Introduction

If you take a walk in the older part of your town, you will most likely see the same surroundings that would be seen in most towns across the United States. While the age of the neighborhoods may vary, they all seem to have one thing in common. You know what I am talking about, that narrow strip of grass that lays between the sidewalk and the curb at the edge of the street. It has been there for years and years, and over it has passed generations of people coming and going from their houses and/or businesses. Their mode of transportation has changed over the years as well. Horseback and carriages gave way to early automobiles and then to mass transportation. The trolley car, and then the bus, all dropped off and picked up their passengers in these little grass and dirt areas at the edge of the road. Now, most of the curbside is dedicated to parking for modern day cars. In most cases that little grass strip has seen the change of time all around it. Oh sure, trees and shrubs have been planted and sprinkler systems installed, but for the most part this area is surprisingly undisturbed. Along with its wonderful history, just below the surface there is much more than meets the eye. This little area also holds a wealth of great old coins. You will also find many modern treasures as well…rings, jewelry and, of course, the ever-present clad coin. What I hope to provide in this article are some basic guidelines for metal detecting these areas. Learning good technique, having a keen eye, and showing proper etiquette will all play important roles in being successful in your quest for urban treasure. Now, let's venture out together and learn a little bit more about...

“The Anatomy Of A Parkway Strip”

Proper Etiquette

Found commonly in older residential neighborhoods and commercial areas, parkway strips are often property of the city, or on city easement. It is very important that you have a good understanding of local laws and property boundaries before going out for a hunt. When in doubt always talk with the adjacent property owners and/or city officials to get proper permission to hunt. Even after obtaining the right permission, there are things you can do to make your hunt less intrusive and more acceptable in the public eye. The following is a list of practices that I commonly do when hunting these areas. While they may not all be applicable to your situation, it is always worth going through this little checklist in your head.

1. Visibility. What I mean by visibility is how much are you going to stick out? Swinging your detector on a very busy commercial area city sidewalk is going to make you a target of overly concerned citizens and curious onlookers. In a situation like this I like to use what I call my “Sunday Morning Sidewalk” approach. What this basically means is I save these areas for a weekend hunt early in the morning. Quite often these business areas take on an eerie calmness on the weekends, and more specifically in the morning hours. Conversely, this approach is not well suited, and would be a bad idea, for some residential areas. People are home enjoying their morning coffee, reading the paper, and sitting on the porch. Think about who is going to be watching you and how they may react.

This normally busy sidewalk is quiet and peaceful come Sunday morning.

2. What activity is going on in the area? If someone were having a yard sale it would obviously not be an appropriate time for you to hunt this area. There are some less obvious things that also are important to take notice of. Here are a few that I watch for. Are there children playing in the yard or parkway? Never approach these areas if this is the case. While the children will probably get a kick out of your hunt, I assure you it will raise concern in the parent or caregiver just inside the house. Any high level of traffic in an area means something is going on, an open house, a party, or perhaps a family gathering. Whatever the case, be considerate, polite, and conscious of your surroundings.

3. Leave the area better than you found it. I always take a trash bag with me. I know this sounds like a hassle, but it takes very little time to walk your potential hunting area and pick up surface trash. Not only will this make it easier to hunt, it will show that you have concern for what the area looks like. This can be a daunting task in some of the rental areas of town. Trust me, no one will ever complain about you picking up trash. If you follow up with a metal detecting hunt, then you have just shed positive light on our hobby and people will appreciate the gesture. Look back on the area you have just hunted, does it look better than you found it?

4. Appearance. Yes, it is important how you look; what type of tools you’re carrying, and how you behave when approached by the public or nearby landowner. I am not saying you should wear a tie and jacket, but start your hunts clean and neat. It's inevitable that you will end up dirty and muddy, but when people look at you they often make judgments based solely on your appearance. Use this behavior to your advantage. Keep your digging tools simple and obvious. Do not take an old hunting knife strapped to your side. Even though they make good diggers, this is a bad idea. I know a fellow detectorist who found himself surrounded by police for just that reason. He openly explained what he was doing, and the police advised him that when he is within so many feet of a school, it was against the law. They said if he would put the knife in his vehicle he could continue his hunt. Lesson learned. Keep the diggers small. While a relic shovel may be easier to dig with, onlookers will see it as tearing up the ground. I use a Lesche digger and always put a brass coin probe in the sheath with it. Not only is it a good tool to have along, but also the brass probe helps distinguish the Lesche from a knife.

