Wow! It's been almost one week since our last post....

Hunts have been sparse recently..so have the finds unfortunately. Over the last week we were only able to get out a few times. The above ground finds brought in 4 pennies and we had a Bellingham hunt late on Friday that brought in $1.24 (4 quarters, 1 dime, 2 nickels and 4 pennies). One of the quarters was a 1976 bicentennial coin-our first!

Our first month of metal detecting proved to be a success. We got in a number of hunts and Max unearthed our first silver item and wheat back penny-a 1919S. This is our oldest coin to date. We are still waiting for our first silver coin. Check out the items that we scooped up. The list includes three silver rings, one titanium ring, several other rings and charms and a bunch of pennies and clad. We unearthed a few relics too as you can see by the photo.

Happy Hunting everyone!

Total finds over the last several days: $1.28
Above ground finds: $.04
Below ground finds: $1.24
Total finds to date: $22.01 30 days of hunting averages out to $.73 per day.

The Lincoln Penny Project grand total: $61.62
Above ground finds: $39.02
Below ground finds: $22.60

The last two days of coin finding....and our first silver item!

Finds for today.
Max finds our first silver-an earring 925.
Total finds from yesterday.

Max and I went out metal detecting after he got out of school to a private beach in Bellevue, WA. We ended up finding $1.15 in change (2 quarters, 5 dimes, and 15 pennies). One penny was our second wheatie-a 1956D. I was able to video Max unearthing our first silver item-an earring that had CA 925 stamped on it. It also had a stone similar to an aqua marine. Way to go Max!

This morning Max and I hit Matthews Beach in Seattle, WA for a quick hunt. We ended up finding $2.00 in change (6 quarters, 4 dimes and 10 pennies).

Check out a couple of our videos on youtube (LincolnPennyProject) when you get some time.

Finds over the last two days: $3.29
Above ground finds: $.14
Below ground finds: $3.15
Total finds to date: $20.77 Day 23 averages out to $.90 per day

Grand total for The Lincoln Penny Project: $60.34
Above ground finds: $38.98
Below ground finds: $21.36

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

$.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

Tuesday Breakdown

It's been a while for the Tuesday breakdown, so here it is!

Check out the photos... The first photo is from our Baker Lake camping trip and our first find on July 12, 2009. We ended scooping up $.38. A couple of weeks later we found our first dollar bill and more coins. Look how the pot has grown since that first day!

Hunts have been limited, but we are still keeping our eyes on the prize. It's amazing where we came from, a whopping $.38 on our first find-to $32.54 today. Remember that these are above ground finds! It's the parking lot at the grocery store, video store, fast food restaurant and baseball stadium. It's the walk that you go on with your family, the hike, the road trip-these are the places that these coins surface-and it's all above ground.

Can you imagine what is waiting beneath the ground? What would enhance our searches? A metal detector of course! That will be one of our family gifts-and we are excited to expand our Lincoln Penny Project's finds.

Breakdown:

$5.00 (1)=$5.00

$1.00 (2)=$2.00

$.25 (51) + 4 Canadian = $13.75

$.10 (58) + 2 Canadian = $6.00

$.05 (30) + 1 Canadian + 1 Australian = $1.55

$.01 (409) + 3 Wheaties, 3 Canadian = $4.16

Grand total to date: $32.54

143 finding days averages out to $.24 per day