🥇 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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[IMAUDIGGER]

If I get it slabbed, I'll make a follow-up post with the pics

I've often wondered how many cans or other containers of coins are buried at these old sites. They didn't have banks, and from diary and newspaper reports of these western frontier sites, there were more scammers than there were honest people at these sites. I guess the outlaw type just tended to gravitate to untamed, lawless frontier lands where they could con and scam with ease amidst the confusion.

That said, what were people doing with their hard earned money, aside from gambling, boozing and red lighting it away? Anyone that managed to amass any type of savings must've hidden it, and how many of those hidden caches were never retrieved for whatever reason? We'll never know, but they are out there. I guess it could pay to dig all large iron hits, I typically do it because they false into conductive range, and although they tend to be crumby signals, I still typically dig anything that creeps into the conductive range at these old sites.

I would venture to say there are MANY lost savings accounts. Although there were no banks, occasionally there would be an honest business man that would be widely trusted to hold gold for people. Back in those days, the pants men wore did not have pockets like we do now. They carried their money in leather satchels or pouches, sometimes around their neck/under their shirt (out of view). I have read accounts that it didn't take much gold coin to leave your chest black and blue after a days ride.

I'm sure you are already, but I'd spend some time pondering how that coin was lost. Is there any evidence of heavy equipment having been run in that area? Smashed flat cans is a good indicator. Maybe look at Google Earth for signs...Could it be part of a larger stash that got scattered, perhaps across several hundred yards? Brush clearing, fire fighting, road/trail building, farming...
I'm jealous, not just of your coin, but the locations you guys discover. I want in!

 

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[Bass]

Simply an awesome find. You sir are getting a standing ovation. Banner

 

[King Canslaw]

Put your detector down and enjoy the winter. You can't end the season any better than that. Congratulations.

 

[the_mad_cladder]

That’s an insane coin! Congratulations to you sir. Um, Have you stopped shaking yet?

 

[Cal_Cobra]

I would venture to say there are MANY lost savings accounts. Although there were no banks, occasionally there would be an honest business man that would be widely trusted to hold gold for people. Back in those days, the pants men wore did not have pockets like we do now. They carried their money in leather satchels or pouches, sometimes around their neck/under their shirt (out of view). I have read accounts that it didn't take much gold coin to leave your chest black and blue after a days ride.

I'm sure you are already, but I'd spend some time pondering how that coin was lost. Is there any evidence of heavy equipment having been run in that area? Smashed flat cans is a good indicator. Maybe look at Google Earth for signs...Could it be part of a larger stash that got scattered, perhaps across several hundred yards? Brush clearing, fire fighting, road/trail building, farming...
I'm jealous, not just of your coin, but the locations you guys discover. I want in!

We've detected this site several times, and nothing like this has been found there before. Of course after I dug the coin, I spiraled out and in hopes of others - lol Matter of fact, for a second I thought I heard another sound in the hole the gold coin came from....but it was just ground noise messing with me - lol

I do have some thoughts on where to detect the next time we hunt this site, but who knows, most of making good finds is location for sure, with a bit of luck thrown in, and a lot of hard work and determination. I've watched my hunting buddy dig three gold coins now, and this was my first, so I guess that makes him more lucky then most

 

[Cal_Cobra]

Simply an awesome find. You sir are getting a standing ovation. Banner

Thank you, I definitely appreciate it

 

[Cal_Cobra]

Put your detector down and enjoy the winter. You can't end the season any better than that. Congratulations.

Thanks! The irony was, I found it about 20 minutes or so into our first hunt. I was thinking to myself afterwards that my work was done, I could go sit in the car the rest of the trip, but naahhhhhh what if there were other good things to be found - lol

 

[Cal_Cobra]

That’s an insane coin! Congratulations to you sir. Um, Have you stopped shaking yet?

Thanks! Every time I look at it

 

[nofishmofo]

Congrats!!!!!I have not found a gold coin yet, but I will never give up. That is awesome, good job!

 

[CoilyGirl]

FANDAMNTASTIC!!! Congrats on such a stellar find,she is beautiful!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Well since coily-girl bumped it up with the 130th atteboy, I'll make it #131 : Did you see , the post from the fellow who just found the cache of 11 gold coins (a purse or pocket-spill or something): He offered to trade you all 11, for the single key-date rare gold coin of yours. I'm sure he was joking, but .... just goes to show: You did the bucket lister in style !

 

[Lanny in AB]

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

Amazingly beautiful find, congratulations!!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[PI PETE]

Cheers to your Half Eagle! It's on my bucket list!!

 

[HunterMF]

Absolutely amazingly awesome!!! That coin isn’t only rare, but in amazing condition!! Cheers to that!

 

[Agent Green]

Its a beauty!! Congrats on the great find!! WTG !!

 

[aka da Prof]

!!!Great find, Love the video !!---

 

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

always nice to find GOLD. congrats. will watch the video also.

 

[Peyton Manning]

has there been a price established for it?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

has there been a price established for it?

Your guess is as good as ours. First you have to give it your guess of grade. Then you can go to the PCGS site. Not only to view the charts, but then click on the individual mint/date, and it brings up a list of the past 20-ish years of known auctions. From there you can scroll left & right, between the grades and the dates-of-sales. And .... make your best guess. One good thing about the past-auctions, is when you go to click on those, some of them actually even have a pix of the coin ... front and back. So you can see for yourself how it was professionaly graded. And from those: Compare to Cal cobra's coin details.

And once you've done all that, there's still quite a range. Because with something that sells this infrequently, there's "ups and downs", depending on # of bidders at an individual auctions that have a passion or not to bid on a particular piece. And then factor in the nick on cal cobra's coin. Believe it or not, a high end jeweler can fix those, while leaving zero trace of the work. And then we noticed that some sales had a nick or scratch, that apparently didn't affect the grade one bit ?

Oddly, for gold coins with supposedly "less than 100 known" it's crazy that the fetched prices haven't been higher. Contrast to some silver coins (barbers, mercs, etc...) that have "less than 100", and it seems the demand and price lores are much higher ! This is because of the simple fact that there's a HECK of a lot more collectors doing merc. dime complete sets, barber dimecomplete sets, wheat penny sets, etc.... Contrast to a collector who's attempting to assemble a set of "all $5 golds ever minted", is not a common collection effort. Like: Collecting classic corvettes is only a rich man's sport. Versus collecting comic books or baseball cards is more of a common budget sport.

 

[pickaway]

Way to go!!!! Congrats!!!