1812 Finds!!

So Dan and Don were planning to go out to the Ghost town on Saturday. For me it is a two hour drive one way. There is an additional 40 minute hike. So basically it’s an all day commitment. I declined the invite and instead drove 20 minutes to a place I had a hunch might contain some old stuff. I started off in the woods finding the usual beer can lids and pull tabs. I recently learned to have confidence in a place even if you aren’t getting any signals. And with pull tabs present there is always a good chance for some modern silver. So I continued my wandering.
I got a nice high tone on my machine that gave me high confidence I was going to dig silver. Sure enough it turned out to be a silver ring.
A little more wandering and I came to area with a good concentration of pull tabs. Going slower I heard some high tones mixed in with mostly low tones. At first I dug a pull tab. Then rescanning the spot gave a good “penny” sound.

I thought it was going to be a wheat penny but when I unearthed the disc it was about the diameter of a Large Cent but seemed thinner. Wiping away some dirt I could make out the wreath on the back identifying it as a Large Cent! I was very surprised.



When I got home and showed it to Nate he said something like “holy smokes – that’s a Classic Head. I don’t even have one of those for my book”. I then cleaned it a little and the picture reveal it was an 1812 Large Date Classic Head. Very cool.


So since I really didn’t search the area that well I went back the next day. Not more than 10 feet from where the 1812 Classic Head was found I found another coin. This one was also dated 1812. It is a Canadian token. I started cleaning the side with the date first and when I saw the bold 1812 I got excited.

Didn't really clean up too well.



I tried to find some information on the token. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia Lower Canada had the greatest variety of tokens. This particular one has the bust of the Duke of Wellington on it. It is a pretty scarce variety (doesn't have the Penny Token lettering).
These two little toy lead axes were found within a few feet of where the coins were as were the flat buttons.


Typical stuff that you find in wooded areas that teens used for partying in the 60s & 70s:


Silver ring with cheap stone:


Went back to the site a week later and found a Buffalo Nickel.

Sweet Seated Dime!

Thursday after work I hit the grist mill site.
Targets were getting scarce in closer to the mill foundation so I started working areas I have not detected much. Ended up finding a wheat penny and then hit this beautiful seated dime:



It was not very deep at all. The area where it was found:


Since Nate had a test the next day I didn't want him “distracted” and refrained from telling him about the coin. Well after his test the next day Nate heads down to the site.


Didn't take him long and he pulled a Large Cent:


So he comes home and proudly declares to me that he found a Large Cent. Not to be outdone I whip out the seated dime. I love the look of disbelief he gives me in these moments!


A couple other hunts produced my first shield nickel.



Date is very hard to make out.


An old flat button:


Misc Stuff:

1875 penny grist mill hunt

So, the September/October weather in Cleveland this year has been exceptionaly nice. This enabled me to get some good perch fishing in. Thus, the detecting trips have been limited to an hour or so after work. The mill site that I have been hunting has been great because it's very close to home. I am content to hunt for an hour and come home with one nice keeper. Each of the last two hour long hunts only netted one keeper each but they were decent ones.
Dug up a crusty IH:

Turned out to be a semi-key date – 1875. But it's still crusty.


The next keeper turned out to be a 1916 Barber Dime.

Trip to Powell (Columbus)

My wife and I have friends in Powell (northern Columbus suburb) and try to visit them once a year. Last year when we were there they told us about how their church had purchased an old house with some land. Here is my wife and her girl friend in front of the old garage (church in background).



The purchase was worked out such that the old guy living there could remain another year. The only place they could put the road was right where the house stood. So it was going to come down. The house was built in 1900.



It had a little shed with some cool stuff in it.







We got down there on a Friday. John (Host) was going to his highschool football game that night and was just leaving as we pulled in. I declined his invitation to go to the game since there was “treasure to be found!”

Arriving at the site I was a little dishearteded to see they had already moved a bunch of dirt. I tried to quickly assessed what was “original” and what was worthless to hunt. It wasn't so easy to determine. There were not a lot of targets. I was encouraged to find an IH.



I didn't have a lot of time since I was going to meet the ladies for diner. Just as I was about to pack it up for the night I found a Canadian Large Cent.



So I was encouraged with two keepers. The girls thought it was cool but when John got home he really gave me the business. I guess he thought I should have been coming home with bags of silver.

Well the next day I got some of the shiny stuff.
I started near where I found the Canadian LC. Sure enough within 20 minutes or so I had a nice silver.....



5 Franc. Minted from 1865 to the early 1900s.

It was cool to see I could read the date (1867). I found some wheat pennies and a couple 40's mercs to end up with three silver.



Here is an image of what the coin looked like from the mint:



Also found an old Dog Tag and a couple insulators. The house must have been in Delaware even though we were staying in Powel.





Overall I thought I did a pretty thorough job on the site. And actually I did except I missed one coin....to make a long story short we had car trouble and my son ended up coming down the next day. He decided to hunt the place for an hour or so while my wife and I attended to other matters. He only found one good thing but it made it worthwhile:



Three days later all three of the building were gone:



All in all a fun trip with some decent keepers.

Grist Mill Hunt #2 Labor Day

Labor Day was nice weather and our family really didn't have anything planned so later in the day I went out detecting for an hour. I started in the area where I found the Barber Quarter. I got an old ford key.


I widened my area and found an area with a bunch of signals.



Knowing if there were a bunch of signals encouraged me that there had to something good yet to be found. Sure enough after kicking a small log out of the way I got a solid signal. There were lots of roots to dig through and the coin was deep. When I dug up the 1846 Large Cent I said to myself “Sweet!”.









Here is part of what remains of what was built in 1832. These stones are still in place although the under the road tunnel has been filled in.

Lawrence Mill Finds Hunt #1

During the Summer I had found a Mercury Dime in an open grassy part of the metroparks. It was close to the wooded area I knew had the old grist mill and
Dorvak home. Since the weather was cooling down and I wanted to see if I could find an old relic or two I wandered into the woods. I just looked for some
open areas to swing the coil.



As you can see from the pictures some of the spots are not huntable at this time. I found some open area and not too long into the hunt I got a great signal.



I was surprised to find a Barber Quarter.
A few feet away I got another good
signal and the 1897 IH came out of the ground.


Then I started digging all types of signals. I found pull tabs and misc junk and what I thought at the time was a gear turned out to be a bent up token.