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Bronze Member
Rare old coin surfaces
By MARIA INES ZAMUDIO
The Salinas Californian
Christmas Day yielded an unusual present for Salinas resident Art Ballesteros.
Ballesteros found a real, a Spanish silver coin from the 1500s, on an isolated beach near San Francisco.
"It was a Christmas present not only for myself but also for California," he said. "The coin is extremely valuable."
He said Wednesday he had gone to visit his brother, Michael, in San Francisco for the holidays. On Christmas Day, they did what they both grew up doing: searching for hidden treasure. They took metal detectors to the beach and began scanning.
After only 10 minutes, Ballesteros said, his metal detector - a powerful $600 White detector - indicated something the size of a quarter hidden in the sand.
He dug it up, cleaned the coin and looked at it.
"I never saw anything so old," Ballesteros said.
Ballesteros said he's sought coins in the sand since he was a kid and now spends most of his time searching for treasures. A fight with leukemia has slowed him down, but he still goes to the beach when he feels strong.
Christmas Day was one of those good, strong days.
Ballesteros said he started shouting with excitement when he found the coin, and has been in a delighted state of mind ever since.
"A good treasure hunter knows where to look," he said. "I'm not digging for nothing."
If authentic and in good condition, the coin Ballesteros found could be worth up to $50,000, said Rusty Goe of Nevada, a coin expert for 27 years. But because the coin Ballesteros found is in far from perfect condition, Goe said, it's probably worth from $50 to $3,000.
Goe, who works for South Gate Claim in Reno, Nev., valued Ballesteros' coin based on a picture provided by The Salinas Californian.
"The unfortunate thing about this one is that it is damaged," he said.
The ocean has broken down the structure of the coin almost entirely, Goe said. But based on his experience, he said, it's likely the real was hand-made.
Other factors, such as weight, will decide the coin's final worth, Goe said.
Reales are the largest denomination of Spanish silver coins from that era, he said, and were used in the region now known as the United States until the 1780s, when the country started minting its own currency.
kenb
By MARIA INES ZAMUDIO
The Salinas Californian
Christmas Day yielded an unusual present for Salinas resident Art Ballesteros.
Ballesteros found a real, a Spanish silver coin from the 1500s, on an isolated beach near San Francisco.
"It was a Christmas present not only for myself but also for California," he said. "The coin is extremely valuable."
He said Wednesday he had gone to visit his brother, Michael, in San Francisco for the holidays. On Christmas Day, they did what they both grew up doing: searching for hidden treasure. They took metal detectors to the beach and began scanning.
After only 10 minutes, Ballesteros said, his metal detector - a powerful $600 White detector - indicated something the size of a quarter hidden in the sand.
He dug it up, cleaned the coin and looked at it.
"I never saw anything so old," Ballesteros said.
Ballesteros said he's sought coins in the sand since he was a kid and now spends most of his time searching for treasures. A fight with leukemia has slowed him down, but he still goes to the beach when he feels strong.
Christmas Day was one of those good, strong days.
Ballesteros said he started shouting with excitement when he found the coin, and has been in a delighted state of mind ever since.
"A good treasure hunter knows where to look," he said. "I'm not digging for nothing."
If authentic and in good condition, the coin Ballesteros found could be worth up to $50,000, said Rusty Goe of Nevada, a coin expert for 27 years. But because the coin Ballesteros found is in far from perfect condition, Goe said, it's probably worth from $50 to $3,000.
Goe, who works for South Gate Claim in Reno, Nev., valued Ballesteros' coin based on a picture provided by The Salinas Californian.
"The unfortunate thing about this one is that it is damaged," he said.
The ocean has broken down the structure of the coin almost entirely, Goe said. But based on his experience, he said, it's likely the real was hand-made.
Other factors, such as weight, will decide the coin's final worth, Goe said.
Reales are the largest denomination of Spanish silver coins from that era, he said, and were used in the region now known as the United States until the 1780s, when the country started minting its own currency.
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