2 ZOMBIE HUNTS of NEIGHBORs SWALE @ 3AM SCARE UP MERCURY DIMES, 39 QUARTER

[scaupus]

2 ZOMBIE HUNTS of NEIGHBORs SWALE @ 3AM SCARE UP MERCURY DIMES, '39 QUARTER

Late, late night is the right time to find old silver coins where people parked their cars on street-side swales.

A wide grass swale across the street from my dad's house is bordered by a 1950 home and a 1925 home. Naturally, this attractive stretch of turf had attracted my interest a long time ago. I had hunted it several times for silver coins with no success. I came to look upon it as barren ground, somewhat surprising to me initially, since my dad's swale, caddy corner to it, had surrendered 4 silver dimes, a silver pendant, and a valuable Mexican biker ring. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/288258-biker-ring-cleaned-up-nice.html; http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting/235238-finally-broke-silver-barrier.html


Then one late, late night around 1 o clock while I was staying the weekend at my dad's house (3/24/13), I got the hankering to go detecting. I strolled down the block to the corner and crossed over to that barren ground, and started sweeping it with my White's Spectrum Eagle, this time right from the corner, far from the entrance to the house where people park, also far from the driveways. I found I liked the darkness, the quiet, the solitude, and no need to put on sunscreen. Wouldn't you know it, I found a 1939 quarter out there. Then, in an area about 3 yards wide around it, I also found a couple dozen lead fishing weights. Perhaps someone had had a tackle box spill there, and the quarter had been in the tackle box?




I went back this Sunday (5-12-13), also during the Zombie hours, and this time it was the 1925 house on the next corner that gave up the goodies, right in front of the back steps, an area which I had already searched at least a couple of times previously. What made the difference? I think it was the late hour, the darkness, the quiet, the sense that I was alone and unobserved. I could concentrate, and listen to my machine.

Also...maybe it was just time for me to find them.
[video=youtube;kAuAg-TxuvA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kAuAg-TxuvA[/video]


This brings me closer to my goal of filling a Mercury dime holder book with dimes I've metal detected. The book holds 77 dimes. I've filled some spaces with the correct dime, and others just with whatever duplicate mintage silver dime I found that weekend. Whenever I find the correct dime for a space already filled with a duplicate dime of the wrong mintage, I just move the random one to a still empty space. I have just 8 dimes to go to completely fill it. woohoo!

 

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[pistol-pete]

It would be nice if we knew just what a SWALE is Never heard the word before now?? Dictionary says it's a low spot in a swamp?

 

[scaupus]

Thanks for a very astute comment, because this is not the first time this issue has arisen. Swale is a term commonly used here in south florida, I hear other people beside myself use it down here, so I know didn't make it up. I'm beginning to think that to some degree it is a local term, perhaps popularized because of the ever-present and extensive water management issues we have in swampy south florida.

Here is definition #3 in the dictionary: 3. A shallow troughlike depression that carries water mainly during rainstorms or snow melts.

The grassy areas on the sides of roads where curbs and stormwater drains are lacking, do collect and filter off water that drains off roads. It is not unusual for these swales to get quite soggy after a lot of rain, or even get swampy for a little while. For this reason, plants characteristic of marshes and low-lying areas sometimes grow in them. Some times they are deep enough that we call them ditches. We see this a lot with rural highways, and we see it a lot in older neighborhoods in south florida, though generally they do not have to hold nearly as much water as the multi-lane roads and highway swales are designed to hold. But we do have problems sometimes parking on swales that may have an inch or two of water on them after a big rain. Up north, it is much less common in suburbs and cities, apparently, from what I've seen on Google Earth. It was probably the road designers and builders who started calling them swales down here, since they are, in fact, man-made swales, and regular folk in Miami area also call them swales.

 

[pistol-pete]

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

 

[allen]

You have done great on those late night hunts!
I figured you was calling the grassy area between
the road and sidewalk a swale.

 

[coinshooter]

You done real "swale"!