I've been detecting for two years with barely anything to show. I was fortunate however, to having unearthed a trifecta last year. Three silver dimes, one Barber, one Mercury and one Rosie with tons and tons of clad to boot. I don't think I was cut-out to be a silver slinger, instead I have seemed to be pretty dedicated on the token side of coin shooting. I was desperate. I turned to the Internet for help and it showed me a few ways to research locations with historic relevance. Made sense. The older, the better. I devised a system. Searching for parks around old homes and farms. This allows me to push up close to adjacent yards and thus, improve my chance of finding something old.
My first location; a beautiful park, originally an old Farmstead from the 19th century. I pulled up and instantly felt like I was at a perfect spot. It was a hot summer day but there was plenty of shade here. It was perfect. I started swinging right up against the fence of the brightest red restored barn I had ever seen. Within 20 minutes I had 8 shotgun shell head stamps. All were from the early 1900s. A few quarters after that, I realized this spot hadn't been detected. Unfortunately, the quarters were all clad. I wasn't giving up.
Another steady 40. That's a quarter. I knew it wasn't silver. I knew it had to be another sandwiched Washington. I dug my plug to get it. When I flipped my plug, I turned on my pinpointer and jabbed it into the plug. I checked the hole. Nothing. I checked my pinpointer against my shovel and it was indeed working. I jammed it back in the hole. I heard a beep. This was definitely a deep quarter down there. I dug the hole deeper. I tried the pinpointer again and I was right on it. With my gloves on, I wiped away some dirt and I saw a perfectly round piece of shiny metal. I got excited and continued to scrape away until I reached my finger under and pried it up. Is this just another spoon? I wiped it clean and instantly saw the word "sterling". Finally! Upon investigation, I found it was made by J E Caldwell and had the initials EKM on it as well as a date inscribed reading "April 1907". I couldn't be happier.
It was a huge soup spoon weighing in at 1.588 oz!
Timmy D Fox – New Jersey, USA
