Did a little metal detecting today and found this token...

YODAinMN

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Did a little metal detecting today and found this token...

Just curious if any of you token experts can identify this token I dug up this afternoon. It's a token from a place called Magic Trolley gaming center. Still a little dirty but it has a joker face on one side and the establishment's name on the reverse. Anyone hear of this? Maybe local to the Howell, MI area??

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Nice ! ,

A fellow operator !

I wont take away from your find here , but my last 2 days in the water got me 2 new gold rings , i might add them to that other thread i had going on my latest finds , and leave this one for tokens !!

Oz had tokens as well , but not all arcade places used them , Countdown had them , i wonder if i can find some and ppost them to a token collector from this forum ?

Good find !!
 
Nice to see another detectorist out there! Not to go off topic, but just outta curiosity, what kind of detector are you using?

Back on topic, the joker side of the token is a generic casting. I used to work in an arcade years ago that used the same one, and I have some generic "no cash value" tokens with the same joker on the opposite side. Also, if memory serves, check on roger williams mint's website, and I believe under the generic token tab, you'll see the same joker.

Magic Trolley is most likely the name of the facility or amusement or whatever it was. Maybe you could Google around, and try and see what you find? Sorry I can't be of more help, but it's a start.

Oh, BTW, the arcade I worked at that had the joker tokens was early 90's...maybe that'll help to date your token a little bit. Not sure how long they've been stamping that design.
 
Good comments here guys, keep 'em coming. I was with the family yesterday at my wife's gf's house on Hidden Lake. Been pounding the ground there the last two visits and this token I pulled out along the base of a tree six inches deep. Anyaw, I figured that someone in the area may have heard of this place since I haven't doscovered anything on Google.

With regard to my detector, I run a Fisher CZ-7A with a Garrett Propointer. Been a really nice and hot detector running it on the factory 8 " coil. Love this hobby as well-- it gets me outside at least. I also found a nice silver ring with some diamonds in it the day before at the ghetto side of Detroit before this token find...
 
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Ha.......

Sorry - I just had to bust into this thread when I see 'Metal Detecting' being tossed around!! I have been an active hunter since 1973 starting with a Whites Coinmaster 4 (TR machine). Through almost 40 years of metal detecting I still have not lost the bug. Of course.....with a growing family I don't get to hunt the water/land nearly as much as I would like to....and hardly only a few times a year in recent years. It seems as of late I'm responsible for removing the look of desperation from friends faces when the lost wedding ring or 'only set of keys' are found.

Currently run the Whites Spectrum XLT.....nice machine and a little dated (like me - LOL)....but it still is a strong performer with the right operator ;). I bet ya love that Fisher CZ-7A.....I had a friend who only ran Fisher's and that machine sure looks really slick.....
 
Yeah Alan,

I'm getting to learn this thing pretty good. I graduated from a Whites Classic 3-- mind you, that's a great audio detector as well. You wanna go hunting sometime? I'm here in the area until Tuesday....

My brother got me reintroduced into the hobby again last Summer and have been going at it good this season.
 
LOL , fellow nerd, we have three things in common. Arcade games, metal detecting, and I live just down the road from ya!

What a small world!
 
Cool find! I have a detector at the house I haven't used in ages. I need to break it out and maybe give it another go.
 
Yeah Alan,

I'm getting to learn this thing pretty good. I graduated from a Whites Classic 3-- mind you, that's a great audio detector as well. You wanna go hunting sometime? I'm here in the area until Tuesday....

My brother got me reintroduced into the hobby again last Summer and have been going at it good this season.

This weekend is shot for me.....but I know you find yourself out this way from time to time.....we must just have to plan a future outing!
 
any of you have some advice for someone looking for places to metal detect? or any pointers for someone starting out?
 
any of you have some advice for someone looking for places to metal detect? or any pointers for someone starting out?

I guess I have about 1,000 tips from over the years....but here are some of the most important off the top of my head:

Make sure you get permission wherever you are going to hunt and leave no trace that you were ever there when you are finished.

For relic/artifact hunting....research......research.....research. You will never find anything old at a site if nothing ever happened there long ago. Overlap your swings by 50% for deep/faint/small targets. Patience yields the best finds....as any rookie can always find the 'easy but not so good stuff'.

Never clean a find in the field especially gold or silver coins. Something waiting 200 years in the ground and you being lucky enough to find it....should not be ruined in the first 4 seconds after it is recovered. Clean them properly when you get home.

When you are a rookie....dig more than less....so you will learn what good and bad signals sound like with your equipment. It takes years and practice to master any one machine.

