🥇 BANNER 1849 Territorial Half Eagle

goldbrick

Jr. Member
Jun 11, 2007
26
200
🥇 Banner finds
1
It had been a year since I had been able to hook up with my buddy Strick to do some relic hunting. This day was day 3 of my visit with him and we were off to a private property in the low Sierra foothills of California to meet up with Strick's friend, the ranch owner, and detect an early gold camp. We have been hunting this area for a few years when our schedules will allow. The last time I was here with Strick he had found a Quarter Eagle and some seated coins while I had only found buttons.
On this day things were not looking so great for me as I had only found one nice button and the usual assortment of period trash while Strick had scored a nice cast buckle wreath. We had just taken a break and had compared finds with the ranch owner, discussing the "whatizits" we had found. It was getting later in the day so we went back to detecting. I had earlier got into an area with quite a bit of scattered iron which developed into a nail bed which was obviously the remains of an old structure. So I returned to the heaviest area of nails which was about 250' away from the location of Strick's gold coin find, and was carefully searching through the machine gun iron signals when I hear a definite but scratchy signal on my Deus. It was jumping around depending on which direction I swung but was repeatable. Just another bullet or cartridge I think as I pop the plug. Then I see about a quarter of a gold coin sticking out of the plug as it crumbles. I didn't stop to savor the moment or reflect on my find like you hear so many times. I started screaming like a 14 year old Valley Girl, " I found a gold coin" and waving my arms at my friends who were a short distance away.
On the journey back to Stricks' I looked up the value of the coin as people always ask. I didn't much care as I did not plan to sell it but that is usually the first question from family and friends. I had not cleaned it well or looked at it too closely but I knew it had some wear so I figured a ball park figure of $500?
It wasn't until we returned to Strick's place that he was looking at it through a low power microscope and he says" Her headband doesn't say liberty it says Moffat". I had never in a million years ever dreamed I may find a Territorial coin but I knew in an instant that I had just scored the find of my life.
 

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Upvote 173

Worm-Slicer

Hero Member
Jan 6, 2013
633
1,099
SouthwestVirginia
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2
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Now that's what you can call an amazing gold coin find! Oh and forgot to add...I want to be the first to congratulate you on this banner!
 

Last edited:

Shakakka

Hero Member
May 11, 2017
664
1,938
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What's a territorial gold coin? This is new to me. Anyway, HUGE congrats!
 

thursdaythunder

Full Member
Aug 13, 2019
192
427
Maine
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Gold / AT Pro / Pro-Pointer AT
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Absolute find of a lifetime ..Congratulations ! :icon_thumleft:

==My 1st Banner nomination==
 

CRUSADER

Gold Member
May 25, 2007
40,820
45,226
ENGLAND
🥇 Banner finds
27
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II v0.6 with 11" Coil
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Nice Gold Coin- your first?
What is it's value?
 

BLK HOLE

Silver Member
Aug 3, 2017
4,725
6,500
Northern Virginia
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1
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AT MAX/AT PRO/GPX-4500, Equinox 800, Garrett Pro Pointer,NEL Attack Coil, Lesche diggers, and the custom made in the USA Freeloader Pack Mule Pouch!
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All Treasure Hunting

Argentium

Gold Member
Feb 2, 2008
9,058
5,574
Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Whites, MXT.
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I think that's the first Territorial Gold coin I have ever seen posted here ! I'm not sure if mintage figures exist for these , but suffice it to say they are all quite rare !! That is a Banner find !
(or nothing is ).
 

digging440yrs

Gold Member
Dec 5, 2012
5,946
4,410
UPSTATE NEW YORK
Detector(s) used
1970 COMPASS-
WHITES SILVER EAGLE-
WHITES DFX, 4X6DD COIL, 6X8DD COIL, 950 COIL, 10X12SEF COIL-
GARRETT PRO POINTER AT, GARRETT AT PRO , MINELAB EXPLORER SE with 8.5x12.5 Cors coil
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Nice when value goes from 500 to 5000 plus ---Great find, coin has varieties also if you didn't know. Your reverse has a clear "S" IN S.M.V.--Here Is a picture of another "S" variety -------- 6360a7e9-bcf1-487f-99a4-b74ea90383ba  gold 5.jpg
 

xcopperstax

Silver Member
Sep 3, 2018
2,508
4,870
Massachusetts
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Garrett AT Max
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Great story and out of this world find! Not only is it gold it's a rarity within a rarity!!! Congrats and banner all day!
 

GaRebel1861

Gold Member
Jun 16, 2011
5,752
6,749
South Carolina
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4
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3
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I can't say that I've ever seen one of those. That's one heck of a find and deserves a trip across the top. Banner vote submitted
 

3cylbill

Hero Member
Jul 2, 2015
847
1,419
s.tier NY
Detector(s) used
TESORO, MINELAB, WHITES , GARRETT
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
What a fantastic find...holy cow....BANNER...without a doubt..
 

Digger RJ

Gold Member
Aug 24, 2017
19,312
33,446
SW Missouri/Oklahoma
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX 3030; Minelab Equinox 800;
XP Deus 2
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Outstanding!!!! Awesome!!!! Congrats!!!!
 

Mackaydon

Gold Member
Oct 26, 2004
23,981
22,627
N. San Diego Pic of my 2 best 'finds'; son & g/son
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Minelab Explorer
Primary Interest:
Shipwrecks
Bingo !! BANNER !!!
Some history: Moffat & Co. always offered to redeem its coins with federal money at par, they always passed at face value.
Their coinage was the only privately made California gold that was not discounted.
The SMV letters stand for Standard Mint Value.
Don.....
.

 

Bedrock Bryan

Full Member
Mar 14, 2015
131
289
Oregon and Central to Northern CA
Detector(s) used
CTX 3030, Minelab X-Terra 70, Minelab GP3500, Goldbug 2, Deus...high frequency and stock coils, Equinox 800, and Minelab Gold Monster 1000.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Banner for sure, congratulations....brother in Law and thanks for all you’ve taught me about this wonderful hobby....
 

CoinFetcher

Bronze Member
Apr 29, 2012
2,496
3,301
Left coast
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
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Love to treasure hunt
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
And that is why you metal detecting folks.. so cool!
 

Terry Soloman

Gold Member
May 28, 2010
19,410
30,020
White Plains, New York
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Nokta Makro Legend// Pulsedive// Minelab GPZ 7000// Vanquish 540// Minelab Pro Find 35// Dune Kraken Sandscoop// Grave Digger Tools Tombstone shovel & Sidekick digger// Bunk's Hermit Pick
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
BANNER! WoW! :notworthy:
 

MCollett

Full Member
Sep 26, 2013
158
552
Alabama
Detector(s) used
Fisher f2, Equinox 800
Banner all the way. What a find! I hope some day I get a chance at "screaming like a 14yr old Valley girl".
 

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