GB_Amateur

I would be surprised if the orientation changed much with time, but did the hider necessarily put the jar in the ground with the lid exactly horizontal?? Good idea testing with clad. A large stash of clad might not read differently at all compared to an equal amount and orientation of silver coins. And in reality no two caches are likely to ever be the same. Sometimes people included non-silver alloy coins ( e.g. five cent, one cent, and hopefully gold!) and even paper money.

Surprised me too. I recall at least two coming in around 22 on the ML Equinox (ID of a fresh Zincoln and well below 95% copper 1960's Lincoln which shows up 25-26 typically). Here are some thoughts as to why, in no particular order: 1) VDI possibly dragged down by nearby iron (but would have had to have happened at least twice...), maybe even ground conditions and signal/noise strength could contribute; 2) Are zinc lids pure zinc, or some kind of alloy? 3) The lids I've found have been buried for decades. Corrosion *can* lead to VDI degradation. Most (all?) of the ones I've dug are not in pristine condition, often with part of the rim broken away. 4) I've misread the VDI, or possibly don't remember as well as I think I do. Besides the ones I've dug (which are still around in my misc. finds 'collection'), I have a few never buried ones from my Mom who was both a canner AND a packrat. (I've inherited that trait honestly.) 😉 For a while I've been planning on burying a (recovered) zinc lid about 10" deep in my back yard as part of my growing test garden. Maybe I'll put one deeper, too. However I have no plans of burying silver with it, although I certainly can do some testing with silver coins under the lid before I fill the hole -- sort of a hybrid air+in-ground test.

If it's been in the ground a while (say prior to 1960) the lid would likely be zinc. I've found several (lids, not caches ) which seem to ring up around where fresh Zincolns hit. I don't think I've detected a zinc lid with the Manticore yet, though; but quite a few with the Equinox. As far as how the contents affect the overall signal, I have no idea but I'm curious. (My memory says Carl has addressed this in his new book,... I'll see if I can find that mention.*) Addendum: *On pages 86-87 he talks about a test he did with plastic container of 220 silver quarters, but his conclusion is not really applicable to your question. Here's a thought if you have a bunch of silver coins and a zinc lid -- do a test yourself! (Note: I hesitate to say too much about specifics in the book. Every serious detectorist should own this and buying one is a sign of gratitude for someone -- an expert -- who answers a lot of questions here, for free.)

I'd say around VG08. Value depends upon supply&demand. You are correct that the supply is there (2.3 million) compared to 30-100k, but there are likely a lot more collectors of these USA coins than the ones you are comparing to. As a Barber half, 2.3 million mintage makes it 20th most common out of 74 date+mintmark strikes in the series. As you note, not a lot of numismatic value for this date+mm in this condition -- $20 retail says the 2022 Red Book. Did USA soldiers pass through NZ during WWII? Did soldiers trade coins with 'teammates'? That's a reasonable condition for a silver coin in circulation for 40 years. (I have a 1943 Australian penny which I'm guessing made it's way into my family during that war.) I'd speculate: not likely arriving in NZ later than that; could have been earlier, though. An excellent find no matter the location, and particularly unusual half way around the world from where it was minted and circulated.

Can you post a photo of this coin (both sides would be a plus)? One can draw some rough age-of-loss conclusions based upon condition, which is what I'd like to judge.

You nailed it, Steve. I'm shocked to hear this news. His grandfather (who I met in person -- nice guy) was equally as quiet in his last days about the malady he had, too. To share what others have said, I was struck by his positive attitude which he shared both by advice but also with good wishes to his fellow detectorists. He really 'inherited' a lot of his grandfathers' passion for things of old, not just treasure, as well as an unselfish concern to help others when they asked about things in which he was well versed. Below I link one of the most interesting and entertaining threads I've ever seen on this site which (AFAIK) unfortunately never got completed. The best part starts on page 2 when he reports on finding a jar of what turned out to be rancid, solidified whale oil containing coins. It's just a tip of the iceberg to what must have been an exciting (but way, way too short) life.

This is sad news indeed. I really enjoyed and looked forward to his posts on my favorite detecting niche -- hunting ghost towns. He leaves a hole here and I'm sure a much deeper one among his family and friends.

