2009 Year in Review

Well everyone, it's that time to start fresh with all our totals and look back at what we accomplished in 2009. A year ago I set goals for myself which were an improvement upon my 2008 hunting season. And I'd like to go over over those now and see just how it all turned out.

The first goal I had set in 2009 was to find at least one lousy silver coin. Just one was all I asked since in 2008 I found zero. Well what luck, I found 18!!! I can attribute it to upgrading to my White's XLT, but a good amount of that silver was found with my Minelab X-Terra 30 early on in the year.

• 7 Mercury Dimes
  
• 8 "Rosies"
  
• 2 Washington Quarters
  
• 1 War Nickle
  

The next goal was to find at least 20 Wheaties. I think I had found maybe 11 or 13 the year before. Again, I blew this one out of the water, scoring 70!!!

Third on the list was to set a new oldest dug coin record for myself. In 2008 I dug a '29 Wheatie, surely in my area where it's common to find 1800s coins and an occasional late 1700s coin I could do better. Well I did, my oldest dug coin was a 1903 Penny from Great Britain. I beat my previous by 26 years and still left pletny of room for improvement.

A gold ring was next on the list. And well, I met this one... kinda. I found a 10K Gold Filled ring. That counts right? I also found a gold plated bracelet. Neither a solid gold item, but I think it should count.

In 2009 I aimed to double my coin intake from 2008. That means I needed to pull in at least 1,132 coins. Doesn't sound like a lot, especially when there are those in the hobby that pull in excess of 10k coins a year. But I did well, totaling 1,217. Hoo-rah!

I also had hoped to double my clad amount in the dollar range too. To do this, I need to get more than $52.66 out of my clad this year, and I did! I finished with $79.33. That puts me at just over $100 for my MD career so far.

That pretty much sums it up. 2009 was a great year to hunt in Virginia Beach and the surrounding areas. I got to get in some hunts with two buddies Hollis and Chad of whom I'd like to wish, along with everyone else a great 2010!!!