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AirmetTango

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Apr 14, 2017
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Location
NW Ohio
It was only a week ago that my area was locked in a deep freeze with a ton of snow on the ground, and I was resigned to there being no chance for detecting for the foreseeable future. Then all of a sudden we’ve had days in a row of temps above freezing and the snow melted like crazy...today (2/28) even made it into the mid-50s! All the snow melt has the ground pretty saturated, as evidenced by my basement sump pump running almost continuously, but I’ve had enough of my cabin fever - I picked out one of my sandiest, best draining farm fields to avoid dealing with a muddy quagmire, and got to swinging the detector.

I’ve hit the site more times than I can count, but even though it’s getting more and more difficult, I can still squeeze out a couple goodies each visit. This time I got over pretty consistent 19-20 signal that pinpointed coin-sized - I was thinking IHP, but I was even more thrilled to see a thin, quarter-sized green disc come out of the plug! My first trade token for the year :cool3: It’s an oldie for sure - the style and all incuse lettering of the token means almost certainly late 1800s, maybe very early 1900s. Unfortunately, I’ve got no shot of figuring out who “P” might be or where the token was issued, but I absolutely love finding these old tokens anyway!

A little later in the hunt I got my coil over a screaming loud and fairly consistent quarter signal - I was asking myself “how the heck did I miss this on all these other hunts??” as I started to dig. The signal wasn’t perfect - it jumped a bit from 32-33 to as high as 35-36 while I circled the target - and it showed relatively shallow. I was actually half expecting to see a clad quarter roll out of the plug! It pinpointed compact enough to be a coin, but turns out it was compact enough to be a compact :lol: It was a little deeper than I expected, which makes sense once I saw it was both larger and thicker than a quarter. It’s a cool little Princess Pat rouge compact probably from the 1930s - gotta love the Art Deco design and classic marketing on the lid!

Anyway, picking a sandy, well drained field had multiple benefits - not only did it keep my boots and coil perfectly mud free, but the keepers came out in awesome shape...basically all I had to do was wipe the sand away to clean them up! Thanks for looking!
 

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It is amazing how the weather flip the switch the snow is gone the ground is soft and Lake Erie is ice free. Good to see you made it out and was productive I know you love your tokens! I've been out three times and have mud on my boots. Keep swinging keep digging in eight weeks the fields will be planted.

When you're up on those Sandy spots keep your eyes open for Native American. I came across a Hammerstone this week.
 
Sweet old token Ben. Those compacts are a fun find as well. Congrats on the save and the fact you were able to get out. Just a week ago it was looking like mid to late March before the weather would cooperate. Thank you mother nature. Good planning on the sandy field, I'm working a new permission and although not soupy the deeper plugs fill up quick. But no complaints here just happy to have a place to hunt and reasonable weather to hunt in. Good luck, Mark
 
You had a better weekend than I did for sure! Here's a 1929 ad, but I saw ads as late as 1937 when I did a quick search.
 

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Congrats , nice story finds and pictures ! I too enjoy squeezing out finds from spots I have repeatedly hunted.

Thanks SoilSurgeon, glad you enjoyed it! Yep, I never cease to be amazed how a site can keep on giving even when you’ve hunted repeatedly - change in detector, settings, or sweep speed can all mean something different to unearth!

Very nice finds. Love the Princess Pat compact. Very interesting story behind that cosmetic line.

Thanks TNT - I really appreciate that link! That’s what I love about the hobby and the finds - you can lose yourself in the history!

Cool token, very unusual, love the rouge compact too. Congrats.

Thanks Kingman! Tokens are my favorite finds, especially the older ones - that big incuse 5 on the back is definitely a first for me. The sandy soil was kind to the compact, too - I love how all the detail pops on it :cool3:
 
It is amazing how the weather flip the switch the snow is gone the ground is soft and Lake Erie is ice free. Good to see you made it out and was productive I know you love your tokens! I've been out three times and have mud on my boots. Keep swinging keep digging in eight weeks the fields will be planted.

When you're up on those Sandy spots keep your eyes open for Native American. I came across a Hammerstone this week.

That weather switch is getting flipped back and forth like Mother Nature is trying to send Morse Code! Yesterday was brutal with cold and wind - I even saw snow flurries whipping past in that wind while I was out in a different field. Bagged a horse bridle rosette and a work shirt button before I waved the surrender flag to wind chill. Tomorrow’s back to the 50’s again. Yep, it must be March :lol:

I definitely keep my eyes peeled for any surface finds. I’m still looking for my first Native American artifact - I’d love to find a point! I’m not sure if I’d recognize a hammer stone, that’s a great find! I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve walked right past an exposed hammer or grinding stone and not even realize it :(
 
Sweet old token Ben. Those compacts are a fun find as well. Congrats on the save and the fact you were able to get out. Just a week ago it was looking like mid to late March before the weather would cooperate. Thank you mother nature. Good planning on the sandy field, I'm working a new permission and although not soupy the deeper plugs fill up quick. But no complaints here just happy to have a place to hunt and reasonable weather to hunt in. Good luck, Mark

Glad to hear you’re able to get out, too, Mark! Yep, based on the last couple of weeks, I was definitely assuming it would be a few more weeks before any local detecting would be possible, but I’m pretty sure we’ve turned the corner here. Looking forward to seeing your upcoming finds!

It’s no secret I love those old tokens, so that’s an obvious keeper for me - already in a protector and with the rest of my collection :D But I agree, the makeup compacts are fun keepers, too. I’m rapidly developing a small collection of dug Princess Pat compacts, each one a little different, plus a bevy of other manufacturers, as well. Neat bits of Americana!
 
You had a better weekend than I did for sure! Here's a 1929 ad, but I saw ads as late as 1937 when I did a quick search.

Thanks for the ad and the link, Iggy. Great history bits in those! It looks like my compact might be late 20s-early 30s based on some of the info in those.

Hopefully better weather/hunts are right around the corner for you, too!
 
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