Wedding Band...

Mike was driving to a doctors appointment one day. As he was driving through a wooded area, there was a man on the side of the road raking the leaves. He rode by, but wondered what he was looking for. He went to the Dr and on his way back he saw the same man still searching. He stopped the truck and asked him what he was looking for? The man replied that he had been on his ATV and as he was turning he waved his hand and heard his wedding band go flying off and hitting the road. He said he heard it hit and figured it bounced on the side of the road. Mike had his detector because he never seems to go anywhere without it. He detected on the side of the road with no luck. He got the man's info and told him that he was coming to pick me up and we would go back to search. When we got back to the site, Mike said he was going to search the other side of the road and I would concentrate on the side he thought it bounced to. Well, Mike had not walked more than 15 steps when he yelled that he had it. We called the man on the phone and met him down the road to return it. He was very happy and we felt good to be able to return a lost and valuable item!!

The Field Find...

Mike and I went to a field that had recently been plowed. We detected and coming up empty handed. We were heading back to the truck when Mike got a nice hit on the road. He started digging and digging and digging. Finally out popped a colonial coin. We could tell what it was even though there was a hole in the center that had been shot. We have had numerous people look at it and all seem to agree that it looks like it was shot in the center. The coin was a 1862 colonial half penny. He was so excited!!

Virginia Half Penny...

We went detecting where my great-grandparents house used to be. You could see where the remains of the foundation. It was not a very large house unless the foundation is a shed. On the side of the foundation is an area that goes down into a lower area. There is a lot of trash and I believe that previously it was a dump area. All of the bottles on top are broken and fairly new. Maybe the old ones are underneath? We both detected and were coming up empty handed with not much but a lot of trash, as we still were not real good at discriminating yet. I was on the side of this small slope and the detector screamed in my ear...When I pinpointed my detector said 11 inches deep. I was happy that when I dug into the dirt it was muddy and as I got deeper I started hitting clay. I pulled out this round object and didn't see anything on it, but it looked interesting so I put it in my pouch. I went back up to the top of the slope and did not get another hit. I was standing at the top trying to decide which way to go when I felt a hand on my shoulder and felt a gentle push... my feet went out from under me and down the slope I slid, through the briars, all the time yelling at my husband that that was not funny. When I got to the bottom and was standing up and turning around, I expected to see Mike standing there but there was noone there. I started laughing because I figured he stepped back so that I could not see him. I went back up the hill and when I got to the top Mike was not there, he was across the field detecting and was not even looking my way. As you can expect I headed over to him as fast as possible. When I told him what happened he laughed, but said he was ready to go because he wasn't finding anything. I showed him the round item that I had found and he said looked like a part from an old car. I decided to keep it as it was smooth and I could not stop rubbing it. When we got home I didn't think anymore of it and put it in a box with other finds until we had time to look at them. It was probably in the box for a couple of months, when I took it out and washed it off, I noticed a face on the front. When we started looking at it with a magnifying glass we realized that it was a coin. Out came the red book again, and we determined that it was a 1773 Virginia Half Penny... My first colonial coin!!! Even though it was not in great condition, I was so excited..

First Detecting,,,

When we first bought our metal detectors, we had no idea how to use them. The manual that came with the detector was like reading a foreign language.. It was so confusing and discouraging. So we decided to just go out and dig whenever the detector went off. I guess you can imagine that we dug so much junk and trash that we were wondering what we were doing wrong. Slowly we started studying the manual and understanding how to use the detector. The key was putting it all together, the ID screen with the icons and the sound(was it a clear sound or stuttering?) Mike took the detector out in our yard and started finding coins. He found his first silver coin in our own yard. It was a mercury dime and neither of us new what it was! We had to get the red coin book which told us what the coin was and the value. He was so excited and has since found about 9 silver coins, a Susan B Anthony, a watch, a junk ruby ring, a watch ring, a very large heart lock, and some chains in our yard. I'm sure there is more but I can't remember all.

Background

We have found lots of coins and also a lot of what is it?? My favorite items to find are something from the past. Such as old colonial coins and items pertaining to history. We have found quite a few colonial coins, many old buttons even some old bells. Mixed in there is some jewelry, silver and gold.