Large Cent...

Wow, what a day! The sun what shining, not a cloud in sight. The weatherman said 39 degrees with a wind advisory. I didn't care how cold it was we were going detecting. We have not been out in about 2 weeks and I had to go. Mike and I bundled up and grabbed our XLT's and headed out. We both knew that this would not be a long trip because of the weather, but we would try to stand it as long as possible. In order to block the wind we went to a local woods that we knew an old homestead used to be. The farm dated back to the late 1700's early 1800's. The only sign left of the farm was the old cedar posts of the fence line. Mike had checked out this spot while deer hunting and said that it looked like it may have been an old pasture area. Or maybe a farm field. There was a few newer trees (by newer I mean maybe 25-50 years) and a few older trees. We started detecting, since we knew we would not be out long we just started meandering through the woods. Mike said "Make sure that you use relic mode". He knows that I am hooked on coin mode! So I tuned into relic mode and it was not that bad. I started by finding an old license plate, followed by some shotgun shells and slugs. Nothing really exciting but the possibility of something good being there kept us going. I heard a yell and looked over at Mike. He was standing there bundled up with his gloves, face mask, and hat on, waving me to come over. My first thought~~ OK...what did he find?? hopefully something good or he wouldn't wave me over... So I headed over, of course I continued to detect while I headed over to him, I watched him scan the area and start digging. I knew it would take him a few minutes to get through the roots on top, so I took time to dig another bullet before I went over.
He kept waving me to hurry! When I got to him he said "I found the first coin in here". Of course it was still in the hole! He asked me to scan the hole and I got a reading of 74 but didn't seem steady. I was not sure that this was a coin. The detector said 6.5 inches. He kept saying " I know this is a coin!" When I scanned again all I got was a bleep on the detector, but when I pinpointed it was still saying 6.5 inches. We dug some more. Well he dug some more. This time when I scanned the hole I didn't get a reading at all but I could still pinpoint it. The last time that I scanned, the object was out of the hole and read 74 at .5 inches in the dirt. I knew at that point that he had found a coin! He moved the dirt a little and there the coin sat!! He was right, it was the first coin from that woods. We both looked down at that large cent sitting there covered in dirt, I don't know who started breathing first but I heard Mike yell " wooh- hoo!" We started high fiving and jumping around. If anybody saw us they would have thought we had won the lottery. He picked up the coin and we glanced at it and could see the face of a woman on it but no date. He put it away until we could get home to clean it. Mike grabbed his detector flung it over his shoulder, and said "are you ready to go?" I was speechless...He said"I'm cold". I was cold too but I was really excited and was hoping to find a large cent for myself. I looked at him and asked "are you crazy? I want to find one for myself." He started laughing and then became the expert, showing me where to detect! Well, as you know it's no fun if the other person is not detecting just walking around with a smile on his face. So I said, " Let's go, so we can see what you found". The whole time coming out of the woods and driving home we laughed and high-five. What an exciting day. We will definitely be going back there again. Since he has had the coin home he has started cleaning it up. As of right now we are not able to read the complete date but can see that it is a 1700 coin. He is still cleaning it and should have more information on what the coin is.

Treasure Hunters Code of Ethics!!

Treasure Hunters Code of Ethics :

I will respect private property and will not treasure hunt without the owners permission.
I will leave the land and vegetation as it was. I WILL FILL ALL HOLES!!
I will appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources, wildlife and private property.
I will use thoughtfulness, consideration and courtesy at all times.
I will remove all trash and properly dispose of it.
I will not destroy any property whether buildings , signs or equipment.
I will never destroy historical or archaeological artifacts.

If you are metal detecting, we ask that the code of ethics are followed to ensure that we are allowed to enjoy the hobby for many years to come.

