Friday, May 25, 2012

5/25- Could It Be Real?

The few days I have been hitting up a number of parks. I found a silver ring with some nice stones in them that I need to get checked out. I will let you guys be the judge.

This bad boy came up as a typical silver ring with some nice stones. I hope it's real





 The cool bracelet has wolves on it in what appears to be some king of class. The necklace piece has some tarnish on it so I am guessing it is silver as well. Chase Larson already called dibs on the wolf bracelet. 

Monday, May 21, 2012

5/19- Tough Rewarding Weekend

The weekend started off rough with some issues with the truck. After getting that problem fixed, I headed over to a elementary school and Lion's park. I wanted to find some silver items and I was rewarded. Between the two rings and earring, I found .25 ounces of silver. Lion's park also paid dividends with two wheat pennies both of which were about 10" down. I found three wheat pennies in all, 1918, 1939, and 1948. I also found a few interesting items as well. After it was all said and done, I found $20.99 in coins this week.

Total amount of coins for the weekend equals $9.90. Over a 100 pennies which I am getting tired of finding
 Jewelry Items from the weekend.
 Close up on the silver items.
 Wheat pennies from 1918, 1939, 1948
 Mystery coin: This coin is the size of a nickel and was down several inches. No markings that I can tell and it is very smooth. It appears to have some age but I can't tell. I'm going to clean it up and see if I can get anything off of it
 Odd items from the weekend
 So the brass piece on the left is either a top to a bed post or a door knob. It was about 15" down under a tree. The belt buckle piece was also down a ways and I found that at pioneer park in Provo. Right next to the pioneer museum so it could be pretty old as well.

Friday, May 18, 2012

5/18- There's a First Time for Everything

So the last two times I have been out, I have had two experiences that I have never had in my professional career. The first experience was at Wines Park in Lehi. I had found a lot of shallow targets but nothing of real value. Then I hit a target that was about 6" down. I uncovered a penny that appeared to be old so I check the date to see 1942. I love finding wheat pennies because their old. I decided to check the hole again and found two more pennies. I could make out the date until I got home. The other two were 1940 and 1910!!! When I saw 1910 I was blown away since that is officially the oldest coin I have ever found. I have never found multiple old coins in the same hole so that was pretty exciting as well.

Fast forward to last night. I was out with my good buddy Ben and we were working an area next to an old amphitheater. Shortly after arriving at the location, I found my first ring. Once again I checked the hole to find another ring and a chain. Nothing of real value but still a first for me. Ben told me he has never found two rings in the same hole so I felt pretty lucky. In total I found several pieces of jewelry which leads me to believe that after a show, people would take off their costume jewelry and end up losing it. None of it was silver or gold though :(  

Three Wheat Pennies in one hole with the oldest coin in VT Mining history
 A little history about this coin: 1910 was the first year they made the wheat penny. Before 1910 the penny had lady liberty on the front instead of go old Lincoln.
 Jewelry finds from Wines Park.
 Total dollar amount $1.83
 Jewelry finds from amphitheater. The thick ring in the middle is a Lord of Rings ring. That is the third one I have found. I guess there is more then one ring that rules them all.
 Total dollar amount $1.20. Two wheat pennies from 1936 and 1944.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

5/15/2012 Scera Park Hunt

I went after work to Scera Park for a little bit. The ring I found was little toy ring that was actually in the parking lot. Since it was pretty warm outside, I worked a small area under the trees near the pavilion. I was surprise to find several areas where with multiple targets in the same hole. It makes life easier. In total I found $4.64 in change.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

On Thursday, I flew out to Bakersfield to see my mom for the weekend. We had a great time and like any professional, I made sure to take my metal detector with me. I didn't get a lot of time to hunt but I found a few regular coins. Last night I stopped by a little elementary school before my softball game and found a little necklace with whistle and a couple bucks in change. Here is the total between last night and the weekend.

My metal detector is super sensitive to pick up a piece of a quarter that was either cut by a lawn mower or someone did it purposely.

 I went to dig up a penny in the playground and these two guys came up from under the wood chips. If I am ever part of a urban survival shown then I know where to go now to find gubs.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Lion's Park

I went out last night with Ben and we had a great time over at Lion's park. He said it was an older park, a good chance for me to find some older coins. I was able to find two wheat pennies from 1946 and 1955. I also found a small silver necklace piece and a Girl Scout badge. In total found about $.98 in change, not a whole lot but sometimes it's nice to find older items. Both wheat pennies were about 8-9 inches down. Ben found a really nice CTR ring that appears to be pretty old as well. Good day for both of us. 

