I pulled into the driveway and saw Gene working on his lawnmower. We looked over the property, and I was pleased to see that it was a double-wide lot with a large area of lawn to search after the work was done. Gene showed me where he assumed that the first marker was located. I put my White's XLT in "Relic" mode figuring that the marker would be a pipe, iron rod, or lead marker that this feature could detect easily. However, after only a few motions of the coil, I realized that another mode would be needed. The soil consists of black sand, and there were nails and small pieces of iron in abundance.

I switched to the Jewelry/Beach program that I normally use. This program would still identify the larger iron objects but would allow me to pass the smaller pieces. Gene pointed to an area near the sidewalk and said that this should be close to where the marker is buried. The reason behind his theory was that he didn't have to pay for the new section of walkway. This wasn't the most scientific approach to finding the marker, but it sure was right. I easily located the buried marker by just probing the ground after getting a good reading on the Liquid Crystal Display. It registered a larger piece of "iron" at a depth of only 1-1/2". I uncovered the marker, and Gene went to find a tape measure to find the distance to the next target.

We measured the proper distance, and I started sweeping the grass. This section was a little more difficult, as there was a slight angle to the property line and it made a difference in the distance. I swept an area about 10' square and found two Memorial cents. As I dug them up just to see what they were, I explained to Gene the readings on the LCD, and he was surprised that the detector could actually tell us what lay beneath the surface. I kept going back to a signal that was broken but different than that of the first marker we had found. The signal registered iron but seemed "smaller". I decided to check it out and began probing the ground. This was too easy! The marker was there, and this time it was a pipe driven into the ground.

Gene was happy and said that I could search the rest of the grounds. He showed me where the new garage was to be built, and I told him that I would start there because if dirt was moved during construction, at least that area would already have been searched. I almost passed up the first good find, which gave a "screwcap" reading. I went over it and moved on, but something made me go back. Maybe it was the fact that the good signals were not very frequent, maybe it was intuition I don't know. But when I pinpointed the target and saw that the depth was about 4-1/2" I had to dig it up. The target was a 1936 Buffalo Nickel. This made the "work" pay off. They really aren't valuable, but they sure are nice to find, especially when the date is readable and stands out clear as this one did. I showed it to Gene and I could see a tinge of envy in his eyes. He said that he had a detector that is rather old and was broken. It had been purchased 15 years ago for his son to play with, but was packed away with its batteries still in place. The batteries corroded and had "eaten" some of the 9-volt connectors away. I mentioned that I could try to solder some new ones on, and even teach him the proper usage of the machine. I also cautioned him that such older, cheaper machines usually don't have much depth capability.

I had to get back to my search, and Gene went to find his detector. After a few passes and hardly any good signals, I finally got a hit that made me stop in my tracks. It registered at about 6" and sounded promising in every direction of the passing coil. I pulled out the chunk of sod, and the target was still in the hole. I pulled out more loose soil and placed it on my drop cloth. Still nothing. I removed more soil, and a quick pass of the coil over the cloth gave me a clear, solid tone. I grabbed a handful of the loose dirt and swept it over the coil. The target was in my hand!

It wasn't a coin, but a flat piece of brass or copper in an unusual shape-- the head of a dog! I carefully blew off the remainder of the loose soil and saw a small hole, "WINONA, DOG TAX, 760, and a date---1898. Wow, an 1898 dog tax tag. I had to show Gene this one.

He looked it over and was truly amazed by the age of the tag. I told him that some of these tags can be worth a bit of money, figuring that maybe I could get $10 to $15 for it if I sold it. I kiddingly stated that now he probably wanted me to quit to leave the rest of the stuff for him to find. To my surprise he replied, "Yes, leave the rest for me!"

Oh well, I guess I asked for it. Since I'd agreed to try to repair his machine, I did, and was correct in that the machine didn't have much depth. When I returned it to him, I told him again that I doubted that he would have found the items I recovered. He said that I didn't have to "share" in the value of the Buffalo Nickel or the dog tax tag due to my help. But this lead to another dilemma: where could I go detecting tomorrow??

I remembered getting permission from my dentist's assistant during my last visit, so that is where I headed the following day. Dover, Minnesota is about 40 miles from my home, but so what? I would travel hundreds of miles to detect a prime site and find some good coins or relics. So off I went.

Sue and Dale Bedtka's house is an old two-story farmhouse, the kind that catches your eye every time you drive by. The front yard is about 50' wide and 100' long with huge willow trees. Sue and the children greeted me in the driveway.

I started searching under the willows and was surprised that there were few targets other than the ever-present roofing nails. I moved farther away from the house to the spacious yard, working a pattern toward the road. After several passes, I had found only a Wheat cent (1919-S). Then on a return trip in the pattern I got a "quarter" hit at a depth of 6". The target readout also suggested that it might be silver. Sure enough, up came my first Barber quarter ever, and when I finally stopped shaking, I read the date 1899! I showed the quarter to the Bedtka family, and they in turn had to dig out their coin collections to show me what they had accumulated over the years. I was invited to come back to detect any time, and in turn I promised to bring extra detectors along for them to share in the fun.

The one thing that must be stressed in this article is that in each of the two yards that I searched, the targets were slim to nearly none. For each good item that I recovered there was a long period of time where there were no finds of any kind. How many of us would have just said, "There is nothing here," and given up on finding the good stuff? I finished the entire front yard of the Bedtka's property and found no more coins, but will I return? You can bet on it. Will I make another good find? Maybe. One thing's for sure, they're still out there---even in places where they're few and far between.

As a follow up on the 1898 Winona Dog Tag,

Gary Kruesel

PO Box 7061

Rochester, MN

55903,

has made a trade for the tag. We have "traded" for some of the tags and tokens that I've found over the years and for this particular tag he offered me the 34 Walking Liberty Half Dollars pictured in this article. The 1886 Morgan Dollar was traded for a 1917 Dog tax tag.