DrGrip
Sr. Member
Observations I've made for some new folks
Talking with a fellow last night at a local park I learned that he has been MDing for right at 2 years now and he asked me if I could provide any suggestions to him after I had shown him what I had found in the SAME park he had hunted yesterday morning.
He stated that he works mostly tot-lots and school grounds and really doesn't find a lot of "keeper" items. I asked him what his strategy for hunting these areas was and he told me that he mainly sticks to the area closest to the play equipment where kids are most likely to be on the ground or hanging upside down. When at the schools he mostly works around the edges of the sidewalks and any benches that he finds.
Tot-Lots
My advice to him was to search ALL of the chips and to pay close attention to entry and exit points of the lots. Kids love to take off their jackets and sometimes shoes when they are playing. Most of the time they'll take these off at the entry/exit points and then pick them up quickly when it's time to leave. Also, most kiddos will sit down to put their shoes on and this gives another opportunity to have a "spill" from the pockets. The remaining chips on the playground can be undetected territory since it doesn't look suspect. Well, lets think about that for a minute. Ok, kid #1 comes off of the slide and is in a hurry to join kid #2 over at the swing. As he comes off the slide he stumbles, or chooses, to fall to the ground. As he does this, either change or other treasures in his pocket get jarred loose. He doesn't always lose these at the point of contact with the ground, he may not lose them until he is half way across the chips...
Mom and dad will probably not be playing most of the time but sitting and watching. When they do get up it will be to walk around and look at or to go over and talk to their children. Mom and dad will walk across the chips as well and when they reach into their pocket to answer a cell call, get a tissue to wipe said kid's nose, etc. things may fall from the pocket(s) unnoticed into the chips.
School grounds
Look at the school grounds and decide where you and your friends would sit and talk, play, or rest if you were the age of kids at that school. Is there a big tree in the yard? If so this is a perfect spot for kids to gather, it's also a great spot for teachers or other adults to hang out while kids play.
Look around and see if you can spot a location in the grass that looks well traveled or beaten down. This will indicate a lot of feet have traveled or stood in that area. That means the possibility of spillage or other losses. Perfect examples of this would be for band practice, cheer squads, or other organized outdoor functions put on by the school.
Also, there are FEW schools out there that don't have a group of kids that love to play ball of some sort each time they get to go out to recess. Most of the time they will do this in the same location day after day, this area too will look "beaten down" and may provide some finds.
Where do the kids get on/off the bus? Yep, lots of backpack shaking and jacket dropping going on at these locations.
General observations:
You CANNOT determine how old an area may be due to coin depth. I've dug silver that was less than 1" at the same basic location I've dug a 2007 quarter at 5".
Sometimes you CAN start to determine age and the possibility of a good location by the pull tabs you find. Not like the ones we have this day in age, I'm talking the old style where you pulled the whole tab off the can in order to drink it. If you are finding a LOT of these there is a good possibility that others have either not dug them before, or this place hasn't had a lot of MDing activity. Also, the pull tabs went out in the late 70s to early 80s. Yep, still in the clad time frame, but also a chance some older silver was still in major circulation.
Old pencil eraser tops can tell a story at a school. If you find a pencil top or 3 that still has the pencil lead (graphite) in it, but there isn't any wood, you may be on to something. It takes a long time for wood to completely disintegrate in some parts of the country.
All trash is not as it seems. Look over what you think is junk before you toss it. What looks like junk in the field may actually be a part of something else or a decorative piece of silver that looks like old aluminum.
When in doubt, DIG! A lot of people will tell you that they figured they were after a pull tab or chewing gum foil when they found that 14k ring! I try to dig all the signals I get and I've had a few "junk digs" make me do the happy dance when I discovered it was silver or gold!
The main observation and suggestion I can give is STICK WITH IT! It'll take time to start finding the really neat stuff, regardless of what the salesperson told you, you won't get rich in this hobby off of your finds most of the time. The more time you spend with your MD the better you will become at finding what you're after.
