Suggestions For Places To Detect

And also, how do I go about asking for permission to dig? A restaurant owns the lot where the schoolyard was. They have a strict wait in line policy. I can't go in with my dirty detector, wait in line, and ask the cashier for permission. Even if I did do that, I doubt the cashier would be allowed to give me permission.

More places I'm pondering. In 1804, the original owner of our town sold parts of it to a different town. This different town has at least historic buildings, ranging from 1805-1809. These sites ARE considered historical sites, so, would I be legally allowed to detect here, do you think?

The law really stinks sometimes.

One thing I do is to look at a website HistoricAerials. It covers most of the US. They have aerial photos from the 2000s and when you find a ballfield or park, look at the 1962 or 1951 photo and see what it looked like when silver coins were in use. The pictures are not the best unless you pay for their site but they still work well enough for free. My best site over the years was a county fairgrounds, especially the parking lots.

I read an article in a treasure magazine, probably 20+ years ago now, about searching in a churchyard. This person was working in Savannah for an extended period and saw this nice grassy churchyard. He searched around the treelawn a bit, afraid to go into the grounds itself but then saw a maintenance person. He asked for permission and was granted it!! After extensive searching of the entire churchyard he found ALL OF THE DATES (including 1877) of the Indian cent set!!! An old city like Savannah must have many similar opportunities if you can find them.

My buddy and I hunted a county park, what used to be a grist mill on the river. Very trashy but we mangaged 4 mercs and a dozen wheats.

One thing I did was try speaking with the head of parks and recreation. I had someone complain while I was at a ballpark, so I called the parks and recreation manager to find out if it was true that I was not allowed at that ball field. They said it was indeed true. So I asked where in town it would be OK and they gave me 3 different sites to try. One site I got over $50 in clad and a corroded hard times token from 1833. The other I got about $30 in clad, a silver ring, 1943 quarter, and a 1936 Walking Liberty half dollar. You could be just a phone call away from finding a good spot.

It is also worth asking farmers who own lots of corn fields. Ask if it's OK to search as long as its not planted. I've gotten my best finds in corn fields.