Exciting Find For Someone New To Detecting

[mapper65]

Hello everyone, this week I had the opportunity to hunt on a family member's property for the first time. Their property is adjacent to the first house built in their community which dates back to sometime in the 1700s. I started out by finding 2 wheats along with a few other pennies from the early 70s. I eventually pulled up my first Mercury dime, a 1941. I couldn't have been more excited because I've only been detecting for just over a month and this was the oldest silver that I had found. About 10 minutes later I got a fairly weak signal but strong enough that I felt I should dig it. As I was going through the plug I saw what I first thought was another dime but then realized that it was smaller than a dime. Not wanted to scratch it up, I put it in with my other coins and decided I would wash it off when I got home.

I was expecting that it was probably a 3 Cent piece like I had just seen in my brother's book of coins that he has found detecting over the last 35 years. Much to my surprise after washing it off and spending a few minutes with a coin book, it ended up being an 1834 Capped Half Dime. It may be that you guys find stuff like this all of the time but for me being a newbie, I'm very excited about this find. This picture was taken shortly after rinsing it off. It did come a little cleaner after a little more rinsing and a light brushing.

I would have liked to have stayed longer but I was relying on the light from my Pro Pointer during my last couple of digs. I plan on going back in the next week or so. What makes this even more exciting is that the gentleman that owns the house next door which is the oldest house in the community came out shortly after I found the Merc and asked how I was doing. I expect that he's probably pushing 80 years old and was very personable. I told him about finding the Merc and he proceeded to spend about 5 minutes or so telling me the history of his house and the surrounding area. Near the end of our conversation he said "feel free to look around over on my property". I told him that I was chasing daylight but would definitely love to come back sometime. He said "come back anytime". Needless to say I can't wait to see what else I may find.

[warsawdaddy]

Terrific find and great condition!Congratulations!

[Hunter]

Real nice!

[bootybay]

Holey Moley, I would be doing a dance on that one for sure..

[cntrydncr1]

It is exciting to find a large cent no matter how long you have been detecting. congrats

[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

Nice half-dime !!

Keep @ it and HH !!

[allen]

that is an exciting find for a veteran detectorist to find !!!
Big congrats !!!

[birdman]

Awesome dig!!

[Tuberale]

Can't really be a newbie if you're finding Bust Half Dimes! GREAT FIND with GREAT DETAILS! I'm voting BANNER! Keep us posted on when you go to the neighbor's, too.

Great pics, especially for a half dime, which is hard to get in focus. This is one of those coins that should probably be cleaned with acetone if at all. Use Qtips, and clean it outdoors if you decide to: acetone is very volatile and flammable, but will remove only the organic material from a coin, and never touches the patina.