Ghost Town Trip with Racer2 and Impact : GOLD & B I G SILVER ><

This was a fun trip, not only because I got to hang out with several of my detecting buddies and was able to make some nice finds, but I also touched several of my other hobbies while metal detecting, that rarely happens. So while most people screen/sift at the mining town dumps, some go to the extreme, and metal detect them. With the right tools, lots of patience, and a little luck, you can find just as many goodies as the sifters, and IMHO it's a lot more fun detecting and a lot less dirty then sifting! Heck I'll even share my site with you

DCIM\103MEDIA\DJI_0040.JPG by Calcobra, on Flickr

My first fun find was a toasty Morgan silver dollar!! She had a rough life - well circulated, holed in the center, and left for dead in the Nevada desert for the past 100+ years, but finally brought back to life. She's not pretty, but silver dollars don't get under my loop very often, so I'm thrilled to dig my second ever Morgan dollar . I found this detecting the dump site with my Racer2 using the CORS Shrew coil (aka NEL Snake coil) . Talk about a banging signal - lol Amazingly it still has a readable date, it's an 1890 and It looks like there's an O mint mark on the back. Here she is before cleaning:

Morgan1d by Calcobra, on Flickr
Morgan1e by Calcobra, on Flickr

Here she is after an ezest soak, lemon juice soak, and a baking soda rub, tough coin to clean, but I'm going to leave it as is, she has a story to tell (yes it's the coin on the right, the left one is for comparison):

Morgan1a by Calcobra, on Flickr
Morgan1b by Calcobra, on Flickr

Next up was this fun little find, a sterling silver pin, I'm thinking it's a military award circa WWI era or earlier ? The silver is pretty tarnished, and the pin on the back is missing, but I'll take it!!

I was using the Impact and small coil for this one, man was it in the thick of the junk, more overloads in an hour then most probably get in a year, but this signal sang out from the grave to be rescued. Even in heavy iron, no matter what angle I was swinging from, I was getting a sweet sounding solid low 70's signal, the sound kind of reminded me of a light sabre swoosh every time I swung the coil over it, had a beautiful pure laser sharp sound to it. You know the sound when you get it.

SMPIN1a by Calcobra, on Flickr
SMPIN1b by Calcobra, on Flickr
SMPIN1c by Calcobra, on Flickr


I kept going, and made my first interwoven hobby find, a silver crown cap perfume bottle stopper. While I don't per se collect perfume bottles, I do collect antique blown art glass, and because of that, when I dug this little silver crown cap perfume dauber, I immediately knew what it was! I was a bit taken back considering where I found it, but it's a crown cap dauber to a Loetz Austria blown art glass miniature perfume bottle. These little perfume bottles were only 2" tall, and were retailed at a high end London shop around 1900.

TP2 by Calcobra, on Flickr

Here's an example with a similar top:




Then after a little dry spell (not for lack of trying), the next piece that intersected with a different hobby was dug. I dug a neat little Victorian gold ring in the thick of the junk that locked in at a solid, sweet sounding 29 on the Impact, one of those pure signals begging to be dug!

Video digging the ring: [youtu.be]

The ring has a nice Victorian design. It was missing the stone when I dug it, and examining it under a loupe you can see that one of the prongs broke, likely the culprit of the lost stone. It looked like it had been through a fire when I dug it, which is totally possible given the site:

TDRing1aa by Calcobra, on Flickr

I dipped it in some ezest and it cleaned right up. I used to collect cut gem stones, so I was delighted when I dug it to see that it wasn't bent, broken or otherwise damaged, that will make it easy to restore with a stone from my collection. I showed it to my wife, who immediately tried it on, and darn if she didn't declare that it was a perfect fit!!! I showed her some options for stones:

RingStones by Calcobra, on Flickr

I asked which one she liked the most, and she said "The blue one!". She could've picked a pink sapphire or ruby, but blue topaz it is

On my way home, I detected a long defunct obscure railroad depot that I've detected before a couple of times, including once with a friend and we've never found anything there. There's evidence of sifting there, so I suspect that it was a hot site at one time and someone has methodically strip mined almost every conductor at the site, it's amazing how sanitized it is but the potential for a good find is sure there. I spent a couple of hours hoping that the Racer2 with the Shrew/Snake coil would bring the place back to life, but it only eek'd out two OK finds - one is a decorative do-dad, and the other is a railroad lead seal. It's from the long defunct Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad line. I've found several Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad seals before, but this one has a number that I've never seen. Most of the ones found at the other depot site are the marked with the same #. Last time I'll hunt this site, but I was glad to finally find one railroad related relic at it. Excuse the sideways orientation, it's an iPhone thing

T&G RR = Tonopah & Goldfield Rail Road:


TGRR1a by Calcobra, on Flickr
TGRR1b by Calcobra, on Flickr

Overall a great time was had by all, other peoples finds ranged from coins, marbles, and tokens to a 1909 dog license tag. Here's more pics of my finds:

TP3 by Calcobra, on Flickr
TP1 by Calcobra, on Flickr

Thanks for looking!
Cal

Some stunning finds and a terrific write up as well,a tremendous detecting trip

Nice haul of artifacts there Cal

looks like you'all had a good time diggin.

