Calvert Store dig summary

I dont know where to start, So I'll try at the beginning The first day was early May I had been watching the store and saw the Back tore out, so I went in and Sonny remebered me from last yrs dig and I was welcomend to dig.

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,156034.new.html

  When I started detecting I got these keepers, Imagine my excitment, I called his son (the owner)who dident mind and the Hunt was on.
 
 Larry came back with me the second day and we Raked alot of trash up and started checking agien.  More excitment.

 http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,156248.new.html

  heres some B-4 and Now store pics.

I hauled a mountain of trash out of this place.  probaly 3 trailor loads and 10 truck loads plus about 15 barrels of unburnables. That got me secured and I heard nothing but thank yous from the owners after that as I dug up the good stuff. I showed all of my finds It was a perfect situation. I gained alot of attention from The Calvert Local store owners and some would come down and see what I was finding when I was down there. I also got some Great history lessons.

  The majority of the  finds are on this Thread with all the links.

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,158452.html

 More in a bit






 

The Next thing I did was Crawl around under the floors to see what was there and just how extreme I was willing to go and for what . I wasent disapointed. The excitment countinued to Grow

 http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,157195.0.html

We decided to tear out the floor.

After The first Video Larry and I were determined to tear out the rest the floor and DIG IT ALL.
  While Cleaning up the first Videos trash, and loading on the trailor Larry fell through the floor up agienst the wall and dislocated His shoulder, (It was quite a scene, ambulance, wife, small gathering crowd, about 6 cops and paramedics standing in the store on the rotting floor till I warned them about the weight,and the eased out to only a few.)
  Well I was afraid the adventure was over,(Must mention how bad I felt about Larrys pain) but all was cool, Sonny was as concerned for Larry as I was, his wife let him come back out and play (after he was better),,, except I was on my own for a few weeks cleaning and Hauling stuff.  Ever time Id stop in after work I knew Id find somthing and always did, even if it was only for a hour or so.
  Larry got 2 washington quarters a few weeks later where he fell through at.

 When the 2nd side of the floor was out we found as much as the first side. But I had to haul alot of trash out, as that was the side where the mountain of bottle tops were, (lot of 40's nickle in that pile)  after That I started sifting.

 http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,163242.msg1189129.html#msg1189129


 
 

Ok now What ya'll have asked me to show, The Finds I have,  all in one pile, and a Inventory of the coins.
 
   This isent Larrys coins I fgure he got about a third of what I did. Most of the bottles are givin away as well as a few tokens, also  about 10 or so silvers and some nickles.

  The list.
 2) Standing Quarters
 3) seated Quarters
 4)barber quarters
 9)washinton Quarters
 2)Walking halves
 4)No Date dimes
 11)Barber dimes
 6)mercurey dimes
 11) seated dimes
 3) Shield nickles
 1) 1/2 dime
1) 3 cent nickle  1873
4) Indian heads
11) store tokens
29) V nickles  (one was 1888)
62) buffalos
46) Jeffersons
27) silver Jeffersons
1) 1940 mexican 5 centavos
1) 1 centavos
200 to 400 or so wheats I dident keep up with them much
  That I.D plate was off a early Bruswick 1900's pool table and it sold on ebay for 113.00
  The printers plate I have yet to be able to read.
 
  All things must end though and this store dig is over, I may go back sometime as constuction continues, and might pull a coin or two.
   Hopefully the next store will be in a couple weeks.
           Thanks all for your encouragement 

One of the best posts I've ever seen.  I love it man.  Did you just pick a random floor, or was it actually the floor people shopped on?  I just don't understand how coins can get UNDER the floor if the floor is solid.  How does that happen?!

These old stores were all Mill board just butted up aginst one another No tounge and groove back then. So the coins found there way down there. Most the Big silvers were close to the walls, so I figure there was more of a gap there.
   Very Likely you can find a place like this in your own town.
     I dont know how the bottles made there way there, But thats where they were.
 

I see what your saying.  I guess they tore the old floor out and replaced it with new floor on a higher level then the old floor was at?  I'm just really fascinated by this whole thing.  Did they end up tearing the building down completely yet?

The side walls will have to be left and  "Fixed" as they are common walls between buildings, Touchy buisness. The new floor was nailed right on top the old floor, it was tounge and groove we figure right after WWII as that was when the coin dates stoped.  That general time frame has been confirmend by a local resident as when a rebuild of the store happened.  Those old pics are ACTUALL pics of the store provided to me by the Local resident who is a decendent of Mr Conitz

This is a dig of a life time...with lots of hard work, sweat and a fantastic ending... thank you so much for sharing all this..I loved the old photos of the place too...  totally cool and again thank you, I really appreciated this dream come true story.

A Herd of Buffalos, And V's

Very, very cool TC I have enjoyed everybit of it if you under any more old floors let us know! 

That is an amazing quantity of material. How many coins total did you find there?

Let's see, that is 11 trade tokens per X coins in an X activity area.........

