Returning to Same Park - January 29, 2013

After having pretty good luck the previous day, we returned to the same park, which is about twenty minutes away from our house.  The long item shown is a palm pilot stylus.  We also located a neat-looking metal button, three quarters, five dimes, and eleven pennies.....and the usual beer cap.

I have determined that if there are four hundred billion coins in this world, that half of them are located underneath the ground, which you will see in my future posts.

We are now up to $3.13 in money..... enough to buy a small coffee at Starbucks.

New Park - January 28, 2013

Rule #3 of Metal Detecting:  Always fill in the holes you dig, and try to make them look the same as they did before you started digging.  This usually requires a sharp digging tool, where you make a half-circle straight down, then fold the sod over in one piece to locate the item you are looking for.  Most of the time, this works fairly well.  But not always.  Thus, it leads us to Rule #4:  Buy a PINPOINTER.  A pin-pointer is shaped like a small, thin flashlight, and is about 8 inches long.  This item is very handy, as I will explain later.  The only drawback is that it costs about $130.00.   So after obtaining a second mortgage, we broke down and bought one.

The pin-pointer is placed in the hole after digging out the sod plug, and it helps to locate your target easier.  This helps to avoid over-digging.  The signal gets louder and more intense the closer you get to the object you are looking for.  So the metal detector finds the general area, and the pin-pointer zeroes in on it exactly.

Today's find included:  one dime, one quarter, one nickel, eleven pennies, a screw, two fake pearls, and the common pull-tab.  We are now officially up to $1.77.... Working toward that Big Mac combo.

Our BIGGEST find yet - January 16, 2013

Three days later we returned to the picnic shelter where there was also a playground next to it.  Shortly after starting, we found our biggest item to date:  a horseshoe.  I have no desire to see the horse that has a hoof big enough to fit this shoe.  Of course, it makes sense finding a horseshoe since it is only steps away from a horseshoe pit.  The funny thing is that this one was located underneath about an inch of grass and sod.  Figure out how that happened.

We also found four pennies, a dime, a nut, and a small green charm in the shape of a heart. 

Our total findings in monetary value to-date are:  $1.26    We are now able to buy a double hamburger from McDonald's if we want to.

Picnic Shelter Detecting - January 15, 2013

Another rainy day.  And a new site.  A local picnic shelter.  People who have never metal detected before do not realize how much trash that metal detectors locate while digging.  Rule #2 of Metal Detecting:  Always throw your trash away.  Thus, you are doing Society a service. 

So far, we have thrown away:  glass, nails, crushed soda cans, bullets (fired and not fired), and many other sharp and/or dangerous objects.  This makes parks and other play areas safer for children and adults. 

This particular day, all we found of value was a penny and a tiny diamond(ish) stud earring.  We later confirmed that it is gold.  Not much demand for one tiny broken earring, though.  It's still raining, and PPP looks ridiculous digging holes with an umbrella in her hand, so we're going home!

Rainy and Dark - January 13, 2013

Sometimes you have to be a little sneaky when you metal-detect.  You often feel as though people are watching you or that you are doing something wrong.  So we decided to go to a local school late one evening, right before dark, so as not to attract attention.  We found an area where we began to get several signals for coins.  But, the night was cut short due to a heavy, cold rain that was beginning to come down.

I was ready to continue a while longer, but PPP was complaining because she didn't have an umbrella and her hair was starting to frizz up.  Rule #1 of Metal Detecting:  Don't carry an umbrella. 

Back in Virginia - January 13, 2013

After arriving back in Virginia, and still not knowing where to go to detect metal things, we returned to our first detecting spot at the local creek.  We found four pennies, a dime, and a flashlight.  To our surprise, we gave it a twist, and it lit right up!  This was a real surprise, and to make it more special, I prefer to think of it as belonging to somebody from 1902, who was looking for worms by the creek.  Just think:  a hundred and eleven-year-old flashlight.....maybe.  Or, it may have been dropped more recently.  But it WAS buried at least two inches down in the dirt!

Beach Hunting

It's now about three or four days since our first hunt.... The weather has been very cold in Virginia, which doesn't make for very good metal-detecting.  So we've decided to go to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to find some valuables!

We metal-detected the beach on January 10th and 11th, in a quest to recoup our metal-detector investment.....which so far has only been reduced by one penny.  sigh......  January 10th, we found the items which can be seen in the top two pictures.  The first item we found was a penny.  We were now up to two cents!  As we began to think we might not ever find anything other than a penny, we suddenly discovered our first coin other than a penny, which was a NICKEL.  Pinpointer Princess (PPP) yelled out, "Cool!  We found a nickel!"  The nickel soon led to a dime, and the dime led to a quarter.  Meanwhile, we also spied a real shark's tooth lying on the sand, and scooped it up......and a couple of shells.

On the way back to the hotel, we found a lead-based Civil War soldier.  We also found the first of dozens of tent stakes, which we eventually threw away. 

The second day on the beach, we found another crummy tent stake, a cheap hoop earring, and some poor kid's McDonald's toy.  They're probably still crying from losing this.  But it's mine now!  Also, we found two more quarters.  We are now up to 92 cents in findings.... I had better get all this money in the bank so it can start growing interest.  Maybe by the time I'm 70, it'll be up to 93 cents.

Our First Monetary Find, January 3, 2013

My Blog Name is "Digger Gran."  After taking an early retirement from work, I decided I wanted a hobby to occupy my spare time.  So, I decided that I would metal detect.  My trusty sidekick (or wife), better known in this blog as "Pinpointer Princess," gave me my metal detector for Christmas. 

After waiting for the weather to warm, we ventured out on our first metal detecting adventure.  We went to a nearby creek, having no idea what we were doing, and began to detect.  We heard dozens of beeps, whistles, dings, and dongs, not knowing what any of them meant.  So after about 2 hours of walking and digging, we were rewarded with our first monetary find, which is pictured above...... a PENNY! 

First Dig December 25th 2012

After receiving my first metal detector on Christmas eve, I had to try it out the next day.  Not knowing what I was doing, I ventured off to the back yard and found 3 pieces of crap. What fun....