Good luck, fill your holes, and take out more trash than you came in with,
Grip
Talking with a fellow last night at a local park I learned that he has been MDing for right at 2 years now and he asked me if I could provide any suggestions to him after I had shown him what I had found in the SAME park he had hunted yesterday morning.
He stated that he works mostly tot-lots and school grounds and really doesn't find a lot of "keeper" items. I asked him what his strategy for hunting these areas was and he told me that he mainly sticks to the area closest to the play equipment where kids are most likely to be on the ground or hanging upside down. When at the schools he mostly works around the edges of the sidewalks and any benches that he finds.
Tot-Lots
My advice to him was to search ALL of the chips and to pay close attention to entry and exit points of the lots. Kids love to take off their jackets and sometimes shoes when they are playing. Most of the time they'll take these off at the entry/exit points and then pick them up quickly when it's time to leave. Also, most kiddos will sit down to put their shoes on and this gives another opportunity to have a "spill" from the pockets. The remaining chips on the playground can be undetected territory since it doesn't look suspect. Well, lets think about that for a minute. Ok, kid #1 comes off of the slide and is in a hurry to join kid #2 over at the swing. As he comes off the slide he stumbles, or chooses, to fall to the ground. As he does this, either change or other treasures in his pocket get jarred loose. He doesn't always lose these at the point of contact with the ground, he may not lose them until he is half way across the chips...
Mom and dad will probably not be playing most of the time but sitting and watching. When they do get up it will be to walk around and look at or to go over and talk to their children. Mom and dad will walk across the chips as well and when they reach into their pocket to answer a cell call, get a tissue to wipe said kid's nose, etc. things may fall from the pocket(s) unnoticed into the chips.
School grounds
Look at the school grounds and decide where you and your friends would sit and talk, play, or rest if you were the age of kids at that school. Is there a big tree in the yard? If so this is a perfect spot for kids to gather, it's also a great spot for teachers or other adults to hang out while kids play.
Look around and see if you can spot a location in the grass that looks well traveled or beaten down. This will indicate a lot of feet have traveled or stood in that area. That means the possibility of spillage or other losses. Perfect examples of this would be for band practice, cheer squads, or other organized outdoor functions put on by the school.
Also, there are FEW schools out there that don't have a group of kids that love to play ball of some sort each time they get to go out to recess. Most of the time they will do this in the same location day after day, this area too will look "beaten down" and may provide some finds.
Where do the kids get on/off the bus? Yep, lots of backpack shaking and jacket dropping going on at these locations.
General observations:
You CANNOT determine how old an area may be due to coin depth. I've dug silver that was less than 1" at the same basic location I've dug a 2007 quarter at 5".
Sometimes you CAN start to determine age and the possibility of a good location by the pull tabs you find. Not like the ones we have this day in age, I'm talking the old style where you pulled the whole tab off the can in order to drink it. If you are finding a LOT of these there is a good possibility that others have either not dug them before, or this place hasn't had a lot of MDing activity. Also, the pull tabs went out in the late 70s to early 80s. Yep, still in the clad time frame, but also a chance some older silver was still in major circulation.
Old pencil eraser tops can tell a story at a school. If you find a pencil top or 3 that still has the pencil lead (graphite) in it, but there isn't any wood, you may be on to something. It takes a long time for wood to completely disintegrate in some parts of the country.
All trash is not as it seems. Look over what you think is junk before you toss it. What looks like junk in the field may actually be a part of something else or a decorative piece of silver that looks like old aluminum.
When in doubt, DIG! A lot of people will tell you that they figured they were after a pull tab or chewing gum foil when they found that 14k ring! I try to dig all the signals I get and I've had a few "junk digs" make me do the happy dance when I discovered it was silver or gold!
The main observation and suggestion I can give is STICK WITH IT! It'll take time to start finding the really neat stuff, regardless of what the salesperson told you, you won't get rich in this hobby off of your finds most of the time. The more time you spend with your MD the better you will become at finding what you're after.
Good luck, fill your holes, and take out more trash than you came in with,
Grip
Excellent advice, Grip!
