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.