Love that R&R seal and the Morgan

Nice trip! Great read with pics. Who was flying the drone in the vid?

Nice Cal! Looks like a very fun excursion. That dog tag & R.R. lead seal can bring a pretty penny on e-bay.

Nice assortment of finds.

Thanks for sharing.

Nice haul! Great write up as well. Thank you for sharing your trip with us.
I've found a number of lead RR seals from a now defunct RR (United Verde & Pacific RY) here in Northern Az. Always fun to find...If there are any RR buffs here that would like a couple for your collection's just PM me and I'll send them to you.

Thanks again, Cal! Awesome trip.

Dean

Nice finds Cal!

congrats on the finds! Looks like you had fun. Thanks for sharing; good writeup and nice pics.

Wayne

Pleasant Garden, NC
AT Max, Nokta Impact, MX Sport, Nokta FORS Relic, GPX 4800, Infinium, Racer, Deus, F75SE, Nautilus DMC II (order of acquisition, last to first)

Does an archeologist argue with a plow? A bureaucrat with a bulldozer?

Nice digs

Thanks for sharing..

Is that Morgan smaller than a normal Morgan..looks small for some reason..

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Great report/pics/finds---Thanks for the trip,vicariously of course.

Sweet digs, Brian! Looks like you've got the hang of the drone.

Thanks everyone, appreciate the comments!!

@ ozzie - I was flying the drone, I'm far from an expert on flying them

@ NASA-Tom - Not that I typically sell my finds, but I'll have to keep an eye on ebay for the R.R. seals.

@ Keith - I think it's just so worn that it looks smaller. I had no idea what it was when I found it, and showed it to my buddy and he said you just found a Morgan! If I compare the size to a non-dug example, it's the same width, slightly less thickness, but it's super worn.

Nice hunt Brian and some very nice finds. HH jim tn

Sweet digs and write up!!! WTG!!!

It's Still a Silver Dollar and on My Bucket list. Way to go.

nice hunt indeed! I wish I had a "playground" that large to dig in.

Ok Brian!!

thanks for reply..

In the pic it looked slightly smaller in diameter than the other dollar...Might be the angle?

was thinking might have a counterfeit one of sorts??

Cool digs and congrats on Big Silver!!

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Brian, I love how you have an appreciation for relicky things. I've hunted with a few guys that poo-poo anything except coins or rings. But you know as well as I do, that all-such targets mean a period coin is not far behind (hopefully). Like fishing: You have to love the "nibbles" and near misses, JUST as much as the actual catching

Great pix. Good play-by-play. thanx for posting.

Congrats on the nice finds. Ya that ol"Morgan had a pretty rough life. All in all it looked to be a fun trip and lots of finds....can't beat that.

Sweet finds Mr, love the ring looks great with blue topaz. Electrolysis will bring that Morgan back to silver color. Most of my Nv silvers have come out black like that.

And it looks like the Morgan was used as a 'cartwheel' !!!

Nice !

@ Tom_in_CA - As much as I'd like to find a gold coin, aside from that, relics can be more fun and interesting then coins, of course I like coins too. They all have a story to tell.

@Gregg - The Racer2 still has it's mojo! Love that Shrew/Snake coil on the R2!!

@Kickindirt - I'll try some electrolysis on the military pin first and see how it comes out. Some of the silver from there has some kind of film on it that defies normal silver cleaners. Tokens can come out looking like new though, just depends on where you find it. Do you detect all over Nevada?

@NASA-Tom - Not sure, but that's a good possibility!

Hey Cal I'm in the Elko area, have a few sites within an hour or so. If u ever get out this way let me know. I have a new Xp elliptical coil that I've been waiting to try out.

That Morgan dollar has had a rough life.

Congrats on the all of the finds.

This is a very cool thread. Thanks for taking the time to share.

awesome finds

Great stuff Cal, lotta history there!

Aaron

Looks like a great hunt. The weather was not too hot? I'm hoping to get up there the first part of November to see if you left anything behind. I need to test out my new sifter also.