UnderMiner
Silver Member
- Jul 27, 2014
- 3,806
- 9,697
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 2
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Excalibur II, Ace 250
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I was driving through an industrial area of Long Island City yesterday and noticed a business was tossing out a bunch of stuff. I pulled over and asked the guy if I could look through the pile. He said I could. I found alot of junk - mostly broken pay phone parts and wires. Curious I asked the guy what the place used to be. He said it used to be a pay phone depository and repair facility but a few years ago it shut down when the last payphones were removed from the streets.
I continued searching the pile and then I came across a box full of "taped-up washers" and metal slugs. Then I realized these were payphone slugs from the old days when people would scam the phones with fake coins. I brought the box home and sorted through the slugs. To my amazement there were silver coins mixed in with the slugs, old coins, some VERY old coins! I soon was floored with amazement, Nazi coins! A Seated Liberty dime! Pre-WWI German silver coins!
Many of the coins were modified - shaved down in the past to be the same size as American quarters and dimes - but hey I'm not complaining! It was just a sheer rush to be able to just keep pulling out coin after coin! There was even a silver coin from 1858! My new oldest coin! My favorite coin however is the Queen Victoria dime, even though it's smashed up I've never found a Victorian silver before and I just love the Victorian Age so much (and to think where this coin has been to have gotten worn out - it just has an aura around it to me). This is what treasure hunting is all about - it's not just the value of the treasure - but the physical connection it gives us to the past.
Here are the 41 coins from the lot (the first 3 pics show all the coins, the rest of the pics are highlights of same coins):
I continued searching the pile and then I came across a box full of "taped-up washers" and metal slugs. Then I realized these were payphone slugs from the old days when people would scam the phones with fake coins. I brought the box home and sorted through the slugs. To my amazement there were silver coins mixed in with the slugs, old coins, some VERY old coins! I soon was floored with amazement, Nazi coins! A Seated Liberty dime! Pre-WWI German silver coins!
Many of the coins were modified - shaved down in the past to be the same size as American quarters and dimes - but hey I'm not complaining! It was just a sheer rush to be able to just keep pulling out coin after coin! There was even a silver coin from 1858! My new oldest coin! My favorite coin however is the Queen Victoria dime, even though it's smashed up I've never found a Victorian silver before and I just love the Victorian Age so much (and to think where this coin has been to have gotten worn out - it just has an aura around it to me). This is what treasure hunting is all about - it's not just the value of the treasure - but the physical connection it gives us to the past.
Here are the 41 coins from the lot (the first 3 pics show all the coins, the rest of the pics are highlights of same coins):
Upvote
34
You should try and look around the floor of that place or get into the basement and detect it if its a dirt floor or foundation or whatever is left... 
