Back home, score silver!

Good afternoon all! As some of you may have noticed, I've been in the UAE all the past week for work related activities and just got home at 11p last night. My buddy "dfxing virginia" from FMDF promptly texted me to remind me of our plans for a hunt this morning in Hampton at 8a.

We headed out that way and hunted the area around Memorial Baptist and pretty much found nothing but trash and clad, it was rather disappointing for a turn of the century neighborhood. If there was good stuff around, we completely missed it. Though in our defense, this is home turf for the Hampton Roads Recovery Society, and I'm sure they've hit up much of the old neighborhoods. We left the place scratching our heads, but thankfully I had another place up my sleeve.

Next stop was the area off of Witchduck Rd. in Virginia Beach where the city bought up all the homes to tear down for road expansion. It's all grassed over now and ripe for the picking. We rolled up, geared up, and got to swingin'. And what do you know, in the first 20 mins, I pull two silvers. A '44 Merc and a '57 Rosie. The Merc was my very first plug dug on the site.

Anyway, we covered a lot of ground, possibly quicker than we should have, because out of the next couple hours, those two silver dimes were the only ones to come outta the ground. We both managed a few bucks in clad, and I fished out 6 wheats, but overall I felt there should have been more.

We found lots of odd and ends as well. I know I found a automotive thermostat and a few fence post tops. Landed another couple keys, that's 6 in my last few hunts. I've given them all to my hunting partners son. I also found what I thought was a gold bracelet, but it turns out it's "gold toned". It's made by Monet, an antique costume jeweler.

So that's the day, 60 coins $4.13.

ERBC: Chesapeake

I headed back out to the church off Sparrow Rd. in Chesapeake where I found the '46-D wheat just recently. Sadly, there wasn't much else to find this evening. The church itself has to at least be as old as the community it sits in, which would date to sometime in the 1950's, so one might think that it could be a candidate for a bit of silver coinage, even if only Rosie's and silver Washingtons.

I started in the back, towards their picnic and tot lot area. All around the play area the dimes just kept hitting one after the other... but then it just dried up. Surely the area has been hit before, but we can always dream. I did happen to find a bullet under a tree root, gave a nice hit on the XLT.

I decided to head around up front and the signals started coming back, a quarter here and there, some memorials, but nothing special. Here's the take with 17 coins @ $1.52.

Alanton + CHX Hunt

Today was a day to be away from the apartment all day. Air filters where being changed, so me and kitty had to be elsewhere. Ash took Zoe to her parents house in the morning while I headed to the bank to deposit some money, the gas station to fill up, and the to Grandma's to visit.

I hung out for a few hours chatting with Grandma about any and everything new in life. My Aunt showed up as well so it was a good visit. After, I went out in the front yard of my Uncle's house to do what I really came over for... swing and dig. The neighborhood was built in the 60's sometime, so I knew it would be iffy to find any silver, but I gave it a shot. I stayed about an hour and was teased by a '66 Quarter... and then a '50 Wheat penny. I had a few hours til 3 when i needed to pick up kitty and head home, so I ran some other errands and then ended up at a church built in the 50's along Sparrow Rd. in Chesapeake. I dug there for 45 minutes or so, landing another wheatie, this time a '46-D... not much else.

A decent hunts worth, 26 coins @ $1.58.

Back for More at Atlantic Shores

It was huntin' time again this evening. At 7pm I had two hours to get packed, drive the 1000ft or so to Atlantic Shores and bring home the goods until TrueBLOOD was to come on. I love that show, can't believe season two is almost over!!!

Anyhow... after my last hunt when I was cherry pickin' quarters, I decided to actually hunt that area in full this time. I also wanted to get some use outta my 4x6 BlueMax DD. So I started with that coil. Not sure I'll ever get used to it. It worked out fine, don't get me wrong, but having that little thing down there just doesn't seem right. I was able to score a few coins and some trash with it. I really need to find where it will benefit me the most to use. Because, as it is, the VDI seems to be pretty good, but the depth is so off you need to start saying to yourself 1.5" whenever you see 4.5".

After 30 mins of that I went back to the trusty 950 coil and started to reel in the coins. Quarters once again were poppin'. And would you believe it, about 10 ft. from the +90 double quarter hit the other day... I got another! Same thing. You can see in the pic where the two quarters were together keeping those parts shiny. Never would have thought something like that would happen to hunts in a row! 28 coins @ $2.92.

Lastly, I found this ring today in the Taco Bell parking lot... same place I found the .925 charm bracelet a while back at. It's a junk ring, but it's still a ring. I "beep'd" my hand over it and the g/f looked at me like I was crazy.

