Bothell metal detecting the last 2 days

Max and I went out Friday after school and Saturday morning for a few hours combined to metal detect. Friday we dug up $.93 and a tiny silver ring. Max ended up finding 3 quarters and the ring. This morning we hit the same spot and tried to complete part of the park that we weren't able to hunt. We dug up $2.14 in clad, so the two days ended up being successful. Here are a couple of photos and video clip of one of the digs.

Friday's total: $.93

Saturday's total: $2.14

2 days combined: $3.07

Total finds to date: $10.25 Day 9

Grand total for The Lincoln Penny Project: $49.73

Above ground finds:$38.39

Below ground finds: $11.34

Lunch time calls for the metal detector again!

Finds for the day.
The park in Lynnwood.

I've driven by this park dozens of times and it's packed with people during the summer. The afternoon weather was decent, so with my detector along, I give it a shot. The machine starts hitting a lot of signals right away. It's making noise every few feet, and the sound determines that the grounds have a lot of junk. A few people are in the park, so I decide to get my headphones to eliminate all of the beeping noises for my nieghbors. The first signal that sounds like a coin excites me. The dig pulls one dime and a penny in the same hole. The overall digs bring in $.64 in coins (5 dimes and 14 pennies).
One of the signals really sounded good. As I was digging, I noticed a round object that was thicker than a coin. When I pulled up the object, I was pumped to find out that it was a ring-maybe silver? Of course the first thing that I do is look for a mark or identification of the ring. No markings unfortunately, but it does have some kind of gem-a possible pearl or opal? The ring is heavy and appears to be old and hand made. I was please about the day's haul.

Today's total: $.64
Above ground finds: 0
Below ground finds: $.64

This year's total: $5.61 Day 6

Above ground finds: $.35
Below ground finds: $5.26

Look what the first day of 2010 brought in!

It's the first day of the year and the excitement will build for the next 364 days for The Lincoln Penny Project. Claire and I challenged each other to see which one of us would come up with the first find of the year. I told her that I would find a dime first and she said she would find a penny. Our first stop was Half Price Books-and the parking lot gave up zip. She did end up scoring on some great $1.00 books though. Then we went to the Redmond Town Center. On the way back to our car we both took different routes. I ended up calling Claire over to our first find of the year....it was a dime, four pennies and a nickel ( a total of $.19). How cool!

Our next journey was on the Washington State Ferry to Whidbey Island. We stopped off at the Red Apple Grocery for some snacks and found $.06. We then got to our final destination-Coupeville. It was nearing dusk and I had to try and get in 15 minutes of metal detecting-which I ended up digging 2 dimes and a penny ($.21).

First find of the year nets us $.46

Above ground finds: $.25

Below ground finds: $.21

Grand total to date: $.46 Day 1

Our third day of detecting

After passing out fliers by one of our job sites, I decided to get in 45 minutes of metal detecting. Before the job site fliers, I went to the store to get a few things. On my way out of the store I spotted a dime and scooped it up. My metal detecting stop took me to the place that Max and I went to on Sunday. It's a dog park in Bothell, but this time it was late afternoon with very few people. I ended up digging up a number of scrap aluminum pieces, rusty nails, a couple of fishing weights and 2 dimes.

So far we are 3-3(coin finds)on metal detecting hunts-which I am happy about.

Daily total: $.30
Grand total to date: $38.51
169 finding days averages out to $.23

Above ground finds: $37.22
Below ground finds: $1.29

2nd day out metal detecting

Max out searching near frozen pond.
Max finds first bottle cap....with many to come. Check out the open field.
Max out detecting.
The big tree in the background is where we found the 1965 quarter.
Max finds our first quarter!
Max and I went out metal detecting for the second day in a row-hitting three different spots. Our first hunt brought in 3 Lincoln pennies from a playground. The second stop gave us a big, fat zero in coins, but a bunch of junk aluminum. The final place we visited was a large dog park in Bothell. The new metal detector takes time to understand and get the feel of. We tried using different settings while we were hunting. Garrett recommends using the "all metal" mode when learning to use the detector at first. Max and I were getting all kinds of nails and rusted spikes in the all metal mode. After an hour of hunting, we switched it to the "coins" mode and Max came up with our first quarter within a few minutes. The next target we hit was a dime. Our final target was a 1965 quarter-one year shy of silver. The cool thing about our finds was that the first quarter was a 1983-the year I graduated...and the final quarter was a 1965-the year I was born.

