Traveling Back In Time – Part 2

This is Part Two of the Treasure Talk blog 'Traveling Back In Time' by Randy Horton. Read 'Traveling Back In Time Part 1' here.

As the years went by, Bill and I both became very busy with our jobs and our families. Living in different States, we just never got to go metal detecting together as we had in our more youthful days. We both did a lot of metal detecting. But we could only share those days with each other via telephone calls and (more recently) emails. Ironically, about four years ago, we not only got together to detect…we made arrangements to detect that same park with our X-TERRAs. Although we hadn’t been there detecting for nearly 40 years, we were confident that others had scanned their coils over the soil countless times. But even if we didn’t find any holes full of silver dollars or gold coins, I was hopeful that this hunt would rekindle the “youthful vigor” we both had so many years ago. As we were preparing for the hunt, I reminded him that, since I was using my own detector, I got to keep the next Walking Liberty Half I found. We both laughed and reflected back on that first trip to this park…the first day we had ever went metal detecting. 

After working our way around the park for the better part of an hour, I found myself near the same area where I had detected my first coin so many years earlier…that Walking Liberty Half Dollar. On this day, using my OWN DETECTOR, I slowly swept the coil over a particularly trashy area, and heard that sweet sounding high tone that only a silver coin will produce. I worked the coil across the target from various directions, finally isolating a strong repeatable response. I stuck my digging tool into the ground and slowly worked around the exact target location. Carefully removing some of the dirt from the hole, I saw the outline of a large silver coin. 

I fought off the anxiousness to “pull it from the hole” that usually overtakes me when I make a big silver find. And instead, looked around to see where Bill was detecting. When I saw that he had his back turned toward me, I quickly packed the dirt back in around the coin and smoothed out the sod. I called out to him and asked him to come over and confirm a signal for me. He came over, passed his coil over the target and speculated it was going to be (yet another) smashed aluminum can. I agreed that it was a large target. And this was a very trashy area. But as I always say…you’ll never know unless you dig it! I got down to the ground, and acting as if I had not yet disturbed the soil, retraced the outline of my initial cut. When I fully exposed the coin and pulled it from the hole, we both recognized it to be another Walking Liberty Half dollar. Ironically, this one was dug only a few feet from where we had found that first one, so many years ago. 

We stood there in silence, smiling at one another and realizing that times like these are what makes this hobby so addictive...It isn’t the number of finds that you put in your pouch that makes for such a great hobby. More importantly, it is sharing a hobby you truly enjoy with someone who means as much to you as your brother. 

Oh...one more thing... just for the record…I did keep this one!

HH Randy