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

[Cal_Cobra]

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!!

Here she is out of the hole:

Here she is rinsed off:

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

 

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[fyrffytr1]

Congratulations on an amazing find. Any gold coin is still on my bucket list. And, I have been toting my bucket for many years!

 

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[jewelerguy]

Holy cow

 

[redcobra8u]

Way cool! Congrats on the find!

 

[EccentricInTexas]

Awesome Find!!! Hopefully theres another down there somewhere!!!

 

[sjvalleyhunter]

Nice to see a fellow Californian hit a gold coin. Congratulations!

 

[Cal_Cobra]

I’m speechless I bow down humbly to this banner find. You my friend are the Man of the Hour. Congratulations on a epic find.

Much appreciated, I hope everyone gets the opportunity to dig one of these, it's something you'll never forget

 

[Cal_Cobra]

Epic find! Banner all the way. Rare, old gold. A big congrats to you! Love the introduction music in the video. Is that from the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly? The whip sound effect is a nice touch as well.

Thanks for the generous words! You're correct on the intro music, and the whip sound effect is a homage to the Hooverboys (foo-foo juice), and a tongue and cheek homage to Bill Ladds videos (newbie juice - lol). Thanks for taking a look

 

[Cal_Cobra]

Well well well, you made banner. Don't let it go to your head little-feller !

There was a thread here a few months back, where the criteria for banner was discussed. And I was on record there, backing up the super stringent (sometimes seemingly random) process. Otherwise it would be "banner inflation". There's SCORES of finds, weekly (esp. if you include beach hunters and their nice stones) that can be $1k or more. Lots of nice seateds, barbers, busts, colonial coppers, etc... that could indeed have great value, or provenance, or story-telling. But when you combine all of them into a single find, is when it truly merits banner. So ..... congratz on banner ! This means you buy the beer on the next trip, haha

Thanks! Now I'm only 14 behind you, I'm closing in now

I think I bought the beer on the last trip...oh that reminds me, I need to tally your trip bill

 

[Cal_Cobra]

View attachment 1523144
Pricey little guys, congrats again !!

Staggering!!! I'll likely send it in to get slabbed, more for posterity than anything as I don't sell my finds, for me it's passion over profit, but still it would look mighty nice in a PCGS slab

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Thanks! Now I'm only 14 behind you, I'm closing in now

I think I bought the beer on the last trip...oh that reminds me, I need to tally your trip bill

One more banner, and you'll catch up with me on banner counts too ! But don't let it go to your head: The next gold coin will be mine. I'm over-due now after all, haha

As for the travel costs: I graced you with my excellent company , great jokes, and md'ing expertise. So we're even. Right ?

 

[DFW_THer]

Newbie Juice!!! Bahaha amazing recovery, and a great video showing how gentlemen react when they find an incredible coin. Really stunning. Great job.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

... a great video showing how gentlemen react when they find an incredible coin....

Yeah, that wasn't staged. It was the actual "reveal" moment. He turns on the camera the moment he realized there was a 1) coin, and 2) what appeared to be gold. So our emotions, the mystery slowly being revealed, etc... is all totally candid. That's half the fun of the hobby after all. Sort of like Christmas as a kid: The actual toy you get is fine and dandy. But the un-wrapping, and mystery in-the-meantime is almost the other half of the fun

 

[DFW_THer]

Yeah, that wasn't staged. It was the actual "reveal" moment. He turns on the camera the moment he realized there was a 1) coin, and 2) what appeared to be gold. So our emotions, the mystery slowly being revealed, etc... is all totally candid. That's half the fun of the hobby after all. Sort of like Christmas as a kid: The actual toy you get is fine and dandy. But the un-wrapping, and mystery in-the-meantime is almost the other half of the fun

Of course it wasn't! It was perfectly executed. Tons of respect for the coin, the find, the process, etc... We don't live dig 65 signals, no one expects to dig Liberty Au in AU!

 

[fongu]

An outstanding coin. congratulations.

 

[MrBlueSkyNM]

Amazing coin! Congratulations on your research and perseverance!

 

[CRUSADER]

 

[Loco-Digger]

Congrats on digging that beauty, and getting the Banner nod, well deserved. If it wasn't already a Banner you'd have gotten a nomination from me. Enjoy the high of digging an elusive gold coin. It's on most everyone's bucket list.

 

[scott9050]

The next thing that this coin needs is to be slabbed. The fields look better than the others I am seeing for sale, and the condition looks to be AU50+ This is one of the best coin finds I remember since that member found the 1792 half Disme.

 

[Davers]

Just amazing.
That's any Coin , Relic , Metal Hunters Dream find & as Tom said not just Gold but Rare Gold ,with the 'Soft S & everything'.
WTG!!!

 

[Valley Ranger]

Congratulations!