June 13th 2014 I’m a new to the Minelab family as of just a few days ago. So new, until the day of this hunt I had barley 30 min. on my new E-TRAC just trying to understand this new technology in my backyard. I have most recently been hunting with a new buddy and he swings the E-TRAC. Kind of think he had a lot to do with my purchase. I’ll have to admit this new found friend has reignited my passion for detecting. He’s half my age but his enthusiasm is contagious and we think a lot alike when it comes to detecting.
The day started out at an old home site in the town where we live. With our town founded in the mid 1800’s this property was some of the oldest dirt in town. Where a home and a barn once stood now is corn field and a grassy hill. As the story is told by the owner who purchased this property in 1955 the house was torn down about ten years ago and the barn shortly after. So as anyone here knows this is good and bad for us who seek to uncover the past. What was the yard and edge of a small hill where kids once played is littered with everything from Iron to bits of glassware and everything in between for over 150 years. From the advice of my partner I started out in a simple open screen mode in two tone ferrous. I had been playing with all of my E-TRAC's various options getting use to the new sounds and TID’s. In a little over an hour I’d dug the usual rusty nails, bits of foil and can slaw and a few newer tokens and one 16 wheat at the bottom of a small hill. Working my way back toward where the house use to be I got a rather shallow 10/11- 43/44 that bounced around quite a bit. Opened a 3 to 4” deep hole and the signal was still there but steady, dug another inch or so and out popped a coin. Penny size I started rubbing off the dirt thinking it was just a wheaty. When I realized it seemed a bit thicker I was excited to think I might have found my first fatty IH. Showed it to my partner and we went back to the truck to soaked it down with water and clean it up. My partner is one of the new generation with high tech phones and internet connections literally anywhere, so when a faint outline of an Eagle began to appear I ask him to look up Flying Eagle on his phone. He looked at me with big eyes and said “no way”. Sure enough that’s what I’d found. Sorry I don’t have any pictures of the site or me digging it or anything that happened after the dig but I have my partner as witness to one of the oldest coins I’ve found to date. She’s pretty toasted and the back is pretty much a loss but she’s all mine. I think I’m gonna like this E-TRAC.
Craig E. - USA