What is your White Whale?

[PA Sleuth]

I got out for a few hours at an old permission the other day. Too lazy to seek out a new permission, I hunted an area I have covered at least ten times, when Blamo, a 12-46, 1-41 on the Etrac at 6 inches. How did I miss this before? After digging a wide careful plug, out pops my White Whale! A Franklin Half!




I wasn't going to post it, as proud as I was, because that was all I found in several hours of hunting. Then, last night I watched a Hoover Boys video on YouTube. He found a Barber Quarter and was nearly brought to tears, it was his White Whale. Got me thinking, while we all have dreams of finding 8 Reales, Chain Cents, Twenty Cent pieces, and Flowing / Draped Bust silvers, the chances of those being found in a career are slim. So for most of us, myself included, we have chosen an item or coin to be our realistic White Whale, maybe because we should have found it by now, but for some reason, the metal detecting gods think it is funny to withhold. Do you have a Realistic White Whale that eludes you?

By the way, a Shield Nickel is my new White Whale

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[trapperart]

Any silver dollar

 

[digger dad]

Great post ! You know we would all love to hit a cache of colonial coppers or Spanish silver, my white whale was a little modest . I love those dog on Indians cents I always wanted to dig one from the civil war years and as luck would have it I found mine this year it was an 1863 fatty and the icing on the cake was that it was 3 get from the whitest .52 cal sharps dropped bullet I have ever dug.. My white whale now is the elusive 1877 .

 

[PA Sleuth]

Any silver dollar

Come to think of it... I have yet to find a silver dollar either.

 

[PA Sleuth]

Great post ! You know we would all love to hit a cache of colonial coppers or Spanish silver, my white whale was a little modest . I love those dog on Indians cents I always wanted to dig one from the civil war years and as luck would have it I found mine this year it was an 1863 fatty and the icing on the cake was that it was 3 get from the whitest .52 cal sharps dropped bullet I have ever dug.. My white whale now is the elusive 1877 .

Awesome, congratulations on the Fatty. An 1877 would be nice!

 

[testing123]

congrats! For me it's a Morgan dollar, or an old, complete crotal bell.

 

[texjim]

Congrats...

 

[PA Sleuth]

congrats! For me it's a Morgan dollar, or an old, complete crotal bell.

Well... When you find two Morgan's in one hole let me know, I will trade you a crotal bell for one of them!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Great story, thank you for sharing!

Congratualtions on the large silver find!

 

[Calgarychef]

Mine was a Canadian silver dollar as a Morgan was out of my realm Of possibilities. Then this popped out...

 

[A2coins]

That is a great find I like to see these posts I see so many where some ones hunt consists of not one but a handful of bucket list finds I like your post because it is a reality for lots of us I can hunt 10 times for hours and hours and find all clad That is a great find Good job thanks for posting

 

[BigWaveDave]

Down here, I have zero expectations to find Large Cents, anything Capped, you know, the good stuff, but your thread go me to thinking, I have been lucky and blessed to find what I have found, coin wise...
Just this past 4th, I too, had been desperate to find. Ben half, and son of a gun if I didn't! Best feeling I've had in 6 months...if you'll indulge me for a minute, let me think....
Cents: Indian, wheat, etc
Nicks: V, Buffalo, War, etc
Dimes: Seated,(!) Barber, Merc, Rosie
Quarts: Barber, SLQ, Wash
Halves: Walker, Ben, JFK
Dollars: Morgan, Peace, SBA....

So, my realistic white whales? Have to be a Barber Half, or an Ike...

Sorry for the rant, but I had to think...to heck W/ Ike...I WANT A BARBER HALF!

 

[Gridwalker306]

Mine was a Canadian silver dollar as a Morgan was out of my realm Of possibilities. Then this popped out...

View attachment 1334094

That's crazy to find a Morgan as far North as Calgary! I found my Morgan dollar in Canada too, but I'm way closer to the States than you.

My white whale is a Walking Liberty half dollar. It's been SEVEN years...this is getting ridiculous!

 

[Calgarychef]

You know what about that dollar? I hunted the area for hours and hours after finding it and I found nothing else at all. It was a single drop and in our town anything 1930's is considered old so finding it was so lucky that it's impossible to even fathom. It wasn't a recent drop Im sure it was from the time period of the coin as it was pushed up by some tree roots.

Some days luck borders on the miraculous

 

[weregolf]

8 escudos Doblon, still dreaming to caught it

 

[Calgarychef]

Come to think about it the very best thing that I'ddlike to find would be a trade ax. A simple implement but one that screams of the Canadian fur trade.

 

[Diggin Dude]

The Franklin Half is one of my favorite coins, great find, not a common as you may think as metal detecting finds go. Congrats and HH

 

[Diggin Dude]

My white whale would be some kind of silver coin from the 1700's

 

[toasted]

Milled Spanish silver

 

[PA Sleuth]

Down here, I have zero expectations to find Large Cents, anything Capped, you know, the good stuff, but your thread go me to thinking, I have been lucky and blessed to find what I have found, coin wise...
Just this past 4th, I too, had been desperate to find. Ben half, and son of a gun if I didn't! Best feeling I've had in 6 months...if you'll indulge me for a minute, let me think....
Cents: Indian, wheat, etc
Nicks: V, Buffalo, War, etc
Dimes: Seated,(!) Barber, Merc, Rosie
Quarts: Barber, SLQ, Wash
Halves: Walker, Ben, JFK
Dollars: Morgan, Peace, SBA....

So, my realistic white whales? Have to be a Barber Half, or an Ike...

Sorry for the rant, but I had to think...to heck W/ Ike...I WANT A BARBER HALF!

Wow! Weird how things work, like I said, I have never found a silver dollar, but I have been blessed to find three Barber halves!