ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS

Natman

Bronze Member
Jan 8, 2007
2,487
461
Hazelwood, MO
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
White's Prizm II, White's Coinmaster
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Hi all,

Today was an awesome day for me..the weather was beautiful and I wanted to go out and swing the coil, so I spent the whole morning enjoying the great outdoors.

The other day I happened to be looking at my totals and thought, "Man, I'm pretty close to reaching my 18-month goal of finding a thousand dollars." Then I actually added up my dollar totals from the last 16 months, and found I only needed $11.17 to get there!

My main problem was trying to find out where to go..I've covered every elementary school and sports park within 3 school districts, and I didn't want to make any long road trips that would eat into my gas money. I got on the internet and checked one more school I hadn't been to (in yet another district) which was about 10 miles away.

When I got there I found a large wood chip area in back which was loaded with pennies and dimes, especially under one of the play structures. Then later, just as I bent down to dig a pull tab signal, I actually said aloud, "You'd think there'd be at least ONE ring in here with all this change." As luck would have it, the signal turned out to be a pretty silver ring with a peacock design. It's kind of light and is probably not real silver, but it was nice to find all the same.

I tried the field, but apparently the grass was planted over alot of gravel, so despite the rain we've had, the ground was impossible to dig into.

On the way home I stopped at another school that I had been to last month, and was surprised to find a load of pennies in the wood chips beneath one of the swings, a few dimes and a live .32 cartridge :o

I got home and counted out my change, only to find I was still $4 short of my goal. I took out the phone book and looked at a list of schools I had been to many times before, trying to decide which of them may still hold a bit more change. I made the right choice, but finding the extra $4 probably took an hour and a half at this particular school. I did manage a SBA dollar at the far end of the field which helped.

The last $1.20 was tough..however I was so determined to find it I didn't care if I was going to get it one penny at a time. When I was within 30 cents of the big 1K, I called my wife and let her know I'd call when it happened.

I found a dime, then some pennies, then another dime..finally my last coin (which was a quarter) put me at $1000.29, all in 16 months of detecting. If it weren't for keeping records of what I found, I would never have thought it amounted to that much. I called my wife again and she already knew I had attained my goal. Boy did it feel good!

Here's today's finds, which ended up being 116 pennies, 12 nickels, 32 dimes, 22 quarters and a SBA dollar. Most of the pennies were found in the chips so I didn't have to clean very many of them :) I also found a few keys, a 50-gram weight, an earring, a magnet, a few pendants, and something pretty incredible - a redline Hot Wheels Custom Camaro, which happens to be the very first Hot Wheels vehicle Mattel ever produced back in 1967. I was amazed to see it was in one piece, and still had all 4 red striped tires, its hood, and most of its bright spectraflame paint! A mint example of this model has a collector value of $225.00. This car is my favorite find so far this year and I couldn't have found it on a better day!

THOU4.jpg


THOU5.jpg


THOU3.jpg


THOU2.jpg


THOU1.jpg


Thanks for looking and hope your weekend is as good as mine was!

HH,
Nat
 

Upvote 0
WOW......18 months......one thousand dollars. Thats truly incredible. Is that only in change or assessed value of other finds as well?

Any plans for that money?

Cheers!

Dugholes :laughing7:
 

Hello Nat!
That's stupendously incredible! You've paid for your detector and then some! Take the wife out! Call the buddies up!
Declare a holiday! Great job! That little Camaro is simply grand!

GRB
 

Nat,
CONGRATS to you!!!! :o :o :o $1000!!!!!!!! :o :o :o That's a lot of digging.
Very cool ring you pound there. I'd be proud as a peacock too. :wink:
Those early redlines are my favorite Hot Wheels of all time. My favorite is the Firebird or the Camaro like you found.
Awesome toy find and in great condition too. :thumbsup:
-MM-
 

I guess it's time for you to conduct another hunt...This time for a Cool Guitar. Congrats on breaking 1K before 18 months. HH for the 2K mark
 

Way to go Nat. Keep up the good work buddy. You inspire me. :thumbsup:
 

That is definitely a cause for celebration! :occasion16: :occasion16: :occasion16: The car is probably my favorite find as well but that peacock ring is awfully cute as well. Congrats!
 

Thanks everybody for the nice comments, it means a lot to me!

DugHoles said:
WOW......18 months......one thousand dollars. Thats truly incredible. Is that only in change or assessed value of other finds as well? Any plans for that money?

It's a grand's worth of lost pocket change..there's over 2,400 quarters and 2,350 dimes included in that total..I found enough money in 2007 to make a house payment, and the balance (funds for 2008) should be enough to pay for a guitar I've had my eyes on for awhile.

Evolution said:
Way to go Nat. Keep up the good work buddy. You inspire me. :thumbsup:

That goes both ways - so many people here have made some great finds as well, and that inspires me to go out whenever I can.

ModernMiner said:
Nat,
CONGRATS to you!!!! :o :o :o $1000!!!!!!!! :o :o :o That's a lot of digging.
Very cool ring you pound there. I'd be proud as a peacock too. :wink:
Those early redlines are my favorite Hot Wheels of all time. My favorite is the Firebird or the Camaro like you found.
Awesome toy find and in great condition too. :thumbsup:
-MM-

Thanks Doug, I've been collecting for a long time and I knew exactly what I had, even with it all caked with mud!

Thanks again all :wave:
Nat
 

:headbang: :wav: :occasion16: :notworthy:
The car was the prize you won for hitting the $1000 mark.....

Good news is the summer is near so all your dried up spots will be replenished dude...

Can't wait to see what you find next.
 

Wow! Congratulations in reaching your goal!

Steve
 

Nat, they say a goal is something you write down and come up with a plan to reach it. Without that it is just a dream. Obviously you had a plan or you would not have looked in the phone book to find ways to reach that goal.

Congrats on a dedicated effort and reaching $1000.00!!!

Hal
 

Nat, congrats!! I'm glad you had such a great day and reached your goal! WTG!!
 

Wow nice work cool ring too.Your White's Prizm II bringing them up!! :thumbsup:
 

Nice going, but when do you sleep???? Congrats on the finds.

fccdfed
 

According to my Jersey math that comes to .54 cents per day.Excellent Job !!!! congrats on reaching your goal.I'm glad I don't live by you, there is slim pickins. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 

Man how many parks did you have to DESTROY to get $1000? ? ? ? ? ? ?

:-)

Kidding bro, just feeling a bit odd 'cause I been rousted a couple of time by the fuz lately for NO reason. Keep digging bro, $10K ain't that far around corner!

Great finds!
 

Congrats on making the $1,000 club Nat :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
That ring is a beauty---Great hunt.
 

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