It always feels good to ride the sidecar bike onto the trails. It goes just about anywhere. After finding only aluminum can pieces and some unidentifiable iron bits, I moved a bit further up the trail. My first signal at the second site turned out to be a 1941 Mercury dime. The Mercs were minted from 1916 to 1945. These were made in large numbers, especially during the World War 2 years, and are not uncommon. This 1941 is a Philadelphia mint version. 175,090,000 dimes were minted at the Philadelphia Mint that year. These dimes had a 90% silver content, so they tend to come out of the ground in good condition.

I’m still looking for an 1800s coin in those woods, but a Mercury Dime is a fun find too.

After some research, I found a map of Chesterfield Township from 1875. This map showed a homestead at the northwest side of the woods behind my house, about half a mile away. The homestead belonged to Alexander and Eliza Atkins (née Lewis), who married on May 29, 1831.

I overlaid the 1875 map over a modern map using Google Maps, then added a pinpoint where the homestead was located. Using Google Maps on my phone, I headed out to do some detecting at the location, hoping to find an old coin. I have worked that location several times, finding old bits of iron and modern aluminum cans with my Fisher F44 metal detector.

On November 20, I found the largest horseshoe. The middle-sized one was unearthed on November 28. When the freezing temperatures arrived, I thought the metal detecting was done for the season. With some unexpected warmer weather arriving before Christmas, I went out again, finding the third and smallest horseshoe on December 21. All three horseshoes were found within 30 meters of each other.

Each shoe was about 20 centimeters deep (roughly 9 inches). I removed the rust using electrolysis, which took about 3 days per shoe. No abrasives were used, since I wanted to preserve as much of the metal as possible. I applied Renaissance Wax to seal the surface and prevent future corrosion.

It’s interesting to imagine that these subdivisions and woods were once farms, and that artifacts from that era were left behind, waiting to be found. I’m looking forward to more detecting at that location in 2021.