Dangers of Hunting for Coins

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by Bart9349, Jul 5, 2019.

  1. Bart9349

    Bart9349 Junior Member

    (Please delete if repost.)

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...teen-explodes-riddles-50-pieces-shrapnel.html


    But he is certainly dedicated with his hobby:


    g.
     
  2. Avatar

    Guest User Guest



    to hide this ad.
  3. Islander80-83

    Islander80-83 Well-Known Member

    Paddy's gonna wanta see this! I'm wondering what the Coney Island hazards are? ;)
     
    paddyman98 likes this.
  4. ldhair

    ldhair Clean Supporter

    Wow. I never thought of the dangers the folks over there have to deal with. There are dangers in my area but nothing like that.
     
  5. Pickin and Grinin

    Pickin and Grinin Well-Known Member

    Nuts a find of a lifetime for sure.
     
  6. Hookman

    Hookman Well-Known Member

    Anywhere America fights wars, we leave enormous amounts of dangerous munitions behind.
    In many countries, poor street children search for brass and copper to sell, and lose a limb or their life in the process.
    America is not the only one. Every country ever involved in a battle has left dangerous things behind.
     
  7. spirityoda

    spirityoda Coin Junky

  8. derkerlegand

    derkerlegand Well-Known Member

    My dad detected and dug a cannon ball at Spanish Fort, Alabama. The lead fuse timer was still intact. This was in the 1970's. He also found a Schenkl shell at Port Hudson, Louisiana. He lived until 2013 with nary an explosion.
     
    paddyman98, dwhiz and Hookman like this.
  9. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan 48-year collector Moderator

    People are still killed every year by unexploded ordinance from both World Wars, not to mention even the American Civil War here in the States.

    I once read a story (perhaps apocryphal, but plausible nonetheless) of a farmer's wife in the early 1900s who found three Civil War Parrott projectiles (artillery shells) that had been plowed up in her fields. She fashioned a sort of tripod out of them, to put her cast iron laundry kettle on. Then she put wood underneath the kettle and lit a fire to heat up the water for the washing.

    The whole thing blew up, in rather spectacular fashion. Luckily for her, she had gone back into the house when it blew, but the house suffered broken windows and damage to the roof and walls, and there was shreds of her laundry in the trees for hundreds of yard around.

    I read of someone else (a modern detectorist) finding a CW artillery shell, and tapping the rust off the thing with a hammer. He too was lucky it didn't go off.

    Others are not so lucky. :(

     
  10. Randy Abercrombie

    Randy Abercrombie Supporter! Supporter

    I live and fish by the lake where the Doolittle Raiders trained. It is quite common for fishermen to raise their boat anchors and drag up training bombs from the depths. Fortunately they are trainers and not live ordinance.
     
  11. Mainebill

    Mainebill Bethany Danielle

    Wow. That’s a scary find. I know there’s lots of that stuff all over Europe from both wars. He’s dedicated and lucky to be alive
     
  12. Islander80-83

    Islander80-83 Well-Known Member

    Yep, that stuff could mess-up your health record!
     
  13. willieboyd2

    willieboyd2 First Class Poster

    In 2008 a Virginia man dug up a Civil War cannonball which exploded and killed him.

    https://www.foxnews.com/story/virginia-man-killed-in-civil-war-cannonball-blast

    But in February, White's hobby cost him his life: A cannonball he was restoring exploded, killing him in his driveway.

    More than 140 years after Lee surrendered to Grant, the cannonball was still powerful enough to send a chunk of shrapnel through the front porch of a house a quarter-mile from White's home in this leafy Richmond suburb.

    Experts suspect White was killed while trying to disarm a 9-inch, 75-pound naval cannonball, a particularly potent explosive with a more complex fuse and many times the destructive power of those used by infantry artillery.


    :)
     
  14. desertgem

    desertgem Senior Errer Collecktor Supporter

    Living in the area that Patton trained his tank and desert forces in WW2, every year there are reports of people evading the patrols as well as the air bombings ( as is still an active use) to pick the fields for copper ( we all know how valuable it is :) ), They come into the surrounding hospitals with missing parts and many are too damaged to survive. A suspicious jeep was stopped 10 miles from here a few years ago and inspected and 400 lbs of corroded unexploded munitions were removed by military teams.
     
  15. Spark1951

    Spark1951 Accomplishment, not Activity

    @paddyman98 ...getting distracted by a Nathans hot dog!!!...Spark
     
    paddyman98 likes this.
  16. paddyman98

    paddyman98 I'm a professional expert in specializing! Supporter

    My danger are Zombies! That's what I call people who hang around me to start looking to see what I will find and ask about a dozen questions before they finally walk away! :zombie::zombie::zombie::zombie:

    Crazy bomb stories. I actually do worry about stuff like this happening to me. I have found old bullets casings.. huge ones!
     
    mlov43 likes this.
  17. -jeffB

    -jeffB Greshams LEO Supporter

    When I was a very small child, my brother had a heavy, rusty metal thing that sat on his dresser. He always told me it was a Civil War shell from the field behind our house. (This was in Williamsport, MD, maybe 10 miles from Antietam Battlefield, so it's totally believable that artifacts would get tilled up as they prepared the field for feed corn.)

    A bit of Googling makes me think it might have been a Schenkl shell:

    [​IMG]

    It never did blow up, fortunately. The explosions had to wait until I started adding to my chemistry set.
     
    Pickin and Grinin likes this.
  18. Coin buyer

    Coin buyer Member

    Hobby of metal detecting for me just turned 43 “Swings”, opps I mean years under my belt.
    These days I rather enjoy the sometimes “crowds” of watchers, or as some would say, “Zombies” that are extremely curious as to what it is I’m doing, what I’m finding or have discovered, some ask what it is I’ve lost, lol
    It’s not only the dozen of questions that get asked, but the same questions many many times. I happily take the time to attempt answering any and all questions. I especially get a kick out of the youngsters with their questions and the all about number #1 request.
    “Hey Mister”, can I try that thing once please?
    Again I’m only to happy to let those, young or elderly, try their hand at swinging, answering questions best I can and always appearing to have made new and interesting friends.
    Doing so certainly can’t hurt to keep our hobby living on!!!
    As the saying goes, it all starts with “Us”
     
    Hookman likes this.
  19. Qsins

    Qsins Member

    Grew up on Kanehoe Bay in Hawaii in late 80s my dad was a ordinance expert. We use to hunt for 1940 coke bottles & metal detect all around the base. I remember he called to have few potential bombs/shells etc removed more than once.
     
    Hookman likes this.
  20. Dimedude2

    Dimedude2 Member

    I was in Eastern Croatia where there were bomb warning signs around the sunflower field. I don’t think metal detecting would be a good idea there.
     
    Pickin and Grinin and Hookman like this.
  21. rooman9

    rooman9 Lovin Shiny Things

    When I worked doing software for b&bs there was one in the southern US where they found a civil war cannonball wedged in the chimney from the nearby battle. Not sure if was still active of not.
     
    Hookman likes this.
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page