mr_larry
Hero Member
- Jun 22, 2010
- 504
- 169
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 1
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Explorer SE Pro
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
On Tuesday afternoon I needed to fill my truck up with gas due to a long drive for work the following day which was to begin at 6:00 AM. On my way home from the gas station, just two blocks from my house, I noticed a rather substantial sidewalk tear-out with a lot of dirt exposed and the workers were gone for the day. I drove home, packed up my car with a bunch of cable and speaker wire I needed to deliver to Santa Rosa the next day, went upstairs and texted Stay-Detuned telling him about the tear-out and that I was gonna hit it.
I headed up the street, surveyed the situation and snapped this photo from the top of the hill. In addition to the long stretch at the top of the hill, there were random squares of concrete torn out and covered with plywood half way down the block.
After snapping the photo I turned on my detector, hit the Noise Cancel and waited. There was so much electrical interference at the top of the hill I had to turn the sensitivity down to 5. I manually scanned all the channels and found the one producing mostly lower tones with the interference. I started swinging the detector and was not having any luck with all the noise. I switched to Ferrous mode and opened her up and it was also not working well. Still, I struggled on, moving barricades, cones, plywood and other stuff the workers had put up.
As I made my way down the hill I was slowly able to increase the sensitivity. About midway down the hill I was hunting with sensitivity cranked up to 10 and there were some target showing up, but mostly sweet sounding iron. I was getting frustrated as this hunt was turning out to be like my last 4 sidewalk excursions: lots of electrical interference and iron targets.
I was getting to the bottom of the hill and there was one more square down there that had a cone and a sign in the dirt. I almost didn't hit it because it was getting late and I had to get up so early the next day. I figured "what the heck" and I moved the sign and the cone, cranked the sensitivity up a notch or two and started swinging. Right away I hit a fairly good signal but it was nulling out and only reading well from one particular angle. I switched to my probe and cranked the sensitivity up to about 18 and tried to zero in on the target. It sounded a lot better with the probe. I started pulling the loose dirt away with my hands, worked the probe one more time, pinpointing the target. I pulled out the Lesche, popped up about 4 inches of dirt, and there it was: a silver half dollar, fully encrusted in dirt and sand. I didn't dare wipe the coin and I couldn't see a date.
The only thing I could see on the date was the last digit was a 6 and I thought maybe '06, but I put it in my pocket and hunted on. I strip mined that square and pulled crazy shaped iron from all around where the coin was. I decided to work my way back up the hill and try again, but I had no further luck.
When I got home, I took the coin and put it in a coffee cup and filled it with hot water and let it sit for 15 of the longest minutes of my life. From what I could see on the back, the rim looked like it had amazing detail but I didn't want to get my hopes up. After letting the coin soak I rinsed it under running warm water and the dirt fell away. It was a 1876-S Seated Half Dollar and the coin was crisp!
The front of the coin looked like it had a big stain on it running from the side of Liberty's shoulder across to the other forearm and beyond, and then from the knee down to the foot. There was some more of this stuff along the lower rim by the date. As I examined the coin under a loupe, I could see that the stain was actually some crud stuck on the coin. It was like a greasy sticky substance. I wasn't sure what to do.
On the other hand, the reverse of the coin was absolutely stunning with no stains and hardly a mark on it! I snapped a few photos that night. I sent a few people some teaser pictures of the reverse right away. I wasn't sure if I should try to clean the gunk off the front or not.
Although I had to get up at 4:00 the next morning I was on cloud nine! I was trading emails with Turf-aholic, Stay_Detuned and Captain_Fi. I didn't make it to bed until midnight.
The next morning I was on the road at 6:00. I kept thinking about whether I should clean the coin. I had checked the values and although it might be worth $100-300 bucks I certainly wasn't going to sell it. The more I thought about it, I decided that I would rather look at a cleaner version of the coin for the rest of my life. I was also a bit concerned that whatever was on it might continue to damage the coin if I left it on there.
I finally got home after work (and a short side trip doing some detecting in Sonoma), and decided to clean her up. I got most of the crud off which revealed some pitting on the coin down low by the date. There are a couple of small black marks still on the coin which I will leave there as a reminder. In the process I did put a little more shine and polish on the obverse of the coin than I would prefer, but I am happy with the overall result. I never touched the reverse of the coin with anything other than some water and a soft toothbrush. In my eyes the reverse is about as perfect as one can expect for a found coin.
Here are pictures of the coin after I removed the stains on the obverse. I finally snapped some photos today with some natural ambient daylight.
I know that some of you will criticize me for cleaning the coin, but in this circumstance I thought it the best course of action.
In the very final photo I manipulated the image to show the flaws on the obverse. I increased the contrast by 100%, converted the photo to black and white and adjusted the brightness down a few notches. The dark area on the right forearm is a shadow, not damage. You can see the pitting down by the date area.
