Barber city

[berkshire mike]

My brother and I got some information about a new location of an old Hotel we have hunted over the years. The hotel had produed some nice finds over the years but has been picked over well. This new location was operated by the Hotel but was not on the orginal property. We had high hopes that this new site would be loaded with coins. Saturday night we agreed to meet early Sunday morning. Sunday morning came and met steve, who had about a ten minute head start on me. A quick scan of the property revealed a small wooded area that led to backyards. The lay of the land made us think the area we wanted to hunt would be in those backyards. We decided NOT to go knocking on doors at 9am on a Sunday and choose to hunt the small wooded area. About fifteen minutes into the hunt I got an IH and had a gut feeling that this wasn't a stray coin but came from a Hotel guests. We mostly were working fast, I decided to go back to the area where I found the IH and slow down. For a short while it was RAINING barbers. A barber dime, another one, an IH then a barber quarter. It felt like the old days. Ended up with a nice little pile of coins.
I skipped a few beats when a dug up the coin purse but she was empty.

[Tom in SWW]

Congrats, Mike!
Hope you have the opportunity to go back, and to search the other areas as well.
Take your time, and hit it hard and deliberate...

HH! -Tom

[Wyatt Earp]

Nice finds Mike......Since starting a collection of Barber half dollars, I've had a keen interest in finding some sites that may produce some older coins than the baby boomer stuff I was digging this fall.

If you don't mind my asking, when was the hotel operated? I am trying to figure out just how old a site needs to be to have the older stuff...without being laden with later coins...though I like those too..I'd like to increase my odds of scoring some Barber or Seated Liberty coins.

My guess is that I should be looking for sites that saw their peak of activity through the 1890s and 1900s....and cessation around WW1. There have got to be some sites like that hereabouts somewhere.

Wyatt

[berkshire mike]

Thanks all! We've got about 4 inches of snow so it will have to wait.
The Hotel opened in 1903 and burned to the ground in 1931. It was a high end hotel and has a very interesting guest list. When we first hunted it back in the late 70's it was unbelieveable, at least by todays standards. If my memory is correct we only found a small number of seated coins.

[Gregory]

Thats a nice hot spot there Mike. Might want to research it more to find other sweet spots. If you go to the library look for pictures of that place via newspapers or maps. Wonder if it had a bottle dump?

Nice finds,

Greg

[raw-war-digger]

Nice Finds Mike! One of my best digging day was with about 4" of snow on the ground! The snow intensified the signals and I could tell where I had been hunting. I set-up my grid dipping my coil in the snow at the end of each swing. You should try it some time especially before the ground gets frozen underneath.

Good Luck On Your Return,
Happy Hunting, Roger

[JohnWPA]

AWESOME finds there Mike.....definitely a beautiful area....there's more to be found!!

John