Having other items surrounding your digger helps make it less alarming to law enforcement and onlookers.

5. Meeting the public. Property owners and others traveling down the sidewalk will approach you on a regular basis. When approached, make good eye contact, be pleasant and smile. Be open and energetic about what you are doing. “I am looking for old coins and enjoying the beautiful old houses!” This is the common response I deliver most of the time. When asked if I am finding anything my reply is usually indirect, but friendly. “Well, it's kind of like fishing. It's not always about catching fish, but I get a few old wheat pennies” is my favorite response. Regardless of what you decide to say, be polite and friendly. I have never had a confrontation with a nearby landowner. If you do your homework and knock on doors you should be able to avoid this situation as well. Quite often a simple knock on the door will lead to a chance to hunt the main property as well. I remember one time I was hunting a parkway in front of duplex. A car pulled up, and out came three small children and what I presumed where the grandparents. The older gentleman approached me and inquired if I was finding anything. He was somewhat stern in his demeanor, so I chose a very direct approach. I opened my keeper pouch and grabbed two Mercury dimes I had found, and reached out and placed them in his hand. I said to him with a wink and a smile, “I think you dropped these the other day.” He looked at the old dimes and a big smile crossed his face. He yelled at his wife to come over and look. The kids excitedly ran over as well. He commented, “They don't make money like this any more.” To make a long story short, I ended up getting to hunt the private yard property as well. Above all, do not sneak around hunting theses areas. When in doubt...don't swing!

Sometimes sharing the hunt with a nearby landowner can lead to permission to hunt private property.

Finding And Recognizing Good Hunting Areas

There are miles of parkways in the average city. Anytime you find one in front of older architecture, you stand a good chance of getting those old coins. However, there are things you can look for that will increase the potential for great finds in your hunts. Having a good eye for spotting these telltale clues is key to getting that silver out of the ground and into your keeper pouch. Following are some of the things I look for. This information is based on many past hunts and their respective results. It is important to remember that these are just the perceptions of one detectorist. Use it as a guide and allow for variation according to your hunting environment. Of course, in most situations you will be hunting the entire parkway of a given area, but it doesn't hurt to know the hot spots in advance. In general the ideal parkway strip is going to be one that is near an older part of town. I have found that the less disturbed the area, the better hunting condition you will have. When you start putting in irrigation and laying down sod, those coins start getting very deep…not just from the extra width of the new sod layer, but additional watering causes more settling in the area. The trees in the strip can tell you a lot about what you’re up against in your hunt. The following two examples show a desirable and not-so-desirable hunting scenario.

Exposed roots mean undisturbed ground. The lack of roots means fill and sod have been applied. The coins will be deeper.

I have found silver just a few inches down in undisturbed ground. Your job gets tougher the more the ground is worked. The exception here is if there has been a deep rototill done to the area. This can actually bring old coins back up to the surface. If there are no trees, the presence of sprinklers and the area having a radically different appearance than other parkways nearby is your clue that the coins will be deeper. My general rule of thumb is the dry neglected parkway is the coinshooter’s paradise. Lush, green grass means deeper targets and more of a chance of making a mess out of the parkway with your digging. This plays into rentals versus owner occupied properties. I am going to make a generalization here that does not always hold true. For the most part, you will see more neglected, original ground around rental properties. Parkways around owner occupied properties are usually cared for much better. I have better luck in front of rentals. If you have an old college in your town, the rental areas around the campus will be a coinshooting dream come true. The ground is often powder dry with no grass and full of weeds. Hunt away, no one will ever bother you there.