Still Made It Out - Atlantic Shores

In spite of that rain that came through, it was short lived. Only maybe an hour or so worth of wetness. So around 9p I decided to head out, with lightning on the horizon.

I was once again trying out my "Nickel" program in an area I've hit with success a few times before. I told myself there was no way I was leaving without finding at least one. My first signal for the evening was a 3" quarter, must have been one I missed on the previous trips.

The going was slow, very slow. I ended up getting a weird signal at one point that I told myself I had to dig. About 2" down my Vibra-Probe 570 was going off, but I just couldn't get the target. After searching around in the muddy hole I finally pulled this out... I was excited at first... but as you can see, I shouldn't have been... it's AVON.

Not long after I got another weird signal down there in the nickel/foil range that I couldn't resist. This time I have no clue what it might be, but as you can see in the image, there's some gold color under there... I wonder?

Anyhow, I kept hunting the old area and had found just over $1.00 in clad, plus my nickel, and was about to head out. But there is so much area here, all the way around the church, that I decided to head around back for a bit... and glad I did! Quarter city. It was like swinging here the very first day. I cherry picked only dimes and above and landed one after the other. Then I got it, a +90. I told myself, "No way!" It was a solid signal, 3" deep, wasn't bouncing around... could it be my first half? Nope, but it was in the same amount... 2 quarters sandwiched together in the hole, haha. I had heard of this happening to others, but this was a first for me.

Anyway, on the walk back to the truck I spied two little amphibious friends enjoying all the wetness outside. Usually the school behind my apartments is swarming with frogs/toads and I never remember to get a pic.

So here's the totals for the night, 28 coins @ $4.13... that makes about $20 I've pulled from this church.

Atlantic Shores, Hour Before the Storm

Tonight I really had to get out. It was that... or effin' Jon and Kate Plus 8. Guess what I chose!? I got outta the house at about 8:15p and drove the 500ft. over to my spot in the huge field at the corner of Kempsville and Centerville at Atlantic Shores. I figured my honey hole I hit last week would be a great place to return to with my XLT program that's been finding some sweet loot lately.

Pulling in to the parking lot I could already see dark clouds in the distance that didn't look to friendly. I don't remember rain in the forecast, but kept the view under advisement. With a few minutes I could hear thunder in the distance and see an occasional flash of lightning.

With a light drizzle coming down, and the XLT starting to give a reaction to the lightning I stuck it out for an hour, give or take a few minutes. I was happy to find the coins I did, glad the spot is still givin' up the dimes and quarters

It was pleasant to pull a '49 wheatie, the second I've wrangled from the field. I also pulled a just shy of quarter size metal disc that is very smooth on both sides, and one edge is rounded. In the pic you'll see that on the edge, it looks like it twisted off something, so it's probably a punchout.

27 coins total @ $2.10.

Made it home to count the loot and enjoy a BL Lime on the patio.

Second Day at "The Hole"

All day I had my mind set that I was going back to the Atlantic Shores field for round 2 of picking clad and whatever else may come. However, around 3pm, mother nature seemed to want to step in and keep me from it. For the next few hours we had some crazy downpour!

All while it was going on, I said to myself, "If it stop before 7pm I'm good to go for tonight." Well... it didn't. But around 930pm it did finally give up, so off I went.

I showed up, got my stuff together, and hit the field confident I would find a good amount of clad. Though it didn't come as quickly as the previous day, I was surprised that on my third hit, I pulled an unknown date wheat penny! It was mighty deep too, probly 7" or so. Definitely the deepest hit I've dug so far. It just sounded off so solid, at that depth I couldn't help but dig.

About 30 minutes in I got a feline visitor. A small white cat, very clean showed up. I figure it must have been an abandoned house cat, or snuck out from home, because with the storms we just had, any white outdoor cat would not have been that clean. It was friendly, but sketchy. Seemed very out of place. Poor kitty.

The rest of the hunt went as expected. Lots of clad and little trash. Unfortunately I have no small jewelry items like charms or what have you to share this time around, but $3.50+ in clad over 55 coins, I'll take it! Included in there is a 1970 Canadian Penny.

Atlantic Shores Honey Hole!

A little after 6pm tonight I get a message from Hollis wanting to meet up at the beach for an evening hunt. Well unfortunately, being tight on money, and the 20 mile trip to the beach each way, it was outta the question as far as gas goes.

But good for me, I had been thinking of a place hunt all day. There is a large multi-purpose field across the street from me that gets heavy use from the church school adjacent to it, and also by the church itself hosting events. Why I never hunted it before when it's a 5 minute walk away is beyond me.

