From the Webmaster's Desk...

    This past Sunday morning was spent out in the middle of a farmers field trying to locate an old military fort.  The field is no longer used for farming purposes and we are keeping an eye on it as wooden markers and spray painted symbols are already in the field.  I guess the bulldozers are next. We are definitely in the right area as indicated by our finds, (see Logbook) but more research will have to be conducted.  I was hoping the coin(?) would clean up at least good enough to identify it, but that is how it goes sometimes.  The fort was in existence during the very early 1700's.  There were still some buildings around in the 1940's.  I think at this point it would be wise to talk to some of the senior folks and see if anyone remembers the place.

     Back in 1978 my grand-mother was telling me about an old picnic area that she would go to when she was a little girl.  This was around the 1910 time frame.  The place had a band shell and an ice-cream and soda stand.  The area was nothing but woods, but she gave me the exact location and I found it with no problem whatsoever.  I hunted the area twice and found 13 Indian head pennies, 1 Flying eagle penny (1857), 2 shield nickels, 1 V-nickel, 1 Barber dime and 2 Barber quarters.  I hunted the place during the month of April and remember just kicking the leaves out of the way and finding the pennies literally on top of the ground.  I was very grateful that my grand-mother had told me about the place.  I had only been coin shooting about four years and these were my some of my first really old coins.

     It does make sense when you think about it.  The seniors are the one's that spent the money we are looking for.  Seems perfectly logical to me to ask them where they went to picnics, church, school and anywhere else money could have been lost.  You can learn a lot of un-recorded history by listening to the stories our senior folks have to tell!

     I have been receiving email lately on how to extract coins out of the ground once you locate them.  Everyone has their own technique, but most are pretty similar.  I probe coins two inches or less.  Anything deeper I will not probe for fear of scratching an old coin.  It is not fool proof though as the 1941 Washington quarter I just recently found was only an inch and a half deep.  Within two inches it is close enough to pop out of the ground with your probe.  On deeper coins I cut a half round plug (4 to 5 inches) and hinge it up and then run the detector head back over the hole and the plug.  If I have to remove dirt out of the hole I carry a 18" square napkin made out of a heavy material.  The dirt is placed on the napkin and it makes it easy to pour it back into the hole.  I then tamp the half round plug back in place and it is very hard to see where the cut was made.  I use a marine knife (what else for a retired military TH'er) with a 9 inch blade.  The point is now round like a butter knife but I do occasionally sharpen the edge to make cutting the plug a little easier.  I also use a gator digger for field use and sometimes on a really deep coin.  All trash and coins are kept in a two pouch coin apron made from an old mint bag that once held nickels.

     A RUDE awakening!  That pretty much describes my last time out coin shooting.  Recently, while hunting with my partner Roy ( who uses a Garrett GTI 2500) I got a penny/dime reading at two inches on my Spectrum XLT.  Digging down to this level and beyond revealed no target.  Roy came over and swung his coil over the hole and received an erratic penny/dime reading but it was in the "C" range, meaning it was too large for a coin.

     Isn't it time for White's to come out with a new model XLT?  I don't know about you, but I am ready for visual identification.  Something along the lines of an LCD screen that actually "draws" a picture of the target that is detected.  They could call it VTI for Visual Target Identification.  Being able to read the date on the coin would be a nice feature...
 

See you in the field!

J.R. Hoff

[top]