🥇 BANNER Equinox finds Spanish treasure! - Re upload

[Minkey]

My Dad and I failed to adhere to TreasureNet's rules and posted our find on his account. The following is a reupload of my Dad's post. Apologies and thanks to anyone who has already taken the time to leave a comment, like, or banner nomination.

Last week, my son and I went on another “Treasure Coast” trip, this time armed with our new Equinox 800’s.


Our last trip to St. Augustine had me finding the only “old coin”, an 8 Reale, that I was sure was authentic, but my 21 yo son had the opposite opinion. For the last 6 months, I have been hearing it from him about my “lead slug”.


Fast forward to last week. It’s about 11:30 pm on 3/27, and he comes up from behind me and tells me he found a “fake” coin, and not so jokingly accuses me of planting it, so he could have the heart attack/heart break of finding a worthless piece of junk… So, Sam pulls the “coin” out of his junk pouch so we can both give it a better look.


Upon inspection of the coin, its mint appearance gave the impression of a newly minted souvenir, but the coins details were so fine, and weight so heavy, we really did not know what to think. Back at the hotel we researched, compared pictures of actual coins, and did everything we could at 3 am to prove or disprove its origin.


The next morning we went to the West Bay Trading Company in Vero Beach to have the coin seen by folks who know much more than we do. The guys at West Bay were really helpful, determined that the gold content is just under 90%. 21 carat (by all records we found, 87.5 % was what the coin were supposed to be), Both Ron and Scott looked at the coin in disbelief of the condition, and determined that it was indeed genuine, and Scott, with his loop, discovered that the date was an over stamp 1787 over a 6. We were advised to have the coin graded and slabbed, and that is where it sits now.


Needless to say, we had a great trip. The Equinox has proved to be a great, fast, deep machine. Small brass/bronze/copper bits at 8 to 12 inches ring up VERY loud and clear on the wet sand (Beach 2), leaving no doubt that you have a non-ferrous item under the coil. Yes, aluminum rings up as well, but as we all know, that is just the cost of doing business… Battery run time is all of 10 hours plus, the wireless headphones worked well, the backlight on its lowest setting is perfect, and the machine preformed very quietly in the dry sand, and even in the surf. Very happy with the Equinox! -muttandjeeps

 

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[CRUSADER]

Congrats on banner looks great up there.

 

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[ANTIQUARIAN]

Beautiful coin find, congrats on achieving your first BANNER!

Dave

 

[Vldetecting]

That's probably the best find I've seen so far this year! If I found that coin detecting in an old Spanish area (for example), I would freak out. It's an amazing coin and it's unbelievable how good the condition is on that coin!

 

[DetectorMoe]

That is one heck of a find, nice dig!

 

[Calabash Digger]

my dream find ! congrats ...

 

[Daryn]

We (I) messed up, and put it under my regular account, and a moderator posted and stated that it must be posted by the forum member finder......

That’s pretty damn picky. I’ve seen what you did multiple times on here before. Great find!!!

 

[Minkey]

Thanks for comments everyone! It's great to be able to share this find with so many people!

This is the first picture I took when I got back to the hotel room. At this point I still thought it was brass. We were told by the manger of the hotel (who was wearing a lot of gold) that higher purity gold is darker. Previously my only experience with gold was 10K which is typically much lighter. In the other pictures it has a more orange appearance which I love.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Hey there Minkey, here's how you clean that: Sandpaper ! Then Ajax and a bead-blaster. It will be very shiny then, guaranteed .

 

[Minkey]

Hey there Minkey, here's how you clean that: Sandpaper ! Then Ajax and a bead-blaster. It will be very shiny then, guaranteed .

While I was skeptical of your suggestions at first, I'm pretty happy with the results. Much easier on the eyes now.

 

[SeabeeRon]

While I was skeptical of your suggestions at first, I'm pretty happy with the results. Much easier on the eyes now.
View attachment 1576129

Congratz on the BANNER!

The coin in this post is not the same Banner Coin you found, right?

 

[Minkey]

Congratz on the BANNER!

The coin in this post is not the same Banner Coin you found, right?

Right!

 

[shanegalang]

Amazing. I dig a lot of colonial silver down here in Louisiana and my dream is to find one of these!!

 

[Minkey]

Amazing. I dig a lot of colonial silver down here in Louisiana and my dream is to find one of these!!

At the time my biggest aspiration was a modern piece of jewelry or if i was really lucky, a half reale. You never can know for sure! Good luck and thanks!

 

[Dug1898]

1st of all I think it's a miracle that you found it at all...Awesome Minkey! Well it's up top where it belongs and it'll be graded and protected from greasy fingerprints and ugly scratches, lol. Good job young man.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

One of the comments had me thinking "wow! - that guys name must be Richard Head".

Great find!!

Not a bad idea to protect that coin, otherwise I would lay out a small quilt before handling it. No reason to be cocky or brazen.

My thought is not "imagine where that coin has been"...but "imagine where that gold has been".
Lots of possibilities...from horrible to fantastic. All the people involved in scraping up the pieces required to make that coin. Probably would make a great tale.

 

[looknforgold]

What a find, loved the story

 

[olas13]

Great story and INCREDIBLE coin. Congrats. I vote Banner.

 

[K1DDO1979]

Thats just crazy. A perfect dream coin to find! [emoji2][emoji106]

 

[Lanny in AB]

Great golden find! Absolutely beautiful.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[sand shark]

cool find