Mayo South Elgin
Sr. Member
Today was originally going to be a short hunt by our usual standards - Lowbatts wanted to be back home by noon for something called DA BEARS! SO we hit some recently unearthed sidewalk and driveway areas and park ways. Myself, Lowbatts and Skates were getting mostly clad and memorial pennies throughout several blocks. I got the old toy truck at the end of someone's driveway - it kinda looks like it was run over. We saw Mike (who's also from South Elgin) working the ground too but I'm not sure what he wound up with.
We had our fill of clad and were getting ready to go to another place and I was still swinging the coil over some ground that was mostly cinders. I get the usual funky signal that tells me there might be something good but don't be surprised if it's junk kind of signal. From about an inch deep, out comes the ugliest, dirtiest, weirdest looking coin... I had to take out my 10X loupe to make sure what it was. A 1901 Barber Dime that at first I thought was a corroded Indian Head penny. Cool even if funky looking - my first silver and first Barber of the day!
We went over to the other street work and proceeded to collect more clad, a couple wheats here and there, and more clad and the usual assorted bits of metal objects that we all throw away after we get to a garbage can. It was getting close to DA BEARS! time so I took Lowbatts home and then took the long way home. I had wanted to hit some sidewalks that had been torn out in South Elgin recently and I knew if I waited one more day, they would be back filled and rolled and poured with fresh concrete so I had to hit it or forget it. So I hit it.
It wasn't a very large area - really only about two short blocks and in 75% of it I was getting nothing but mem cents, crushed bottle caps, and pull tabs/beaver tails. Towards the end of one section I found the remains of the oil lamp, so that gave me enough hope to do the other side of the street.
On the other side I was getting the same kinds of stuff. The last possible place to hit was at the front of a church and there were people walking in and out so I was reluctant to swing the coil there, but since there was no sidewalk and the park way was also torn up and part of their front lawn was torn up, I figured I couldn't be accused of ruining their grounds. Besides it's public property where I was detecting so I went ahead, and just didn't look towards their front door.
About half way down the length of the sidewalk, I get a strange but good signal. Strange that it's not consistent but yet it does go back to good signal every so many sweeps. I was standing on ground that was about 10 inches lower than the lawn and swinging the coil on the angled dirt of the cut between the grass and the ground where the sidewalk used to be. I was about 6 feet away from a large tree, and I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with any major roots only to find out it was junk. Well I dug into the sloping side dirt about 3 inches straight in, and what would be about 6 inches down from the lawn. I don't see anything yet, but the probe says something should be right there. So I dig about another inch in from all angles and using my digger I start to pry out the next clump of dirt and then I see a flash of silver.
Oh great - I'm thinking it's another can top or another one of those Shell Oil Presidents Game tokens that I found somewhere else the day before. So I continue pushing out the dirt and then I see it. ANOTHER BARBER - only this time IT'S HUGE! Holy **** it's a freakin HALF! Doing my best imitation of someone who has just dug up a piece of junk, I casually toss it into my pouch in case someone at the church door has been watching me. I don't want to look too excited or they might think the spirit got hold of me or something. So I continued on methodically scouring every last inch of that area but only got more mem cents. Man it was hard to hold in all that excitement!
So today I saw two Barbers and I still need a haircut!
The photo of everything has finds from a previous hunt as well.
We had our fill of clad and were getting ready to go to another place and I was still swinging the coil over some ground that was mostly cinders. I get the usual funky signal that tells me there might be something good but don't be surprised if it's junk kind of signal. From about an inch deep, out comes the ugliest, dirtiest, weirdest looking coin... I had to take out my 10X loupe to make sure what it was. A 1901 Barber Dime that at first I thought was a corroded Indian Head penny. Cool even if funky looking - my first silver and first Barber of the day!
We went over to the other street work and proceeded to collect more clad, a couple wheats here and there, and more clad and the usual assorted bits of metal objects that we all throw away after we get to a garbage can. It was getting close to DA BEARS! time so I took Lowbatts home and then took the long way home. I had wanted to hit some sidewalks that had been torn out in South Elgin recently and I knew if I waited one more day, they would be back filled and rolled and poured with fresh concrete so I had to hit it or forget it. So I hit it.
It wasn't a very large area - really only about two short blocks and in 75% of it I was getting nothing but mem cents, crushed bottle caps, and pull tabs/beaver tails. Towards the end of one section I found the remains of the oil lamp, so that gave me enough hope to do the other side of the street.
On the other side I was getting the same kinds of stuff. The last possible place to hit was at the front of a church and there were people walking in and out so I was reluctant to swing the coil there, but since there was no sidewalk and the park way was also torn up and part of their front lawn was torn up, I figured I couldn't be accused of ruining their grounds. Besides it's public property where I was detecting so I went ahead, and just didn't look towards their front door.
About half way down the length of the sidewalk, I get a strange but good signal. Strange that it's not consistent but yet it does go back to good signal every so many sweeps. I was standing on ground that was about 10 inches lower than the lawn and swinging the coil on the angled dirt of the cut between the grass and the ground where the sidewalk used to be. I was about 6 feet away from a large tree, and I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with any major roots only to find out it was junk. Well I dug into the sloping side dirt about 3 inches straight in, and what would be about 6 inches down from the lawn. I don't see anything yet, but the probe says something should be right there. So I dig about another inch in from all angles and using my digger I start to pry out the next clump of dirt and then I see a flash of silver.
Oh great - I'm thinking it's another can top or another one of those Shell Oil Presidents Game tokens that I found somewhere else the day before. So I continue pushing out the dirt and then I see it. ANOTHER BARBER - only this time IT'S HUGE! Holy **** it's a freakin HALF! Doing my best imitation of someone who has just dug up a piece of junk, I casually toss it into my pouch in case someone at the church door has been watching me. I don't want to look too excited or they might think the spirit got hold of me or something. So I continued on methodically scouring every last inch of that area but only got more mem cents. Man it was hard to hold in all that excitement!
So today I saw two Barbers and I still need a haircut!
The photo of everything has finds from a previous hunt as well.
