UnderMiner
Silver Member
- Jul 27, 2014
- 3,782
- 9,637
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 2
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Excalibur II, Ace 250
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Certainly one of the more unique treasures I've found this year. A 70+ year old buried gumball machine that's clearly been in the ground for a very VERY long time. Still had a nickle in the slot from the very last customer that tried to use it long ago. Watch the live "cracking open" video of me revealing the cache of coins that was within.
In total there were 17 US nickles, a US Wheat Cent, and a South American "5 Centavo". Most of the coins are buffalo nickles, there are a few Jefferson nickles - a couple appearing to be of the silver "War" variety, the 5 Centavo's date of 1920 is very clear to see. One of the US nickles remains in the coin mechanism slot which I removed from the machine and brought home. I'm planning to leave this nickle in place due to its uniqueness.
Initial find - before opening:
Video of the opening (must watch):
The washed but still "uncleaned" coins, war nickles are the darker ones to the bottom right:
The 1920 5 Centavo can be seen on the upper left and a Buffalo to the right of it:
Will update this post when I'm able to clean the coins more and/or reveal any more details about them.
Update 9:45PM!! Conservation of the coins is going AMAZING!! Not only are the coins cleaning up well - but even the dates on the BUFFALO NICKLES are visible! Not only that but I've found a coin that I have yet to identify that is dated 1876! Not sure what it is yet!! The process is slow but the results are fantastic so far!
Some of the newly conserved coins:
Contrast between the conserved and non-conserved coins:
Just confirmed, this "mystery coin" is infact an 1876 Imperial German 5 Pfennig:
Looks like I found silver in this machine after all!
My suspicions have been confirmed - a 1943 silver war nickle!
Silver War Nickle #2! 1945-P!
No way!! Nearly every Jefferson Nickle from the machine is Silver!!
Yet another 1945-P Silver War Nickle! (Note I am posting these as I clean them)
Okay, the grand total is in - out of the 9 Jefferson Nickles in the machine 6 were Silver War Nickles!
The newest coin in the lot was this 1946 Jefferson Nickle, meaning the machine likely went out of service around this year:
Cleaned coins so far include a 1941 Penny, a 1926 Buffalo, 1920 Cuban 5 Centavo, an 1876 Imperial German 5 Pfennig, three 1943-P silver War Nickle, two 1945-P silver War Nickles, one "S" silver War Nickle date unknown, a 1939 Jefferson Nickle, a 1946 Jefferson Nickle, and a 1925 Buffalo. Conservation is still underway for all the coins so expect more updates soon. I've been using a new technique that I will share to all those interested in cleaning coins considered "toasted".
In total there were 17 US nickles, a US Wheat Cent, and a South American "5 Centavo". Most of the coins are buffalo nickles, there are a few Jefferson nickles - a couple appearing to be of the silver "War" variety, the 5 Centavo's date of 1920 is very clear to see. One of the US nickles remains in the coin mechanism slot which I removed from the machine and brought home. I'm planning to leave this nickle in place due to its uniqueness.
Initial find - before opening:
Video of the opening (must watch):
The washed but still "uncleaned" coins, war nickles are the darker ones to the bottom right:
The 1920 5 Centavo can be seen on the upper left and a Buffalo to the right of it:
Will update this post when I'm able to clean the coins more and/or reveal any more details about them.
Update 9:45PM!! Conservation of the coins is going AMAZING!! Not only are the coins cleaning up well - but even the dates on the BUFFALO NICKLES are visible! Not only that but I've found a coin that I have yet to identify that is dated 1876! Not sure what it is yet!! The process is slow but the results are fantastic so far!
Some of the newly conserved coins:
Contrast between the conserved and non-conserved coins:
Just confirmed, this "mystery coin" is infact an 1876 Imperial German 5 Pfennig:
Looks like I found silver in this machine after all!
My suspicions have been confirmed - a 1943 silver war nickle!
Silver War Nickle #2! 1945-P!
No way!! Nearly every Jefferson Nickle from the machine is Silver!!
Yet another 1945-P Silver War Nickle! (Note I am posting these as I clean them)
Okay, the grand total is in - out of the 9 Jefferson Nickles in the machine 6 were Silver War Nickles!
The newest coin in the lot was this 1946 Jefferson Nickle, meaning the machine likely went out of service around this year:
Cleaned coins so far include a 1941 Penny, a 1926 Buffalo, 1920 Cuban 5 Centavo, an 1876 Imperial German 5 Pfennig, three 1943-P silver War Nickle, two 1945-P silver War Nickles, one "S" silver War Nickle date unknown, a 1939 Jefferson Nickle, a 1946 Jefferson Nickle, and a 1925 Buffalo. Conservation is still underway for all the coins so expect more updates soon. I've been using a new technique that I will share to all those interested in cleaning coins considered "toasted".
Last edited:
Upvote
83
Before I cracked it open I had figured the coin holder area would have been separated by a partition to separate it from the gumball holder on top. When the machine was in use I'm sure this partition would have been in place, but after over half a century in the ground it rusted away. In hindsight it seems obvious, but who has ever experienced the science of opening a buried gumball machine 
? 