One of the best posts I've ever seen.  I love it man.  Did you just pick a random floor, or was it actually the floor people shopped on?  I just don't understand how coins can get UNDER the floor if the floor is solid.  How does that happen?!

You have a lot to learn, Young Jedi.

Lately I'm getting more and more cynical, and I'm afraid it may continue to do so, as the frustration of the economy, politics and simply not digging what I want to dig, continues. So it is a real pleasure to see, in my opinion, what I think is one of the best overall collection of photos, videos, listings, hell, everything to detecting. Your attention to the detail of all aspects of the hunt is beyond commendable. From getting permission, the amazing amount of cleaning and hauling of the owners trash, the sharing of finds, all proper. If more owners that plan to restore or renovate their buildings could see just what good detectorists are willing to do, more would be willing to allow us permission. You cover all the aspects, (detecting, bottle digging, sifting), that I consider part of the hobby I love. Great quality photos. Great videos as well. You bitch about not really knowing how to film, but frankly, I've seen wayyyy worse. Thoroughly entertaining. I truly think that you, or someone who may be good at all that video stuff should combine everything that you've combined onto a DVD. I've watched documentaries on cable that had nothing on your adventure. It was like sitting down to watch a good movie. Even thought of nuking some popcorn, but figured I'd just mess up the keyboard. I'm serious about getting it burned to DVD. Hell, I'd take a copy as an early Christmas gift. Haven't watched it all yet, so I don't know if you've posted all the tokens that you guys dug, but if you haven't could you? Not including that would be the only blemish in this what I call a damn fine documentary. Ahhh, feel much better now, maybe I won't start posting the same damn pulltabs and zincs that my detector seems to only want to detect. Your posts should be nominated for some Banner/Oscar thingy this site should create!
CurbdiggerCarl

Wow! Thanks Curb digger. I'v been afraid of wearing yall out and Milking the attention.
 This has been the most incredibal thing for me to do, and I'm glad I can share it with folks who find it as entertaining as I do.
 The way I feel now is disapointment though, as its over. I stopped in there today and kinda felt like my dog had died.
  I dident really find any one thing spectacular, like a GC (a few semi Key dates). But man what a ride.
    I Have 2 more Bare floors waiting, but cant say it happened till it happens and then its day to day like this one.
   Ive been turned down for detecting spots B-4, its always disapointing, But this type dig seems to historical significant to walk away from easily.
  The top Find to me was the Wootan wells bottle, and it was hard to give away (but it felt great when I did) its got a spot in a Pottery store now and I bet that relic will get some attention.

http://www.mudcreekpottery.com/

      This Kind of Place gets you spoiled. When I did my first store dig a yr ago I felt the same way, Had to go back to detecting the hard way, a occasional nice coin/relic every 15-30 days or so. But I did soon get over it, and even a old Wheatleaf got me excited agien soon.

     Mamma always said "life is like a box of chocalets" 
         

Again, thanks for showing us the progress!!!
your research and sweat DEFINITELY paid off
for you guys. What, pray tell, is on the agenda next??

     What an amazing place!  I know the empty feeling about being done; I spent a whole season at one farm, digging over 100 silvers and 400 wheats.  When it was done, I thought, "What next?"  There was a certain contentment in being able to go back over and over and know you'd find something worth finding.  Great story!

best posting ive seen in a while 
detail about the sifters  pics etc 

That was a very good story and I'm sure alot of excitement. I could only imagine being able to undertake such a find. Alot of history laying there. But I bet that old building has alot more to offer if you could tear it down and excavate the surrounding property. Not really.... but nice to dream about. There is an old store near here that is still in operation since the 1800's that I would love to tear into. I stopped in there years ago and couldn't believe all of the old pictures hanging on the wall of the place back in the days. It's still open today. Anyway, WTG and thanks for all of your hard work and time showing us your progress.

That is a great story. Nice Finds! If you ever have any questions please feel free to email us.
Happy Hunting,
Kellyco Chick

That was one sweet site! congrats on your pile of treasure!

HH
-GC

Excellent post.  Thanks for sharing and showing all the old pics too.  Way to go on all those finds.

TC, you've definitely done a wonderful job in documenting the "perfect" hunt!

With all your hard work and dedicated efforts, you were rightfully rewarded with exceptional finds
that one can relate to Calvert's storied history. . . an absolutely wonderful series of posts!

Take care,
watercolor

P.S. Bring some of those finds to CTH-II. . . I'd love to be able to see these pieces of history in person

that was great.   finds for a lifetime !!!!   

wow. cool finds.

awesome finds !!!!

Hey, thanks for the summary post.

What is so cool from this list is that you got some of everything!    Yes the 'berg beats it in terms of shear numbers but we got very few of the older stuff (actually only about half a dozen coins from the 1800s).  Too bad you didn't get a Morgan Dollar or a flying eagle.  Of coarse let's not get to greedy. 

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.  In my opinion the Calvert Store rates as one of the best of TNET.

Bob

Hey Texan,

  Found this and thought you may be interested.