First silver

[Midden-marauder]

I had plans to go search an old drive in today, 1947-1975 but it was not to be for circumstances beyond my control. It's not been a happy few months in the relic hunting department due to unbearable weather conditions and stinging insect populations but....
I insisted on searching at least some today out in the front yard and I found a couple keepers:
A 1958 nickel and a 1960 dime. The nickel I keep because I retain all pre 1960 coins though it's probably not even terribly collectible. The dime however is silver and the first of its kind I've ever located. This summer has shown me why metal detecting is a seasonal pursuit unfortunately, I suffered just finding these two coins and no exaggeration. 97 degrees, full sun, no moisture and even my equipment started to get pretty hot to the touch so I packed it up and gave up for fear the electronics would be damaged. I could barely keep the sweat out of my eyes. I guess finding these was worth it, I'm starting to question how much trouble it's actually worth in the end, the whole business is needle in a haystack hunt and the summer heat makes the prospect of searching pretty unappealing especially after humping my gear in a mile on foot just to find out I can't access the actual good site I'd been scouting carefully for several months now. I call it a bust. Here's silver dime and a 1950s nickel, I guess it's something 🤷

 

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[E-Trac-Ohio]

A day you'll remember - a big congrats on finding your first Silver coin !

 

[oldmxrat]

Tough day for you, but your first silver coin, I'd call a win!

 

[Midden-marauder]

A day you'll remember - a big congrats on finding your first Silver coin !

The site I intended to hit is the last remnant of an old drive in as I mentioned. It's an empty lot behind a park. This photo illustrates the untouched sliver of ground still left at the site. When I arrived there was a big construction crew doing work and my fear now is that they'll end up developing the last of that area making it unattractive to hunt, I try to avoid modern development like a plague these days which makes sites like this special. Nothing buries the goodies deep like bulldozers and fresh sod, I'll keep my eye on it but I'm worried I'm about to lose a perfectly good site before I could ever get to hunt it. Finding really good sites I can get ready access to is not easy.

 

[Almy]

Tough conditions for hunting. You must be in the south. I hope you can get the sliver hunted before the machines tear it up!

 

[Trezurehunter]

Congrats on your first silver coin ! I hope many more follow.

 

[pepperj]

Congratulations on your first silver.
Doing an old drive-in, your a brave one.

 

[xr7ator]

I believe my first was a 1954D dime, but I failed to put it in a coin holder so not 100% sure now since it was 40 years ago. Put it in a holder & mark it the first, imo.
Grats on the keepers. a 1958 Philly is a lot harder to come by than the 58D on the nickel.

 

[Midden-marauder]

Tough conditions for hunting. You must be in the south. I hope you can get the sliver hunted before the machines tear it up!

Yup, new mexico my friend. 97 degrees doesn't sound so horrible but there's something about the desert sun that's just hard to tolerate. I hope they don't tear up the site but they might and so it goes, history gets paved over. I have other places on my list, places that have yielded up some older stuff but I'm grown very picky, a beat up shotgun head stamp from before 1930 may be some folks dream but to me it's so much contextual trash, it just helps me provide dates to a given site but I don't collect such things. I find little that I keep and report even less.
I'll take a silver dime from the front yard, it may be about as well as I would have done at that drive in anyway to be honest. I just hope there's something to go back to over there come fall.

 

[Midden-marauder]

Congratulations on your first silver.
Doing an old drive-in, your a brave one.

In this summer heat lol! I probably wouldn't have lasted long over there anyway, all I can do now is just remind myself that there's other decent spots I can go should they tear up my little drive in patch. We'll see what the cooler months bring

 

[ArfieBoy]

The site I intended to hit is the last remnant of an old drive in as I mentioned. It's an empty lot behind a park. This photo illustrates the untouched sliver of ground still left at the site. When I arrived there was a big construction crew doing work and my fear now is that they'll end up developing the last of that area making it unattractive to hunt, I try to avoid modern development like a plague these days which makes sites like this special. Nothing buries the goodies deep like bulldozers and fresh sod, I'll keep my eye on it but I'm worried I'm about to lose a perfectly good site before I could ever get to hunt it. Finding really good sites I can get ready access to is not easy.

I used to detect an old football field where I always found at least one silver coin, and usually more. It was a small town I used to live in, so I hit it pretty regularly. Years later the school decided to level the field because it sloped down to the west end. I figured I would not find any silver anymore. I was wrong. When I detected the field, I found lots of silver for quite a while after that. Apparently wherever the fill dirt came from it had come from somewhere that had seen a lot of activity by people, and they lost coins and jewelry both. Check it out even if they restructure it. You have nothing to lose but a little time and they might bring some good stuff to the surface!

