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In mid-March the temperature was finally
warm enough for the ground to be unfrozen around here. The coins shown here are
ones found near various Huntington streets and at a Roanoke park between
mid-March and April 02. I am especially happy to have found my first silver
half, a flawless1943 Walking Liberty. It was 6 inches deep and I dug it
carefully without scratching it because I knew it could be a silver coin. I
learned from lessons past and did not clean the dirt away at first to avoid
small scratches on the coin. The picture does not show the detail well, but all
the lines in her dress are clear and crisp. Four of the quarters shown here
came out of the same hole at a Roanoke park, which is unusual.
Kevin McCracken 04/02/03 |
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I went back to the section of Byron
Street that I found the two silver coins in the same block. Based on my earlier
findings, I assumed that this Street had not been hunted before, as impossible
as that seems. Just 20 or so paces from the 1943 half, I found a 1942 half
about 5 inches deep. Later on the weekend, a friend of our family named Mr.
Harris let me metal detect his 1873 brick home. I found the Barbers and the
Indian pennies there. It had never been detected.
Kevin McCracken 04/13/03 |
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The 1917 half here was found at a home in
the country. (I almost had my first Barber half) Another old house caught my
eye this week. I talked to the owner, Mr. Moon, and he was very kind in letting
me metal detect his yard. His home was built in 1865, and is on the National
Register of Historic Places. It is beautifully maintained and has an all brick
exterior and with lots of yard. As soon as I started, I found a flawless 1945
Mercury dime which I later gave to Mr. Moon as a keepsake. Within the next two
hours or so, I found these Barbers and the 1917 dime, along with countless
pennies from the mid-early 1900's. I don't believe this yard had ever been
detected either, oddly enough. I've been metal detecting a year now, and
thought most all the nicer old places were hunted out, but apparently that is
not completely true...
Kevin McCracken 04/18/03 |
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These coins came from two different parks
that I have hunted many times with no results. One park is Hayes park in
Portland Indiana, and the other is Elmwood park in Huntington. I have talked to
metal detecting veterans with 30 years behind their belts who spin cheerful
yarns about the good old days when they went to these parks and found 20-30
silver coins a night for several days in a row. One guy told me he and a buddy
detected under the old bleachers when they were torn down and found handfulls
of Mercury dimes. Another told me that he found 3 silver halves within a radius
of 20 feet. I decided this weekend that I would go to these two parks and find
silver coins in hunted-out parks just to spite the old guys who thought they
got everything. Here is a lesson for you Grasshopper... Go to the outermost
edges of these parks, and by every tree and bush and difficult area that you
can find. There was a highway on the edge of one park, and normally you would
never think of a person being by the highway - hence most people skip this area
when detecting. Hunting lonley and difficult areas pays off in frequently
hunted parks.
Kevin McCracken 06/09/03 |
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I found my first Buffalo nickle at the Moon home. I
finally was at a place that I could detect in all metal mode without worrying
about trash. Some of these other coins were found at the Smith home and other
places.
Kevin McCracken 06/26/03 |
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Well, after the
recent park finds, I decided to try Memorial Park at those difficut and
non-obvious areas that I mentioned ab ove. I have found a few coins in the
well-hunted places in Memorial Park, so I thought for sure that the weird areas
might have been missed by others hunters. To my delight, I found 4 Indian cents
in the same hole, along with a Buffalo nickle not far from it. I ran out of
time after finding these, but the next evening, I went back prepared to spend
some time where I found the Indian cents. I could not believe it when I pulled
the 10" 1748 silver coin out of the ground. I didn't know what it was at
first, but later found out it is a 2 Reales Spanish coin. They apparently were
in use in the United States as late as the 1850's. Right after finding it, I
found the 1876 Seated Liberty dime, and the barber. I have been looking for the
nice Seated Liberty for a long time, but it paled in comparison to the 1748
coin. I was a happy boy.
Kevin McCracken 07/06/03 |
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I decided to go back to the same place
again, and after 3 hours of finding nothing, I finally found another silver
coin - the 1902 Barber quarter. I found my third Buffolo nickle for the month
(and ever) in very nice condition at the Smith home along with an 18K gold
ring, which I gave to the Smith family (they agreed to let me hunt the ground
in exchange for any jewelry found or 1/2 of any great treasure found). This is
a fair condition in my opinion.
Kevin McCracken 07/13/03 |
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After having all that success at Memorial
Park in Huntington, I decided to try very seriously at another older park that
I had previously given up on - Elmwood Park. This park was established at the
same time as Memorial Park, but seemed to be all hunted out from my experience
and from stories that others had told me. Using the techniques explained
earlier, I went to bizzare-out of the way places in this park and started
finding silver coins and wheat pennies. I found all this in just a few hours by
looking in out-of-the-way places at this park.
Kevin McCracken 07/26/03 |
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Of course, after finding the coins
mentioned above, I had to go back (and will likely go back some more based on
what I found during this visit). The 1854 Seated Liberty dime was a knee
bender! I didn't expect a coin this old in with coins from the 1930's and
1940's. What is amazing about finding this dime is the condition. I have looked
at it under a 10X magnifying glass and aside from a few minor scratches from
pieces of dirt over the years, the coin appears to have no wear at all. I am
definately going to take it to a professional to help determine if it is in
MS6X condition as I suspect. This is the nicest and oldest US silver coin that
I have found so far. It's always nice to find a half too.
(A coin dealer estimated that the dime is in near mint
condition - worth $200 - $300! It's my nicest find so far.)
Kevin McCracken 08/03/03 |
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Three more coins managed to come out of
Elmwood park. One Mercury, one Rosevelt, one Standing Liberty quarter. The
Barber was 8" below the ground near an old sidewalk. The Indian cent was
at a Warren park, and the 1940 Mercury dime was at an old country house. I also
found a 1904 Barber dime there, but the people that owned the house seemed so
facinated that I found a coin as old as their house that I gave it to them. I
don't mind volunteering to do that once in a while if they are interested,
especially since they let me hunt their property in the first place.
Kevin McCracken 09/03/03 |
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I went on vacation to South Carolina with
my family. I visited an abandoned church ground that had a 1790's church that
burnt down in 1865 during the Civil War. I found the Civil War era bullets
there and the skeleton key. These bullets were a type fired from a single shot
musket, even though they are not spherical. The other coins were ones that I
found various places around Huntington county, including Hier's
Park.
Kevin McCracken 11/08/03 |
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I realized that I had forgotten to try my
tricksy out-of-the-way hunting techniques on a small park in Huntington that I
gave up on last year. Laurie park was established in 1939, but apparently had
people dropping coins there earlier than that! All the silver coins here were
found there in a very small area - a 20' x 20' corner of the park. This little
section of the park was way away from everything else, and had to have been
missed by the other people who seem to have hunted the main areas of that park
out. I found 5 Indian cents at an old farm house. I gave the owner a Mercury
dime and an old wheat cent.
Kevin McCracken 11/17/03 |
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It warmed up in mid-December enough for
me to brave going out a couple more times. I found two Indian cents at a
friends house, and gave him one of them. I found two more at Memorial Park
along with a Barber and a Mercury dime. These 4 coins were right by the road -
a place that was obviously overlooked by others. The road probably wasn't there
when some of them were lost. I found the Walking lady by a sidewalk on Williams
street. The bottom coins were along a street in a little Ohio town.
Kevin McCracken 12/31/03 |
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