Listen To The Sidewalk: There are other indicators for old ground as well. The most obvious is the sidewalk itself. Most modern era sidewalks in my area have date stamps in them from the contractor who poured the sidewalk. This is an easy way to date the sidewalk. A not-so-apparent method involves a simple comparison of the concrete. The best way to do this is in the morning or evening hours when the sun is lower in the sky. Go to the corner of the block and squat down and look up the sidewalk. Look at the following example…

What you will see is that the sidewalk has a story of time to share with you. The older, more oxidized, darker sidewalk stands out now in stark contrast to the lighter, newer pours. You can assume that there is more disturbed ground in the new concrete areas. Note: If the ground is noticeably higher in elevation along the new sections…run, don't walk to these areas and swing that detector. They have thrown the excavation dirt from below the old sidewalk out onto the surface. They dug the coins for you! Take note of the curbing and gutter as well. You can see the same changes to these areas and apply the same logic when hunting along the edges. Another uncommon occurrence is to find a handprint of a mischievous child with a date or a name by it. I found one with the name “John” and a date of 1956 by it once. What made this one different is the fact that John also took the time to put his dog’s paw mark next to his. LOL! This clue told me that perhaps our little friend may have played and lost a few silver rosies in this area. I ended up not finding any dimes that day, but I did find an old dog tag. I could not make out a date of any kind, but I just had to wonder if I found something that belonged to the canine whose paw print was in the sidewalk. The lesson here is that the past has many ways to tell its story. Be perceptive to these little signs and they will guide you to your treasure...whether it's silver or not.

Learning the history in your area of how the walkways were laid out will aid you in your quest. In my area, I know the original sidewalk was made from stone slabs. Recognizing the slabs is easy and always makes for a good hunt. You know these things have to be heavy! The city governments are slowly replacing these stone slabs, as they pose a tripping hazard and create mobility issues for individuals trying to navigate them with wheelchairs and walkers. When this construction starts it is a fantastic time to detect. I keep a sharp eye out for crews removing the stones in preparation for a concrete pour. You may have just a few hours in the evening to take advantage of this situation. I have found many nice coins in this scenario, and drive the back streets on a regular basis looking for the telltale spray paint marks on the ground that signal construction is about to ensue.

If you find a coin under one of these slabs you can bet it will be an old one!

These slabs are highly sought after in my town. The city typically gives the landowner the option of taking them first. They sell for as much as $150 to $200 apiece. I realize this may not apply to you or your city; but if you are ambitious, knock on the door and offer to help move these onto the property in trade for hunting their yard. This is work, but could be the path to that barber or seated half just over the fence in the yard. What I am saying is always look for an opportunity to help out the landowner. It will almost always be to your benefit as well. The sidewalks are the traffic area. I should mention that just off the edge is where dropped coins will roll and come to rest. While we are on the subject of the sidewalk, let’s talk a little about technique with your coil. Do not swing at a 90-degree angle to the sidewalk with your coil. The change in density from stone or concrete to the soil will wreak havoc on the response from your detector. Swing your coil parallel to the edge of the sidewalk with the front of the coil tipped up at an angle and away from the edge a few inches. This will drop the cone of the detector’s field nicely down the edge of the walk. Use this same approach with the curbs and driveways. You can plant a coin and test this out yourself to get the feel of what that coin will sound like in comparison to the different swing styles.

The Play Zone: This favorite hunt area is based on what I refer to as “The Play Zone”, and it is exactly that. These are areas that were frequently used by child of past times to play in. I started finding large number of wheats and tokens along with various toys, marbles, jacks, and cast iron cars. I came to realize that these areas must have been a play area. I could just hear Mom saying, “Don't go into the street”. With that boundary set, I could also see the children pushing the limit by playing on the parkway just a few feet away. For the longest time, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to where these play areas would be...other than in the front of the house near where the sidewalk meets the curb. I couldn't put my finger on it until one day while on a walk, I heard a modern day mother shout from the doorway of the house at her kids, “Stay where I can see you”. That was it! After careful re-examination of previous parkways I had hunted, I made the correlation of the main viewing window of the house being in a direct line with the play area finds. The children where allowed to play where their mother could easily glance out the front window every now and then and check up on them. Every time I start a parkway hunt, I go to these locations first. The method is really quite simple. As you approach a parkway in front of an old house, look to see what area would have been most visible to the porch or front window of the house. If you happen to get the opportunity to hunt the owner’s property you can use this methodology to find productive areas of the yard as well.

A typical “Play Zone”. This one produced a bank token, some old play money, and the real McCoy…several wheats

and a mercury dime. Note the alignment with the large bay window.

