Hello to all.
I got out both days this weekend. Out at dawn and home by 10am, too hot out there. Yesterday, I had one of those mornings, at least the begining part. I headed to a district about 20 miles away that I thought I hadn't hit yet. dahhh, it was all looking too familiar and as I pulled up, I realized that I had been there just a couple weeks ago. I have a website that I can print out all the schools from any school district with a map also and I guess I had made two copies of this one because as I hunt the places, I write the date I was there and some short notes right on the page. Oh well, my back up plan was to hit a school very close to my work in a richer part of town. I normally don't find a lot at these schools as there must be a detectorist in the area that gets to them. But I have noticed he cleans out around the play structures but I have finds in the other areas away from them normally, plus there's I have found nice expensive jewelry basically laying on top at these schools twice too.
On the way there, I passed a park so I hit that and had some luck, clad only though. That was a 45 minute hunt, then also passed a school on one of the main roads and hit that too. Another 45 minute hunt and about a buck in clad. There were only two little play areas. Finally I made it to the school and it has a lot of nice play areas with fairly fresh woodchips. As usual, I found nothing but a coin or three around the play things but I always cover 100% of the woodchips area. It's easy to grid in these areas, you just draw a line once in while in the chips with your digging tool. Having these lines also helps my stay focussed on swinging straight and as wide as possible. That's another nice thing about the old Garrett I use. It does not have the forearm brace. It has a curved handle that is bent 180 degrees and ends up above the box. Because of this, I am able to get maybe two feet or more side to side distance with each swing compared to my ACE250. This helps me cover even more area faster. Anyway, I was finding coins and other stuff around the edges and in the open areas, enough to keep me interested. I didn't have anywhere else to go, so I kept swinging hoping my luck would change. By the swings I found two gameboy games. A Star Wars one and Teenage Ninja Turtles. They are probably fried, but after they dry out for a couple weeks, I'll see if my boy can use them. At the very last area, a large play structure area closest to the school, my persistance and determination really paid off.
I was finding a fair amount of coins and trinkets in an open area between all the play equipment. My first nice find was a sweet 925 box chian with a nice 925 sterling cross attached to it. The link on the clasp end pulled open enough to allow the chain to come apart and fall off. It's in good condition. A keeper!! I was happy!
The very next find, not two feet away, I hit paydirt, my best find so far this year (besides the Dr. Fart machine ...lol) A gold coin ring!!!! It's a Maximiliano Mexican gold coin mounted in a UK ring with all the British Hallmarks inside. The makers mark (I&BJ), the Crown (signifying gold), 375 (9 ct gold), the London assay office lion symbol, and a date stamp code (u in a rectangle shape). It was fun researching all this the past day. I still haven't figured out the date yet (either 1935 or 1968...I think). The coin is super small, like 10mm diameter. The ring is a childs ring. You can see in the photo, I can not even get it over the first knuckle on my index finger. Rich kids!! I was really happy and actually let out a loud WOOOWHOOO!!! and heard it echoing through the woods surrounding the school.
This is my third authentic gold coin, (plus several "copies" and fakes) all jewelry pieces of some sort. This school district really has paid nicely with the sweet keepers, including the 22KT (916) gold earring last year with 17 diamonds totalling 3 carats. Thanks to the other detectorist for discriminating out the gold and not being thourough.
So my totals for the day. Three hours hunt time. 74 coins for a face value of $5.68. The two nice keepers...(wooowhooo!) and the trinkets including another Lord Of The Rings Ring.
Here's the pics of Saturday's finds. I will post my Sunday story below.
Thanks for reading and good luck.
Smiles!
BDoo
I got out both days this weekend. Out at dawn and home by 10am, too hot out there. Yesterday, I had one of those mornings, at least the begining part. I headed to a district about 20 miles away that I thought I hadn't hit yet. dahhh, it was all looking too familiar and as I pulled up, I realized that I had been there just a couple weeks ago. I have a website that I can print out all the schools from any school district with a map also and I guess I had made two copies of this one because as I hunt the places, I write the date I was there and some short notes right on the page. Oh well, my back up plan was to hit a school very close to my work in a richer part of town. I normally don't find a lot at these schools as there must be a detectorist in the area that gets to them. But I have noticed he cleans out around the play structures but I have finds in the other areas away from them normally, plus there's I have found nice expensive jewelry basically laying on top at these schools twice too.
On the way there, I passed a park so I hit that and had some luck, clad only though. That was a 45 minute hunt, then also passed a school on one of the main roads and hit that too. Another 45 minute hunt and about a buck in clad. There were only two little play areas. Finally I made it to the school and it has a lot of nice play areas with fairly fresh woodchips. As usual, I found nothing but a coin or three around the play things but I always cover 100% of the woodchips area. It's easy to grid in these areas, you just draw a line once in while in the chips with your digging tool. Having these lines also helps my stay focussed on swinging straight and as wide as possible. That's another nice thing about the old Garrett I use. It does not have the forearm brace. It has a curved handle that is bent 180 degrees and ends up above the box. Because of this, I am able to get maybe two feet or more side to side distance with each swing compared to my ACE250. This helps me cover even more area faster. Anyway, I was finding coins and other stuff around the edges and in the open areas, enough to keep me interested. I didn't have anywhere else to go, so I kept swinging hoping my luck would change. By the swings I found two gameboy games. A Star Wars one and Teenage Ninja Turtles. They are probably fried, but after they dry out for a couple weeks, I'll see if my boy can use them. At the very last area, a large play structure area closest to the school, my persistance and determination really paid off.
I was finding a fair amount of coins and trinkets in an open area between all the play equipment. My first nice find was a sweet 925 box chian with a nice 925 sterling cross attached to it. The link on the clasp end pulled open enough to allow the chain to come apart and fall off. It's in good condition. A keeper!! I was happy!
The very next find, not two feet away, I hit paydirt, my best find so far this year (besides the Dr. Fart machine ...lol) A gold coin ring!!!! It's a Maximiliano Mexican gold coin mounted in a UK ring with all the British Hallmarks inside. The makers mark (I&BJ), the Crown (signifying gold), 375 (9 ct gold), the London assay office lion symbol, and a date stamp code (u in a rectangle shape). It was fun researching all this the past day. I still haven't figured out the date yet (either 1935 or 1968...I think). The coin is super small, like 10mm diameter. The ring is a childs ring. You can see in the photo, I can not even get it over the first knuckle on my index finger. Rich kids!! I was really happy and actually let out a loud WOOOWHOOO!!! and heard it echoing through the woods surrounding the school.
This is my third authentic gold coin, (plus several "copies" and fakes) all jewelry pieces of some sort. This school district really has paid nicely with the sweet keepers, including the 22KT (916) gold earring last year with 17 diamonds totalling 3 carats. Thanks to the other detectorist for discriminating out the gold and not being thourough.
So my totals for the day. Three hours hunt time. 74 coins for a face value of $5.68. The two nice keepers...(wooowhooo!) and the trinkets including another Lord Of The Rings Ring.
Here's the pics of Saturday's finds. I will post my Sunday story below.
Thanks for reading and good luck.
Smiles!
BDoo
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