time4me
Bronze Member
- Aug 30, 2005
- 1,296
- 44
- Detector(s) used
- E-Trac, Explorer II, Excalibur
This is by far my best find ever, and it occured several years back while showing my 6 year old son how the metal detector works.
We were in the yard of a house built in the 1950's or 60's in an area of San Rafael California called Santa Venetia. Santa Venetia was envisioned in the early 1900's as a little Venice so canalas were built and houses and structures built along them. It was a vacation spot for the wealthy for a brief period of time -- around the 1920's. The plan of building a little Venice was abandoned. In the 1960's, houses were built along North San Pedro Road.
After spending an afternoon digging newer coins in the 2 to 3 inch range, I got a solid penny/dime reading at 7 inches. I was excited, and hoped for a Mercury Head dime. After digging a deep plug and rechecking the hole, the reading changed to Dollar. In my experience, anytime this happens, it is a piece of scrap metal or crushed can or something, so my excitement passed and I dug out another scoop of wet dirt (the ground was wet from recent rains). I ran the wad of mud I was holding over the coil, and got a loud blast. As I began to pull the mud apart, I saw the reeded edge of a coin, and it was bright gold. My heart stopped, as I knew instantly I was holding a gold coin. I washed it off in a big puddle of water, and was holding a $10 gold coin in extremely nice condition.
Now for the bad news. When I dug out this final plug of dirt, I was somewhat sloppy with my digging tool because I was sure it was scrap metal, and I put a couple of nicks in the coin edge.
We were in the yard of a house built in the 1950's or 60's in an area of San Rafael California called Santa Venetia. Santa Venetia was envisioned in the early 1900's as a little Venice so canalas were built and houses and structures built along them. It was a vacation spot for the wealthy for a brief period of time -- around the 1920's. The plan of building a little Venice was abandoned. In the 1960's, houses were built along North San Pedro Road.
After spending an afternoon digging newer coins in the 2 to 3 inch range, I got a solid penny/dime reading at 7 inches. I was excited, and hoped for a Mercury Head dime. After digging a deep plug and rechecking the hole, the reading changed to Dollar. In my experience, anytime this happens, it is a piece of scrap metal or crushed can or something, so my excitement passed and I dug out another scoop of wet dirt (the ground was wet from recent rains). I ran the wad of mud I was holding over the coil, and got a loud blast. As I began to pull the mud apart, I saw the reeded edge of a coin, and it was bright gold. My heart stopped, as I knew instantly I was holding a gold coin. I washed it off in a big puddle of water, and was holding a $10 gold coin in extremely nice condition.
Now for the bad news. When I dug out this final plug of dirt, I was somewhat sloppy with my digging tool because I was sure it was scrap metal, and I put a couple of nicks in the coin edge.
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Pretty old coin for a newer area.