So that's it! My best coin find ever, and renewed faith in hitting the sidewalks!
One final note, I went back there this morning and some workers were there getting ready to remove their stuff. The concrete had been poured yesterday. The sidewalk was only exposed for maybe 16 hours!
Thanks for looking, and as always,
Happy Hunting!!
I headed up the street, surveyed the situation and snapped this photo from the top of the hill. In addition to the long stretch at the top of the hill, there were random squares of concrete torn out and covered with plywood half way down the block.
After snapping the photo I turned on my detector, hit the Noise Cancel and waited. There was so much electrical interference at the top of the hill I had to turn the sensitivity down to 5. I manually scanned all the channels and found the one producing mostly lower tones with the interference. I started swinging the detector and was not having any luck with all the noise. I switched to Ferrous mode and opened her up and it was also not working well. Still, I struggled on, moving barricades, cones, plywood and other stuff the workers had put up.
As I made my way down the hill I was slowly able to increase the sensitivity. About midway down the hill I was hunting with sensitivity cranked up to 10 and there were some target showing up, but mostly sweet sounding iron. I was getting frustrated as this hunt was turning out to be like my last 4 sidewalk excursions: lots of electrical interference and iron targets.
I was getting to the bottom of the hill and there was one more square down there that had a cone and a sign in the dirt. I almost didn't hit it because it was getting late and I had to get up so early the next day. I figured "what the heck" and I moved the sign and the cone, cranked the sensitivity up a notch or two and started swinging. Right away I hit a fairly good signal but it was nulling out and only reading well from one particular angle. I switched to my probe and cranked the sensitivity up to about 18 and tried to zero in on the target. It sounded a lot better with the probe. I started pulling the loose dirt away with my hands, worked the probe one more time, pinpointing the target. I pulled out the Lesche, popped up about 4 inches of dirt, and there it was: a silver half dollar, fully encrusted in dirt and sand. I didn't dare wipe the coin and I couldn't see a date.
The only thing I could see on the date was the last digit was a 6 and I thought maybe '06, but I put it in my pocket and hunted on. I strip mined that square and pulled crazy shaped iron from all around where the coin was. I decided to work my way back up the hill and try again, but I had no further luck.
When I got home, I took the coin and put it in a coffee cup and filled it with hot water and let it sit for 15 of the longest minutes of my life. From what I could see on the back, the rim looked like it had amazing detail but I didn't want to get my hopes up. After letting the coin soak I rinsed it under running warm water and the dirt fell away. It was a 1876-S Seated Half Dollar and the coin was crisp!
The front of the coin looked like it had a big stain on it running from the side of Liberty's shoulder across to the other forearm and beyond, and then from the knee down to the foot. There was some more of this stuff along the lower rim by the date. As I examined the coin under a loupe, I could see that the stain was actually some crud stuck on the coin. It was like a greasy sticky substance. I wasn't sure what to do.
On the other hand, the reverse of the coin was absolutely stunning with no stains and hardly a mark on it! I snapped a few photos that night. I sent a few people some teaser pictures of the reverse right away. I wasn't sure if I should try to clean the gunk off the front or not.
Although I had to get up at 4:00 the next morning I was on cloud nine! I was trading emails with Turf-aholic, Stay_Detuned and Captain_Fi. I didn't make it to bed until midnight.
The next morning I was on the road at 6:00. I kept thinking about whether I should clean the coin. I had checked the values and although it might be worth $100-300 bucks I certainly wasn't going to sell it. The more I thought about it, I decided that I would rather look at a cleaner version of the coin for the rest of my life. I was also a bit concerned that whatever was on it might continue to damage the coin if I left it on there.
I finally got home after work (and a short side trip doing some detecting in Sonoma), and decided to clean her up. I got most of the crud off which revealed some pitting on the coin down low by the date. There are a couple of small black marks still on the coin which I will leave there as a reminder. In the process I did put a little more shine and polish on the obverse of the coin than I would prefer, but I am happy with the overall result. I never touched the reverse of the coin with anything other than some water and a soft toothbrush. In my eyes the reverse is about as perfect as one can expect for a found coin.
Here are pictures of the coin after I removed the stains on the obverse. I finally snapped some photos today with some natural ambient daylight.
I know that some of you will criticize me for cleaning the coin, but in this circumstance I thought it the best course of action.
In the very final photo I manipulated the image to show the flaws on the obverse. I increased the contrast by 100%, converted the photo to black and white and adjusted the brightness down a few notches. The dark area on the right forearm is a shadow, not damage. You can see the pitting down by the date area.
So that's it! My best coin find ever, and renewed faith in hitting the sidewalks!
One final note, I went back there this morning and some workers were there getting ready to remove their stuff. The concrete had been poured yesterday. The sidewalk was only exposed for maybe 16 hours!
Thanks for looking, and as always,
Happy Hunting!!
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