I found my oldest coin in a play area like this. Most of the coins pointed to a Victorian age child. In lieu of real money, it looked as though this child was given old money to play with as well. Imagine my surprise when, along with the wheat pennies from the early teens, I dug an 1806 George III copper!

The Bus or Trolley Stop: If you are fortunate enough to have a layout of the old bus or trolley stops in your city, you have literally found a treasure map, my friend. The parkways near these areas are prime for finding great old coins. I can just see someone trying to board for a ride and dropping change as they try to pay. No time to go looking for that dime that has rolled down the steps out of sight. Perhaps, the small child who is allowed to hold his or her own bus fare or trolley token has gotten a little careless, as children do, and dropped it in the grass where they where playing. Needless to say, you will do well in these areas. Other sources for finding these key locations are oral histories from people who have grown up in the area and old pictures. Both of these items can be commonly found at the local library. Those old timers who come down the sidewalk on their daily walks are one of the greatest sources of information to be found. Next time they stop and ask you if you found anything, remember what I said about being friendly. Now would be a good time to put down the detector; show some finds; and strike up a conversation. Let them tell you about what used to be in the area. You will surely benefit! This is a good example of why knowing the local history of an area can be very beneficial to your treasure seeking ways. The museum in your town may have displays in place concerning the development of transit systems in your area. This is a popular subject matter with historians as well. Next time you find yourself in a dry spell, go for a visit to the museum and lose yourself in the past. When you find yourself having that first big “Ah-Ha” moment from your research paying off in great finds you will understand the value.

I didn't know it at the time, but this turned out to be an old bus stop. This small little area produced many nice

wheat pennies and some 1950's silver. On a side note, I noticed as I hunted this area that some other detectorist had

been there before me. I found several cut plugs in the grass as I hunted. Never say, “Hunted out”.

The Boarding House: Before the age of the duplexes and condos there where boarding houses. These were established living quarters where individuals were offered rooms, or sections of a house, to rent by the night, week, or month. These properties can stand out in their architecture and size. There will be multiple entrances, and perhaps even side entrances. The parkways in front of theses types of dwellings have seen more traffic from moving items in and out of the premises. If there is an old college in the neighborhood, then you have student traffic as well. This creates the perfect scenario for lost items. I noticed very early in my metal detecting career that these areas produced well. Spend some time looking closely at the houses, and you will see these old multi-unit dwellings. They may even still be used for the same purpose. These areas can have a very high junk metal content in the ground as well, especially if they are still currently a rental property. Take your time hunting this type of area.

This location was more than obvious in its design. Many nice coins came out of the ground here. Pictured is the dig

site of an 1889 Indian Head. As a side note, I have also pulled many nice rings from parkways that border current-

day rental properties. The heavy traffic increases the loss factor.

Take notice of the dual sidewalk and stairs in the above picture. This also means twice the potential of a standard dwelling. Old dorms and old apartments buildings also fall into this category.

The Construction Area: We talked a bit earlier about sidewalk construction, but there are many more opportunities to take advantage of newly exposed ground in construction areas. One of the best things you can stumble upon is a land owner doing landscaping on the parkway area. A lot of the time this ground is so old and depleted they choose to scrape it off to plant new grass, install sprinklers, and put in new shrubs or trees. This is your chance to get great access to those old coins just below the surface. Drive the older neighborhoods frequently. Choose different routes as you cross town. Quite often the first steps in doing any digging for these landscaping projects is having the utility location service come out to mark the areas that contain buried cables and pipes. These spray-painted marks are easy to spot and are your clue to watch this area closely. The presence of city workers and survey equipment is good reason to pay attention to an area more closely as well.

The red spray paint on the sidewalk is your clue that this area is due for a change in the near future.

Once again, note the different colored blocks of concrete revealing the undisturbed areas.