I head on over, suit up, and bam, within the first 30 mins I'm over $1 in clad. I stayed hunting around for almost an hour forty five, just constantly landing coin after coin after coin. I scored 3, $0.50 spills or greater. One being a 10 coin spill equalling $1.08 under a big tree up by the roots.

Sadly there was no gold or silver to be had But I did manage a heavy Hello Kitty charm, nice and thick, rang up like a dime so I figured silver when it came outta the ground. No marks, and the "silver" is flaking off on the side. I also found the bangle bracelet and little heart button.

This was my biggest monetary clad total ever. I've easily dug more coins, I think 80 some is my most, but never this much in total amount. 47 coins @ $5.25. Two of the ugliest pennies I've ever dug, and not much trash either. One thing of note, is I landed 4 more nickels... the XLT is really good at nabbing them.

I'll be back to this site a few more times, plenty of clad around I'm sure to waste a few more hours!

Rainy Night Out, Hunt Cut Short

So I went out tonight will full intention of putting the new Blue Max Shooter Coil to a good test. It had been raining off and on all day, so I knew it was gonna be hit or miss.

On the drive over to the church playground I had in mind, having never hit it before, the rain all but stopped... I was happy.

The first 15 minutes or so weren't bad. A few misquitos were out, and it was lightly drizzling. Having never used a small coil like this, it just felt awkward. But I got used to it and starting picking up a few coins here and there. And by a few, I mean only a few. Either this lot has been hit before, or kids just don't drop stuff here. The coil had no problem finding lots of trashy items in the +20 - +40 range though.

Pinpointing with the small coil was spot on, I was surprised at that. Not being concentric I though I'd have a hard time with that, but it was a breeze. However, the depth readings it gave while pinpointing were FAR off. A lot of 4-6" deep targets that were really 1-3" deep. No big deal, but something to take note of.

Sadly, maybe half an hour in, with only maybe $0.30 to speak of, the rain really started coming down. I had prepared the machine at home with plastic wrap and duct tape to keep water out, but even I wasn't gonna stand for the downpour.

Greenbrier Church Tot Lot

Around 930p or so last night... sounds right, it was after Reaper came on the TV. Anyway, it was that time to head out for some more diggin'. There are two tot lots on Volvo Pkwy in Chesapeake, VA I've been wanting to hit. And tonight was going to be the night I finally got around to it.

I show up to the spot, pull in, and get geared up. The area the tot lot is in is fenced in. So like, you enter a gate, and there is a large grassy area, and then the play area is sort of in the middle of it all, woodchipped.

I started swinging in the woodchips to start off. I was delighted to start hitting targets all over the place, but bummed they all seemed to be memorials. After a good 45 minutes slowing making my way around, I scored a couple Mickey Mouse Disney pressed pennies, and a bunch of quarters.

I was done there, and started the grassy area. The dimes were really poppin' here. I was landing quite a bit of targets, so much so that to keep the hunt relatively short, I left at least what I believe to be $1 or so in clad still in the ground.

It was a great night to be out hunting. Very comfortable temperature, and making this the maiden voyage of my new knee pads, my knees were feeling great. Sadly, it had been about an hour and a half, time to get back home... so I skipped out on the second tot lot a little further away. Next time though.

Another interesting find for the night was a neat 1997 Philippines 1 Piso coin. Rang up like a nickel.

Wood's Corner & Grace Lutheran

Around 9pm or so tonight I headed out. On FMDF a user make a comment about trying out grassy areas near grocery stores. The idea made perfect sense. And it just so happens I have a grocery store basically across the street with a large grassy lot next to it!

I popped on over to Wood's Corner and started scanning. My first three targets were all quarters, I was feeling good about this place. But as the hour drug on, it was more apparent there was more can slaw and trash than anything good there.

I packed up and decided I'd head out to a spot I haven't hit in nearly a year, the tot lot at Grace Lutheran off of Providence. They also have a large field surrounding two sides of the church where tons of activities and sports take place throughout the year.

The tot lot (highlighted in yellow above) proved fruitful, lots of dimes. I scanned the whole thing, rounded up another dollar or so, and then headed out into the field. There was no rhyme or reason to my swingin'. Just walked and swung. Didn't find much other than trash out there, which surprised me a bit.

Anyhow, here is the goods. $2.49 over 29 coins, and some random other objects.

1888 Church, clad, not much else

After my long day, yet fruitful day in obtaining a new hopefully site, I hopped online looking for old churches in the area. One I found, was very close, within walking distance. Around 9pm tonight I decided to make my move. It has been around since about 1888. The actual church has since relocated down the street, but they still use the property as a learning center, and the entire rear portion is a rather old cemetery. I stayed in the front of the church, and the side with the makeshift parking lot. And even then I felt kind of uneasy about being there with the graves in the back.

