Mirage
Silver Member
Last week my wife and I took a vacation without kids in the Berkshires (Western Massachusetts Mountains). It was the first time in 20 years to take a “vacation” without the kids. It was great and I made some good finds.
The way it went is that I would get up have breakfast and then go detecting while the wife did her thing (women take a lot longer in the morning to get prepared for the day). So I basically had about an hour or two each morning to detect.
So the first time out I just started driving around. Saw a park next to an old library. Parked and started detecting. Dug a couple things and the batteries died. :P A sure sign to move on. So again driving around I randomly take a turn. Houses are too new I am thinking. Make another turn toward the town square and pass another park – keep driving (too new). A little farther down the street the homes start getting older and then I come to a small park. I wasn’t that optimistic but I just wanted to detect for a little bit.
Not a lot of signals and the first signal I dig is a zinc penny. Not to encouraging. But then I started wandering away from the “newer” part of the park toward what looked like it could be undisturbed ground. Next signal is a little broken up but sounds good and is deep. Dig the plug and it’s still in the hole. As I am digging deeper I see a “flash” of silver. Always gets the adrenaline pumping. Find the coin and it turns out to be a merc.
Wow, I thought, that was too easy! Dig another close by signal and pull out a wheat penny. A signal or two later out pops another merc!
Then I get a nickel signal and think I should dig it. Out pops a silver nickel. Nice, I am thinking. Then comes more wheats, Buffalo nickels, another merc, etc. After 30-40 minutes I had a nice little assortment:
3 Mercs, 2 Buffalos, 1 War Nickel, 9 wheat pennies
I had to get back as the wife was going to be waiting to do some exploring. It struck me that obviously this was a virgin spot and there was sure to be more. How easy it is to make decent finds in virgin territory – even if the finds are deep.
While we were doing our “exploring” I was thinking that maybe no one in this small town had metal detectors or they didn’t use them much when we drove by the High School and saw two guys metal detecting it!
So the next day in an hour and 15 minutes I got very close to the same:
Finds for the hour and some-
3 Mercs, 2 Buffalos, 1 War Nickel, 15 Wheats, 1 old key and 1 Catholic medal
The third visit I had to work harder and didn’t find any silver but managed two Indian Head Pennies. Did a little longer hunt of an hour and a half. Finds:
2 Indian Heads (1879, ??), 1 Buffalo, 7 Wheats, Some clad(2 dimes, 2 quarters & two pennies)
The fourth visit (no picture) I still managed some finds:
1 Indian Head, 1 War Nickel, 5 wheats & clad
I investigated a couple other spots that had potential but mostly due to lack of time didn’t find much. One site that looked good was next to this old farm.
They were making it into a park and had already bulldozed a lot.
I found an old buckle and a deer slug at the site.
It’s too bad I didn’t have more time to detect. Everywhere you drive there are jawdropping old homes and towns. Drive through a town – established 1753, 1775, etc. Crazy because the first settlers in the area I live didn’t arrive until early 1800’s.
Here are the rest of the pictures:
The wheat pennies from this site were pretty crusty to say the least. When I got home Nate when through some of them and found another IH penny. There still might be more in the pile as I still haven’t cleaned them yet.
Bob
The way it went is that I would get up have breakfast and then go detecting while the wife did her thing (women take a lot longer in the morning to get prepared for the day). So I basically had about an hour or two each morning to detect.
So the first time out I just started driving around. Saw a park next to an old library. Parked and started detecting. Dug a couple things and the batteries died. :P A sure sign to move on. So again driving around I randomly take a turn. Houses are too new I am thinking. Make another turn toward the town square and pass another park – keep driving (too new). A little farther down the street the homes start getting older and then I come to a small park. I wasn’t that optimistic but I just wanted to detect for a little bit.
Not a lot of signals and the first signal I dig is a zinc penny. Not to encouraging. But then I started wandering away from the “newer” part of the park toward what looked like it could be undisturbed ground. Next signal is a little broken up but sounds good and is deep. Dig the plug and it’s still in the hole. As I am digging deeper I see a “flash” of silver. Always gets the adrenaline pumping. Find the coin and it turns out to be a merc.
Wow, I thought, that was too easy! Dig another close by signal and pull out a wheat penny. A signal or two later out pops another merc!
Then I get a nickel signal and think I should dig it. Out pops a silver nickel. Nice, I am thinking. Then comes more wheats, Buffalo nickels, another merc, etc. After 30-40 minutes I had a nice little assortment:
3 Mercs, 2 Buffalos, 1 War Nickel, 9 wheat pennies
I had to get back as the wife was going to be waiting to do some exploring. It struck me that obviously this was a virgin spot and there was sure to be more. How easy it is to make decent finds in virgin territory – even if the finds are deep.
While we were doing our “exploring” I was thinking that maybe no one in this small town had metal detectors or they didn’t use them much when we drove by the High School and saw two guys metal detecting it!
So the next day in an hour and 15 minutes I got very close to the same:
Finds for the hour and some-
3 Mercs, 2 Buffalos, 1 War Nickel, 15 Wheats, 1 old key and 1 Catholic medal
The third visit I had to work harder and didn’t find any silver but managed two Indian Head Pennies. Did a little longer hunt of an hour and a half. Finds:
2 Indian Heads (1879, ??), 1 Buffalo, 7 Wheats, Some clad(2 dimes, 2 quarters & two pennies)
The fourth visit (no picture) I still managed some finds:
1 Indian Head, 1 War Nickel, 5 wheats & clad
I investigated a couple other spots that had potential but mostly due to lack of time didn’t find much. One site that looked good was next to this old farm.
They were making it into a park and had already bulldozed a lot.
I found an old buckle and a deer slug at the site.
It’s too bad I didn’t have more time to detect. Everywhere you drive there are jawdropping old homes and towns. Drive through a town – established 1753, 1775, etc. Crazy because the first settlers in the area I live didn’t arrive until early 1800’s.
Here are the rest of the pictures:
The wheat pennies from this site were pretty crusty to say the least. When I got home Nate when through some of them and found another IH penny. There still might be more in the pile as I still haven’t cleaned them yet.
Bob
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