My buddy found a gold coin without a metal detector

[heat45]

I received a call from a good friend of mine, who knows I collect coins. He was walking and kicked a gold 1903 British Half-Sovereign out of the snow in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He didn't know if it was real gold or not, so he called me. (I can only wish to be so lucky.) He told me to come by and wanted to know what nation it originated in, it's value, etc.. I got to his house and told him what it was and how much above the current gold spot premium he should get for it. He replied by telling me that I could have it for $130CAD (approximately $133USD at the time). Needless to say, I whipped out my wallet in a heartbeat and took over it's possession. Even though it was full of scratches and abrasions, I put it in an Air-Tite brand coin capsule, as I do with all of my gold coins. Besides the cool factor of it being minted a century and a decade ago, it's composed of 22k gold (91.66666% or '.916'), weighs 3.994 grams (3.66 grams of which is pure '.999+' fine gold) and has a 19.3mm diameter. I've had it for a while now and thought it might make an okay post on the forum. You never know what could be waiting to be found, so keep those eyes peeled!

Post Script: I know my 1990s camera sucks; Sorry for the poor image quality.

 

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[Talon]

Man, I would love to just randomly kick a gold piece out of the snow bank! Cool story and addition to the collection.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

What a terrific find....and a good buy for you...LOL
JIm

 

[Guns Blazing]

Holy cow nice!!! Congrats!
I have a question, Do you put your silver coins in those plastic capsules?

 

[heat45]

Holy cow nice!!! Congrats!
I have a question, Do you put your silver coins in those plastic capsules?

In my first year of silver stacking I ordered many AirTites for what I figured I'd stick with buying, so yes almost all my coins are in them. I do have naked coins, rounds and bars with dings and abrasions though. If something comes in it's own sealed plastic, I try to keep them in original factory packaging. I've ran out of AirTites for some coins and just don't have them for others. I still have about 100 empty AirTites for silver Maples out of box of 250 capsules. If you're buying them to keep indefinitely, they're a good idea for storage and retaining numismatic newness. If you're buying bullion to eventually sell, I'd recommend going with cheaper naked bars that you can find for spot price or close to it and just toss them in a safe to tarnish. I must admit that I'll open a mint seal to get rid of tarnish on silver. I've always used Tarnex with great success; Even though many people try argue that it shouldn't be used, I find it to be better that anything else I've tried, as long as you don't apply it for too long and thoroughly rinse it off good enough. I have this theory that oxidization (tarnish) may spread to other coins, rounds and bars if you leave it to feed. I've had to open about thirty 1988 and 1989 silver Maples due to tarnish and fourteen 1 oz silver Engelhard bars. I may just start storing all the tarnished stuff in a different safe or invest in a vaccum sealer for the nicer stuff. As of now though, nothing is tarnished and I have a naked 20 oz poured Engelhard bar with them that I estimate should tarnish before anything else.

 

[Jeramy_Pal12]

Is it s real gold coin? Your friend is so cool, so luchy finding the great treasure, wish the next snow day he can have good luck.

 

[coazon de oro]

Did he mark the spot, to go check it later with a metal detector to see if there were more?