🥇 BANNER BUCKET LISTER!! LESS THAN 100 KNOWN!! $5 GOLD HALF EAGLE DUG!!

Cal_Cobra

Bronze Member
Oct 3, 2008
1,099
1,710
Northern California
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Minelab EQ800 & Makro Multi Kruzer, the rest are collecting dust...
Tom(CA) and I have been working a site that we found from hard work and research and it's produced several 1850's - 1860's seated coins, and some rogue early 1900's coins, as well as a variety of period relics.

We tried to get one more trip in before Old Man Winter completely shut us down, and it did in fact shut us down, but not before I finally, got something I've been looking for for a long time, and after watching others find them over the years, I was starting to think it would never happen.

Well it finally happened, and it turned out to be a good one, an 1865 San Francisco minted Liberty Half Eagle!! :headbang:

Here she is out of the hole:

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Here she is rinsed off:

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Here's a video of the hunt:

Here's a bit of background on the coin from PCGS:

Less than 100 known, Mintage: 27,612

Although the mintage of the 1865-S is quite a bit higher than the mintages of the S Mint Half Eagles from 1858 to 1864, it compares in overall rarity to the 1858-S, 1860-S and 1863-S and is only slightly less rare than the others. Almost all known examples of this date are well worn with VF and lower being all one can expect to find. The 1865-S ranks second in the entire $5 series according to average grade and I do not know of a specimen that would grade better than EF. The very few specimens that I have seen were rather softly struck and the mintmark was always quite weak.

Thanks for looking, hopefully the next one comes easier :icon_scratch:
 

Upvote 158

scruggs

Gold Member
Jun 12, 2008
7,400
7,456
Northern Alabama
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Research is the key to great finds and it sure paid off for you! Congratulations, it’s a BEAUTY!
 

Indiana Mark

Sr. Member
Jul 28, 2016
371
660
Northern Indiana
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Holy smokes! ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!

Huge congrats. Banner vote from me
 

Rubka888

Hero Member
Jun 13, 2013
511
911
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Banner all day! That is crazy rare and in amazing condition! That is what it is all about!
 

Oct 5, 2014
31,886
35,424
Massachusetts
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1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
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Garrett: AT Pro, AT Gold & Infinium; Minelab: Explorer SE, II; Simplex; Tesoro: Tejon & Outlaw; White's: V3i
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Fantastic find, congratulations! :notworthy:
 

Tom_in_CA

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Mar 23, 2007
13,837
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Salinas, CA
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Brian, Congratulations on your first gold coin. The dream hole-in-one for all md'rs. And not *JUST* a gold coin, but a rare one at that !

The zone of our site where you found that, has been pounded by myself and another hunter so far. We've pulled several seateds, several IH's, and a pesky buffalo nickel from that area. But we all had missed that gold coin. Lucky you ! (ok ok, a bit of skill perhaps too :thumbsup: )

It was a day neither of us will forget. Thanx for making the video and bringing all our friends along for the epic day and epic find.
 

Tom_in_CA

Gold Member
Mar 23, 2007
13,837
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Salinas, CA
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PCGS auction results and history:

1865-S $5 (Regular Strike) - PCGS CoinFacts

Banner all day long.

Scott9050, thanx for posting that. We too found that link. When looking at those past sale prices, the dates of those past sales should be noted. Because some of those dates are from sales 10 or 20 or more years ago. If you scroll that to the left a bit, you see that the most recent sale was Nov. of this year. And that one was a 30 grade. And sold for $3,335.

We were on our smart phones , out in the middle of nowhere, toying with these same musings. You can hear me on the background of the video where I'd gone to the PCGS website. From there, figured out how to click on the date of the coin, which brings you to the auction histories. Thanx for posting that.
 

Tom_in_CA

Gold Member
Mar 23, 2007
13,837
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Salinas, CA
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.... How long did it take for your heart rate to return to normal (or has it yet) :laughing7:

Hey Jason, I was hunting about 100 yards away. And I heard Brian yelling something. So I took off my headphone cup and could hear him yelling "gold coin , gold coin". Doing a happy dance , thrusting his victory fists in the air, etc... When he rolled his video camera, was right then. He had only just seen it flop out, yet had not even touched it yet. It was quite an honor to be there for the "reveal".
 

WaterScoop

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Sep 12, 2017
2,181
3,710
SW Washington
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rhedden

Sr. Member
Mar 23, 2003
363
451
Eastern NY
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Unbelievable! One of the best U.S. coins I have ever seen dug. It grades XF at a bare minimum (going by details). Insta-Banner!
 

Echoplex

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Feb 28, 2015
391
1,009
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Equinox 800, MXT All Pro
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So glad you got it on video. These well-documented gold coin finds are simply the best and boy is that one rare bird!
 

Tom_in_CA

Gold Member
Mar 23, 2007
13,837
10,360
Salinas, CA
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2
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Explorer II, Compass 77b, Tesoro shadow X2
So glad you got it on video. ...

echoplex, since we found this site, we've been having fun trying to make video captures of the action. Different things like camera mounted on a ball-cap (sort of like a go-pro in effect). So that it's not just the starting audio signal, but also the dig, the pinpoint, the reveal, etc....

But sometimes, after digging a bunch of bullet shells (so they're destined to the "delete" file), we don't capture every dig we wish we had. And since a $5 gold reads right around certain bullet shell TIDs, Brian had elected not to do a starting narration on that particular dig. Thought it was just going to be another bullet shell. But once he saw the reeded edge, he turned on the camera. So it's the full reveal process .

Some of the other signals shown on video are fairly representative of what his gold coin probably started like, insofar as audio goes. Like that rivot signal he got live: That, as you know, perfectly mimics a copper cent or half dime or whatever.
 

OP
OP
Cal_Cobra

Cal_Cobra

Bronze Member
Oct 3, 2008
1,099
1,710
Northern California
🥇 Banner finds
3
Detector(s) used
Minelab EQ800 & Makro Multi Kruzer, the rest are collecting dust...
Brian, Congratulations on your first gold coin. The dream hole-in-one for all md'rs. And not *JUST* a gold coin, but a rare one at that !

The zone of our site where you found that, has been pounded by myself and another hunter so far. We've pulled several seateds, several IH's, and a pesky buffalo nickel from that area. But we all had missed that gold coin. Lucky you ! (ok ok, a bit of skill perhaps too :thumbsup: )

It was a day neither of us will forget. Thanx for making the video and bringing all our friends along for the epic day and epic find.

For the most part :laughing7: I've always enjoyed detecting with you, this day was a long time coming, but it finally came! Ironically, as I mentioned to you on the hunt, there was a dig hole on the other side of the sagebrush the coin was next to :icon_scratch: Of course it could've been anyones, but ironic nonetheless.
 

devldog

Silver Member
Mar 9, 2012
3,642
6,335
Georgia
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Cal Cobra, A HEWGE' Congrat's to you on the gold coin. 1865, a war period coin too. Here's wishing you and your hunting buddy continued success in your future hunts. 1 bucket list, down.
 

Relicific

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Feb 2, 2017
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A dream coin if there ever was one.
Congrats
 

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