Boom! First Silver! 1853 Seated Liberty Half Dollar

[CmonNow]

Four inches under the surface, three feet from a paved walking/biking trail and four feet from the base of some support cables for a power pole, not far from one of the main entrances to the county fairgrounds in town.  The fairgrounds have been used for that purpose since at least 1895 according to historic maps, and maybe longer based on this coin.

It's pretty well worn, with a lot of the detail gone.  But, I knew I had a lifetime event on my hands as soon as it popped loose from the dirt.  I saw the edge and a little bit of one side, saw the shine, and knew it was silver.  I about soiled myself and passed out.  Not only because of the silver, but partly because it was 91 degrees F, humid, no breeze, the sun was pounding me like a professional boxer, and sweat was dripping off my nose.

Yes, I scratched it, right next to the date.  Somehow I always knew I would scratch my first silver, and I came to accept that in a dream some time back.  But that's okay, it makes it mine.  And it wouldn't have been for sale at any price, so it doesn't matter.  Well, if it was mint condition and worth $3000, maybe I would have thought about selling it for a minute or two, but I really don't think so.

Found 11 other coins today, all clad and pennies, along with a copper token from Grand Slam Sports, which is a laser tag and "family entertainment" place in Burnsville, Minnesota, about 45 minutes from here.  The token rang up like an old penny or a dime.  I didn't scratch the damn token.  Oh no, of course not, not the token, that looks as good as the day it was struck.  😭

I have probably 20 hours into hunting this fairgrounds and I've found about 40 coins, but this one is the king (queen?).  Just by chance, the head groundskeeper came by right after I found it, was pretty interested, took a picture of the coin, and told me that other people detect here from time to time, and drove off on his golf cart.  Bad news about other people detecting there (which I suspected because of what I was finding and not finding), but they missed this one, the dumbasses.  🙂

I bought an AT Max to give some variety from using my Equinox.  I found this with the AT Max.  It rang up at 87-90 in the ground and 89-90 on the surface.  I wish I had found it with the Equinox because it really has a hold on my heart more than the AT Max does, but I made the decision to use the Garrett today, and now I have to live with it.  I think I'll be okay.

My life felt complete for about 15 minutes afterward and I was walking on air, but then I realized that that fairgrounds is old, and even though other sad schlubs have been detecting there, there is still more old silver to be found, there has to be.  I've only covered about five percent of the total ground available there, and I will keep at it.  I have no choice now.

 

 

[2Valen]

Great find and hope you find many more unless you live near me.

Good luck on your next hunt.

[matt]

Congrats on a great find!

[mn90403]

Congratulations

Well done.  A great coin is good to find.  They are my weakness as I hunt few areas that have anything other than clad.

You described the area of the find well.  It is like finding gold nuggets under the bushes or in other hard to get to spots.

Mitchel

[GB_Amateur]

Your first ever silver coin is a Seated half dollar??  You are so hooked now!  Well done and nice writeup.  Makes me wonder what others were thinking.  At 4 inches deep this had to just scream.  Did no one bother to hunt there, or were they 'convinced' it was a large chunk of metal dropped by the power pole techs?  Your lesson is their loss, obviously.

I've always thought that fairgrounds (with carnival areas) have to be one of the best places to find coins -- people with coins just burning holes in their pockets.  Most around here are off-limits except during events.  I've never asked for permission but you've got me thinking....

The most difficult coins to recover without scratching are those in hardpack, especially when in gravel or stone such as parking lots.  I've been pretty lucky but unfortunately late in a hunt when I'm tired I get sloppy.  Thanks for the reminder.  (I can't even see the damage in your photos so apparently not too bad of a scratch.)

[CmonNow]

10 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Your first ever silver coin is a Seated half dollar??  You are so hooked now!  Well done and nice writeup.  Makes me wonder what others were thinking.  At 4 inches deep this had to just scream.  Did no one bother to hunt there, or were they 'convinced' it was a large chunk of metal dropped by the power pole techs?  Your lesson is their loss, obviously.

I've always thought that fairgrounds (with carnival areas) have to be one of the best places to find coins -- people with coins just burning holes in their pockets.  Most around here are off-limits except during events.  I've never asked for permission but you've got me thinking....

The most difficult coins to recover without scratching are those in hardpack, especially when in gravel or stone such as parking lots.  I've been pretty lucky but unfortunately late in a hunt when I'm tired I get sloppy.  Thanks for the reminder.  (I can't even see the damage in your photos so apparently not too bad of a scratch.)

It was right under a power line, and surrounded by other electrical buried in the ground to supply the vendor booths and tents during the fair, so maybe interference was a problem for somebody else.  There are electrical sub-panels here and there, and you can see where the trenches were dug to bury the lines.  I had my sensitivity way down (3 bars out of 8) to knock out most of the chatter.  It was also tucked next to a walking/bike path and may have been overlooked because it was on the fringe of that particular chunk of grass.  On an average summer day I bet seventy-five people passed within feet or yards of this coin for all these years and never knew it was there, not to mention the thousands of people during the fair.

I didn't know it until I started detecting there, but all sorts of people use this fairgrounds for walking and biking, and people seem to randomly drive through there.  It seems to be open to public use all the time.  I don't think they even close the gates at night.  I'd imagine the lawmen drive through at night to make sure no hooligans are messing it up.  I did find a completely smashed glass booze bottle that some drunken yutz threw at the concrete floor of the big picnic shelter.  Glass everywhere.  Picked up as many pieces as I could find without crawling around on hands and knees.

To get permission I looked up the management on the fair's website, emailed the head honcho, or in this case a honchette, and she said no problem, have fun.  The groundskeeper stopping by right after finding this coin was the only person who's spoken to me the whole time I've been there.  I think this was my fifth time detecting there.

Tons of junk in the ground, constant signals with all metal turned on, less with discrimination, but still nearly continuous sound.  It's slow going because of that, but it's just a matter of time until I find something else exciting.

[GB_Amateur]

6 minutes ago, CmonNow said:

I did find a completely smashed glass booze bottle that some drunken yutz threw at the concrete floor of the big picnic shelter.  Glass everywhere.  Picked up as many pieces as I could find without crawling around on hands and knees

Good for you.  That's the kind of actions that will make us welcome and at least partly offset the idiots who don't fill their holes.  Unfortunately, just like detecting, it's the small minority who abuse the parks by leaving trash and (worse) breaking glass bottles for people to step on, but the results of their irresponsibility affects so many.

8 minutes ago, CmonNow said:

Tons of junk in the ground, constant signals with all metal turned on, less with discrimination, but still nearly continuous sound.  It's slow going because of that, but it's just a matter of time until I find something else exciting.

Yep, where people dropped coins they also dropped trash.  But as you've discovered, if it were easy there wouldn't have been that beauty waiting over a century for you to find it.  I like your attitude.  You're a positive addition to detectorprospector.com.

 

[Guest calabash digger]

Very nice!

[Mike Hillis]

I enjoyed your write up, CmonNow.   Nice coin for a first silver, too.    

Since you personalized it with the nick you might as well put it in a bezel and wear it.    A metal detector brand t-shirt and that coin around your neck may well get you some good private property permissions.

HH
Mike

 

[rod-pa]

flat out awesome!  I have yet to get a half older than 1917.  perfect way for you to break into 1800s.