A Gold Coin Story

[strick]

It's been well over 4 months since I have picked up a metal detector. A house remodel and some landscaping has kept me away from the treasure fields unfortunately.  When my buddy Merton called and said he wanted to go on a hunt all I could think of was that I needed to get the house finished before I went goofing around with a metal detector.   Reluctantly I told myself that I probably could  use a break and so I invited him to come on down. Merton, being the thoughtful guy he is called a couple days before our designated date and gave me the option of cancelling but I told him to come down and lets go for a hunt!  I was starting to look forward to it as we always have fun treasure hunting together. 

I had already decided we were going to the spot where I found the old antique gold ring this past May. I had yet to revisit this spot.  https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/6528-needle-in-a-haystack/  

This area is on private property and has a small  area of mining activity. It's not on any map.  It's a tough area for the nugget hunter,  the dozen or so pieces of gold that I have found here are small and few and far between. To make matters worse the area is loaded with lead from #9 bird shot to old 50 Cal plus round balls.  For now I've pretty much written it off for gold hunting and would rather be a lazy relic hunter there instead. Up till now I had never found a old silver US coin there despite having made 7-8 visits to the area.  A few old Chinese coins, a couple powder flasks, some gun parts and the surprise gold ring form the last hunt were enough to lure me back. 

As the saying goes "if you don't use it you loose it"  And I  had forgotten how to operate the equinox 800. The night before our hunt I broke out the owners manual that I had printed out (my wife made a nice binder for me) and brushed up on how to work the machine. I went outside and played around in the yard a bit with the detector. I'd even forgot how to noise cancel and was beginning to have doubts thinking I was wasting my time.  Saturday found us in the foot hills on a bright sunny morning  surrounded by herd of 75 very hungry cattle. I told Merton I was going to go on a walk about starting where I had found the gold ring and I'd catch up with him later. Merton with his XP Deus headed for whats left of some old chimneys down in a  flat close to some tailing piles.  I decided to keep things simple with the equinox so I put it in park 1, 5 tones, ground tracking, recovery speed 5 and Fe 1. The ground here is very noisy  and it took me a while before I got back into the hang of things knowing which targets to dig and which to ignore. After about an hour of detecting I had it down and was building confidence. 

About two or three hours had gone by when I caught up with Merton. Neither of us had found anything really good. The place is not a very target rich environment for the relic hunter. We went back to the truck for a beer and some lunch. After lunch I told Merton that I was going to go up on the hill above the main camp and workings since neither of us had hunted it very hard before. This is where things start to get interesting. I had been gridding the hillside for about an hour or two when I came across a rare high tone. Kinda scratchy...but repeatable. A couple swings of the pick and out pops a seated silver dime in excellent condition. Immediately I call for Merton who is about a hundred yards below me and show him the coin still in the hole. I tell him to start working this area with me. Merton is a very polite detectorist  and  using good etiquette he heads up hill a little ways from me as to not encroach upon my new spot. Maybe another 20 minutes or so goes by and I'm about 20 yards or less from where I found the seated dime and I get a mid tone on the Equinox..14-15 and repeatable. Thinking it's just another shot gun cap or lead ball I dig a little dirt out with the pick....my Garret carrot says the target is an inch or two behind and to the right of where I originally thought it was. Using the Lesche I start digging out the area and out pops this little gold shiny thing. I could only see part of it but it had a serrated edge and I immediately knew what it was even though I had never dug one before!  Gasping and jumping backwards all I could do was call out for Merton to get over here! he could tell by my excitement  that It was something good....he's smiling as he walks down..... "What did you get a half dollar?" I shake my head no...."Silver dollar?" again I shake my head no....."A GOLD COIN?"  all I was capable of was looking up and smiling as I was still speechless. As I went down to reach for it and Merton says "CAREFUL DON'T RUB IT!"  There was  a lot of congratulatory  back slapping,  high fives  etc... then without touching the coin I said I got to go to the truck and get my phone so I can take some pictures.      

The coin is in excellent condition (1853 2.5 dollar) which is hard to believe since it's been in the ground for well over a hundred years. Here are the pictures so you can see what we seen.  We went back the day after and then hit another spot a couple days after that. We managed another Seated and a few other trinkets. I'm back to working on my house again and Merton is out at sea. But I'm looking forward to our next hunt together. What a great hobby. 

strick

[strick]

And a few more pictures of our finds...

[strick]

Silver and gold...

[Steve Herschbach]

Congratulations strick, an amazing bucket list find for most folks! And in superb condition at that. I guess there might be something to be said for taking a break. 

[Hunterjunk]

Congrats , a gold coin from anywhere is bucket list find and one you will never forget . Looks to be in brilliant condition also . Also like the trigger guard and flask . A marvelous hunt .

[Jackpine]

What a beauty, congratulations on an outstanding find Strick.

[beatup]

Congrats on a truly outstanding find.

[Majuba Man]

Outstanding - anyone would be happy with this find!

[Cabin Fever]

That’s awesome Strick!

Great story too!  No feeling like finding a gold coin while detecting, that’s for sure.

Bryan

[GB_Amateur]

18 hours ago, strick said:

Merton says "CAREFUL DON'T RUB IT!"

Sweet!!  And great advice from your hunting partner.  Although the 1853 (plain) is relatively common, as the grade goes up the value grows exponentially.  Yours looks particularly 'spotless' although grading from photos is pretty much impossible when trying to split hairs between uncirculated grades.  Only 10 have been graded higher than MS-64 by PCGS:  http://www.pcgscoinfacts.com/Coin/Detail/7767

You might want to get it looked at by a local professional (coin dealer) and from there possibly get it professionally graded.  Regardless, one of the finds of a lifetime, and well deserved.