I found a 1909-s VDB penny while detectind in my front yard.

[poppinsilver]

I found a very rare penny while metal detecting in my front yard yesterday. The house was built in 1901. Unfortunately the penny is in absolutely horrible condition. Still a pretty nice find.

Ebay link if anybody wants it
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201913747260?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

 

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[poppinsilver]

Hey poppin-silver, I see you got it on ebay now. Good luck ! Hope it fetches a pretty-penny (no pun intended )



By not being a wuss in where/when you hunt Seriously now: Stage stops, old town urban demolition sites, in the middle of howling beach storm erosion, old emigrant route stopping spots, an old resort , places where 1850/60s military were stationed, etc....

Do you have to travel far to get to these places? How do you do your research? I'm having trouble finding spots that's not on private land, and that's not a historic park.

 

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[DFW_THer]

What a find! That thing was lost EARLY! All the bands on the revers are there. It was an AU-MS coin when it hit the dirt, who knows...

I don't care if he's new here. It's a legitimate find and it's a good sincere post, I'd love to see it on the banner. When was the last 09-S VDB?

I think it's great when someone finds something significant and they take it to treasurenet before any other forum, because, well, treasurenet RULES! hahah

 

[terpfan]

What a pleasure to see a 1909s VDB found, congrats!. This coin is more rarely found than the 1916 D Mercury dime or the 1877 Indian Head, and the first one I've seen posted. With this great start, you'll have have a long a fruitful metal detecting career ahead of you!

 

[1320]

After you sell the coin, you should throw a cash donation back to treasurenet for all the exposure your ebay link is getting. Perhaps become a charter member as a token of your appreciation?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Do you have to travel far to get to these places? How do you do your research? I'm having trouble finding spots that's not on private land, and that's not a historic park.

You do realize there's a club in Concord area: "Mount Diablo metal detecting club" :

Home | Mount Diablo Metal Detecting Club

Say hi to Gary Collier for me

So as you can see, you have competition in your area. However, you will find that 95% of all md'rs tend to be rather "tame". Eg.: parks, schools, beaches, planted club hunts, etc.... They're not travelling, or doing risky ... uh .... "discreet" type places. For example: Old town urban demolition sites: When they tear out an old building in old town areas where yester-year board-&-batton district was. There will always be the obligatory fences put up around such sites (so that no one slips on a banana peel and sues). Hence most hunters will not go to such sites (which requires waiting till after 5pm when the workers cut out for the day). Or they might start trying to get permission, which will always net the obligatory "no".

And still others will research out ghost towns perhaps, but get skittish if they're on BLM or NFS , which *technically* has ARPA in place (heaven forbid you find a coin over 50 yrs. old, right ?). So they tend to stick to tame stuff (sandboxes, beaches, parks, etc....).

Thus I have seen that certain geographic locales tend to be less pounded and less researched. And have more virgin (or only lightly pounded) spots, once you get into the boonies. Versus other areas (parts of Nevada, for instance, and my part of CA, for instance) have had all their obvious research and spots pounded to heck. Even if it meant ... uh .... discreet hunting, they have still all been exploited by guys who knew what they were doing.

So I do find myself travelling more than I used to. But old town urban demolition is always going on. In any given geographic area, in any given year, someone's going to be tearing down a building. Or a city going to re-do all their downtown sidewalks (thus tearing out the old ones). Or an oldtown area park is going to install astroturf or renovate their park, thus requiring tractors to scrape off the existing turf (which can be a bonanza !).

The way to keep an eye out for old town urban demolition, and/or park turf scrapes, is two-fold:

a) random google news key word searches for word combinations like "historic" + "demolition" or "old town" + "raze" or + "demolish". Or "turf" + "park" + "install" . Or "artificial turf" + "install" + "park" (or + "school"), etc.... I have stumbled onto to random newspaper blurbs this way, where they were announcing some upcoming project. And then we just put the puzzle pieces together from there, and be sure to be there when virgin ground is being exposed by tractors.

You can choose the election for google news to only report from news sources just in your state (otherwise news hits from around the USA and/or World will be endless).

But not all old town projects, or municipal park renovations will necessarily be in a newspaper story, so here's another method if you want to be hardcore:

b) Join the local Builder's Exchange in your area. It costs something like $450 to $600 p/yr. But it avails you of all the public works bids out-to-bid in your area (or the entire state if you pay a bit more). You can do all sorts of key-word searches ("demolition", or "sidewalks", or "turf", etc....) to see if any sound interesting. Then click to see the blueprints of exactly what they are doing.

Naturally you'll get oodles of worthless hits that have nothing to do with what you're after. So it takes time to find the "oh-so-right" old town demolition or sidewalk or turf-scrape job.

Another way to find out about old sites to hunt, is to join historical societies in your area. Volunteer to be a docent at every single historical museum and historical society in your area. Might require 6 hr. p/month time manning a desk, or sorting archives, etc.... But it affords you back-room access to stuff that might not be readily available historical tidbits. And is a great shoe-in for getting permission at places. Eg.: to show up somewhere, flash your museum badge, and say you're doing research on such & such, for an article you're writing about such & such, etc.... Yeah yeah, fox guarding the hen house

 

[Silver Tree Chaser]

Great job recognizing a key-date coin!

 

[Xraywolf]

I have found a few 1909 VDB, no S though.
I would have tossed it in olive oil for a few months followed by a gentle tooth brushing, rinse with warm water and pat try.

 

[poppinsilver]

What a find! That thing was lost EARLY! All the bands on the revers are there. It was an AU-MS coin when it hit the dirt, who knows...

I don't care if he's new here. It's a legitimate find and it's a good sincere post, I'd love to see it on the banner. When was the last 09-S VDB?

I think it's great when someone finds something significant and they take it to treasurenet before any other forum, because, well, treasurenet RULES! hahah

Thank you

 

[poppinsilver]

After you sell the coin, you should throw a cash donation back to treasurenet for all the exposure your ebay link is getting. Perhaps become a charter member as a token of your appreciation?

If i get some good money for it i'll consider that. It doesn't look like it's doing very well now. Only at $18 with 5 days left. I hope it jumps up a bit.

 

[poppinsilver]

You do realize there's a club in Concord area: "Mount Diablo metal detecting club" :

Home | Mount Diablo Metal Detecting Club

Say hi to Gary Collier for me

So as you can see, you have competition in your area. However, you will find that 95% of all md'rs tend to be rather "tame". Eg.: parks, schools, beaches, planted club hunts, etc.... They're not travelling, or doing risky ... uh .... "discreet" type places. For example: Old town urban demolition sites: When they tear out an old building in old town areas where yester-year board-&-batton district was. There will always be the obligatory fences put up around such sites (so that no one slips on a banana peel and sues). Hence most hunters will not go to such sites (which requires waiting till after 5pm when the workers cut out for the day). Or they might start trying to get permission, which will always net the obligatory "no".

I know about the Mount Diablo club. One reason i haven't joined is because i think most of the guys would be 40 years older than me. And I agree with you, about most detectorists being "tame". I don't like hunting parks, beaches, schools etc because those spots are so easily accessible and most likely have already been hit by tame detectorists. I like getting out in the boonies to the hard to get to places... the problem is most of the land in my area is private land. It's very hard to find a good spot in my area. I think i'll have to do some traveling.

 

[RustyGold]

Congratulations on the banner find!
With that said it's the older guys that have the most experience and can teach you a thing or two that's worth the listening.
Best of luck to you!