206 yr old, BIG!, foreign, SILVER in Northern California!!

JackalopeZL1

Bronze Member
Nov 22, 2014
1,721
2,893
Tennessee And California
Detector(s) used
CTX 3030, Deus 2, Soon to be manticore
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Good Evening folks, Let me start off by saying I am freaking out right now, Literally, shaking and I never do that.:tongue3: So on to the story, I was at my friends house today hanging out like I have done for the last 20 years and he has about 10 acres of land. We are in a area that was a huge area during the gold rush here in Ca. I have always wondered about his pasture that the horses feed in. A few times over the years I have walked in the field and thought I should detect this sometime. The way the land lays I have always thought this would be a great spot for a old house. Right up the road is what is left of a rock building that was a stage stop on his neighbors property so that further made me think I should detect it. Not sure why it took me so long to do it?? lol

So today I told my buddy I was going to detect in the pasture and he said go for it. That was in the morning and I had my detectors but not my shovel and the ground was already hard even with all the rain we have had. I went home for a while, Watched my supercross races and went back in the evening with my trusty digging tool :) The grass is getting pretty tall in most of the field since the horses are not out there right now so I figured I would detect in the lower grass areas. About 45 minutes into the hunt of digging square nails I got a very scratchy sounding one way 97 on the Deus. I figured it was a can and almost did not dig. Matter a fact I started to keep going, got a couple feet past it and decided to go back and investigate again. The signal sucked but I decided to dig

I started to dig the hole flipped out a 4" deep plug, I immediately found a square nail and I swore under my breath like I normally do if I get fooled by iron. For the heck of it I put my pin pointer in the hole and found another nail or part of the original one. Pulled it out and checked with the pinpointer again. this time I was getting a slow beep in the bottom of the hole. At this point I stood up and used the dues to scan the hole again. But this time I was getting a banging 97 in all directions

I did not know what to think, I figured there was a big hunk of iron sounding off. I re-dug the plug this time going down about 8 to 10 inches and flipped the dirt out and when I did I saw what looked like a far rim in a dirt/rock clod.. Picked it up and saw a big rim with writing on one little section that was exposed. At this point I was thinking some kind of big old token? But figured it might be old so I put the hole clod in my pocket and walked to the house to clean it up..

I got to the sink and started hitting it with the water and quickly saw a unfamiliar face on the coin and saw 5 francs on the back. Rinsed a little further and saw 1811 and instantly starting shaking. this coin was heavy!!! It is a 1811 5 francs with a little wear so I figure it was dropped in the gold rush time!!

I am still freaking out that I found a monster OLD foreign silver in Northern Ca!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am very Bummed I did not video but frankly It never crossed my mind while digging this to video.. I hope you guys enjoy this!!! And I am super happy I used the Deus today. I have a pretty good assumption the ctx would have nulled over this with the Iron in the hole :)















 

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Last edited:
Upvote 57

dirtlooter

Gold Member
Jun 5, 2014
8,889
13,497
mid western ARK
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
XP Deus with 9"LF and 9" HF Coils and 600 Equinox with stock and 6" coils
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
:hello2: awesome! congrats
 

UNERTHEN

Jr. Member
Sep 22, 2016
43
37
Texas
Detector(s) used
Teknetics gamma 6000 with 8", nel sharp, nel sharpshooter. Garrett Ace350 with 8x11 and 4.5 sniper. Garrett at propointer, garrett zlynk
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hell yeah! That's some sick silver. :occasion14:
 

OP
OP
JackalopeZL1

JackalopeZL1

Bronze Member
Nov 22, 2014
1,721
2,893
Tennessee And California
Detector(s) used
CTX 3030, Deus 2, Soon to be manticore
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thanks Folks!! I have never been this excited about a coin. Still blown away. I wish it could tell a story of it's life until dropped in the ground in Ca..
 

Primus Palus

Full Member
Apr 3, 2017
125
141
Denver, CO
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Pro
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I see stuff like this and it pushes me to keep going with the hobby... but then is incredibly depressing when people get finds like that and my best is a 70s penny. Haha.
 

scotter1

Full Member
Mar 16, 2014
182
155
upstate ny
Detector(s) used
whites dfx,xlt,idx,prism,tm 808,fisher gold bug,1280x,xp deuse
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
CONGRATS ON A GREAT FIND.THATS THE THING WITH THE DEUSE.IT PICKS UP YOUR TARGETS EVEN WITH TRASH AROUND THEM,BUT DOES HAVE A SCRATCHY SPOTTY SOUND.I ALWAYS DIG THE SCRATCHY SOUNDS BECAUSE MOST THE TIME ITS TRASH MIXED IN WITH THE GOOD TARGET.GOOD LUCK AND MANY MORE HUNTS THAT MAKE YOU SMILE.
 

Trezurehunter

Gold Member
Mar 22, 2003
17,885
21,474
Illinois / Oklahoma
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
8
Detector(s) used
Minelab Equinox 800 - Fisher CZ 5
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Congrats on that great piece of French silver. That is one chunky coin.
 

Garrett424

Silver Member
Jun 20, 2014
3,164
2,284
Granite, Maryland
Detector(s) used
Teknetics Omega 8000
Teknetics Delta 4000,
Deteknix XPointer,
Fiskar's Big Grip Digger & my old Army Trench shovel for the tough jobs
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Awesome old silver coin.
Congrats..
 

treblehunter

Gold Member
Jun 18, 2013
9,675
11,295
New Jersey
Detector(s) used
Minelab Excalibur II
XP Deus
Garrett pro pointer
XP Deus MI-6 pinpointer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I'm voting banner on this just because of where you are and the age of that huge silver coin that I'm thinking "have I ever seen one of these?" I don't know values of French silvers, but old, big, silver( maybe dropped by a French fur trader?) found in northern Cali just seems like a banner find to me. Congrats Ken on an awesome find, it will always be banner in my book!
 

OP
OP
JackalopeZL1

JackalopeZL1

Bronze Member
Nov 22, 2014
1,721
2,893
Tennessee And California
Detector(s) used
CTX 3030, Deus 2, Soon to be manticore
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thank you everyone, and Brad thank you for the Banner vote. I am still freaking out to find this coin :) going to look for more right now
 

Last edited:

Obsessive

Hero Member
Apr 16, 2017
604
861
NW Portland, OR
Detector(s) used
XP Deus/MI-6 w/ HF/XF/LF
Tesoro Cibola / Land and Sea pinpointer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Amazing! Lemme know if you need some help with the rest of that land :occasion14:
 

OP
OP
JackalopeZL1

JackalopeZL1

Bronze Member
Nov 22, 2014
1,721
2,893
Tennessee And California
Detector(s) used
CTX 3030, Deus 2, Soon to be manticore
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thanks everyone, I just got back from the sight. It old iron so far today and some old China pieces. More to come I am sure. Lots of iron in the ground :)
 

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