Still working on my photo taking ability. Sorry for the amateur hour people.
 You can always tell when it's silver because silver with tarnish a bit and appear like it's black. This piece appears to have some type of religious caption on it but since I only have half, I can't really tell.
 Two wheat pennies. For anyone not understanding what a wheat penny is, before 1958 on the back of the penny it would say ONE CENT on it instead of now having the Lincoln Memorial Building. It has two strands of wheat on each side which is why people call them wheat pennies. 

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Beach Hunting

I figured if I wanted to get VT Mining off and running strong this year, I would need more gold items. I decided to take a trip down to Huntington Beach for some beach hunting. I was very hopeful with the research and planning I did but the trip was pretty unsuccessful. It was the first real set back of the year. Special thanks to Jordan Bastian for allowing me to sleep on his couch.

Stopped in at Laguna Beach which was a lovely little town to detect.

Total findings for the trip. The chain is not gold and it was a real bummer. I did find a wheat penny from 1955 that was about 2 feet down in the sand.

 Here is what to expect on the beach. I found a lot of hair pins, bottle caps, and nails to name a few.

Boys Night Out

So last Thursday, my buddy Derald Miller asked me to bring my metal detectors over to search part of his backyard. His house was built in the 1920's so I figured it would be a good chance to find some old coins. My buddy Chase Larson also came along for the ride and we all got out there. Apparently there used to be some gypsies living in his backyard so we were excited to see what we can find.

Derald and Chase getting ready to find the good stuff. Their eyes are filled with wonderment and hope of striking it rich.
A few words from Chase Larson:

It comes as no surprise that Mike would ask me to go metal detecting with him. Or that he would ask me to write a post as a guest blogger.  It is, after all, in my blood.  A man who is (possibly) my great-great-great uncle, Alexander Graham Bell, developed the first metal detector of the modern era.  He used a snorkel, 2 pennies, a bayonet and some Elmer’s glue.  With it he found the Liberty Bell, or so the story goes.  According to the internet, Napoleon Bonaparte apparently had the first metal detector in recorded history, but it was a knockoff DetectorPro he got at Costco, so we don’t really accept that.  Again, this is what the internet tells me.  After learning about other famous metal detectors throughout history (Lisa Loeb, Reginald VelJohnson (tv’s Carl Winslow), Montezuma, Buzz Aldrin, Manute Bol (#RIP)) I decided I would take Mike up on his offer, and see if I had the mettle to detect.

I didn’t.

I was terrible.  I had no patience.  No organization.  I discovered two surterranean horseshoes (still the best finds of the day, IMO), but they were visible to the naked eye.  I gained a greater appreciation through this experience for not only Mike, but for the art of Metal Detecting, and America.  And the movie Holes.  Shia LeBouf wasn’t just a troubled kid, he was a Patriot.

As Lil Wayne states in his aptly titled hit ‘Ya Dig’, he has ‘phantoms with a Showfer (his spelling, not mine.) Bricks with a trill again waiting on a Gofer.’ As Lil waits on his Gofer, I eagerly await my next adventure in Patrotric American Metal Detecting.  

Lars Bars




This was the last thing I thought I would find in Derald's yard, It came up as a 12:19 which is is typically a number for gold. I will need to take it in to find out more.
 This is all the good stuff we found in the backyard. We found a toy tank, top of a old salt shaker, copper top, a token of some sort, 2 wheat pennies, a very nice ring, and a couple dollars in change.
 The what pennies were 1936 and 1944. The 1936 was in the sand box in the picture above, the 1944 was literally on the surface.
 I'm thinking the ring is a birth stone ring.
 Gotta show the trash

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Testing out the Big Coil

A few weeks ago, I purchased a large search coil for my metal detector. It's suppose to find deeper, older targets. Most coins you find around here are no more then 8 inches in the ground. Older items will work their way down in the soil so if you are finding things deeper, you have a better chance of it being something old. Last night I went with Ben Borup to an old park built in the 1930's. The park had a lot of metal in the ground from an old carnival park. My first item I found was at 10 inches and it was a 1961 silver dime. We didn't find a ton of coins but we both found silver coins and some wheat pennies. Ben took home the prize of the day with his 1943 silver quarter. In total, I found $1.16.

 Here is the 1961 silver dime with my three wheat pennies. Each of these pennies were found around 10-12 inches down so the new search coil is working well. The pennies are from 1935, 1944, and 1955. The 1935 pennies was snuggled up at the base of an old tree.
 I am not sure this is from the arm forces but it's pretty old and I would have to say it's my favorite find of the day.
 At first I thought this was trash but once I cleaned it up a bit, it has some marking of a ring. It appears to be very old and it was pretty deep.
 You don't just find the good stuff, you gotta go through the trash sometimes.