M E T A L M A N 9

M E T A L M A N 9

Click the date link, then a photo to start larger photo gallery & see descriptions

September 3, 2020 - Coronation Park St. Boniface

September 4, 2020 - Selwyn at Dalhousie Bus Stop

September 7, 2020 - Ryerson School

September 10, 2020 - Dalhousie Forest

September 3, 2020 - Coronation Park St. Boniface

September 4, 2020 - Selwyn at Dalhousie Bus Stop

September 7, 2020 - Ryerson School

September 10, 2020 - Dalhousie Forest

September 12, 2020 - Lipton St.

Coronation Park or at the time known as the Norwood ball grounds was also an a unofficial city dump. The area was cleaned up in early 1937, using horse drawn carts to make way for a new city park. It was in honor of the Coronation of King George VI. I've been pinning for a while to get out to this area to do some metal detecting. It's a much older area then where we live; 1970's vintage. Older might mean older treasures. Well... my first go at the park proved interesting and unfortunately expensive. More on the expensive part in a bit. First off... it's a big park! We've all driven by it many times and at 60 km/ hr, it goes by like a blur. I never quite appreciated it's length. Like many places around the city, spaces are often back filled then leveled. This park seems no different. From the few deeper holes that I dug, there's the turf. In some places it's that sod that comes in rolls. About 2 inches. Then a layer of clay/ soil. Maybe another 2 or 3 inches. Then junk and gravel like material. Lots of gravel. In some spots, I swear I could smell methane just like when you drive by Bradie land fill. It had rained a lot the day and night prior. A good thing for metal detecting as the moisture greatly increases the electro- magnetic conductivity. I easily picked up on deeper items. However those deeper items turned out to be large metal plates or pipes and items too big to dig up without making a mess of the park. One has to be conscientious after all. Most items featured in the pictures were close to or at surface level. Most of the coins were found around the bus stop on St. Mary's at Euginie St. The skull and cross boned must be a Volkswagen trinket. It says "Driven" on the back. And a Reader's Digest licence plate??? Of interest are the 3 US coins found. The 2 quarters date 1966 and 1982. The dime is from 1997. I got quite excited at first as none of these coins are magnetic and I thought that at least the easier one would be silver.... treasure!!! But hellas no. Silver was last used in 1964. Missed it by "that much". And I now realize that they are all non magnetic because of the high copper content. Oh well. The Canadian coins are all newer. 1980's right up to 2019. I have no idea what the UFCW thingy is. Looks like a cap for something??? I had mentioned earlier that this was an expensive outing. Imagine my surprise when I returned to the van to find it... missing. Yup. A tow zone after 15:30. Totally my error. I found keys in the park but not the van. I failed to read or pay attention to the signs. So, a good friend of mine who happens to live about 8 houses over, drove me and my gear to the car impound on Higgens. Between the parking ticket and the two I'm a little behind. Thank God for an understanding wife... it's her van after all.

Well this was by far my best day yet for finding coins. Total is $4.65. All under 2 hours. I'll need a wack more of these type days to make up for yesterday's parking ticket and tow. I concentrated on two bus stops on Dalhousie near home. No vehicle required. I know now, not to dig up anything anymore that rings in as PT on the detector. Pull Tab. Hence I only picked one. There is always lots of aluminum. Either in strips or candy wrappers or bottle caps. My ice cream pail for aluminium is getting full. I have a 5 gallon pail full of iron and two smaller containers for brass/copper and one for lead. Lots of lead around roadways. General Scrap.... here I come. The better coins are two Cdn pennies. A 1957 and 1960. So much older yet they hold up so much better after being buried in the ground for decades. The really rusty coins are all modern / recent. The quarter in better condition is from 1974. The loonies are 1987, 1988 and 2008. I particularly like the little brass round pieces. Looks like electronic car components. Very refined and precise. Keys are always cool.

Ryerson School. Today’s haul is brought to you by the letter “S”. Yes, the letter S. This is after all a school. Just a great place to detect as I imagine any school yard would be. This time, I concentrated my efforts on the West side of the school yard where it parallels a local back lane. There are numerous large trees lined up in a row and it has been my experience that large trees often mark the spot to treasure. People sit under them, take refuge from rain or simply gravitate to them hence items are dropped. Right now, I’m looking for “Soul Mates” owner. Lol. Maybe I should try various doors in the neighborhood to see whose house they belong to. I keep a log book of all the coins that I find where I also write the dates of the coins. The entire neighborhood, including the school yard and bus stops are just littered with 1970’s and 80’s coins. In this hunt, the Loonie was from 1981, the quarters were 1974 & 2009, the Dime was 1999, and the pennies were 1969, 1885, 1887, 1988, 1993, 1994 and the ether were too corroded to read. The 1 US penny was dated 1967. It’s unlikely I’ll ever find anything truly old here as the entire neighborhood is much too recent but it’s interesting how finds and artifacts reflect the area and its history.

Dalhousie Forest Park in Fort Garry. Dalhousie Forest is located in Fort Garry at 205 Killarney Ave. It is a 12.7 Acre / 5.2 Hectare city park. My understanding of this forest gem is that local residents petitioned and pressured city hall back in the late 1960’s early 70’s to save this piece of land from development, to keep a green space if you will. Dalhousie Forest is in essence an undisturbed area of river valley or river bottom woods. The Red River is less than 1 km away. (800 m.) It’s about a 5 minute walk from home. So… My rationale was: What a great place to perhaps find some older artifacts from long ago. Well I did find “Stuff” alright but nothing old. It looks like some of the space was used as a bit of a dumping ground. The aluminum window frame was not part of a colonial home. The .10c coin was dated 2018, hardly antique but a dime none the less. The brass cap and the steel chain had good weight for scrap. And Safeway… well they get free advertising. The only DANGER is the poison ivy. To Dalhousie Forest I will return for a wider search. In the meantime, please pass the Calamine Lotion.

