pescadore
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Went for an hour hunt today at the first site of our County Fair. We have been finding old coins occasionally but this place has been POUNDED over and over again !!!! I parked my car and got out with the CZ5 not far from the car and got a deep signal showing 8 inches on the depth. I got a two way signal from one direction and a choppy signal as I circled the target. I was pretty sure it was a rusty nail but because it was so deep, I dug it anyway. Sure enough it was a rusty nail about 8 inches deep. I moved about 3 feet and got another signal showing coin and circled the target and had a two direction hit all the way around. I pinpointed the target and it showed to only be about 4 inches down. I dug down and got out the trusty ProPointer. Sure enough from about that depth I retrieved a solid black disk the size of a dime. Okay here is where the mystery begins. Most of the older coins we have pulled from this site look like they have been in a fire and I have had one Merc soaking in olive oil for months and still can barely tell what it is. With my current find, it was so crusted that I couldn't see anything. I managed to chip off a small place on the reeded edge and knew that it was silver. The coin was very thin so I knew whatever it was it was very worn. Could this be my first ever seated coin ?? The suspense is killing me and I had no idea how I was going to clean this thing enough to find out what it was without totally destroying it. I took it home and washed it and used a soft toothbrush on it with lots of soap and still had no idea what it was. A decision had to be made was I going to try and scrape the black junk off of it or wait months to try and clean it. Okay, before ya'll all beat me up, let me explain I knew that the coin was so thin that it was probably in bad condition and if it was my first seated coin that I would never sell it no matter what. I got a small splinter of wood like a toothpick and began working on it. This black stuff is crazy and barely made any progress on it at all and still could not tell what it was. Another decision (to some I'm sure was a bad one) had to be made and the suspense was killing me. I took my small knife that had a flat end screwdriver blade on it and started trying to scrape the black stuff off. I knew the coin would probably be worthless after doing this but I didn't care at this point I just had to know. I manage to get enough of the black off the front of the coin and uncovered the date ... 1876 !!! my oldest US coin and my first ever Seated Liberty Dime. I could tell as I got more of the black stuff off that it was in really bad shape so I just had to see the mint mark. Started the same process on the back and had to get my wife to verify the small mint mark for me and it was my first Carson City mint mark !!!! Wow I am super stoked at this point and had three firsts in one single coin !!!! I am glad that I cleaned it, don't care that I damaged it because I wouldn't take a thousand dollars for it even if it was worth that !!! This little jewel will go in my collection and be passed down to my grandkids with this story. Sorry for being long winded !!!
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