Two hunts at empty 1920s school

[Full Metal Digger]

Sunday:

Today I hunted at an old school that is no longer in use. The state owns it so they keep the grass mowed! Of course it's been hunted many times I'm sure. There is about 1 acre of grassy area behind the school and that's where I hunted for 4 hours today. I was finding wheaties so I figured there would be some silver that the others had probably missed (hey, if they're missing wheaties, they're probably missing silvers, right?).

After two hours (and 6 wheaties) I finally got that silver sound at about 7 inches. I was very happy to see a 1938-D mercury dime emerge from the soil. About an hour later I got a tiny little signal at 10 inches deep. Not a coin signal mind you. The numbers were showing 01-35. More like a little bit of falsing from some rusty nails. It only made noise from one direction. Since it was 10 inches deep I decided to dig it just because I had not gotten any signals that deep in 3 hours. I was digging like a badger pulling the dirt out of that hole! Stuck my pin pointer in and got a solid signal. Hmmm. Dug a bit more and WOW, a large silver disk appeared in the bottom of the hole. A 1945 Washington quarter!

I also had a 12-47 at 3 inches that turned out to be a dainty sterling ring. Later, I found another ring that also rang up high. It looks like silver but I looked all over for a hallmark and couldn't find one. I remembered seeing a post the other day from someone who found the marking on the outside of the ring. I checked and sure enough, I found a mark that reads 800. I am assuming it mean 80% silver but that seems really odd to me. Any ideas on this is greatly appreciated!

I ended up with 13 wheaties, 2 silvers, 2 rings, and 60 modern coins. Not a bad day. I have tomorrow off so will be returning first thing in the morning!

Monday:

I went back to the school I was at yesterday. Spent 3 hours there. Yesterday I noticed that when I dug holes toward the back of the school yard, I found bits of broken pottery, glass, and pieces of bricks. I'm pretty sure there were older homes there at one time. Today I started back there on the hopes I could find some coins that pre-date the school. After about 30 minutes I got a choppy penny sounding signal about 6 inches deep. Didn't sound like much but it was repeatable. I cut my plug and saw bits of glass and brick in the hole.

My pinpointer was giving me a weak signal at the bottom. I had to pry a big chunk of brick out and when I did, a silver disk plopped out onto the dirt pile! It was caked with mud and I wasn't sure if it was a token, button, or coin. I wiped a bit of mud and saw the bottom half of an eagle! It was the back of a Barber quarter! I turned it over to see the date and to my horror, saw I had scraped the face of the coin when I was prying the brick out of the hole! Seems like I always end up scratching Barber quarters. Bummer.

I finished the day up with 40 modern coins and 5 more wheaties plus a child's 10K gold-filled ring (junk).

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af95/daddydigger1/MD%20FInds%202012/IMG_1028.jpg

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af95/daddydigger1/MD%20FInds%202012/IMG_1038.jpg

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af95/daddydigger1/MD%20FInds%202012/IMG_1039.jpg

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af95/daddydigger1/MD%20FInds%202012/IMG_1041.jpg

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af95/daddydigger1/MD%20FInds%202012/IMG_1040.jpg

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af95/daddydigger1/MD%20FInds%202012/IMG_1048.jpg

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af95/daddydigger1/MD%20FInds%202012/IMG_1047.jpg

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af95/daddydigger1/MD%20FInds%202012/IMG_1054.jpg

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af95/daddydigger1/MD%20FInds%202012/IMG_1049.jpg

[POKIE73]

:congrats: :congrats:shocked04:n a great hunt :happy:yes:ou had a good time i am sure i am not sure but the 800 mark could mean gold but i am not sure again congrats on your finds dennis :perfect10: :perfect10:

[JTGOLD]

nice silver and wheats,wtg.

[aloldstuff]

I may be wrong here but I think that 800 means coin silver. Old time tableware, spoons, forks etc had the 800 mark or were marked coin silver. Sorry about your Barber quarter, looks like you tried to execute her. Nice thinking about the old bricks and pottery. :congrats: on all your keepers and those wheats came out nice and clean.

[dalewestaby]

Your wheat pennies are such great shape.. The 800 ring is for sure silver, it's looks like a low grade silver similar to a war nickel. Awesome finds, I can tell you really know how to sweep a grass field :cool:

[Full Metal Digger]

Your wheat pennies are such great shape.. The 800 ring is for sure silver, it's looks like a low grade silver similar to a war nickel. Awesome finds, I can tell you really know how to sweep a grass field :cool:


Hey Dale, I just learned something very interesting about the 800 silver ring I found. I looked on ebay and saw several 800 silver items listed. I noticed some of them mentioned they came from Poland. I googled 800 silver Poland and got a ton of hits. Apparently, 800 silver is commonly used for jewelry in Poland. Here's the tie-in. When I was at the school, I spoke to an elderly gentleman who lived across the street and who attended that school way back in the day. He said that part of East St. Louis was always called Polish town because of all the Polish imigrants who lived there up until right after WW2 and when the jobs dried up, they left! He said it's still called Polish town even though all the Poles have moved away. The ring makes perfect sense now! HH, Dave.

[dave in iowa]

great finds , barber quarters are always fun to find |:cheering:

[Tony Two-Cent]

Great story and nice finds, Dave! Congrats on the rings and old coins! Nothing like finding a silver quarter from the 1800s.

I'm glad you were able to find out more about the 800 silver ring. Nice back story to it and really adds to its history.

:congrats:

[milco]

Congrats on a couple great hunts! That really sounds like a fun spot! Your persistance paid off, congrats!

[HEAVYMETALNUT]

Hey Dale, I just learned something very interesting about the 800 silver ring I found. I looked on ebay and saw several 800 silver items listed. I noticed some of them mentioned they came from Poland. I googled 800 silver Poland and got a ton of hits. Apparently, 800 silver is commonly used for jewelry in Poland. Here's the tie-in. When I was at the school, I spoke to an elderly gentleman who lived across the street and who attended that school way back in the day. He said that part of East St. Louis was always called Polish town because of all the Polish imigrants who lived there up until right after WW2 and when the jobs dried up, they left! He said it's still called Polish town even though all the Poles have moved away. The ring makes perfect sense now! HH, Dave.

interesting,pays off talkin to old timers.they are a wealth of knowledge.
awesome hunt! i'd go back!

[CODY]

Great post and great finds. Shoot, I wish I could find a Barber quarter to scratch! Congrats!

[jkress]

Like Cody said... great post DD. <: I always enjoy your posts. :yes:

The school put out some great keepers for you. :smitten: The pair of quarters would make anybody's hunt.

Congrats.