I usually have a city street map with me that I mark on with a highlighter. This makes it easier to remember the exact location for a future visual check. You can create your own opportunities by being vigilant with your inspections of these potential hunt areas. Hunt them as they are, but make sure to return when the excavation begins. A few inches of dirt or sod off the surface can make all the

difference in the world. If a resident of the property is doing the work, you can increase the likelihood of getting permission to detect with the following tactics… Look for the job to begin on the weekends, more specifically Saturday mornings. The owners and hired help will be very busy and will see you as an interruption in the job they want to get done if you ask for hunting permission right off the bat. So, approach them at the end of the day in the late afternoon. Here is an approach I’ve used very successfully... Explain that you noticed the modifications going on and that it is going to look great when they finish. Have your detector with you and explain to them you enjoy the history of the area and would like to look for old coins in the freshly dug earth. I keep a mercury dime with me for just this occasion. Take the dime out of your pocket and hand it to them and say, “This is what I am looking for.” The dime will capture their attention and interest. Turn on your detector and point to the display if you have one. Tell them “This is what tells me when I run across a coin like that one your holding”. You have just created some intrigue in what you are doing. More times than not they will tell you to help yourself, followed quickly by the question, “Mind if I watch?” Bingo! Not only do you have the parkway, but the property as well. I don't see this as a con job. I am just helping them feel some of the excitement that I feel for the hunt. Regardless of your approach, always be upfront about what you want to do. I once gained access to several properties by talking to a couple of guys doing some landscape work. It turns out they had a business of flipping houses. So, every new property they bought they would give me a call. They really got a kick out of they stuff I would find. This went on for a year or so, until the market went bad. During that time I made some great finds though. So, on your way to your next hunt look around as you drive through town.

This landscaping project produced a nice Barber Quarter. The owner joined me and found a wheat on his own.

I was on my way to the local “hunted out” park when I spotted this activity.

Old Parks: A lot of old parks within the city are surrounded by sidewalks. This leaves a parkway strip around the entire edge of the park. Now you would think that these areas would have been hunted as hard as the parks themselves over the years, but more often than not, these areas are just full of keepers. I would venture to say that the higher level of trash in these areas has something to do with this. I think there is another reason as well. All to often the average detectorist climbs out of their vehicle and heads to the inner park to start their hunt, walking right over the parkway and consequently right over those great old keeps waiting to be dug. I have dug many a nice finds around parks, and especially in the corner areas where parking is limited, but walking traffic is high.

Just across The sidewalk lay the tempting old park. Sticking to the parkway strip brought me many good finds on

this hunt, including a Barber Dime that came from this dig.

Some things to keep in mind when hunting the sidewalks around a park environment is that most likely the sidewalks where put in many years after the park had been established, so make sure and hunt right up to the curb and sidewalk. Coins could have been dropped in these areas before the sidewalk. If you happen to see a city crew getting ready to replace areas of sidewalks make sure and return in the evening or weekend and hunt the work area. Often parks had a main entrance that is not obvious in modern times. Make sure and do your research on the parks as it will tell you about their surroundings as well. The Obvious Location: That's right, the obvious location. Lastly, lets talk about the great coins that are exactly where you would expect them to be. The parkways around old churches, schools, and old storefronts are very good detecting locations and should not be overlooked. You would not believe how many detectorists pass right by these places with the assumption anything worth finding has already been found by others. Never say hunted out! You may have to take a slightly different approach to how you hunt it though. I hunt these areas with the idea that the coins are there because they where missed for a reason. Our job is to figure out what that reason is. When I dig a good target one of my first questions is not, “Why did I find this?” Rather I ask, “Why did someone else not find this?” You can learn a lot about digging keepers out of heavily hunted areas when you look at each find with this perspective. Let’s take a look at some of the common reasons for missing good targets and some solutions to overcome them.

Here is one of those obvious locations. This old hitching post and mounting block, also known as a mounting step, are

not just decorations. In this case, the curb was poured around the around the block. A nice little wheat penny came

out of this area, just down the parkway about 10 feet.

1. Depth. Simply put, the target was too deep to be detected by your detector. You will notice that in most of the pictures in this article I am using a 12” concentric coil. Most detectorists would choose a smaller coil to deal with trash better. This is a good example of taking that different approach I was telling you about. Sometimes that nice little Barber Dime is just sitting right there in the open, just out of reach. It also brings us to the next common cause for missing targets. 2. Masking, or Nulling. This is a good target lying to close to an undesirable target. There are

many ways to go about dealing with this problem. The most obvious is using a smaller or DD coil. There goes your depth again. So how do we handle this? Without getting to detector specifics, the idea is to move the coil slower over the ground with shorter swing widths. Use the settings of the detector to compliment this. Slower recovery times and less discrimination will be a step in the right direction. If you have a great looking area, spend some time digging out the junk iron, bottle caps, and nails. Quite often you will be rewarded with a shiny silver coin.

