Old Indian Comes Out of the Wheatfield!

In the Winter I like to search through coins from the bank sometimes. You never know what you will find. I used to search half dollars but the silver seems to have dried up there for some reason. I got a $25 box of pennies just to see what might turn up. There won't be any old silver obviously, but there are still pre-1959 wheat back pennies and there are some old valuable ones. Something to do on a cold afternoon.

So anyway, I was able to come up with some nice old wheat pennies, mostly from the 1940s and 50s. Nothing valuable, but I pulled them out just to have. I had gotten 2 out of one roll and was happy with that, when something odd popped out. I saw the back of it and said "what the heck is that?" Even though I knew what an Indian head penny looks like, it was so totally unexpected to find one that I didn't comprehend it for a second. I flipped it over and said "holy cow!" or something to that effect. A 1905 Indian head penny!  This coin has been in circulation for over 100 years! That is just amazing. It just goes to show there is treasure all around us. You just have to search for it!

Silver and Gold!

Silver and Gold!

Well we are into December, the Holiday specials have started and the College Bowl games are not far behind. One of the classic Christmas shows is the animated Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer that dates from 1964. Rudolph and a prospector named Yukon Cornelius help Santa rescue toys from the Island of Misfit Toys and deliver them to children that will love them. All through the story, Yukon Cornelius is searching for silver and gold. The Burl Ives song Silver and Gold comes from this show.

Fast forward to today. It was cool but overcast out, mid-40s. I had things to do, but thought I would head out for a quick treasure hunt at a couple of local schools before I got engrossed in my chores. I fired up the detector and found the usual coins and trinkets at a playground, then moved on to another one. Same pattern there, but then a dime signal turned out to be this nice sterling manatee charm. Okay!  As the hunting season is drawing near the end, I started thinking about what my find of the year would be. I had found 9 nice silver rings and a few silver coins to choose from. I never struck gold this year though, which is odd since I am approaching 3,000 coins dug. And many, many pulltabs, which are in the same range as gold. Oh, and over 250 nickels, which also ring up just like a gold ring. You'd think one of all those gold-range hits could have been a gold ring. But no. Until the last target today as I was walking back to the car.

Solid, just like a nickel or pulltab, worth digging, about 4" deep, just in the grass off a woodchip lot. .....And there she was. Did I talk to it and coax it out of the ground when I saw the possibility of a gold ring? Yes, yes I did, LOL. I was just in shock. A 14K nice softly worn wedding band. Ahhh.  I knocked the dirt out of it and just hefted it my hand to feel the weight. Yes, definitely gold. Then I looked inside to see the 14k mark, which was there. There is also a single first name, so tracking this back to an owner will be near to impossible. I'll poke around though, but it's been there for some time. Anyway, that find of the year thing is taken care of. Ha ha ha!

Today truly WAS the day!

$300,000 in Gold Dust Found

Gold dust found in heating duct

Workers for a heating and air conditioning company recently found over $300,000 in gold dust in a heating vent. The gold dust, hidden in a Sacramento, California home, was in a dozen baby food jars. To the workers' credit, they turned the find over to the homeowners. According to the company, Clark & Rush, they also found $25,000 in gold coins in a house in the 1980's. It just goes to show that treasure is still out there, and comes in many forms. You just have to keep looking.

A Treasure Hunter's Dream Moments

Ahhh!  Treasure hunting with a metal detector is always fun, but it's not all excitement.  There are long stretches where patience is required as you listen to the soft chirps and beeps coming through the headphones, interpreting what they mean. And then a soft smooth tone sounds, indicating a possible treasure.  Most silver rings are in the penny-dime range, and gold rings sound the same or similar to a nickel or pulltab. So you still never know, until you flip out the target, and see something like the above.  Oooh, could it be? A big diamond ring?

Forgive the picture quality, these were taken with my older model phone. But let's get a look at that treasure in the rough!  Yes it's definitely a ring, not a pulltab or piece of mangled soda can. This recovery is happening during a hunt today on a sports field, where there is always the possibility of finding a nice piece of jewelry. This one certainly looks promising, and I want to get silver ring #10 or gold ring #1 before the year's hunting comes to an end.

Time to get this cleaned out and look for a mark inside the band. It felt nice and heavy, certainly looked like precious metal with sparkly diamonds, but alas, it was not to be. Although it's a nice ring, there are no marks, the stones are glued in, and there's a bit of corrosion starting to eat away at a spot on the underside.     

But hey, it's a nice treasure and it delivered one of those dream moments of anticipation. Ah well, that's what treasure hunting is all about, you never know what will be revealed. Keep at it and eventually the good stuff will come up. Today's the day!

Win Cash at Estatesales.org

 

Estate sales.org is offering a monthly cash sweepstakes. This a good double whammy for treasure hunters. You can find estate sales in your area by checking the listing on the estatesales.org site, and win a sweepstakes at the same time. What I do is have my local estate sales emailed to me automatically, then as each weekend approaches, I can see if there are any promising sales nearby. Enter at http://estatesales.org It's all treasure! Good luck!

Silver Treasure Coming in Steadily

So far this year has been good for treasure hunting.  I have managed to keep a piece or two of silver coming in pretty steadily. The Garrett AT Pro detector I bought last Fall is very accurate on silver and nickels. Since I hunt primarily in suburbia, the parks, schools, ballfields and playgrounds are quite plentiful.  They get replenished also. They are never hunted out. I have to say that every school and park has at least one ring, you just have to hunt enough to find it, and believe that its there. 

Above is a nice heavy sterling cross I found alongside a baseball field a few weeks ago. It is heavier than the silver quarter next to it. Below is my ring box for 2012. I have now filled the 3rd row since taking this picture, with more than half being silver. Some real nice ones too. Love it!

Gold rings indicate same or close to nickels. For some reason I haven't been lucky enough to bring up a gold ring yet this year, but I'm sure they are out there. I certainly have dug a lot of nickels and pull tabs, so its just a matter of sticking with it. As Mel Fisher used to say, "Today's The Day!"

Success in 2012

Well, I've been getting out hunting a lot this Spring, seems to be slowing down a bit as Summer approaches . But I must say that since I got the Garrett AT Pro detector last October, finds have picked up dramatically. It is murder on quarters, very distinct readings. This past weekend I only got out once due to work, but I found a nice heavy silver religious medal. Already this year I have over $200 and 2000 coins found. The readings are so precise that I've basically quit digging new zinc pennies so I can concentrate on good stuff. 18 rings, 7 silver, no gold yet, although it is good on nickels also.  well, I'll get some pictures up shortly, sorry have been deficient on posting, as I've been helping my better half get her antiques business off the ground on weekends.
That's treasure hunting as well, and it's been going great also. Details to follow shortly.