A wonderful thing about our hobby is the relationships you make with other detectorists, we share a common interest and when you detect together it just increases the pleasures of making a great find. Our friend Bill invited us to a field site where he had made some great finds the previous couple of days. His generosity to us led to one of my all-time best finds. The day was cool and windy but the cornfield looked so inviting we started out and I soon found an Indian Head and a flat button, shortly after I found another Indian Head and then it seemed to slow down. I heard my wife Diane callout to me and she gave me our signal for a Seated Dime. Over the years we have developed hand signals so we can relay information over long distances. Bill and I went over to see her find of an 1859-O Seated Liberty Dime a low mintage coin of 480,000! A bit later she found an 1882 Indian Head while at the same time Bill found two Indians in a row.
I moved to another area and was rewarded with a couple of Indians including a nice 1868. Working in the corn stubble I got a sweet tone on my CTX but the numbers were jumpy, ranging from 12-32 to 12-42 mixed with iron signals. I could hear amongst the iron grunts a short but sweet tone and experience has taught me always go with the tone! A small shovel scoop of dirt exposed the target in the hole, it was round, it was silvery and it was big! I frantically waved to Bill and Diane and they came over to look and they were excited too and why not for it was a Capped Bust Half Dollar 1825! I had a Capped Bust coin on my wish list this year but I never, no never would I have considered this one! The ability of the E-Trac’s that Bill and Diane use and my CTX to find things in the iron is simply amazing and has rewarded us with many great finds to date and I am sure with more to come!
Tony Mantia – Ohio USA
