Blackshear Elementary, Visit #1

The quest for silver leads me to older and older schools in Austin. My next visit was at Blackshear Elementary which was built in 1903.


Unfortunately for me, a the signal from a cell phone tower prevented me from digging the oldest part of the school. My metal detector picked up the signal, which caused the display to constantly give false signals. You can see what I mean in my video.


Here is episode #4 of my video blog, which covers my time at Blackshar Elementary:


I did manage to get my first half dollar:


Unfortunately, I am still skunked on silver coins. Here are my clad totals:



I am more than happy with $9.31 given my difficulty with the area. At least $6.00 came out of the playgrounds alone.

Thanks for reading and watching!

Don't Stop Digging!
Krakken

Lee Elementary, Visit #1

So the desire to find silver has driven me to try older schools further away from my own neighborhood. My next visit took me to Robert E. Lee Elementary.


Lee Elementary was built in the 1930s but has had many additions since then. There is a field that has been practically untouched by construction, but my lack of finding anything there leads me to believe the back of the school had been hit by metal detectors in the past. Lucky for me, the front of the school hadn't been detected lately.

Here is episode #3 of my video blog, which covers my time at Lee Elementary:


Unfortunately, I am still skunked on silver coins. Here are my clad totals:



I am very happy with that dollar amount. I was really surprised I pulled 83 pennies; I was picking them out of that gravel so fast they all kind of blurred together.

Thanks for reading and watching!

Don't Stop Digging!
Krakken

Govalle Elementary, Visit #2

I had so much fun metal detecting at Govalle Elementary, I just had to go back.

Click here to see the previous post about my first metal detecting visit to Govalle Elementary.

This is the playground that I would be focusing most of my detecting efforts on for visit #2.


And here is episode #2 of my video blog, Don't Stop Digging! It contains all details of this hunt:


Here are all of coin my finds:








$4.77 total for the day! I'll take it!

And here is a really beautiful sterling silver ring that I found in the playground:


You can see the "925" stamp in this image:



I am very happy with my second visit to Govalle Elementary. I will definately be going back in the near future. I may not be pulling silver coins, but I am perfectly happy digging silver jewelry!

Thank you for continuing to come back and read my blog. I hope you will subscribe to both it and my YouTube Channel. By doing so, you can receive an email update whenever I post a new blogpost or episode.

I am really trying to do something different with my videos. While you may find tons of metal detecting videos on YouTube, you won't find very many that are meant to be "webisodes". I hope you enjoy both the metal detecting aspect and my humor as much as I have enjoyed making the episodes. And they should get better as I go. I think #2 is already much better than #1.

Thanks again!

Happy Hunting!

And don't stop digging!
Krakken

Govalle Elementary, Visit #1

Metal detecting this weekend took me to Govalle Elementary in Austin. Govalle is about three minutes away from my house, and I don't know why it never occurred to me to hunt there previously.


With the exception of an addition to the northeast side of the school and some totlots, most of the grounds from 1964 are the same.

Now for something completely new and different - a video blog!


This is my first attempt video blogging. I would appreciate any feedback and suggestions you may have.

Here is the final count of my metal detecting hunt on Saturday, Feb 25:


Visit #2 at Govalle Elementary took place the next day, on Sunday, and the results were even better. Stay tuned!

Don't stop digging!
Krakken

Ridgetop Elementary, Visit #1

This past weekend was very muddy but I had an itch to do some metal detecting. I decided to hunt what we metal detectors call "totlots". "Totlots" are essentially the areas around playgrounds or swing sets or any other structure that has gravel, sand, or woodchips on the ground. Hunting these areas make for easier digging and item recovery after heavy rains. While you may not get many old items, you recover items faster and holes are a gazillion times easier to fill neatly.

This is an aerial view of Ridgetop Elementary in Austin. Ridgetop was built in the 1930s and is about five minutes from my house.


The grounds themselves are likely to produce older items, but for the most part I focused on the "totlots" due to all the mud.

Let me tell you, this was the first time I ever hunted a gravel playground, and it was EASY. I didn't have to worry about making a mess, cutting through roots, or making it look like I was never there. I dig as much as I want, then I just push the gravel back in the hole. It was just too simple.

I did manage to get off of the playground and onto some of the sidewalks, so all of these finds are either from the gravel or from some of the sidewalk areas.


This toy NFL ring about made me have a heart attack. When I dug it out of the playground, for a split second I thought it was a gold class ring. Unfortunately, it is likely brass or pot metal. The gold colored finish is already tarnished on the other side.


This cool little copper colored crown pin still has the backing on it. Kinda weird, since it means it was not being worn when it was dropped.


These little religious charms were found about two feet apart from each other in the gravel. They are tiny - about half the size of a dime. I was surprised that my F2 with the stock coil pinpointed them so well.

Here are my finds:


This was a day of many highs and firsts: Not only was this the most dimes I had ever found in one hunt, but this was also the most jewelry I had ever found. Lastly, the 1992 50 Centavo piece from Mexico is the first foreign coin I have found.

I am very happy with my trip to the "totlots" at Ridgeview Elementary and plan on revisiting the grounds as soon as the ground is drier! Still hunting those silver coins!

Don't Stop Digging!
Krakken

Lousy weather allows little digging.

Weather has been cold and rainy over the past two weeks and I have only managed about 5 hours of digging at random locations. I just couldn't handle the 30 degree temperatures with wind for more than 30 minutes, and my detector isn't waterproof.

When I did manage to get outside, the weather was beautiful.



I love Texas sunsets.



Anyway, here is part of my junk haul:



As you can see, lots more pulltabs and foil than before. I found out from other metal detectors that the metal detector lumps gold rings into the same categories as foil and pulltabs. If I wanna get the gold, I gotta start digging more trash! What I really wasn't excited to find were the razorblades. Luckily I wear gloves when I did my holes.

