I just wanted to show you the stuff I found on Saturday at an old house near Lebanon. Over the summer I passed by a really old looking house on my way to go detecting, and a guy was out bulldozing something beside it. I decided to stop and ask if he minded if I detected around the house, and he said "Go ahead.. it sounds like fun. Come back anytime."

I got out my MXT with the 10" DD coil and started detecting, while he went back to bulldozing what he said was an old sawmill. (Used to saw plank siding on the house.) I didn't find much except big pieces of iron and horseshoes, because the grass was so high (no one lives in the house). I've been back there a few times but it's kind of hard to stomp the tall grass (hay) down and find anything really deep.

I was reading a book from the library that shows the old houses of Lebanon that are on the national register... In the book is a picture of that house, and it says it was built in 1856!! I knew it was old... but not that old. (Lebanon was founded in 1852). Saturday I decided to go out and see if the grass had changed over the winter... it did... now it almost looks like a normal yard, and all the sudden I'm getting good signals in spots that I fought so hard with before. On the side of the house is a really old cherry tree that has a trunk that's all twisted and gnarled and is at least 3 feet wide. I always knew there had to be something good below that tree.... that's where I found the Barber quarter and the buffalo nickel.

I was using one of my small shovels because stuff is so deep there. I got a really faint beep so I dug a deep circle around the signal and popped the plug out... the quarter was just sitting at the bottom of the 8" hole, all shiny and tail side up. I must have sat there saying "holy cow" and looking down in the hole for at least a minute before I carefully reached in and got it. :-) It's cool to think that the last person to touch that quarter was living in the 1800's.

Todd (OR)

P.S. I own three White's detectors, and would own nothing else. My hunting partner owned a Minelab Explorer and we hunted side by side... My MXT against his Minelab... I found more than him every time. It became fun for me to follow in his path and find a good signal, then call him back to see if he could "see" that. Unfortunately we no longer hunt together... I don't know why.