Last year I obtained permission to metal detect on my small town's school property - but NOT the playing fields. I did explore one small playground, but did not find much. Today (Memorial Day) was one of the rare warm sunny days we have had this year so I went back to explore the much larger playground on the other side of the building. I spent about 2 hours just in the playground.
What a difference! I found $6.14 in coins, including 16 quarters and a dollar coin! I have never found that many coins in one place before, and I'm sure there's more to be found. The whole area is covered in wood chips to a depth of over 8" in most places, and many of the coins were down deep.
Below the surface the chips got wetter, and the deeper I dug the more moldy the chips. Many coins were near the surface and fresh, but others were so far down that I had to use my trowel to break up the compressed chips.
There were a couple of interesting finds like this token for "Gatti's GREAT FOOD - GREAT FUN" with "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - LIBERTY" on the back.
And this "Oliver Vending Game Token" that says: "NO CASH VALUE" on the back:
And a pretty pendant that I'm sure some child missed for a day or so:
I cleaned all the coins up in my rock tumbler with white vinegar and a teaspoon of salt. Pennies and tokens in one batch for 2 hours and the dimes/nickels/quarters for 4 hours. Some were really stained from the wood chips, but not badly corroded as they would have been in dirt. They all came out quite clean.
Memorial
day is in a few days and I decided to sweep the beach at Damariscotta
Lake State Park here in Maine. The weather has been so lousy that I
have not been out detecting much, But today was lovely so I thought I
would swing over the sand and see what I could find. The rangers were
cleaning up the parking lot and I guess they were going to rake off all
the storm debris from the beach.
I
didn't find much, a few coins and fishing lures, but it was so nice to
be out in the sun! My favorite find was this polished stone that was
laying right on the beach. It feels nice in the hand and seem like it
would be a good "worry stone" for your pocket.
My first swing on the flea market site this year turned up a beautiful bronze Civil War veteran lapel pin. The text says: "GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC - 1866 VETERAN 1866". The back is fixed:
Since I'm not a collector by nature, I put it on eBay and it sold for $20!
I keep getting the feeling that the flea market site was a mustering ground for civil war soldiers as it is right next to the train tracks. Perhaps they were boarding the train to head south to the war from here in midcoast Maine?
Other finds include a rusty old Firebird lighter:
Later that afternoon I also visited a friends field that abuts a small graveyard and found some rusty bits of farm equipment, a file and a few modern coins (not shown).
It has been wet, cold and overcast for weeks here in Maine, but finally I saw a little sun late this afternoon and decided to wander off into the 50 acre hay field across from my home. I started by going around the edge, following the tree line and that's where I turned up the big horse shoe. And I found some other assorted bit of farm equipment as I wandered across the field. It was really muddy!
Here's the view from the far side of the field looking back at my home.
And a couple of closer views of the horseshoe right after I hosed it off.
I don't know anything about horseshoes, but this seems really old. The field has probably been in active use for well over 200 years. I welcome any comments about this style of horse shoe.
Thanks to a knowledgeable Facebook friend, it appears to be from a draft horse with 3 screw type calks remaining on it.
I spent a couple of hours digging a friend's yard in Brunswick, Maine this afternoon. It was a lovely sunny spring day and I had been helping her clear brush and other yard work beforehand. The neighborhood was built in the 1970's so I didn't expect old coins or relics.
I did find a lot of modern coins along the road frontage: 10 pennies, 3 dimes and a quarter. It's funny how you find coins along the frontages of residential neighborhoods. An elderly neighbor stopped by and observed that I wouldn't find anything in the front yard because there had not been any kids living there. Well, 38 cents begs to differ.
Then I wandered into the back yard and kept finding big iron signals that when dug up looked like old farm equipment parts. My friend explained that her elderly widower neighbor that I had met earlier had lived next door for 65 years, and his house was the original farm house in the neighborhood. So that explains the old farm parts! I'll have to get permission to dig his property next!
The dirt was all dark moist loam - perfect for detecting, and it was a really enjoyable start to the season for me.
The crocus are just pushing up here in Maine and we have had several days of wet weather, so the ground is quite muddy which is great for detecting. Finally, the sun came out in the afternoon and I went for a quick dig around my property to "get back in the swing" of detecting.
The lawn is just greening in a bit and I wandered back into the woods and around the side of the house and found a few neat items.
The bolt is huge! 1 inch diameter - no idea what it is from - maybe farm equipment? There was a young boy living here 20 years ago and I have found a number of toy cars like the Viper Van pictured. It is interesting to see that they become filled with dirt that is really hard to get out even with my ultrasonic cleaner.
It was a nice start to the year though. I have lined up some great permissions on rural and suburban properties and will have more to share soon.
It has been months since the ground froze hard here in Maine, and I'll have to wait until April before I can dig again. So All I can do is look at all my "treasure", and enjoy the memories.
Last year I found a number of keys, mostly on the flea market site that I was detecting on throughout the year.
Among the modern keys were some from out of state like this one from Chicago:
I looked up the address, and that location is now the site of the Wintrust Arena.
The other interesting out of state key is this "Handy Harry" from 54 6th AVE N.Y.:
The address appears to be a brownstone in Brooklyn now. I imagine it may have been a small key shop a while back.
Here's one Made by Hudson Key from New Rochelle NY:
Then there is this USPS box box key that could be from anywhere:
I also particularly like this tiny keyhole that may have been from a jewelry box:
I can't imagine how tiny the key would have been!
And here are a couple of regular brass keyholes:
And finally a few skeleton keys that may be from relatively recent boxes:
The top one is plated zinc I think.