We didn't do any above ground searching today.

Daily find: $.63
Grand total to date: $38.21
168 finding days averages out to $.23 per day.

Above ground finds: $37.12
Below ground finds: $1.09

Only 4 pennies today

When I think of the number 4, Lou Gehrig comes to mind. The powerhouse, "Iron Horse" Lou, was the clean up hitter for the New York Yankees. He came in when legendary first baseman, Wally Pipp, had a headache one day. Miller Huggins, the Yankees Manager, told Wally to stay out and take a rest for a game. Lou Gehrig ended up playing in 2,130 consecutive games-which allowed Wally a long rest. What happened to Wally Pipp after Lou stepped in? Google it and check it out.

Claire and I ended up making it to Yankee Stadium on the final year that the Yankees played in "The House That Ruth Built." What a treat it was to be in the same stadium that all of the greats of the past once roamed. One could vision Gehrig, Ruth, Mantle and Dimaggio running the bases, hitting home runs and tracking down the ball. It was truly amazing to be at 161st and River Ave where Gehrig and Ruth walked the streets after a game.

This brings us to our big 4 pennies for the day-which adds $.04 to the pot. It's a day for Lou Gehrig, #4.

Daily total find: $.04

Grand total to date: $33.70

Finds of the day brings in $1.22. We topped the $30.00 barrier!

Claire, Andrea and I contributed to The Lincoln Penny Project today. It was a day of work for each one of us; teaching, learning and managing projects.

Andrea found $.28 at her school. It was after her German class that she spotted the Washington Quarter and three pennies in the school's hallway. She was pumped! After one of our roofing projects, I needed to vacuum the truck out at a car wash that I have never stopped at. When I pulled into the vacuum station and opened my door, look what was waiting for me....COINS!! The change added up to $.74. A Canadian Penny was also in the coin catch-a 1949 penny-the oldest find to date.

Claire and I attended Andrea's Volleyball district finals during the evening. They played a tough match, but ended up losing 3-1. Andrea's team still has an opportunity to end up 3rd overall...Yeah! After her match, Claire and I did a night time car wash run. She ended up finding $.08 and I found $.12.

Daily total find: $1.22
Grand total to date: $30.03
114 finding days averages out to $.26 per day
This could equate to $94.90 in one year for The Lincoln Penny Project.

Max gets in on the action and finds $.33

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. No time to search for the coin today. After I picked up Max he said, "let's go to the car wash!" It's the car wash that results in the best finds. I told him that we didn't have any time and needed to get home, prepare dinner and do some homework. We compromised and went to the local Shell station by the air/water area. Max ended up finding $.33 (quarter, nickel and 3 pennies). Way to go Max-a great addition to The Lincoln Penny Project! He understands that some of our finds will be going to a charity of our choice and a rainy day fund. He's always excited for the hunt!

Daily total find: $.33

Grand total to date: $27.25

108 finding days averages out to $.25 per day.

QFC and car wash brings in $.55 for the day

Another week has passed by, so that means a new breakdown of finds has been posted. Today started out pretty good for the finds. I went into QFC to grab a newspaper, and for the first time found $.15 in the copy machine coin return (nickel and dime). It's actually the first time that I ever looked in the coin return. Do you think that we missed out on some finds in the past?

After my son's football practice, we stopped by our favorite car wash and found one quarter and a nickel. The one Missouri coin helped our Washington State Quarters collection. We have eleven different states to date. We also ended up finding 10 pennies earlier at the parking lot at Top Foods.

Daily total find: $.55

Grand total to date: $26.92

107 finding days averages out to $.25 per day

Here's my morning cup of joe!

The ordinary Jane might go to the local coffee barista and pick up an average cup of joe. It might mean that this person goes 15 minutes out of their way for their morning fix. It could also be that this person might go in the afternoon for a second run-which calculates to shelling out some dough. We all get a set amount of time in a day-and how we use that time is precious. Here's what I'm getting at. I don't like coffee and I'm not much of a time waster. The time that I waste really doesn't feel like lost time.

