Thanks for the nice replies guys. I guess that I will comment on the two main points of your posts...
As for digging iffy targets, I have been doing a whole lot of scouting lately. When scouting, I don't want to dig up any place too badly and I only bring my work blade. Walking around with a shovel digging up holes left and right could get me in a bind even on public land but just poking around with a knife on only a select few spots will almost certainly not be a problem. I am not stupid enough to go to a private spot but I still don't want to risk any trouble anywhere until I know the whole story. There is still a very remote possibility that this cemetery is on an old families private land. It is remote, but still possible. There were a couple of very recent graves and even a brand new cover stone prepped to be used on one side. I will now have to research this plot in the city's archives now that I like the area.
The point is simply that I usually don't want to dig up too many iffy targets until I am 100 percent comfortable with a spot. This spot, however, had very little trashy targets that were not ID'ed all iron. I discriminate all iron targets and my lowest category is the type that Indian head nickels come up as on this detector. I was ready to dig when I came across this one so I indulged myself and nearly threw away my oldest find.(lol)
As for how it was bent, I have three possibilities there...
My first was that it was hit by a lawn mower. There were two bends in it. The first left an impression and was the most severe. The second was the type of weak bend that could only happened as a secondary thing such as a blade pushing it up against it's housing(lawn mover) while making the first bend.
My second thought here was that I bent it with my work blade. I use a type of blade at work that is very strong and made by Klein for electricians. I have developed a feel for things when digging with it but have to admit that I could have damaged such a thin piece of silver/copper. There was a layer of shells near the coin but I still don't think that I did this because the soil was very soft and the coin was near the top of the layer. I did not see how thick this layer was though. The impression was also very jagged while my blade is very smooth.
The last and most likely reason for this is that is was crushed while surrounded by shells when a heavy object was placed above them. This is actually the most likely as the impression left does not really match my smooth blade. It matches something very jagged. The cover stone that I saw waiting to be used would have easily done this and it must have weighed two tons easily.
Although I am very happy with this find, I must admit to being pretty miffed with the condition. One of my motivations for hunting is to improve my equip by finding valuable items and the price for this coin in perfect condition could have gotten me that new 5000 unit that Minelab brags about. Heck, I really want that E-Trac and that bad arse looking Notka Golden King! It looks like I am going to have to get with one of the locals near that graveyard and find out what kind of etiquette I need to follow there because this coon arse is going to spend some more time at that spot on the way home from work!
I will have to post an inquiry on Bounty Hunter's 10 inch search coil on the appropriate board later. I know that this coin was at the edge of my unit's range and that shell layer has a whole lot of potential if I can get deeper. I always seem to be plotting about how to improve my range and I really am curious about the larger coils performance compared to a coil two inches smaller.
And now you all know that I am hopelessly long winded..... sorry bout that.
Here is a couple of other angles of the bends in the coin. You can see why I thought it was the broken end of a pull tab.
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Tri City Ditty