Remember - no place is ever hunted out. So when a place yields 'good stuff'....go back....and then go back again. And when you live in Nashville and start finding 3 ringers....then invite me to join you. ;)

In the water....if you are not finding lots of pull tabs and aluminum foil....you are going to miss quite a bit of the 'good stuff'.

Dinner time....

Good luck!!!

Alan
 
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I guess I have about 1,000 tips from over the years....but here are some of the most important off the top of my head:

Make sure you get permission wherever you are going to hunt and leave no trace that you were ever there when you are finished.

For relic/artifact hunting....research......research.....research. You will never find anything old at a site if nothing ever happened there long ago. Overlap your swings by 50% for deep/faint/small targets. Patience yields the best finds....as any rookie can always find the 'easy but not so good stuff'.

Never clean a find in the field especially gold or silver coins. Something waiting 200 years in the ground and you being lucky enough to find it....should not be ruined in the first 4 seconds after it is recovered. Clean them properly when you get home.

When you are a rookie....dig more than less....so you will learn what good and bad signals sound like with your equipment. It takes years and practice to master any one machine.

Remember - no place is ever hunted out. So when a place yields 'good stuff'....go back....and then go back again. And when you live in Nashville and start finding 3 ringers....then invite me to join you. ;)

In the water....if you are not finding lots of pull tabs and aluminum foil....you are going to miss quite a bit of the 'good stuff'.

Dinner time....

Good luck!!!

Alan



Hey good advice there Alan !

you know in respect for the token thread , i didn`t post my latest 2 gold ring finds ,,

but hey were all here now right ?

I hunt in the water at beaches soley for gold , [ get other cool stuff too ] but the $$ is really only in the gold , at least over here , when we have no ancient hammered coins etc


One of the best water detectors ever made , but for advanced users , is the Whites Duel Field , i know there is other great pulses , so i will just say one of the best , as people get used to their own machines ,

here is my latest 2 ,, from only 3-4 days ago , both 18ct , and both from an area i always find rings ,, even after 2 days from an extensive hunt , the golden rule for rings in the water is

once you have found say more than 1-2 rings at a spot , you will always find more there , as , the sand conditions have let you get down to the hard pack , and of course it`s popular .

I have hunted at some great beaches around melbourne that should have expensive gold there , but the sand is deep and course , with constant onshore high winds , i have found jack there so far , as the rings get punched way out of my reach , even with a pulse . so in these conditions , keep your eyes on the beach , one day it will be cut down ,, and BOOM !!

Happy hunting guys ! Paul .


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Cool token. Not sure if I have seen that one before. I have seen one that says Trolley Games and has a cool design on it with the name.

The VB stands for Van Brook Mint.

The Jester on the other side is a stock design used by places that wanted to save money.
 
Also a Mopar guy, drink Coors Light, and am a big KISS fan...
any of those fit you too?

Not a Kiss fan, born in the Motor City and I like non-light beer, but video games are fun, so yeah I guess I meet most of your criteria.. and yes let's do some detecting when I get back to the MN since I cannot get Alan to come out to play ;)

I'll be back home in a week, we're heading up through the UP of Michigan and taking our time home. So I'll be swinging the coil up there during our travels....
 
Thanks for the advice Noice-- always good to have an expert token master to inform me on it :) Wow, I didn't know there were allot of detectorists here as well. Good fun but the Winter will be on the horizon soon! I also been frequenting the findmall.com forums too-- neat finds over there. That's a dealer sponsored forum but allot of info there to boot. I'll hit you up on the next visit Alan in the Spring!

-Jim
 
Seems like a cool hobby! My brother and I had a junker detector from RatShack when we were kids.... The coolest thing that we ever found was a bunch of forged nails from an old house foundation in the middle of the woods......
What's a decent metal detector run these days? $1K???
 
That's an old White's there. I've got a Coinmaster 6000D kicking around and that's very similar to it, looks like about the same era. It's tough to learn, due to all the manual settings. Never used that particular unit, but most likely it doesn't have a lot of discrim, so you'll be digging everything. Not necessarily a bad thing, but depending on where you're hunting....could be a LOT of frustration. I'd venture a guess that it is a decent unit, though I think for your $400, you could get something a lot newer, and just as good or better. Matter of fact, I just picked up a Surf PI Pro used for $400. Let me tell you, from my limited experience so far, that thing finds EVERYTHING. I'm pulling bobby pins at like 16" with this beast. More than once, I've been looking with my hands for a button rivet, because it falls through my scoop. It's a sick detector if you don't mind a LOT of digging.
 
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