Our family recently got on the money finding kick. Here's the scoop.... Lost change, coins, bills are everywhere. We are not putting a lot of time into hunting, searching, looking...etc., but we are finding. It's amazing. It's not a lot of money, but it's still incredible to come across a find of any kind. Why do people throw their money away? We are baffled. Are you?

What would you do if you found lost change on your errands? Our plan is to keep some for a rainy day fund or Disney fund, but also give back to a charity of our choice. We have considered the backpack program for hungry kids, a food lifeline program through Washington State or to cancer research. Granted it's not a lot of money yet, but each week we add to the pot.

We are spending less than 15 minutes a day on our quest for the coin, and it's not everyday that we are able to search. This equates to $1.00 per hour.....Can we raise this hourly rate? How about averaging more than a quarter a day. Come back to see how we are doing. We welcome you!

Daily total find: $.85

Grand total to date:$26.37

106 finding days averages out to $.25 per day.

This could equate to $91.25 per year.

3 for the Babe!

Babe Ruth, "The Sultan of Swat," "The Bambino," New York Yankees Hall of Fame Great-Number 3 is one of the greatest baseball players to ever play the game. When my brother and I was growing up, Babe Ruth was one of our favorite ball players. The Seattle Mariners didn't exist in the early '70's, so it was history that we turned to, and Babe Ruth was it. We would write to former big league greats and wait at the mailbox for a returned letter. In 1974, my brother received a Hall of Fame plaque postcard signed from Mrs. Claire Ruth, Babe Ruth's wife. What an incredible treasure!

All of our life the "Number 3" represented something bigger than just the number-it was Babe Ruth! Whenever we heard the number 3, it was always "3 for the Babe!"

Last year Claire and I had the opportunity to go back to New York. The reason we made the trip was to see Yankee Stadium before the final game. This is the "House that Ruth built." How could we miss that? What an awesome trip!

We found 3 pennies yesterday. "3 for the Babe!"

Total finds to date: $22.26

First wheat back find since this quest began!

Wow! Finally the first wheat back penny uncovered. It's not like we took a metal detector over some land, dug down several inches and pulled up a treasure. This Lincoln Wheat Back Penny was sitting out in the open for all to see. It's a 1954S that's in decent shape for being 50+ years old. It was found at one of my favorite car wash stations. I needed to vacuum my truck out and noticed the Lincoln's Wheat Back staring up at me near my left front tire.

Before I used the vacuum, I toured the station-doing my rounds for the find. This one stop produced $.53 (2 quarters and 3 pennies). This sum was the same as yesterday. An earlier stop at Wal Mart brought in 6 pennies. The early morning find's total is $.59. Not bad!

Back to the car wash station. One vacuum area had a set of keys on the pavement. I snapped a picture of it and held on to the keys. The attendant was just pulling up while I was vacuuming. When I finished the job, I brought the keys up to him-letting him know what I found. He thanked me and asked if I wanted a free car wash. I thanked him and said I need to get to a job site. What an awesome day!

Update for the rest of the day. We ended up finding an additional $.36. The find came up with a Canadian quarter, one dime and a penny.

Total daily find: $.95

Grand total to date: $22.23

101 finding days averages out to $.22 per day.

Breakdown of finds for the week! 100th day totals

The 100th day of finding brings in $.53. The sum brought in 2 quarters and 3 pennies for the day-jumping up our total find to date to $21.28. We didn't have an opportunity to post about a few small finds during the week, so we are off a bit on earlier posts. Check out the first find of the day that couldn't be lifted out of the concrete.

Breakdown of finds for the week. Last week's total was $20.02.

$5.00 (1) = $5.00
$1.00 (2) = $2.00
$.25 (28)+ 1 Canadian = $7.25
$.10 (38) + 1 Canadian = $3.90
$.05 (14) = $.70
$.01 (241)+ 2 Canadian = $2.43

Grand total to date: $21.28, up $1.26 for the week.
Total percentage increase in one week = 6%
100th finding day averages out to $.21 per day

Any money today? If you are not out searching, you will not find a thing!

If the miner wasn't out searching or panning for gold, he wouldn't come up with anything. It's the same thing with finding coins or cash. We came up with zip, zilch, nil, zero....absolutely nothing. Unfortunately we didn't really have the opportunity to hunt. The Lincoln Penny Project came up empty today.

