More Fun At The Park! (Pic Heavy...as Usual!)

AirmetTango

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On Monday I went back to the park where I scored the seated quarter last week, with hopes for coaxing out a few more goodies. No silver this time, but I still had great fun, and I continue to be pleasantly surprised by how many good targets can still be found with a little patience.

First target as I walked from the parking space toward my chosen hunt zone was another one of those Zincoln style coin hits (19-20 on the EQ800 VDI), but with too much depth to be one of those - I’m getting to know those signals well in this park from the last hunt, and I even called this one as an Indian! Sure enough, I was treated to a beautiful green coin when I dumped a scoop of dirt onto my drop cloth from about 5” down! An 1891 Indian!! I was thrilled with the start to this hunt already! :cool3:

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Next, I was fooled by a Wheatie. It rang up about 20-22...a little high for a typical Indian but not unheard of. The pinpoint was nice and compact, and the depth meter sure looked spot on for an Indian - gotta dig it! Again I dumped a scoop from about 5” down, and standing right up on end in my dirt pile was another fabulous looking greenie! I immediately stopped and snapped a picture, thinking I had another Indian. Flipping it over, I saw the wheat stalks - but no worries, it was another nice oldie from this park I’d assumed was “hunted out”! Through the course of the entire hunt, I ended up with 4 total Wheaties: 1919, 1923 or 8, 1944, & 1958D.

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After the first Wheatie, I chased some trash - most of it I knew had a high probability of being junk, but since I was digging some older stuff, I started worrying that I was walking over some good stuff. I started digging some of the “deeper” pull tab signals - the ones that were almost, but not quite, deep enough to match the depth of the coins.

Along the way, I got over another certain Indian signal - same 19-20 with “good” depth. As I dug down past the 4” mark, I pulled out a misshaped bit of off-white, dirt encrusted thin plastic that I cast off to the edge of my drop cloth to throw away after I reached the target. My pinpointer began sounding soon after that, and about 6” down I was rewarded with another emerald green coin - another Indian!! I took a couple pictures, but then something about that plastic piece caught my eye. The shape looked too manufactured, for lack of a better word, to be trash - it seemed like it was supposed to be something. Wiping the dirt slightly with my bare finger, I found the dirt cleared away pretty easily...and I saw the words “His Masters Voice”! As I cleared more, I suddenly realized I was looking at Nipper!! An old tag from a Victor Victrola maybe? On the back, I wiped away just enough dirt to realize that at least the town name was stamped on the back - clean up at home revealed the name and address of a local music store that was in business between about 1915-1925!! I couldn’t believe my luck to find such a neat piece of local history co-located in the same hole with the IHP!! :cool3::cool3:

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For the next little while I didn’t get anything particularly interesting - dug some more mid-tone trash, and almost no modern coins other than Zincolns. I ended the hunt with $1.47 in clad, severely inflated by the modern $1 coin seen in the pics below, and 3 whole dimes. The rest was mostly zinc pennies...13 zincs to only 4 coppers. I imagine many previous hunters were skipping the Zincoln signals. I’m pretty surprised I’m not running across any nickels, though.

Regardless, midway through the hunt, I moved to a different spot in the park, and I got a small flurry of high tones! I had just finished digging the $1 coin (surface, sounded just like a quarter) and a couple memorial pennies, when I hit on another potential quarter signal. It had a bit of a warble to the sound, and maybe a touch high - varying between 30-33 on the EQ800. But it indicated 6-8” with a compact pinpoint, so I had hopes for something shiny! As I dug down, I started running into pieces of green glass. “Crap, it’s gonna be a cap”, I thought. A couple more scoops, and I had the target out of the hole, and I had to root around in my pile for a few seconds to find it...”Wow!! That’s no cap!!” I was thrilled to see the distinct dirt-filled circle of a ring!! It was clearly well weathered from it’s time in the dirt, so at first my excitement waned...”Just a junker,” I thought. But after cleaning it a bit at home and thinking about the circumstances, I think it might be an old wedding band, possibly handmade. The way it rung up, it’s likely copper and I’m pretty sure I see the remains of gilt gold. The depth was at least 6-7”. The ring’s seam is quite obvious, and it’s slightly misaligned at the joint. Despite that, I was amazed to find that it not only fits me perfectly, it’s actually more comfortable than my own current band!

