$.46 below ground and $.22 above

Money finds for the day.

Max with big tree where the dime was found.

Max detecting in the back of the university.

Claire in the front of university sporting the dime that was found.

A quick trip from my car to the post office door brought in two dimes and two pennies. Claire, Max and I took a little time metal detecting at an old university that has an incredible park and grounds for hunting. We actually run at this park during the summer-and thought with all of the activity-this would be a good place to visit. The college building's architecture is amazing-it's a wonderful sight.

The adrenaline starts pumping when you hear a nice signal from the machine (metal detector). Your heart races as you think what you might be unearthing....is it an old silver coin that someone dropped, maybe a ring of some kind? We picked a spot by an enormous tree to begin our search. Leaves are all over-and the ground is sloped like ski moguls. The beep of the machine becomes clear that it is something other than aluminum foil. It signals that it might be a dime. I begin to dig a plug in the ground...it's not at the surface, so I check the hole again with the detector. The signal continues to be positive. The dull, metallic item surfaces...I'm thinking it has to be old-holding it in my hand-delicately removing some of the dirt-the date appears- it's a 1989 Roosevelt dime. We didn't unearth any silver this trip, but did add a 1988 Washington quarter, another Roosevelt dime and a Lincoln.

Daily total: $.68

Grand total to date: $39.19

170 finding days averages out to $.23 per day

Above ground finds: $37.44

Below ground finds: $1.75

New Washington Quarter post!

On October 22, 2009 we posted about our Washington Quarter finds to date, which resulted in 31 quarters. The breakdown of quarters consisted of:

31 total quarters equaled $7.75

Original quarters (13)

New quarter program (16) This breakdown inlcuded 10 state finds.

Canadian quarters (2)

Since that first post of quarters, here is the tally to date: 55 quarters!

55 quarters equals $13.75

Original quarters (23)

New quarters (28) State breakdown has grown from 10 to 19 states

Canadian quarters (4)

State quarter breakdown:

Arizona (3)

Arkansas (1)

Connecticut (1)

Deleware (1)

Georgia (3)

Idaho (1)

Kansas (1)

Missouri (1)

Nebraska (3)

New York (1)

North Carolina (2)

Oregon (1)

Rhode Island (2)

South Carolina (1)

Texas (1)

Utah (1)

Vermont (1)

Washington (2)

West Virginia (1)

Thanks for looking! Good luck and happy hunting!

Abracadabra! Now you see it, now you don't.....

Are we the only people that find lost coins or actually look for them? Everywhere we go coins surface around us for some reason. We don't go too far out of our way to look either...it's amazing. It might be 5-10 minutes a day, or an extra 100 steps from the parking lot to the car and back from a visit to the store or an errand. Maybe it's just that we are more aware.

Because I am out on the road going to job sites, I'll hit a couple of unplanned stops to see if I run into any stray coins. Car washes are one of my favorite places for hunting. Today I found $1.40 at one car wash. As I drove into the station, two cars were leaving and two people were washing their vehicles. Before I vacuumed my truck out, I found 4 quarters. They were jammed in the coin return. The other coins were on the concrete and around the garbage bins. We are still amazed that people are missing out.

Notice in the photo someone washing their truck. The vacuum station had one dime and a child's ring along with the 4 quarters that were jammed in the coin return. I left the child's ring on the concrete platform.

Total daily find: $1.40

Total finds to date: 23.66

103 finding days averages out to $.23 per day

This could equate to $83.95 in one year.

Breakdown of Washington Quarters

Does anyone look at their change from a grocery purchase? How about pocket change that you throw into a jar at the end of the day? Did you follow the Washington Quarter on its new release of coins? The 50 State Quarter Program was launched in 1999 and lasted ten years. Each year produced five different coins with one of the 50 states in the union on the reverse of the coin. The United States Mint produced each quarter for about 10 weeks and will never be produced again.

Which quarter of this program do you think was released first? Which was the last? On December 7, 1787, Deleware was the first state admitted into the union-therefore it was the first quarter of the program released on January 4, 1999. Hawaii was the 50th state admitted in the union and the final quarter released.

Breakdown of quarters to date: 31 = $7.75

Washington Quarters 13

State Quarters 16

Canadian Quarters 2

Breakdown of State Quarters

Arizona (3)

Connecticut (1)

Georgia (2)

Idaho (1)

Kansas (1)

Nebraska (1)

New York (1)

North Carolina (2)

Rhode Island (2)

Washington (1)

We need 40 more states to go!