jimther
Elite Member
Recently, while looking over an old map for one detecting project, I spotted something in the next town that got my attention. It was a park I was already familiar with because our nephew played baseball there as a kid (40 years ago) but I had never detected it. The old map showed a feature at this park that I won't mention here, but research told me that it was created in 1893 and this feature drew between 6,000 to 15,000 people for each event. Today, the park has four baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts and a tot lot.
1893 - the year after the BARBER series coins were introduced. I bet a few of those thousands of spectators wandered into the adjacent woods for various and sundry reasons and lost a coin or three. I can't tell you the last time I found a Barber coin; it was too darn long ago. Later, in 1917, the park was used for training of local WWI troops. I just had a good feeling about finding a Barber, based on the time frame and the numbers of park visitors from the stories in my research.
Yesterday, Ken, a fellow MTHA club member and I spent a few hours in the wooded section adjacent to the park and because these woods are all on a steep hill, it has pretty much always been woods. It's about 800 feet by 500 feet.
We quickly discovered that generations of park-goers and neighbor kids have been using the woods for illicit drinking, as evidenced by older and newer beer cans, bottle caps, pulltabs and bottles.
Ken and I started finding a few modern coins; clads and memorial cents. I spotted a large rock outcropping that appeared to be "Roxbury Puddingstone", a unique but common local sedimentary conglomerate formation. When I got closer to it to verify it's identity, I saw something quite out of place. Embedded in a crevice, was a fired 3-ring bullet that appeared to have been shot from an angle rather than head on to the formation (See photos). I left the bullet wedged into the rock where I found it. A bit later, I dug another 3-ring bullet, very flattened.
Finally, after about an hour, and only a few inches deep, my first silver of the day; a 1901 Barber dime. I really felt rewarded for the research. My second silver was a 1943-P silver War Nickel.
My only other good find from this heavily wooded hillside was an Indian Head cent. I've found that gently flaking off the dry encrustation from IHP's after decades in the soil often is easily done on one side [with a sharpened wood toothpick] and extremely difficult on the other side. It was no different on this IHP, as the photos show. I believe it to be an 1890 or 1899 Indian.
Unfortunately, Ken did not get his coil over any old coins or relics yesterday; maybe that's his newness to the hobby or maybe his New Jersey roots - just kidding Ken
You'll probably skunk me next time.
So, here's a few pics from yesterday's hunt:
1893 - the year after the BARBER series coins were introduced. I bet a few of those thousands of spectators wandered into the adjacent woods for various and sundry reasons and lost a coin or three. I can't tell you the last time I found a Barber coin; it was too darn long ago. Later, in 1917, the park was used for training of local WWI troops. I just had a good feeling about finding a Barber, based on the time frame and the numbers of park visitors from the stories in my research.
Yesterday, Ken, a fellow MTHA club member and I spent a few hours in the wooded section adjacent to the park and because these woods are all on a steep hill, it has pretty much always been woods. It's about 800 feet by 500 feet.
We quickly discovered that generations of park-goers and neighbor kids have been using the woods for illicit drinking, as evidenced by older and newer beer cans, bottle caps, pulltabs and bottles.
Ken and I started finding a few modern coins; clads and memorial cents. I spotted a large rock outcropping that appeared to be "Roxbury Puddingstone", a unique but common local sedimentary conglomerate formation. When I got closer to it to verify it's identity, I saw something quite out of place. Embedded in a crevice, was a fired 3-ring bullet that appeared to have been shot from an angle rather than head on to the formation (See photos). I left the bullet wedged into the rock where I found it. A bit later, I dug another 3-ring bullet, very flattened.
Finally, after about an hour, and only a few inches deep, my first silver of the day; a 1901 Barber dime. I really felt rewarded for the research. My second silver was a 1943-P silver War Nickel.
My only other good find from this heavily wooded hillside was an Indian Head cent. I've found that gently flaking off the dry encrustation from IHP's after decades in the soil often is easily done on one side [with a sharpened wood toothpick] and extremely difficult on the other side. It was no different on this IHP, as the photos show. I believe it to be an 1890 or 1899 Indian.
Unfortunately, Ken did not get his coil over any old coins or relics yesterday; maybe that's his newness to the hobby or maybe his New Jersey roots - just kidding Ken
You'll probably skunk me next time.So, here's a few pics from yesterday's hunt:
