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Message:: [QUOTE="lordmarcovan, post: 2779968, member: 10461"]Digger's Diary, Coin #DD-003. Asheville, North Carolina, August 8, 1993 In the fall of 1992, I was just getting started with my first modern VLF (Very Low Frequency) metal detector. These machines are a bit different than the old TR (Transmitter-Receiver) machines I used as young teen in the late '70s and early '80s. There was a bit of a learning curve, as there is with any endeavor. The trouble with having a new detector and a vivid imagination is that one gets grandiose visions of treasure, but all too soon the disappointing reality sets in. One finds all kinds of trash and finds out this hobby takes real work. After those first two initial finds, I dug some modern change and doodads, and even a few Wheat cents from the 1940s and '50s, but hit a finds-drought before long. One morning I slipped on a dewy grass embankment and fell, breaking the detector, but fortunately not my leg or back. While the repair was covered under the warranty, it took time to send the detector off to the Garrett factory in Texas, and after I got it back, there were few exciting finds. Eventually the new machine ended up in the closet, where it remained for about nine months before I decided to give it one more try. August 8, 1993 was to be a "make or break" endeavor. Had I not made the interesting coin finds I did that day, I would have quite possibly sold my detector and quit for good. As a matter of fact, most of the early part of that day's outing was unproductive, and I was walking back to the car when I got the signal that produced DD-003.  That find made me realize that digging the cool old coins was actually possible, and that there was nothing wrong with my machine, or even me- except I just had to be more patient and keep at it. Before I go into that story, I'll set the scene. For many of us, our personal stories will end in a cemetery, right? Maybe we don't like to think about that, but that's just how it has been, throughout human history. Well, strange though it may sound, today's story begins in a cemetery. And speaking of history, a very historical cemetery it is. Since childhood, I have been fascinated by old cemeteries, as places where "time stands still". I love wandering the grounds and reading the old tombstones. So when thinking of places to go detecting, I decided to visit Asheville, North Carolina's <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=48586" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=48586" rel="nofollow">Riverside Cemetery</a>. <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/find-a-grave-prod/photos/2005/16/CEM19036309_110597694255.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> (Photo credit: user "Armantia", <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pis&PIcrid=48586&PIpi=1526992&PIMode=cemetery" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pis&PIcrid=48586&PIpi=1526992&PIMode=cemetery" rel="nofollow">findagrave.com</a>) First, let me say this: I do NOT particularly recommend carrying a metal detector and digging implements (no matter how small) into a cemetery! Native Americans are not the only culture who are very protective of their cemeteries. There is a definite taboo there, and I was blissfully (or perhaps stupidly) ignorant of it in those days.  In my first year or so, I did sort of develop a specialty in detecting old cemeteries, but nowadays I typically go only to visit them, not swing a detector.  And anywhere you detect, you had better be sure you have permission to be there!) I was a bit more cavalier about this in those days. I would just go, and hope nobody threw me out. Can't say I recommend this practice now. Mind you, Riverside Cemetery is a city park as well, and I was thinking of it in those terms. I had read of such <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_cemetery" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_cemetery" rel="nofollow">garden cemeteries</a> being places where the living had gathered for picnics in Victorian times, and I wanted to detect along the pathways and lanes for coins and jewelry lost by those once-living visitors. I naturally had no intention of desecrating any graves. My own maternal great- and even great-great-grandparents are buried there, so I had no intention of disrespect. And the digging tool I carried at the time was a dull hunting knife with a 5-6" blade, to cut out plugs of sod; I carried no shovel or even trowel.  The cemetery manager at the time later saw me out there, but allowed me to continue, since he saw I only had the small knife and was replacing all sod after digging my holes only a few inches deep. Luckily for me, he was a friendly and surprisingly tolerant person. On that August day, I hunted for a couple of hours, finding little. Tired, with late afternoon coming on and the shadows growing longer, I decided it would be time to leave soon, and decided to "hunt my way back" to the car. Had I reached the car that afternoon without making any further finds, it is quite likely my detector would've gone back into the closet for good, until I sold it. I was that close to quitting in discouragement. But as I reached a spot along one grassy path a few hundred yards from my car, not very far from the resting place of <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6654646" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6654646" rel="nofollow">Zebulon Baird Vance</a> (1830-1894), North Carolina's Civil War governor under the Confederacy, I got a signal on the detector. It was a nice, clear, repeatable signal, which read "penny" on my detector's graphic display. As I recall, the depth reading on the meter hovered between 4 and 5 inches. So a solid "penny" reading at 4-5" deep could very well be a Wheat cent, I thought, and worth digging. It was not a Wheat cent, as it happened. Nor a cent at all. Instead, I saw the flash of silver! I had finally found my second silver coin! Prior to the start of my first recordkeeping in 1992, I had dug two silver coins which are not counted in my current totals. One was a dateless Standing Liberty quarter and the other a silver Roosevelt dime from the 1950s. The oldest coin I had found up until August 8, 1993 was a 1926 Wheat cent. Well, this find, DD-003, not only added to my silver coin count, but was an obsolete type coin as well. Furthermore, it now replaced that 1926 Wheat cent as my oldest dug coin! A breakthrough! I had just broken into the 1800s, if only just barely! A surge of adrenaline rushed through me and I sat down in the grass, amazed and excited. All thoughts of quitting for the day (or for good) were banished from my mind. In fact, you could say this find was what "hooked me for life" as a treasure hunter and detectorist. I finally realized I could do this thing. DD-003: 1899 BARBER DIME A reasonably decent circulated example; not worn flat like many.Date Found: August 8, 1993Site: Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, NC.Approx. depth: 4-5".Detector: Garrett GTA-500. <ul> <li> <ul> <li>2nd Silver Coin Found</li> </ul><ul> <li>First Barber Dime!</li> </ul><ul> <li>First coin from the 1800s!</li> </ul></li> </ul><img src="http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k173/lordmarcovan/Diggers%20Diary/DD-003-coin.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> You will note as we go on that much if not most of my dug silver looks cleaned. That's because it was, often with toothpaste (or baking soda, for the really encrusted cases). I have since discovered gentler methods. Cleaning coins is obviously a no-no, but when you're talking about dug coins, it is often a "necessary evil", and usually a moot point because of "environmental damage". So you mainstream collectors should be aware that, in looking at an album of ground finds, you're just not going to see the pristine surfaces you do with high grade non-dug examples. That being said, silver does hold up better to corrosion than nickel or copper, in most soils. (Gold holds up perfectly, but as of this writing I have yet to find a gold coin- just the occasional ring. Very occasional.) There have been a few silver coins I was able to pluck from the ground, rinse with water, and pop right into the album, but those were often the exception rather than the rule. Prepare yourselves for some ugliness ahead, especially with the non-silver coins. Also, since Asheville has rocky soil and coarse little bits of rock or gravel in the clay in most places, you'll see hairline scratches, as there are on the coin above. And then there are the ones I accidentally hit with my dig knife. Ouch. Those are tragic. But I get ahead of myself in the story. Suffice it to say that when you're looking at dug relics, different standards of attractiveness apply than when you're shopping for coins in a dealer's case.[/QUOTE]

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