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Following the ring, I scored with a couple more IHPs, totaling 4 for the entire hunt: 1890, 1891, 1899, 1902.

But late in the hunt I got over my best find of the day, and in my opinion, my prettiest relic piece to date. The target gave off an obvious high tone - mostly 25-26 on the VDI - and pretty solid all the way around it. There was a little variability at times, dipping one or two numbers, and there was a slight, consistent warble generated as I rotated through one particular quarter of the rotation. Depth was indicating a pretty pedestrian 4-6”...which I’ve learned means 3-4” in reality for coin targets. Regardless, I figured I had a 70% chance of a copper penny/clad dime and 30% chance of junk/can slaw. I cut a small plug, and soon found that the target was a little deeper than I expected...the pinpointer was sounding in the bottom of the hole. I pried the next scoop of dirt out, and immediately saw a large, colorful pin coming up with the dirt!! I was amazed to see some brilliant colors right out of the hole...the green leaves, blue flowers, and purple glass stone were a surprising contrast compared to all the dingy, corroded stuff I typically dig! It cleaned up really nicely at home, and I just love how the light looks passing through the center “stone” - I can’t help but think that someone was very upset to have lost this pin, maybe as much as a century ago!

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All in all, a really enjoyable hunt - with 8 old coins and a few nice relics. That’s two satisfying hunts in a row at this park that I assumed would be “hunted out”! I’ll definitely be going back some more!
 

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Wow! the Nipper must have been some promo giveaway, the local imprint wouldn't have ever been visible if mounted on a victrola or radio... love the nonmetallic incidental finds!
 
It looks like you definitely have the patience and your ears in tune to pick through all those targets at the park. The dog is a cool piece of local history. But that brooch definitely knocked it out of the park the trip:lol:. That is a beautiful piece to add to your collection. I did not realize there was such amazing things to still be found at the park.GL&HH
 
Great hunt an wonderful write up. The Victrola tog is truly a keeper, but that pin is amazing!!
You are probably right about someone being upset about losing that beauty!
 
Wow! the Nipper must have been some promo giveaway, the local imprint wouldn't have ever been visible if mounted on a victrola or radio... love the nonmetallic incidental finds!

I love it it when interesting non-metal stuff comes out along with a target, too...always a surprise, and usually pretty cool! The local history associated with the Nipper tag makes it my favorite incidental find yet!

Good point - it might be some sort of promotional item. I assumed it was some sort of sales or price tag, maybe attached to a victrola or radio by a string, only because it has what looks like a small, intentional hole in Nipper’s shoulder centered in a way that’s consistent with a hanging tag. I still have to do some searching around to see if I can find a similar example.
 
It looks like you definitely have the patience and your ears in tune to pick through all those targets at the park. The dog is a cool piece of local history. But that brooch definitely knocked it out of the park the trip:lol:. That is a beautiful piece to add to your collection. I did not realize there was such amazing things to still be found at the park.GL&HH

Thanks Dan! I do really like the Nipper tag...almost as good as a token in my book for the local history it represents! The brooch pin truly was a wonderful surprise too, and I’m a bit amazed it hadn’t been snatched up previously. I certainly wasn’t expecting the park to be as productive as it’s turned out to be - can you imagine what people were pulling out of there, say, 20-30 years ago?? But it sure looks like there’s enough there to keep me interested in going back some more.
 
Great hunt an wonderful write up. The Victrola tog is truly a keeper, but that pin is amazing!!
You are probably right about someone being upset about losing that beauty!

Thanks Junkminer! They both are among my favorite relic pieces for the year so far, and I really wish that pin could talk!
 
