I was able to hit a couple of totlots this weekend. Both of them were in more well to do areas. I was a little disappointed in the haul from both spots.
The first spot is a large YMCA totlot that gets some serious use. I didn't go over it with a fine tooth comb, but I hit what should have been the hot spots and found a grand sum total of 3 cents. On the way back to the truck I stumbled across my first foreign coin, a 1969 2 Deutche Mark. It rang up as a pulltab.
I then hit a totlot at a nearby elementary school. It was actually a collection of 4 totlots. Once again I didn't go over it with a fine tooth comb, but I there just weren't that many signals of any sort. I pulled a quarter, a couple of dimes, and 5 cents out of these totlots.
I think I'm noticing a trend. The higher the socioeconomic level of the surrounding neighborhood the fewer things I find to dig in the totlots. I don't have a big enough statitical sample to say this for sure, but it sure does seem like it. I can think of a couple of reasons why this might be the case.
I'll need to update my Metal Detecting Map on Google Maps. Right now most of the lots I have tagged are in South OKC / Moore. I think if I move my hunting just a little further North I'll be entering a poorer area of town and if my hypothesis is correct my totals will increase.
Another crazy thing happened to me this weekend. I was helping my brother in law's girlfriend move into a new apartment in downtown OKC today. It didn't take too terribly long to get her settled in, so after we were done I thought I'd see if there was anything waiting to be discovered in a park I noticed on the way to her apartment.
Here's the park in question
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I started out on the totlot an after just a few minutes realized someone had probably recently cleared it. Absolutely no signals. Not to be discouraged and since its an older part of town I thought I'd see what sort of signals I ran across in the park itself. After going a short distance I started to notice filled in holes from another digger. I was suprised when I ran my detector over one of these filled holes that it let out a "coin" sound. So I had a look.
After turning up the other md'ers plug I found an aluminum screw lid off of a cheap wine bottle in the hole. I thought to myself "huh… that's weird". When I found the next spot that the other md'er had dug I ram my detector over the plug, and once again it let out a "coin" ding. Once again I found another aluminum screw lid. So… Instead of looking for the good spots to detect, I started to look for this other guys plugs. After 30 minutes or so I had found 8 of his holes and every one of them had an aluminum lid in it.
I don't think it was a coincidence. All these lids looked like they hadn't been in the ground long. I think this other guy was trying to plant trash signals to foil other detectors playing in his area.