Total find for the day: nada

Three pennies catapult us over $20.00!

It was a busy work day-so coin hunting was non-existent. I did however hit one parking lot near a job site and found something. When I got out of the truck, three pennies were placed strategically by my front left tire.

The Costco evening shopping trip added one more penny to the bottom line.

We passed the $20.00 mark in a little more than three months. This is money that we have found on the ground that other people accidentally or intentionally dropped. It's been a fun mission/project so far-and we plan to keep it up as long as people continue to leave change on the ground for us. What will the magic number be over the next three months? Will we accumulate more or less money? Can we maintain a $.21 per day average or exceed it?

What can $20.00 buy today? It can purchase over 7.5 gallons of gas-which could fill up a Smart Car. It could get one person into a movie theater-and maybe some popcorn. How about several Happy Meals at Mickey D's?

Total find for the day: $.04

Drea earlier find: $.01

Grand total to date $20.02

93 finding days averages out to $.21 per day.

A weak day for a Saturday!

We were on the hunt. It was Claire's mission to beat me on the finds for the day. As we entered QFC, she immediately spots the nickel on the floor...right at the entrance! A man watches her pick it up-and says, "great eye!" I'm determined to match it. I spot the first coin-a penny. Her Jefferson has my lonely Lincoln beat. Eventually I came up with an additional 3 cents, but she ended up winning 5-4. We are however up $.09!

Total find for the day: $.09
Grand total: $18.44
90 finding days averages out to $.20 per day.

Breakdown of finds

Each week we will post the breakdown of money finds. Hopefully the pot increases as the days go by. Here are a few photos from the Department of Treasury in Washington D.C. This department is responsible for printing and minting all paper currency and coins in the United States (Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the United States Mint). It also has a department that is responsible for collecting all federal taxes; the IRS. More photos of Steve and Claire in D.C.

Grand Total: $17.23

86 finding days averages out to $.20 per day

Breakdown:

$5.00 total 1 = $5.00

$1.00 total 2 = $2.00

$.25 total 19+1 Canadian = $5.00

$.10 total 31+1 Canadian = $3.20

$.05 total 12 = $.60

$.01 total 142+1 Canadian = $1.43

We have a ways to go to catch up to the Treasury Department!

Which US President is on the dime?

Claire and I took a trip back to Washington D.C. after the school year ended with 21 students. It was a fabulous-educational trip! We had the opportunity to see a number of different memorials-including the FDR Memorial. Andrea found a dime earlier in the day. Here is a halloween costume that one of Drea's friends is wearing. I'm not sure what it is though?

Enjoy the FDR Memorial photos.....Andrea's too!

Steve in the soup line, Claire and Steve with FDR and Claire in the fireside chat.

Find for the day $.10

Costco, Bowling and Car Wash

Hunt, find and post. It was our mission for the day. Max had a football game on Saturday afternoon. The parking lot and bleachers left us penniless. We had some hunger pains-so Costco came a calling. Hot dogs were on the menu-with some gellato ice cream for dessert. Andrea spotted the first coin. It was a Lincoln-of course-tilted on its side where the floor and wall met to buy the dogs. The diners were four deep-waiting to buy their grub. Not a soul picked up the lonely copper item-that is-until Andrea bent down to pick up her prize. While we were waiting in line-Steve toured the vending machines and spotted a coin. The first Canadian cent was found. Max was number three-another Lincoln find.

The family decided to take in some bowling for the evening. The place was packed. Andrea was on a mission. She scored both in finds and with the pins. Andrea found $.26 and a cool, blue toy elephant. Claire found the fake ring-and Erich found a token for a video game that he used. Andrea ends up beating all of us with a score of 115 for bowling. Erich gets the ultimate strike by coming up to the lane facing backwards and bowls through his legs and gets a strike. Each person ended up with a couple of strikes and spares.....cool!

The final stop was a late night car wash. We used the car wash in a different way. Max and Andrea spot the pennies and Steve gets the Roosevelt Dime. We were hunting in the dark. There was limited light from the car wash alleys. Someone washing their truck asked us if we needed a flashlight. We told him that our family does strange scavenger hunts and we were fine.

Total daily find: $.41

Grand Total to date: $15.60

83 finding days averages out to $.18 a day

Could average out to $65.70 per year.