated Dime, the same yard produced another one but that one I got with a BH with the needle gauge just to see if it too could find an old coin.

 

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Needle gauge BH find

Here is the seated dime found with the old Needle gauge BH. At the time it was the oldest silver coin I had found. The needle gauge BH was purchased at WalMart for about $100. I found it in the same shaved yard as the 1872 Indian and previous posted Seated Dime. This one was found during a daylight hunt, while there some fellow was hunting with a Garrett 2500 and just shook his head after seeing me get this one with what many consider a toy detector.

 

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By the way, the 1872 Indian head was found along with the 1889 seated dime and an 1870 and 1875 Indian head. There where a couple of other Indians found that night but they were 1880's. Finding the 1875 Indian was greater excitement than the 1872 due to the low light output of the distant street light, it looked like an 1877 under the light conditions. I pounded this site heavy thinking there had to be one about. A good location such as this produced no wheat cents or modern coins, metal detecting does not get much better than this. Later I'll post some more finds and well as coins.

 

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Here is a good site

This series of photos is of a sidewalk tearup/replacement project.

 

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Another of the same location.

 

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Sidewalk Replacement Projects

Now the above three pictures are of the same location. A site that looks such as this is prime hunting ground for older coins. In the old days the wooden board walks were what folks walked on and they dropped all sorts of stuff that we seek today. The first photo is an actual site I hunted.
Photo two shows what appears to be normal sand, sometimes this does not look too promising, but looks can be decieving.
Photo 3 is taken after I dragged my foot across the surface, doing so exposed a layer of much darker dirt. This darker dirt is the older dirt that one hopes to find, it holds all sorts of treasures that we seek.

 

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By the way if you are digging old square nails then keep hunting the site. The square nails are what held the wooden board walks togather. If there are square nails then there are goodies. Set your machine to pickup the smallest bits of brass, brass and lead were the most common metals used back then. The smaller the bits of brass you can dig then the better your chances are of not missing any old coins.

 

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My First Two Center

Here is a picture of my first Two-Cent Piece. The coin was found in a shaved down yard with my Bounty Hunter. The coin had an unusal discolorazation I was told it had been treated with mercury, weather this is true or not I do not know.

 

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Another Two-center

This is another nice two-center I found a couple of years later. Another sidewalk tearup find. Sometimes we find some pretty beat up coins, when that happens to me I just keep hunting till I get a better one. I never clean them with anything more than soap and water.

 

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Three Cent Piece

Here is the Three Center that I found in a sidewalk tearup. It was dark due to being mostly nickle. I almost didn't get to hunt this section due to word getting out about the big find I had made at one of their job sites in the past. A low reading coin and a good example of digging all positive signals in an area that has potential of producing older coins.

 

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The wetter the better!

The sites I have been posting about can get pretty muddy. I found the wetter the better. This coin was a good Indian signal in a nasty mud puddle. It was a night hunt and I had to scoop golbs of mud up onto the firm ground and scan handfuls of glop to locate the target. The results were well worth the effort. This turned out to be the best 1867 Indian Head I had ever found.

 

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Here is the 1863 Indian Head I found with the BH in a shaved down yard. This is my first "Fatty" Indian Head.