September 12, 2020 - Lipton St.

Yes, another bright and sunny day in Winnipeg. My wife has family on Lipton St. that she had to visit for a bit so what better opportunity than to metal detect an older city area. I concentrated my efforts on the area between the street and the sidewalk which is actually a public space. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted at the door by our 4 year old nephew. He saw us then he saw the metal detector and his eyes just light up like if it was Christmas Day. A metal detector… can I use it… can we go… where are we going… Yes, he knew right away what the detector was. It reminded me of the fascination that I felt as a youngster reading Scholastic books about treasure hunting. Well the hunt was fun. I got a lot of help from this enthusiastic young fellow, only problem is that he wanted to keep everything that we found. In the end, he made off with a Matchbox Car. I didn’t even have time to take a picture of it. But he was so happy. I can only hope that the detecting adventure will remain with him and that at some point in life, he will be back with his own detector finding more treasure and enjoying the hobby as much as I am. The better items found were the orange colored piece. The two sides fit together and were perhaps part of a key chain or pendant. Canada is written on it and it looks very 70’s to me. The quarter was dated 1979, the dime was 2004 and the oldest penny was from 1961. But the gem of the day was the smile on that 4 year old’s face.

September 13, 2020 - Dalhousie at Baylor Bus Stop

September 25, 2020 - Bus Stop #60041

September 29, 2020 - Grand Beach

September 13, 2020 - Dalhousie at Baylor Bus Stop

Had a few hours today to go metal detecting. All be it on foot. I found my way to two bus stops on Dalhousie at Baylor/Rochester. Total haul.... $7.06 Best cash day to date. So much for minimum wage regulations eh! I know I've talked about goimg to Happyland Park..... it will have to wait. Bus stops are by far the best places to detect for coins. Twoonies and Loonies sure make the cash total add up quickly. Can't wait for a $5.00 coin. Also found was a cute Scottish looking cloth on a ring. Can anyone translste the Chinese on the pen? The pull tab is an older one. Anyone remember ZING Cola ? It's the first thing that came to mind. The feathers, well.. not metal but I've over time have a dozen or so. Just attractive. I'm sure I'll find a use or a home for them at some point in time. The last picture. Orange ? Maybe part of a key chain was found on Lipton St. last Thursday.

September 25, 2020 - Bus Stop #60041

Who says you can't get lucky twice eh! Great tips from various YouTube videos. Lots of great Info. in fact. Yes... go over your favorit spots two or three times over. Always something new to find. Either someone dropped something recently and since you were last there or in today's case, it had rained last night. Water makes the ground more conductive and you can detect deeper or find smaller items easier. So. I didn't feel like walking far. Thus I went back to the bus stop just around the corner from the house. Bus stop # 60041. North bound on Dalhousie. The tip paid off. Not in big money but got small and deeper finds. Lots of foil too. I did find 3 US coins. 1 penny and 2 dimes. Plus this georgious Canadian Flag Keychain. The keychain was in the grass, face down, right at the surface so I'm thinking it was recently lost. My last detecting efforts at this particular stop was on July 15, 2020. Another great tip from YouTube is the last image. I might just get a sign made for myself. That and get a few "Business Cards" too. Yeah I know... it all sounds pretty serious eh! Always a good time though. Always thinking ahead. My winter projects, when the ground is frozen and one can't detect or dig anymore will be doing research. Finding the locations of old homes or public gathering places that are now parks or fields, finding homesteads etc. Then gathering the permissions to detect the property. There are even detecting permission forms available online. Who knew!

September 29, 2020 - Grand Beach

Yes !!! I finaly made it to Grand Beach. Look at all those cars going my way! And so did this other fellow.. John from Winnipeg. He comes out often..... we had a nice chat, yes... but he's on my turf!!! John tells me that quite a few detectorists come out to Grand Beach. Ahhhgh..... Ok. Rough start. Says he's finding lots of pennies in the parking lots. I prefer the beach. Got 5 1/2 hours worth of detecting. Beautiful sunny day, fresh air, sea birds and surf with just a few people walking the beach. No sign of John but unfortunately, tonnes of Zebra Mussels litter the sand. Truly an invasive species. Lots of goodies found but no... no jewlrey. 6 coins total. Not bad for such a big beach. It's realy like finding a needle in a hay stack. Plus I've had competition apparently. I have no idea yet as to what is written on the token other then I think it's Chinese. Maybe some one can figure thus out for me. Hey.... I wore my mask, washed my hands lots and I still got Corona. I think it's Corona Extra at that. Just kidding. On the non metallic side, I came across a couple of plastic sand moulds for kids and two ceramic pieces. One piece looks like it's off of the rim of and old fashion crock. Neet. And from a distance, what looked like a large piece of plastic turned out to be a beach blanket. As with the other beaches that I combed this summer, lots of nails and metal screws and yet another tent peg. Also lots of aluminum foil. Iif any one is interested in Metal Detecting.... the unit that I have is fantastic. It was bought at Cabelas. It's called Treasure Hunter: it's actualy made by Bounty. It proved its abilities again today by finding the smallest of iron nail pieces and I found two aluminum beer cans buried 12 inches deep. Very Impressive.