I did dig this cool looking thing. I think it is part of a candle stick. It is a little corroded and crusty, almost like the zinc pennies around here tend to be:



You can see what looks like a lion head in this picture. There is also a line right down the center, which makes me think it was stamped or something:



I also dug this fencepost "topper". It is so big and heavy:



What amazes me about something like this is that it was only one inch below the surface, laying on the side. How does one drop and lose something like this?

Lastly, here is the coin and jewelry haul:



Not too shabby, I guess. No wheats or silver this time, though. And the jewelry was just kids stuff.

Hopefully the weather will allow me to get out and do some digging. It is currently raining and will continue through Saturday, but Sunday is supposed to be sunny.

I can't believe I'm still after my first silver coin! So frustrating!

In an upcoming post, I'll show you the new gram scale I received in the mail. You can see how much my silver finds weigh!

Don't stop digging!
Krakken

McCallum High School, Visit #1

So I decided to change things up this past weekend and picked a different location to metal detect: McCallum High School.



A.N. McCallum High School, Home of the Knights, opened in 1953. It is the second oldest high school in AISD and is currently the oldest operating high school campus. It was named after AISD's first high school superintendent, and the location was chosen because of population growth in North Austin.



I remember going to the sports field when I was younger to watch my brother play soccer. A few years ago, the old wooden bleachers, original to the field, were torn down. My target for the day was the sides of the track, where these bleachers used to be.

Unfortunately, when I arrived at around 8:00AM on Saturday morning, the track and field were occupied by a soccer game. This is the reason why I always have a plan B. I headed to the front of the school only to find out that an orchestra competition was taking place. There were people everywhere and I really didn't feel like detecting within feet of people waiting to enter the theater.

Aha! I had a plan C.

While doing my aerial photo research of the area, I noticed that the dirt/gravel parking lot from 1964 was actually across the street from the main entrance. According to current Google Maps, that old parking lot is now a vacant grassy lot. While probably not an ideal area to dig, it was definitely better than nothing.



This lot was JUNKY. Old pull tab beer and soda cans, rusty tin cans, nails, screws, and even more unidentifiable junk.



I found hardly any coins, but did manage my oldest coin for the day, this 1956-D wheat penny:




About the coolest thing I found was this candle snuffer:



When the school finally cleared out a little, I went to a side entrance and managed a few bucks in clad coins.



I still haven't pulled my first silver! However, some of the dimes and quarters were 1965 and 1966, so I will be going back to McCallum High School to look some more!

Don't stop digging!
Krakken

Old Anderson High School, Visit #2

I found this crest for the old L.C. Anderson High School online while doing research. I think it was designed after the school was shut down, but it is pretty cool, nonetheless.

There is a lot of ground to cover at this school, and because it is so close to my home, there will be many separate blogposts covering my metal detecting outings there. If I remember to take my camera, I'll get some current photos of the school grounds the next time I go out.

There is a large and steep hill on one side of the track that leads up to the old school buildings, and that is where I focused the majority of my hunt on Saturday. I'd like to think of it as extreme metal detecting.

You saw the junk I pulled in the last post, so here the coins and other cool finds. My apologies for the weird angle on the picture.




This is the most pennies I have ever found in one hunt. I'm happy, but would rather find quarters.

Here are some close ups of the token. I think it is pretty cool.





It reads "Serving Austin Texas and the Capital Area" on one side, and "Capital Metro Transit Token" on the back. You will also notice that on the back there is some sort of metal clip or rod. I was a little puzzled about this at first, but got my answer after some internet searching. It turns out that these tokens were used from 1989-1999, and after they were discontinued, all old tokens CapMetro had were turned into pins, like the one I have was. The actual pin on mine has just been bent down next to the token, and I lack the pin back. Here is a picture I found online.




It was a good hunt, but still no silver. I know I'll find some. There is still plenty of ground to cover, and I have found dimes and quarters from 1964 - only one year off!

Don't stop digging!
Krakken

Old Anderson High School, Visit #1

I bought a metal detector about two months ago with the intention of getting out of the house and increasing the size of my coin collection.  My metal detecting near end of 2011 was delayed by both a faulty metal detector from the factory (which was replaced under warranty) and rain every two days. Now sunny and with a Fisher F2 that works great, I have decided to hunt the nearby school and track.

The ground I am hunting is L.C. Anderson High School, Home of the Yellow Jackets. A predominately African-American school, it opened in the location I am hunting in 1953. It was later ordered closed by a federal judge as a part of desegregation in 1971. The facilities are still in use and it is now the Alternative Learning Center (ALC) for the local school district. Anderson High School was reopened in its current location in 1973 with a new mascot, The Trojan, and is now home to spoiled white kids.

Here are two aerial shots of the 1953 campus:



As you can see, most of the school was built before 1964. This is great for me, because I want to pull silver coins.

If you didn't know, The Coinage Act of 1965, enacted July 23, 1965, eliminated silver from the circulating dimes and quarter dollars of the United States, and diminished the silver content of the half dollar from 90% to 40%. This act was in response to coin shortages caused by the rising price of silver in terms of a devaluing U.S. dollar.

Since I am looking for silver coins, the best places to look are places built before the Coinage Act! I am unlikely to find any Mercury dimes (minted 1916-1945) at this location, but there are still plenty of silver Roosevelt dimes, Washington quarters, Franklin halves, and Kennedy halves to find!

Here is the results of four hours on 1/14/2012:



No silver, but not too bad for what I feel is my first real metal detecting outing! And I have only hit half the bleachers and a little bit next to the track. So much more to hunt!

Next time:

Can this crusty coin be saved?



Don't stop digging!
Krakken