My Name is Cody and I have been metal detecting on and off since I was 13. I began my treasure hunting with an old Fisher Gold bug, then upgrading to bounty hunter then to Whites then finally to Minelab. I have always preferred gaining permission and searching homesites which I believe have the best potential of being virgin sites, but find myself searching old parks/schools more and more lately.
Portland Oregon area parks have been pounded... and again POUNDED! There is 100's of acres of heavily frequented parks that are dated pre 1920's that can send you home some days without even a wheat penny. Long story short good finds are getting harder and harder to come by!
I recently joined an online forum for detectorists in the Portland area that run a competition called "Silver Wars" All members keep a running total of their silver/gold finds and earn bragging rights for who excels the highest in great finds avg'ing 50-150 silver per year. So I was in the middle of the silver wars competition and falling behind so I made my way out to Wallace Park in N. portland. This park is dated pre 1920 with an old school that sits adjacent to it. My good finds usually come behind the old backstop/dugouts so that is usually where I begin my hunting in between all the trash.
2 hours later and nothing to show for it but a couple clad dimes and some pull tabs I get a decent high nickel hit (which sometimes indicates a war nickel). I dig down and pop out a little junk pendant thingy (or so I thought). I throw it in my pouch and keep on going. I make my way around the bleachers of the dugout and up the sideline and get a deep low wheatie tone on the explorer. It's repeatable in both directions so I bend down and cut a 7" plug. I stick the probe in the ground and same tone rings out. Sure enough about 9" out pops an old green wheatie (1912).
I refill my plug and start swinging again. Within 5 feet I get an identical tone at the same depth. I figure I have another wheat penny so bend down cut the same size plug, sure enough same tone at same depth. I continue digging down hoping there's a silver dime or something mixed in with it. Put the probe in the hole and it's out of the hole and in the pile. I run my probe over the dirt outside of the hole and start searching for the wheatie I'm sure I have, then I see something strange!
I noticed a shining edge sticking out of the dirt!!! I really wasn't that excited at first because I was sure I just had some type of token or something because it wasn't giving off the same glimmer as silver. I pick up the coin and push some dirt off and realize maybe I have something real good (which is when I finally fired up the video camera)! Sure enough it turned out to be a 1905 S five dollar gold piece. Absolutely unbelievable and I can't even explain the feeling when actually pulling it out of the ground!
I tried continuing detecting around the area but finally had to just leave because I was literally shaking given what I had just found. I got home and showed my wife and started checking out my other crap/trash. I start emptying out my pockets and my wife grabs the little junk pendant I had found and runs it under the sink. "I see writing on the back" she says.... (T and Co. 750) "WHAT"! Turns out it's a 18 K Tiffany earring with diamonds weighing 5.5 grams. Unbelievable hunt that will never be forgotten, and probably never matched. Out there searching so hard for silver and getting rewarded with gold and not just one but two! So I may not have won the silver tally for the month but I believe I may have got the find of the year :)
My first Minelab was the Sovereign GT with the sunray digital readout then on to the Safari and ending up with the Explorer SE. I keep contemplating going up to the E-TRAC or CTX 3030 but I am so pleased with the Explorer I hate to move on!!! 9" silver dimes are not uncommon with this beast!
Cody - Oregon, USA
