Attitude Dancing - Solitude Detecting

Today is attitude time and, yes, I know I have not posted for a while. I have lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, diabetes, Addison's Disease and several other ailments which keep me running my own medical lab practically full time to keep up with my physical degeneration, and various system failures (also called aging) as we say in engineering. My most recent hospital incarceration, a week or so ago, was due to several large blood clots in my left lung; widow-makers my doctor called them. Add blood thinner to my long list of life-saving pharmaceuticals. Onward. I've not had a decent metal detecting day for a few weeks, but the last one was fine. One of my favorite parks is at the edge of the realm (or Orange County, Florida) and rarely sees a detectorist. I've been hunting this beautiful park for 10-years now, and I almost always arrive when the gates open at 8:00 am. A small prairie, to the east, blows cool breezes, and rustles the 200-year old oaks.

I personally know many of the people that work at this park...many of them for so long that they give me tips on where things were in the 1870's near an abandoned orange grove, or where the baseball diamonds had been in the 1930's, and the like. This place is quiet, almost bordering on spiritual, and metal detecting here is like a fine wine, chilled and sipped. I usually hunt alone here, and enjoy every second of my short solitude as I swing the coil and listen closely to what the ground has to say. Morning sunlight and a faint mist filters through the massive strands of Spanish moss hanging from the mighty oaks as I work my way along familiar paths I've trod before countless times; an oxymoron in the metal detecting world.

A loud tone startles me out of my reverie, and I focus on checking the target depth and target analysis on the VDI. The Etrac says it's a pop-tab of one type or another, about 8" deep. The thing is, it does not SOUND like a tab. It is far too sharp, no fuzziness at all, and is a rock solid signal and VDI reading, no matter from which direction you swing the coil.

The familiar recovery process takes control as I watch, seemingly disconnected from the deed, as the target is centered, the plug is removed and loose dirt stacked onto the ground cloth. The pin-pointer bays shrilly like a tiny electronic hunting dog, and a dirty circular piece of metal surfaces from the loose soil. Using a small spray bottle filled with water for exactly these sorts of situations, the mist of water removes a good bit of the dirt for the reveal. 

It's an unfamiliar coin, made of bronze, as it turns out. A rarity to find a coin made of such metal in the United States, and I closely examine it. I've passed over this area probably 50 or 60 times in the past without a peep. But now, a bronze 1958 Nederland (Netherlands) 5-cent piece  has emerged, in pretty good shape. How did it get to this park, and who lost it? No telling. But, under normal circumstances, I would have probably ignored it...almost a ringer for a pop-tab tone wise and VDI wise...BUT the tone...how do I describe it...was more SOLID than a normal aluminum pop-tab. Many times I will do a perpendicular and horizontal sweep over a target to see if the VDI number or the tone changes. Usually, a pop-tab coming in as a 12-15, on my Minelab E-Trac, will sweep at a 12-16 or 12-17 from another angle. This was a solid 12-15 from every angle.

Oddly enough, this old park seems to produce a lot of foreign coinage. And usually those coins fall within the pop-tab range; a 1988 Japanese 20 Yen piece, a 1970 Argentinian 25 Centavos coin, a 1935 British Half Penny, and a 1981 Mexican Pesos coin. 

It pays to go low and slow here, and the beauty is sometimes deceptive. The huge oaks harbor more than Spanish moss, and not wearing a hat, can result in a nasty insect bite on the neck. Huge, irritable, ants skydive regularly off the overhead limbs. Hunting the wilder areas of the park can also result in close encounters...not with UFO's, but with poisonous snakes. If you ever wondered where the term "snake in the grass" came from, I'll send you some pictures.

A check of the 1958 Netherlands 5-cent piece in a recent coin pricing book reveals the coin is somewhat rare and sells for around $30 or so. Not a bad find at all! My metal detecting time is always too short, but I'll be back. Hopefully.