🥇 BANNER Dug Up a VERY OLD Gumball Machine - And It Was Filled with Coins!

[UnderMiner]

Certainly one of the more unique treasures I've found this year. A 70+ year old buried gumball machine that's clearly been in the ground for a very VERY long time. Still had a nickle in the slot from the very last customer that tried to use it long ago. Watch the live "cracking open" video of me revealing the cache of coins that was within.

In total there were 17 US nickles, a US Wheat Cent, and a South American "5 Centavo". Most of the coins are buffalo nickles, there are a few Jefferson nickles - a couple appearing to be of the silver "War" variety, the 5 Centavo's date of 1920 is very clear to see. One of the US nickles remains in the coin mechanism slot which I removed from the machine and brought home. I'm planning to leave this nickle in place due to its uniqueness.

Initial find - before opening:


Video of the opening (must watch):






The washed but still "uncleaned" coins, war nickles are the darker ones to the bottom right:


The 1920 5 Centavo can be seen on the upper left and a Buffalo to the right of it:


Will update this post when I'm able to clean the coins more and/or reveal any more details about them.

Update 9:45PM!! Conservation of the coins is going AMAZING!! Not only are the coins cleaning up well - but even the dates on the BUFFALO NICKLES are visible! Not only that but I've found a coin that I have yet to identify that is dated 1876! Not sure what it is yet!! The process is slow but the results are fantastic so far!


Some of the newly conserved coins:


Contrast between the conserved and non-conserved coins:


Just confirmed, this "mystery coin" is infact an 1876 Imperial German 5 Pfennig:


Looks like I found silver in this machine after all!
My suspicions have been confirmed - a 1943 silver war nickle!


Silver War Nickle #2! 1945-P!


No way!! Nearly every Jefferson Nickle from the machine is Silver!!
Yet another 1945-P Silver War Nickle! (Note I am posting these as I clean them)


Okay, the grand total is in - out of the 9 Jefferson Nickles in the machine 6 were Silver War Nickles!


The newest coin in the lot was this 1946 Jefferson Nickle, meaning the machine likely went out of service around this year:


Cleaned coins so far include a 1941 Penny, a 1926 Buffalo, 1920 Cuban 5 Centavo, an 1876 Imperial German 5 Pfennig, three 1943-P silver War Nickle, two 1945-P silver War Nickles, one "S" silver War Nickle date unknown, a 1939 Jefferson Nickle, a 1946 Jefferson Nickle, and a 1925 Buffalo. Conservation is still underway for all the coins so expect more updates soon. I've been using a new technique that I will share to all those interested in cleaning coins considered "toasted".

 

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[coinman123]

I guess I shouldn't have put them in the rock tumbler then...
Rest assured, these coins are already toasted for the most part, most didn't come out of the machine initially because they were actually concreted to the side. Only way to clean them up is to rub them with a little grit otherwise they'll remain unrecognizable. Also thanks alot for calling my fingers oily and dirty - no true treasure hunter should ever have clean hands - if he/she does it means they haven't been digging enough.

Amen!

Awesome find! Congrats, I would die if I found that!

 

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[Davers]

Agreed. I find old low denomination coins all the time that hardly warrant mentioning, but I never found anything quite like this before. I think the real reason people voted this banner isn't becasue of the coins or even the machine, I think it's becasue of the video of my reaction to finding them.

When I found the machine I assumed it could have been filled with coins, but I didn't know for sure. Instead of opening it and filming the coins after the fact (if there were any), I decided to film the opening live on camera -- so that if there were indeed coins inside everyone could have a first hand account of what I was seeing and feeling as I discovered them.

As luck would have it the machine was indeed filled with coins and my reaction to discovering them was filmed as it happened in real time. This is what every treasure hunter dreams of - a long buried box of coins and that initial reaction of seeing that treasure spill out of that box for the first time. I think this got banner simply becasue I filmed that elusive feeling of discovery that we all crave.

Sorry I did not watch the video ,,'YET' .
Please don't get me wrong , tho I may not do a happy dance every time I dig a Wheat Back cent I still enjoy digging each one of them, Have not dug a war nickel in over 2 years , tho I did get a 1943 S War Nic, in -AG Condition at Wall-greens last week (still happy with that one) then yesterday I dug about 7-8 Wheats & 1 , 1919 well worn Merc, that I slightly scraped with the shovell, Not much I hate more than that ,,,,,,OCD, OCD ,OCD, LOL.

I Hunted for 11 hours strait & consider it a Good day. Dug a good bit of clad as well......Works for me, ..Amazing all the Cool stuff out there in those waters around NYC.

Keep up the great Work.

 

[46Wheat]

not sure how I missed this before . Congrats on a unusual and memorable find

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Congrats on your find my friend and on making the BANNER!
I can honestly say, that I've never known anyone to dig a gumball machine still with the coins in it!

Dave

 

[gilgar]

Awesome find! Are you certain it's a coin in the slot? You obviously have a better angle on it but from the 2nd picture of it, it looks smooth like maybe it's a slug which could also explain why it got stuck.

 

[Urban Grund]

Any Hurricanes, or major Flooding in that area around 1946? If so, might not have been stolen.