Well, maybe routine finds for you. 😁 The 1870 IHC is an excellent recovery. In the thirteen year time window 1866-1878, only four years (1868, 1873-75) had mintages higher than 10,000,000 and even those four (under 15,000,000) carry a premium compared to non-mintmarked 1879 to the end (1909). For that 13 year period only the 1871, 1872, and key date 1877 had lower mintages than your 1870's 5.275 million.

Public, private, both? Were those coins recently washed up or have they been sitting there buried, just waiting to be churned up to become metal detector accessible? It's good he has video documentation. Carrying the "1715 fleet" provenance adds a lot to their value. Do you know if he's sold any, and if so, at what price?

I have a similar test setup in my yard, 30 degree angle. You sure collected a lot of data! Couple questions: 1) Do you have a mineralization measurement for this ground? Doesn't the Deus 2 have such ability? 2) Can't you modify your holder to orient the coins parallel to the surface? This would give more meaningful (and more easily comparable/reproducible) depth limit measurements. The Tesoro Lobo Supertraq seems to do quite well here for some targets. Did you just generate an explosion in its value? Or is this a case where you say you need to repeat some measurements?

It's not so easy to value metal detected recovered coins, especially from just seeing photos, often out-of-focus. (I have looked at the second post with more detailed photos of two large cents, the 1937 half dime, and the silver 3 cent piece.) If being in the ground/water for a long time has left its degradation (often in color changes but worse yet, dings and corrosion) then the value can't be compared to books or websites since those values are for typical (pocket/purse/etc.) wear from handling in circulation. Your silver 3-cent piece seems to show the 'environmental damage' typical of many dug coins. I can't read the date but if it's prior to 1863 then its value is minimal. 1863 and later were low mintage so if you're lucky enough to have one of those we can talk more. 🙂 The other three coins in the latest photos seem to have survived well, especially their color. I tried to do a rough grading of the 1837 half dime (I think it's in the VF range -- there are four in that gross grade: VF-20, -25, -30, -35). There were two varieties for the 1837 date -- large and small '5 C'. I think yours is the more common large characters but can't tell for sure. The 1818 Large Cent is the more interesting of the two Largies, IMO. That appears to be in the VF-35 to XF-40 range. (The later dated one, due to it's high condition, likely has value, too. Just like valuing antiques, it's all about "condition, condition, condition!") Once condition is evaluated (and my above conclusions are far from certain), the best way to determine value is to go to Ebay and find same date+mintmark specimens in similar condition. I always look at 'sold' auction values since asking price can be anywhere on the map. It's only what someone is willing to pay (thus the sold prices) that matters. Most coin books and websites show full retail value (sometimes professionally graded value), and at best only professional dealers can get those prices. Anyone can sell on Ebay and although well-known, trusted sellers will likely bring somewhat higher prices, buyers rely most heavily on (high quality) photos to make their buy decisions.

Agree with Lodge Cent regarding difficulty in finding all those even here in the USA. In particular the condition of the 1837 half dime and 1818 Large Cent put those specimens pretty high in the value category (as in triple digits). I wish those last two photos were in better focus -- can't really judge some of those coins as shown. If you could rephoto, I'd also like to see the reverse of the dimes (last photo) to see any mintmarks. Great collection, regardless.

Mine arrived in a white bubble bag. One of the corners was a bit dinged. I prefer pristine book arrivals too, but in the end I probably dog-ear the softcovers anyway. It's what's inside that really matters.

Ground penetrating radar is capable of that in some cases, but it also has limitations. A GPR device is not cheap but there might be a service in your area who will bring their equipment and do a site survey (for a fee).

Just got mine today. All I can report at the moment is that the number of pages has changed by a factor of more than 2 1/2! Not counting appendixes, tables of content, and indexes it's 536 (3rd ed.) vs. 206 (2nd ed.). Now I've got some bedtime reading for the next month or more. Addendum: Carl in the Intro points out that the new book is larger, leading to 30% more info per page. So 2.5*1.3 = 3.25 times as much info in the 3rd edition compared to the 2nd.