Professor of Engineering
Gold Member
Hello Everyone,
I was working a wooded area near a circa 1912 homestead cellar hole. I was finding the usual junk iron and nails; usually run a wide open screen on my machines and dig everything. After about an hour of digging nothing of great value (coin, button…etc) I began searching the rear of the house area (now part of a corn field) in a small grid based on my search flags positioned in the ground. While overlapping the first with the second at 90 degrees I received an interesting/odd mid/higher tone with a VID of 67 on the Garrett AT Pro. In many of the places I hunt this range 63 — 68 is very old can slaw, so I wasn’t expecting anything of significant value. Although, I have dug Indian cents in this range!
I dug a plug (actually removed about 8” of dirt) in the nice rich garden type soil and began exploring the area with the pin pointer so not to damage whatever was in the hole; you never really know! After two sweeps of the pin pointer “it shouted” about an inch more and I scooped dirt out of the hole with my gloved hand. I very quickly noticed a shiny gold object that looked at first glance like a golden screw cap that I’ve dug about a thousand times. My disappointment to sheer joy happened when I observed an image on the object. I screamed to myself inside “Holy Crap” it’s a gold coin. A 1909 D Indian Head Half Eagle was in my hand! I think it will be tough to top this find, unless of course a Pine Tree Shilling “pops out of the hole”.
I put the coin in a protective finds case (after rinsing with water, drying and reburied for a photo; in my excitement I forgot to photograph the coin in place.) and brought it home. I know not to clean it (never cleaned valuable coins before), but since selling the coin was not an option…I cleaned it. First using water, then soapy water and lastly a jeweler placed the coin in an ultra sonic cleaner for gold jewelry. I know everyone is cringing at this point, but it was my first gold coin and was not a key date or mint mark and definitely not for sale. The jewelers cleaning made the coin look beautiful, only making the experience of the find more significant. After carefully examining the coin it appears to have a grade of Fine. So, in the case it goes sharing the space with his new Spanish Reale friends!
GL & HH
Regards,
Doc
I was working a wooded area near a circa 1912 homestead cellar hole. I was finding the usual junk iron and nails; usually run a wide open screen on my machines and dig everything. After about an hour of digging nothing of great value (coin, button…etc) I began searching the rear of the house area (now part of a corn field) in a small grid based on my search flags positioned in the ground. While overlapping the first with the second at 90 degrees I received an interesting/odd mid/higher tone with a VID of 67 on the Garrett AT Pro. In many of the places I hunt this range 63 — 68 is very old can slaw, so I wasn’t expecting anything of significant value. Although, I have dug Indian cents in this range!
I dug a plug (actually removed about 8” of dirt) in the nice rich garden type soil and began exploring the area with the pin pointer so not to damage whatever was in the hole; you never really know! After two sweeps of the pin pointer “it shouted” about an inch more and I scooped dirt out of the hole with my gloved hand. I very quickly noticed a shiny gold object that looked at first glance like a golden screw cap that I’ve dug about a thousand times. My disappointment to sheer joy happened when I observed an image on the object. I screamed to myself inside “Holy Crap” it’s a gold coin. A 1909 D Indian Head Half Eagle was in my hand! I think it will be tough to top this find, unless of course a Pine Tree Shilling “pops out of the hole”.
I put the coin in a protective finds case (after rinsing with water, drying and reburied for a photo; in my excitement I forgot to photograph the coin in place.) and brought it home. I know not to clean it (never cleaned valuable coins before), but since selling the coin was not an option…I cleaned it. First using water, then soapy water and lastly a jeweler placed the coin in an ultra sonic cleaner for gold jewelry. I know everyone is cringing at this point, but it was my first gold coin and was not a key date or mint mark and definitely not for sale. The jewelers cleaning made the coin look beautiful, only making the experience of the find more significant. After carefully examining the coin it appears to have a grade of Fine. So, in the case it goes sharing the space with his new Spanish Reale friends!
GL & HH
Regards,
Doc
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