(You can see in the image above, the yellow tinted area is cemetery, I hunted the red tinted area.)

Anyhow, as old as the church is, and it's pretty much the same brick building it's been for quite some time, I figured I had to find something old here. Maybe a Merc, or a SLQ... something. Yeah that's a negative. I did find a pretty good shape '51 wheat, but everything else was modern.

I also found a lock, a Nokia 2610 cell phone, a screw on antenna to another cell phone, the rustiest washer I've ever found, and 2 tabs. All of that was the trash... I managed $1.65 in clad as well.

Not bad for another hour long night cap.

11/17 Parking Lot, Trantwood + ES Chapel

After dinner last night I had the itch. All this rain over the past week has really made hunting conditions ideal. As I was gathering my equipment I realized I couldn't find my flashlight. And well, hunting at night w/o one is next to impossible. First stop, Wal*Mart!

But as I got to my truck I thought to myself, I'll swing the MD right here in the grassy spot behind my truck in the parking lot here at the apartments. Granted, no light, but I'll see what happens. A few minutes later, I had pulled 10 coins... 9 memorials and a nickel. Pinpointers are so awesome

I made it out to the Wal*Mart that was on the way to the spot I wanted to hunt. Picked up a great light, very small, VERY bright, and a set of warm, finger-tipless gloves.

When I made it out to my destination, a school I had raided the TL's months before, it was cold. Probably about 40F if not colder, but with the gloves and my hoodie, plenty warm. The parking lot was packed, so I decided to hit up the field on the far side of the school next to the road. It has a baseball diamond and sees plenty of action. About an hour in I was getting a few hits here and there, but mostly trash. On the backstretch heading back to the truck I pulled a corroded wheat and a smashed up .925 ring! That would be ring #4, but only the first that is not junk. I didn't know it was silver until I got home, but sure was hoping while I was out in the field It's beat up pretty bad... any tips on banging it out?

I was about to head home when I remembered a friend and I were out this way a week or so ago and spotted a TL behind my grandparents church. So I drove the mile or so over to it and unloaded. Again, parking lot full, but everyone was leaving. I walked towards the back where the TL was and eff, the whole TL is fenced in, with the only access from inside the church There were a bunch of picnic tables around and a makeshift stone alter nestled off in the brush, so I hit that up and pulled a few more coins and this button of which I know nothing about.

Anyway, that was my night, probably about 2 hours of diggin. $1.09 in coins total.

9/29 Glad Tidings Church

Around 8pm tonight I made it over to a church off of S. Newtown in Norfolk. It's one that can be seen from I-64 right before the I-264 exit. On the weekends this place is ridiculously packed with kids... both in the TLs and the surrounding field. SO naturally, it seemed like the place to be.

When I showed up it was dark, but within 15 minutes, the street lamp looking things came on, illuminating the area. I started with the much larger tot lot. And besides the craptacular amount of trash, I was getting nothing. As I was finishing up that area, three teenagers showed up. Two guys and a girl. One of the guys and the girl ascended into the large TL structure, probably sinning their pants off (haha) while the other guys just sat on the curb. Apparently three was a crowd.

While they did their thing I hovered over to the smaller tot lot, and started pulling some clad. This play area I knew had been here much longer than that new fangled large one. After a quarter and a few memorials I got a very solid penny reading, down 8". Well at 6" I found the target, and was pretty surprised. It was a metal beetle, or scarab if you will. The back had the tell tale stainless disc that always means a watch. In the dark I could tell this thing had hinges, so I was sure it opened. After a minute of examining, the two front "legs" act as levers to open the wings and display the time. Rather ingenious. Unfortunately the silver backing is the other precious part of it. It seems copper in color, but the outside flakes off leaving kind of a rusted mess under. It seems as though it was once very gold in color, as the area surrounding the clock and underneath the wings are very brilliantly gold. The face of the watch appears to have the name, "Collezio" and is stopped in the classic Simpson time of 3 o' clock.

A Google search shows that Collezio has been a watch mfg since 1983 and has many other styles than the classic wrist watch, including necklace and pocket watches. I would reckon this is one of those types. I haven't found this exact one anywhere as of yet... maybe some help?

After that find, and a couple of nickels later, I was at the swings... when a large white van with a trailer drove up on to the grass and around to a storage area. A guy came out and walked over. He just simple said, "Hey, finding anything?" I told him other than some pocket change, no. He said he didn't figure I'd find much in a children's playground, of which I told him he would be very surprised what one might find in these areas. He wished me a good night and went on his way.



Shortly after I packed up and left, with the sinners finally rejoining their buddy on the curb and leaving as well. I walked away with $0.65 across 9 coins and the pretty rad scarab watch.