Hunting Old Home Sites

[MDMac]

Good Morning Friends.
Yesterday, I was doing the front yard of a house built around the time of WWI. My finds, other than trash, were 1 quarter, 2 dimes and around 50 pennies, all memorials. I was beginning to wonder if I was hunting an old wishing well site. So my questions are these.

1. Is it normal for a homesite to have this many one cent coins?

2. If there are this many one cent coins, shouldn't there be a smattering of other coins as well? At least better than 50-3.

3. Is there a better system for searching old home sites? I have an MXT with a 5 inch DD coil and it is constantly chattering at me with the VDI bouncing all over the place. At one point, it said one cent and I dug up a 3 inch washer at about 5 inches. If I am to "dig everything" as many of you post, it is going to take me all summer to do this 10 X 20 front yard.

4. Since most of the Memorials and other clad were in the 1-3 inch range, do you think there might be older coins in the 8-10 range? Not due to sinking, but due to grass and leaf decomposition build up. If so, would I be better off using a square point shovel and removing the top 2-3 inches of soil and detecting then? I have permission to do that as this house has been vacant for over 5 years with no yard care. That is a lot of work, but since the yard is never watered except via rain and snow, the soil is really loose, being decomposed grass and leaves.

5. Any other suggestions?

[tater320]

There will be many pennies because they are the most common coin. There should be old stuff to. Keep looking! Look around trees.

[Zman]

Keep at it. Once you clear the way of the recent stuff, your sure to find the older coins. You may also want to use a bigger coil to increase your depth.

Try to determine where you would hang a clothes line in the yard and as Tater mentioned look hit the areas around the trees. Good luck

[EBCIII]

Another area I have had luck at on homesites is sidewalks or paths to the front door. For sure clothes lines, all door entrances. Heck maybe evn where they parked the cars.

I would think you could find some other targets. Good luck to you on the site, Beale.

[Hawk]

Hey MDMac,

1. Is it normal for a homesite to have this many one cent coins?

I'd say it's normal (whatever normal is) and there will be alot more to find.

2. If there are this many one cent coins, shouldn't there be a smattering of other coins as well? At least better than 50-3.

Perhaps someone over the years cherry-picked the area for the higher range stuff. If that is the case, the best stuff is still waiting to be dug up. Heck, with the MXT, you'll clean up whatever's there for sure no matter what was or wasn't done there!!

3. Is there a better system for searching old home sites? I have an MXT with a 5 inch DD coil and it is constantly chattering at me with the VDI bouncing all over the place. At one point, it said one cent and I dug up a 3 inch washer at about 5 inches. If I am to "dig everything" as many of you post, it is going to take me all summer to do this 10 X 20 front yard.

That is not a very large area. As soon as you get your system down of how you want to metal detect and what you want to dig, you will be a digging machine!
Read the following thread in the MXT Section (this works for me) and tweak the gain accordingly to your comfort level:

http://www.treasurequestxlt.com/community/whites-mxt/20227-mxt-relic-mode-alternate-search.html


4. Since most of the Memorials and other clad were in the 1-3 inch range, do you think there might be older coins in the 8-10 range? Not due to sinking, but due to grass and leaf decomposition build up. If so, would I be better off using a square point shovel and removing the top 2-3 inches of soil and detecting then? I have permission to do that as this house has been vacant for over 5 years with no yard care. That is a lot of work, but since the yard is never watered except via rain and snow, the soil is really loose, being decomposed grass and leaves.

Definitely more coins/relics deeper!!!! FORGET the shovel. Since you are already going over it with the small DD coil, (that is one great coil for trashy areas....I got one and love it!) when you are done, I'd go back to the stock coil. You will get much greater depth and you will have cleared out alot of the annoying, recent, over lying trash with the smaller DD coil.

5. Any other suggestions?

This is a good area to "pay your dues". Heck, you will probably figure out what kind of detecting you want to do just from this area.
I'm sure your area is extremely trashy from what you have posted. The small DD coil is great for trashy areas like this, but you wont get the depth. Experiment...Experiment....Experiment......the good finds will come and be Patient...Patient...Patient.

Hawk

[MDMac]

So today, I go back and am determined to try my "spade off the top soil" idea. BAD idea! LOL. I spaded off just one side of the walkway up to the house, about 2-3 feet wide and about 2-3 inches down. WAY, WAY too much work. I then used 1/2 inch welded wire to sift the dirt before putting it back in place. I was able to dig up one Wheat Penny after removing the sod, so I know there are older coins down there, I just have to find a way to "see" them. My next trick will be to switch to my 9.5 coil and go from there. I still need to put some of the sod back. I will say this, the fresh, clean, sifted dirt sure looks nice. It looks like someone is getting ready to plant flowers along the entry walk way. My finds were one quarter (1997), 2 dimes, 2 nickels and 26 pennies, one that lost a fight with a lawn mower. I also found an interesting token that I mentioned over on the "Ask Pappy" thread.

This house is going to be quite a bit of work. Two hours today to do a 2 foot by 10 foot piece of land!

[Buster]

Lots of good advise..I too would get all the stuff out of the way trash wise..then go deeper if you can..Hawk has some great ideas...I would also say if there are wheats there, then silver should be around too...Good luck in your quest and keep us posted...buster.......