Thoughts on Detecting

My husband and I were talking about some of the fun things that we have done over the years, involving our treasure hunting adventures. We can laugh about the mistakes that we have made and the knowledge that we have gained. When we first started, we threw away a lot of things that we considered trash then, and now know that we have thrown away some of our colonial history.
One story is of my first walking liberty half dollar. I had an excellent signal at the beach but when I dug all I had was something round that looked like cement on it. By that time we had enough knowledge to know not throw anything away until we took a look at it at home. When we got home the item had dried out and fell apart in Mike's hand. When we looked, we seen the design on both halves and I was excited when I realized that I had two walking liberties that had been stuck together, imagine my surprise when one of them crumbled in Mike's hand. We both realized that the half that crumbled was just the outer crust of the coin with the impression of the coin and the other side was the actual coin. The liberty was not in the best of shape but was my first! If I had seen it laying on the beach I would not have picked it up.
Another time we were at the beach and we kept getting good signals on these shiny black rocks. Of course we left them there, until Mike decided we had better take one home. When he took a hammer to the rock it broke and a penny was in the center. Again surprise, and upset thinking about the rest of them that we left. When we went back no black rocks.
We've learned that all those buckles we have found are colonial shoe buckles and when hunting home sites you can find just about anything.
If you are a beach hunter you are guaranteed to be loaded down with fishing weights, in fact you may have so many that you start handing them to the local fisherman, just to get all that weight out of your pouch.
We learned to always have fresh batteries and be ready for anything. One trip to the beach and we were finding a lot of coins and jewelry when my arm strap broke. Mike tied the detector to my arm so we could continue. I have had my scoop break, we have forgotten a scoop, we have left one on the beach and had to go all the way back. Keys have been locked in the car, and cell phone stolen or lost, caught in briar's, and sunburned.
In all we have had some fun times and are looking forward to many more.

Happy Digging...:)

Our Neighbors Yard..

Mike and I were outside last spring cleaning the back area of our yard. We cut out a lot of shrubbery and made an area to sit outside and relax. Our neighbor came out and started telling us about the area years ago. He told us that our yard was a field when he moved there, and came right up to the back of his yard. He has a large tree in his yard and he remembers when he planted the tree! He gave us permission to hunt his yard and so we grabbed our detector and did a quick sweep. Mike had a really good signal under that big tree but also under a very big root. The rain started coming down and Mike had to leave that target in the ground. A couple of months went by before he could get back over to the hit under the root. He dug and dug and out popped an old coin! An 1845 one cent... Mike was happy that he had gone back and with the condition of the coin, although it did have a small hole at the top.

My Greatest Beach Find!!

Mike and I decided to do a quick trip to the beach to see what we could find. I went to the right and Mike went to the left. I started finding a lot of big pieces of metal junk and was starting to get frustrated. All of a sudden my detector started screaming in my ear... an excellent sound but when I looked at the ID screen it read 93 and said fifty cent... but a lot of the big metal items I have been digging had been reading 93 or 95. I still dug and on the first scoop nothing, still in the ground, on the second scoop out popped a round object. I picked it up out of my scoop and saw that it was a coin. Oh my God, my first Barber half, what a beautiful silver coin! The coin was in excellent shape and the date said 1906(0). I was so excited and started jumping around!! I yelled down the beach to Mike and I thought that he did not hear me, so I yelled louder! ( I found out later that he was ignoring me!) He didn't answer so I called him on the cell phone... he ignored it, did not even pull the phone out of his pocket... At this point I knew he knew that I had found something good and he was ignoring me... So with the blood pumping in my veins I took off up the beach.... Of course he was as excited as I and he asked if I had detected around the spot and as I looked at him blankly it dawned on me what he was asking. He wanted to find one too.. I showed him where I found it and he started detecting. The only problem is he is very slow because of his back and I was going on adrenalin! I must have made circles around him 10 times before he finally stood up and made me look at my footprints in the sand, and asked me where I would like him to detect? The tracks looked like a drawing of the tracks from the cartoon "Family Circus". They were everywhere! I would say that we definitely covered every part of that beach (or at least I did)... I was so excited....