 

[$MELTER-1]

I had plans to go search an old drive in today, 1947-1975 but it was not to be for circumstances beyond my control. It's not been a happy few months in the relic hunting department due to unbearable weather conditions and stinging insect populations but....
I insisted on searching at least some today out in the front yard and I found a couple keepers:
A 1958 nickel and a 1960 dime. The nickel I keep because I retain all pre 1960 coins though it's probably not even terribly collectible. The dime however is silver and the first of its kind I've ever located. This summer has shown me why metal detecting is a seasonal pursuit unfortunately, I suffered just finding these two coins and no exaggeration. 97 degrees, full sun, no moisture and even my equipment started to get pretty hot to the touch so I packed it up and gave up for fear the electronics would be damaged. I could barely keep the sweat out of my eyes. I guess finding these was worth it, I'm starting to question how much trouble it's actually worth in the end, the whole business is needle in a haystack hunt and the summer heat makes the prospect of searching pretty unappealing especially after humping my gear in a mile on foot just to find out I can't access the actual good site I'd been scouting carefully for several months now. I call it a bust. Here's silver dime and a 1950s nickel, I guess it's something 🤷

Get you a good headlight n forget the day till it cools off everyday here in LA. Is a hot one this time of year,heat index in the three digits every day and you will see things you won't see in day at night.

 

[Hunk-a-lead]

I had plans to go search an old drive in today, 1947-1975 but it was not to be for circumstances beyond my control. It's not been a happy few months in the relic hunting department due to unbearable weather conditions and stinging insect populations but....
I insisted on searching at least some today out in the front yard and I found a couple keepers:
A 1958 nickel and a 1960 dime. The nickel I keep because I retain all pre 1960 coins though it's probably not even terribly collectible. The dime however is silver and the first of its kind I've ever located. This summer has shown me why metal detecting is a seasonal pursuit unfortunately, I suffered just finding these two coins and no exaggeration. 97 degrees, full sun, no moisture and even my equipment started to get pretty hot to the touch so I packed it up and gave up for fear the electronics would be damaged. I could barely keep the sweat out of my eyes. I guess finding these was worth it, I'm starting to question how much trouble it's actually worth in the end, the whole business is needle in a haystack hunt and the summer heat makes the prospect of searching pretty unappealing especially after humping my gear in a mile on foot just to find out I can't access the actual good site I'd been scouting carefully for several months now. I call it a bust. Here's silver dime and a 1950s nickel, I guess it's something 🤷

Thanks for posting Midden marauder. I relish the hunt far more than the finds, so I hope you can enjoy the whole adventure. For me it's kinda like fishing. I love fishing, catching is just the icing on the cake........

 

[Hunk-a-lead]

I had plans to go search an old drive in today, 1947-1975 but it was not to be for circumstances beyond my control. It's not been a happy few months in the relic hunting department due to unbearable weather conditions and stinging insect populations but....
I insisted on searching at least some today out in the front yard and I found a couple keepers:
A 1958 nickel and a 1960 dime. The nickel I keep because I retain all pre 1960 coins though it's probably not even terribly collectible. The dime however is silver and the first of its kind I've ever located. This summer has shown me why metal detecting is a seasonal pursuit unfortunately, I suffered just finding these two coins and no exaggeration. 97 degrees, full sun, no moisture and even my equipment started to get pretty hot to the touch so I packed it up and gave up for fear the electronics would be damaged. I could barely keep the sweat out of my eyes. I guess finding these was worth it, I'm starting to question how much trouble it's actually worth in the end, the whole business is needle in a haystack hunt and the summer heat makes the prospect of searching pretty unappealing especially after humping my gear in a mile on foot just to find out I can't access the actual good site I'd been scouting carefully for several months now. I call it a bust. Here's silver dime and a 1950s nickel, I guess it's something 🤷

and btw, big time gratz on that first silver!

 

[Midden-marauder]

Thanks for posting Midden marauder. I relish the hunt far more than the finds, so I hope you can enjoy the whole adventure. For me it's kinda like fishing. I love fishing, catching is just the icing on the cake........

Oh the hunt is fun. Keepers are few but that's just the nature of being selective. When that dime popped out of the same hole as the nickel I knew it was silver immediately before I even saw the date. That white-ish gleam was unmistakable. It did help to make up for what I missed at the drive in!

 

[Midden-marauder]

Get you a good headlight n forget the day till it cools off everyday here in LA. Is a hot one this time of year,heat index in the three digits every day and you will see things you won't see in day at night.

I do night hunts, only thing that's been keeping me from it is the ruthless onslaught of mosquitoes and midges AKA no see ums. The river is a preferred spot if I'm feeling lucky, there's a real chance of finding something worth the trouble there but the insects this time of year are kind of unbelievable even around our house. I get to digging near grassy patches and I'm fending off a swarm of those little buggers. It's a bone dry desert but I live less than a 5 minute walk from the Rio Grande so we have mosquito issues. I've gotten so damn picky about sites I tend to forget about tot lots and similar places, they're good for the quick fix and I need to keep that in mind when I'm feeling frustrated