Today, I went off in search of some really old coins. I had found an old one-room schoolhouse not to far from my home, that was sitting next to a newer school. I figured it had been pounded, but I wanted to take a look anyway. When I got there, I got out of my van, and realized that hunting this spot would be interesting, as I had powerlines directly overhead, and three transformers on a pole 50' away. I was able to GB and hunt without much RFI, but as I was looking at the old schoolhouse, I noticed that there was fresh dirt all about the building's footprint, and it was apparently sitting on a brand-new CONCRETE basement. Either the schoolhouse was moved to this location, or they jacked it up and replaced the basement walls. I didn't find much, although once we get more moisture into the dirt, I may go back with my 5" "hockey puck" and see what I can manage.
I drove around for a little bit, looking for a likely spot. I couldn't find anything, so I headed back to the middle school that's just south of my house. This school used to have a coal mine there 150 years ago, and the schoolyard is low-laying with lots of clay in the matrix, so it's usually nice and moist, even in the dog days of summer.
I was on the football field, when I heard some voices. Looking behind me, some guys had just arrived and started walking onto the field, tossing a football back and forth. I immediately skeedaddled to a sidelines area, as I didn't really want to get tackled or hit upside the head with a football. Shortly after starting to search along the sideline, I pulled up a Wheat, a '50. A little while later, I got a nice 6" deep indicated signal that was bouncing High Coin / Iron. Digging down to 6" and removing some dirt, I saw the reeded silver edge of a dime peeking out of a clod of dirt. Here's the pic:

20050918merc6ue.jpg

Yes, I grazed the reverse. The picture is a little dark, but it's in pretty good shape, with almost full split bands on the reverse.
6' away from the dime, I got another 6" High Coin signal. I opened a plug, and started scooping out dirt. In one of the handfuls of dirt, I saw a large reeded edge sticking out. However, something was odd about it. Normally, due to the moisture and mineralization of this site, clad and nickels come out really red. This one was black, with some rust-colored discoloration. I checked that date, and noticed it was a from the '50's. Cool! My third silver quarter this year! Here's the pic:

20050918washington19fj.jpg

I pocketed that quarter, and out of habit, swept the hole before I closed it up. PING! Hey, there's another coin in there! I was thinking that it would be really sweet if it was another silver quarter, as I usually find clad quarters in pairs. I probed around with my vibraprobe, and got a hit at 6 o'clock. I popped out a divot of dirt, and saw another black-colored quarter! I checked the date, and saw it was a '41. Here's the image:

20050918washington29yy.jpg

I kept running down the sideline. At almost the other endzone, I got a High Coin hit at an indicated 4". When I flipped up a plug, I saw a tarnished silvery oval shape in the dirt. I flipped it over to reveal this:

20050918silvermedallion8hg.jpg

Sweet! This makes my 12th piece of silver jewelry this year, and meets my goal for silver jewelry.
I ended up getting another Wheat, a '29, a piece of scrap copper, and large lead disk. I was hoping that would be a large lead bale seal, but there's nothing on it, so I think someone made a lead poker chip out of boredom.
The silver coins from this site are almost always tarnished, as are Wheat's. I was going to give them a little zap in my electrolysis tank, but apparently, the last time I used it, I fried it, as it won't do anything right now. Time to go to Radio Shack!
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HH from Allen in MI

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Interesting that you should set you goal for silver jewelry at 12. That's my goal for gold rings. LOL. Actually, I wanted to say congratulations on meeting your goal. That will allow you to up your target for the year. Really nice silver coins. Continued good luck.

at the start of each year is to set my jewelry goal to be +1 of the previous year's actual total. Last year, I found 11 pieces of silver jewelry, three of which came from this same schoolyard.
I can usually expect to get some good jewelry, as I have a CZ-20 and do get into the water during the summer. However, this year, I started good, but finds trickled off due to increase hunting pressure.
I usually find 2 - 3 times as much silver jewelry as gold jewelry. I set a goal of 5 pieces of gold for this year, and accomplished that goal on July 5th.
I'm hoping to find more jewelry before the season ends and the ground freezes.
HH from Allen in MI

sure tough on the silver coins. Both the quarters have had a tough life , but they're great to see !!!!! The Merc is
really nice , super detailed , and must have been a treat to see it cleaning up so well. With the St. Christopher medal, you'll have continued safe travels. I hear he was
also the patron Saint of detectorists....(=:
Always fun to see your great pics..Have a good hunting week...Happy Trails...B&S

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