JetShack

A question came up on FMDF asking something I hadn't really thought about.  A new member wrote "I'm realizing that I need to come up with a system for how to segregate & store my finds until future action.  I'm guessing that with more valuable coins, most people would store them in sleeves made especially for the purpose. However….  What about less valuable coins that you're saving up for a trip to Coinstar or perhaps future restoration & display? Is it OK to just throw them in a jar and let them sit, or will this cause more corrosion?  What about storing different metals together (copper, silver, zinc, etc); will this cause problems?"

There are a bunch of questions there.  My initial response was to say to put anything valuable into a 2×2 and put them in a folder, something along the lines of this…

(image courtesy of The Purple Penny)

and to put the coins that are headed back to circulation into a jar.  This is basically just reinforcing what the original poster suggested.  But then I an idea occoured to me.  Goes4ever completed a mercury dime set from dug coins.  He even found the 1916D.  Why then couldn't I start putting together dug sets?  I already have a couple of folders to use for the cents similar to these…

(image courtesy of archive.org)

I just need to pick up a couple for the other common clad denominations and I should be good to go.  The added side beneift is that I suspect this will make me WANT to dig all those cents I'm finding instead of getting pissed off at them.

I might have just traded some junk silver coinage for a new ProPointer.  5 circulated Washingtons, 3 Barber Halves, and 30 War nickels.  I think it's a good deal for both the buyer and myself.  My local coin dealer is buying junk right now at 82% of spot.  When this deal was put together and compared to the retail price of the pointer I'd be looking at about receiving about 90% of spot.  So in the end the buyer is going to be picking up the silver at a price 10% cheaper than he can normally buy it and I'll be selling it a price of about 10% more than what I could easily sell it.

Oh… the war nickels were in nasty nasty shape…  I mean NASTY, but they're silver…

You might remember me talking about the ProPointer in a previous post.  Here's a picture to refresh your memory.  These things are insanely awesome.  They speed up recovery time by a bazillion percent. I'm not going to go into all the details on why they rock so much… too many other people already have done it.  As Bob Stoops would say, "go Google it up".

Today I was able to get out for a couple of hours.  Using Google Maps I had found a lot that looked to be REALLY promising.  It was kind of tucked away in a neighborhood.  It was by a school.  I had driven by it several times and ALWAYS saw kids playing on it.  I made it my first stop today.

I was very disappointed. The lot was FULL of trash.  After clearing out all of the trash signals and going over it a second time I found a grand sum total of 3 cents.

After getting in my truck and looking at the time AND thinking about where I was at I realized I could fit in a quick hunt at another lot if it was nearby.  Unfortunately there was only one lot that I could think of off the top of my head.  It was the lot I stumbled across a few weeks ago  that I suspected hadn't been hunted. I found $3.32 that day.  I also feel reasonably confident that I cleaned it out. 

So today I wasn't overly hopeful about how much I'd find.   I figured enough time hadn't gone by to refill it.

Was I ever wrong…

$4.73, 2 rings, a religious symbol, and a lapel pin