3. Coil Barriers. Often, proximity to other objects that doesn't allow enough of a coil swing to

cause a response to the target can pose another hurdle to the inexperienced detectorist. We talked about this earlier in dealing with concrete curbs and sidewalks, but there are other objects to deal with such as trees, bushes, posts, and other miscellaneous items. Now, you have heard the advice “low and slow” and “keep the coil level”. That works great if you have flat ground, but in order to get close to the above obstacles you’re going to have to make some allowances. Turn that coil at a 45-degree angle and swing around the base of that old tree and its roots. Treat all those other tight areas the same. This does not mean you have to get down in an uncomfortable position to swing. Just reach down and pivot the coil back where it mounts to the shaft. You can turn it completely flat and reach under bushes. Be creative in finding ways to swing that coil where the last guy didn't.

4. Coverage. This is probably the biggest reason for missed targets. A wise man by the name of

Rudy once told me, “The reason you did not find it, was that your coil never passed over it”. Sounds simple doesn't it? I can't stress this enough. When you hunt an area, move at a relaxed and slow pace. Watch your coil and work possible good hits from all directions. Change coils and hit it again. Be thorough in your hunt. When it rains and the ground is soaking wet, go back and hunt it again. Don't ever say hunted out. When you pull that beautiful old coin out of the ground it will because of your hard work and determination that the last guy didn't have. Trust me on this. There are wonderful finds waiting for you down at that local park.

5. EMI. A lot of times the older parkway areas will be surrounded by modern day technology that

causes Electro Magnetic Interference. This can drive your detector nuts, and cause you to use much lower sensitivity settings than you normally might. There is not much you can do in a situation like this. Hunting in early morning or late evening can sometimes help. Smaller DD style coils can help as well. Continue to check these areas often, and you may find one day that the EMI has diminished enough to get down to that old coin that has been lying in wait.

Don't be one of those detectorists that pass up great locations because you think they are hunted out. Go back again and again and you will be rewarded. Granted, it does not have the excitement of a virgin private property, but you will make some good finds. I can tell you without hesitation that my most prized finds came from areas just like this. You will certainly always have historic surroundings to enjoy, and the possibility of getting a chance to hunt that glorious old property that lies just across the

sidewalk. The obvious areas will sometimes prove to be a surprise in that they may have never been hunted as hard as you might think, or (more importantly) as hard as what the last detectorist thought. I have had this happen. I hunted a parkway in front of an old college hall (dorm) one time that produced multiple pocket spills and gave up seven silver dimes and many wheats before the hunt was over. It was an obvious area. So get out there and make your own luck! It is important to remember that taking the time to go back to these areas for new perspective on the same old ground will put many nice finds on your trophy shelf.

Conclusion

We have covered a lot of ground here, so to speak, and hopefully you now have some new ideas that will improve your old coin finds. There are many clues and signs that point to where to find that old coin, but sometimes the hard part is seeing these little markers that will show you the way to digging up the past. Always be on the lookout for change in progress. So often these little opportunities present themselves for such a short, fleeting moment. If you frequent those old areas of town on a regular basis, you will see these little windows come and go and learn to recognize them by the signs we have talked about. Let each good find be a learning tool. Try to figure out why today was the day that old coin saw the light of day again. Above all, never say hunted out! As you hunt these parkways, remember that this is potentially a staging ground for a great hunt just across the sidewalk on that private property. Take care not to do damage, and leave things better than you found them. Work with the landowner and be respectful of his property. Always check local laws and easement policies. Be friendly in nature and take time to talk with locals. Remember that you and your actions are constantly on display, and always up for review. Take advantage of this opportunity to make a good impression. In closing, I would leave you with a little food for thought. There is truly no place for frustration and disappointment in any good treasure hunt. The greatest loss of man is not the coins that lay buried in the ground under his feet, but rather the history and knowledge of his existence gradually fading away. In your search, first look for the individual who lost the coin and you will never come home empty handed. Keep Swing'in Jack