As we get closer to finishing out the 2023 detecting season, the weather gets more unpredictable by the day. Today is December 4th and everyone involved wasn’t sure what to expect from the weather. For the past few days it has been +3 ish and raining constantly and yet on this particular morning the temperature had dropped to 0 degrees Celsius and felt like -4.

Still, with the amount of rain over the past few days the ground saturated! It would prove to be the perfect conditions to finding some amazing treasures.

Personally I was trying a different set up on my legend to start the day off. Normally I start a property like this one with the legend set on multi frequency 1 and on either park or field mode with a sensitivity setting of 27 and recovery speed of 3, but today I was trying out a different set up all together. Let me explain.

When you put a multi frequency machine on multi frequency there are generally several multi frequency modes. On the legend you have M1 – M2 – M3 – 4khz – 10 KHZ- 15 KHZ- 20KHZ – & 40KHZ.

Generally speaking the lower the frequency such as #’s 4 & 10 would be great frequencies to be finding Silvers, coppers and other highly conductive metals., while #’s 15- & 20KHZ are great mid range frequencies and are ol or fairly decent and finding both highly and low conductive metals such as aluminum, silvers, and low conductors such as gold. And then there are high frequency settings such at 40KGz and that is the best frequency on the legend to be finding low conductive metals such as gold and iron objects.

So like I said I usually start a day off on park, or field and set the frequency to M-1 which tends to favorite multi frequencies such as 15KGZ and 20KGZ.

Well we were on a mid 1800’s property this morning and just after a few days of rain so today I chose M-3 and set my recovery speed to 1 and a sensitivity level of 28 which was the highest my machine would allow me to go after ground balancing. This setting I figured would give me the best opportunity to find any high conductive materials in the ground at the deepest levels. I was looking for old copper LC’ or Dragon Slayers from the 1850’s to anything silver related. It was only a matter of time to see if my decision would pay off.

So the day started off by inviting several members of the club to join in sharing this adventure. I of course asked my seasons go to, Ryan Pugh. I should Nick name Ryan “Old faithful” every time I ask him if he’d like to join me on an adventure! He has always said yes and made it happen. Weather it’s a work day for him or not. I had also asked Gail B, Dave Arnold, & Jason Corbett, one after the other, as one turned me down I would ask the next person.

Well it was Ryan &I to finish out the season on the beautiful 1800’s home. until recently (40 years ago) this property was used as the local ministers house. Apparently many weddings were hosted on this site over the generations. And the potential for treasure was most definitely here.

So It was Ryan and I set loose on the beautiful property on a mission to once again attempt to discover the hidden treasures and unearth the local history of the area. Our efforts were soon about to pay off once again.

Now, truth be told, Ryan and I searched the property for over an hour and a half to 2 hours, & all we came up with was a couple hot wheel cars and a few modern Pennie’s, no older than the 1950’s & the usual junk items. Not quite the treasure we had been looking, expecting, & hoping for. I actually started feeling like maybe we weren’t going to find anything old on this dig. And Ryan had taken a day off work for this (again)

Suddenly I had a faint signal indicating a deep target. The I’d was ringing up 43 to 51, now, when a target bounces like that if it’s near the surface. Then I can mean a couple things. One, that there are several targets in the same area, & 2 that there could be an iron piece near to a desired target.

The fact that these targets were showing at least 6” below the surface was very intriguing. Just as I was about to start digging, I hear Ryan scream COIN!. I stopped everything I was doing marked the spot I was at, and headed over to see Ryan.

Ryan was holding a coin in his hand when I got to him and he looked in shock. it was the first decent and non modern coin of the day. I asked Ryan what the target rang up at on his machine and he said “high, like in the high 80’s” well that would point to a silver coin in my opinion. So that’s what I immediately said to him, “ that’s a silver coin buddy”

Both of us super excited about Ryan’s find I had almost forgotten about the interesting signals I had back where I left my machine.

After closely examining Ryan’s coin it was hard to determine exactly what it was, so Ryan would have to clean it later.

Turns out that his claim was a Shell Oil Token, Prime Ministers of Canada (1891- John J. C. Abbott), Canada worth approximately $10.00 in pristine condition. lol

We it was time to go see what I had left behind prior to seeing Ryan’s Find. Both Ryan and I headed over to my equipment and I scanned the area once again to see If I could find the signals again? Yup, they were exactly where I had left them lol.

As I dug down approx 4 inches, I discovered a Square nail with my pin pointer. Disappointed I decided to scan the hole again. I immediately got a decent #41 to #42 on the VDI. Excited, because those are a couple of my favourite numbers on my legend, I dug down about 6” and found my second ever LC Canadian Penny. My first was a few weeks prior in Brockville and that one was a 1918 KG V, this one was also a KGV, but was a 1916 coin.

I stood up to scan the hole once again. Too many times I have found a target, covered my hole stood up only to find another signal coming from the same hole. So learning from my past mistakes. I scanned the hole again. Again another signal coming from the same hole. A sound I loved. It was another high tone and coming up a #41 on the VDI.

I dug another inch down only to uncover my second LC on the day and of the hole. This time it was a KGVII

Now super excited. I stood over the hole and tried scanning the area once again. Both Ryan and I were stunned to see the Legend picking out yet another target in the same hole. This one was indicative of yet another possible LC in the hole, only it seemed like it might be several inches deeper than the other 2 I had just uncovered. So I eagerly dug a few more inches down. I was now approximately between 8 to 9” down when right at the bottom of the hole, was a coin like object starring me in the face! Could it be yet another LC?

As I pulled the item out of the hole, it was clear I had just uncovered a hat trick of Large cent Canadian coins. Not only was this a record for me in one hole, it was also a record for me to uncover more than 1 LC in a season and to top it all off. It turned out to be my oldest LC ever. it was an 1882 Victoria LC,

What a way to end the day and what turned out to be the last hint of the year for me personally.

If it was going to be my last hunt of the year, it was certainly one hell of an ending to an incredible season altogether.

A few days later. It was time for the end of year SEOMDC CLUB LUNCH.

This was a great way for myself and others to club members to close out the season. It wasn’t just a lunch but also an awayds ceremony.

Ryan Pugh and I had been working together to come up with some trophy ideas to give out to members for this end of year meeting.

Ryan was the one who actually made the toppers to the trophies themselves and I organized getting the trophies put together.

When all was said and done we had 5 categories and trophies for each. It was difficult to keep the fact that even though Ryan Pugh had made the trophy’s that he himself Infact had been nominated to receive one of them.

So here were the categories and their winners.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR – Gail B.

MOST IMPROVED – Marjorie G.

CLUBSMAN AWARD – Ryan P.

BEST OVERALL FIND – Adam N.

MASTER HOBBY DETECTORIST – Dave A.