I dunno what it is, but those in-situ reveal pix can almost make the viewer "smell" the soil , and feel the "gotcha moment" . Nice job.
 
Wow, what a hunt and write up! The "pounded" park just won't stop! That pin is amazing. Excellent hunting/recovery and write up. Thank you for bringing us along in such detail AMT [emoji4][emoji3060]
 
I'm wondering now if the Nipper was on a string with the hang tag that might have been attached to a radio or phonograph knob, and the dealer had enough ingenuity to stamp their name on the back. I saw several vintage RCA hang tags online including this one that's actually Nipper-shaped, listed as 1920s-30s phono hang tag...
 

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Wow, what a hunt and write up! The "pounded" park just won't stop! That pin is amazing. Excellent hunting/recovery and write up. Thank you for bringing us along in such detail AMT [emoji4][emoji3060]

Thanks Mike! The pin sure made my day - even more so since it was one of those signals that I assumed was a clad coin at best with a significant chance of being junk - you know other guys had probably heard it and skipped it.

Awesome finds and a great write to go with it all too. Thanks for sharing! :)

Thanks sandgroper! Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for looking!

Great finds all around!
That pin/brooch is in amazing condition:yes:

Thanks matmit - it’s definitely in better shape than any other jewelry with glass stones that I’ve dug! And the colors are still so vivid on the enameled/inlaid portions!

Nice hunt there!
That little flower broach is sharp. Maybe 1920s? Awesome digs!

Thanks Detectingman! That’s what I’m thinking - maybe even a little earlier. I just don’t have enough jewelry knowledge, but I’m guessing things like the cut of the glass “stone”, the type of clasp used for the pinback, and the general design elements might help someone with a more trained eye to narrow down the date range. If I remember right, big glass “stones” were wildly popular in jewelry around the turn of the 20th century and even late 1800s, so there may be some good age to it!

I have an acquaintance who owns a jewelry store in town - I’ll see if I can pick his brain for an opinion on a date range when I get a chance :yes:
 
....I assumed it was some sort of sales or price tag, maybe attached to a victrola or radio by a string, only because it has what looks like a small, intentional hole in Nipper’s shoulder centered in a way that’s consistent with a hanging tag....

I'm wondering now if the Nipper was on a string with the hang tag that might have been attached to a radio or phonograph knob, and the dealer had enough ingenuity to stamp their name on the back. I saw several vintage RCA hang tags online including this one that's actually Nipper-shaped, listed as 1920s-30s phono hang tag...

Excellent!! Thanks for finding that, Kevin!! Yes, my thoughts exactly - I just didn’t have any luck finding a similar example on-line...that tag matches very well, right down to the placement of the hole for the string to go through. Thanks for the research!!

My next step is to hit the local library on an upcoming rainy day and check through the old business directories for the town, and get a more precise date range for when the store was in business. If they were only in business for a short time, it’ll help narrow things down. So far, my general internet searching confirms they were in business between at least 1919-1922.
 
Dang Ben you have put more Indians in into you pocket in one outing than I have dug for the whole year. Your truly having a very outstanding year. Congrats! Trapper
 
Wish it was legal here in UK to hit what you Americans call tot lots.

Nice

Matt

Sent from my LG-H870 using Tapatalk
 
Wish it was legal here in UK to hit what you Americans call tot lots....

This post is revealing . Because a lot of USA md'rs falsely think that there is some sort of "carte blanche" love affair between archies and md'rs in the UK. But as your post shows, there is SCORES of public land, in the UK, where *technically* you can't detect.

The laws there do NOT "open up places to detect", as is sometimes erroneously thought by USA MD's. That is why 99% of md'ing in the UK is in private farmers fields after all.

If any md'rs in the USA think there is some sort of grand system in the UK that opens up cool places to detect, then the fastest way to put that notion to an end, is to suggest they go try hunting Stonehenge, eh ? :laughing:
 
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