Such a nice coin Davers. You ought to tell us more about it.
Congrats sir!
Well Tom since you asked first.
I love to rant & give TMI, I will try not to make this long. But
Well I went on one of my usual Civil War Relic Hunts.
Went to a spot where in December my 1 st target of the day was a Nice fried Minnie Ball, then a half mile away & 4 hours later found a 2 ed 3 ringer, then about the 7th hour uncovered a nice Brass Cartridge or Cap box finial.
Figured id try it again as it's Nice Wooded & Peaceful .
The area is in a small valley with 2 fairly steep slopes with a small creek (it drains Storm water mostly) , one side of the hill has some sort of ruins (just concrete foundation walls with the usual trash & very overgrown heck that area is about inaccessible now due to Spring growth.
Must have been 4-7 buildings or Homes , it's hard to date the rubble tho I have seen similar 1920's & even earlier type construction at Fort Oglethorpe GA.
Anyway decided to go slow where I found the first Minnie in Dec, Got a good Signal 75-80 on the G2 + got a fired Minnie , then a few min, later Got a Squashed Gardner bullet 'that was cool as Gardner's are not as common in the South ie, Atlanta area , then another fired but Mushroomed 3 Ringer , then got a Fired but in good shape 'Short En field' or a bullet where the rings were totally pressed in . I was happy BTW , on my Civil War Bullet post from the other day these are the first 4 bullets pictured.
All these were in a 40 Foot wide & about 30 feet up the hillside 'opposite' the ruins. & about 75 feet from the road ( that had several old 18 wheeler tires dumped into the Creek.
Got a few modern bullets , 22 shells & a couple SGB, Head-stamps
Then in some Brush a couple feet up from the creek bed Got a Strong tone & saw 70-80+ flash across the VDI.
I was thinking another Minnie about 4-5 inches deep , I popped a good size wet mud covered Clump.
Saw the round Coin looking thing laying there , first thought was it's a big Aluminum Token of some sort , swung the coil over it (I just recall seeing high 80's then a 90'. ). Picked it up by the edges & rubbed the edge on my shirt ; It was saw the reeds & it came clean just like Silver Coins should.
I was thrilled 'Thanked God' It was so caked with mud & Clay I could not make out the Type , then I saw a Star , and recalled only Barbers & Before had stars on the front
Saw that the Star had good detail & the Rims were Full.
I packed it up as softly as I could then set it where I could pick it up on the way out.
I did not look at it for a day or 2 , posted in "Cleaning & Preservation' & Buckleboy's Silver trick , I got no reply's for 2 days ( all I really wanted was the Dirt & Clay off).
I buy coins all the time & knew the Barber Coinage in F+ / Full Liberty were a tad more scarce , Something told me it was a Barber but digging Civil War Bullets there Hey ; YNK.
Finally on Saturday Or Sunday I decided to soak it in Spring Water , then let the Sink water run on it , then I could finally see it was a Barber indeed & 1900 ; hoped for an 'O' mint mark , I have dug only 3 Barber Coins over the years all Dimes & 2 were 'O' mint & the other was a Smooth 'Ag' condition.
Put spring water in a Squirt bottle then sprayed each side over & over again ; that's when I saw the Full Liberty and the 'O' mint mark.
Eventually I used my Step-dad's 'Water-Pick' device that attaches to his Shower head & that blasted 98% of the dirt off , then used my "Softest' make-up brush" to Dab a couple stubborn areas of remaining dirt, did not want to touch the Fields on the face & around the head .
Let's say I'm thrilled , the coin has a bit of staining but I sure did not was a cleaned shiny surface (I made that mistake in the past).
As someone posted in the comments (can not recall who right now "Sorry") but I feel it is a strong XF with the reverse a little better, like most Barber type coins.
I could not ask for a better example of a Dug coin & it really just Popped up out of no-where in the woods.
I can not wait to show my Coin Store Buddy's , as I get the feeling they don't think "Dug" coins can come out that nice.
Well that was not to-to long lol
I'm gonna hit the Sack & reply to the Kind & cool comments that I truly appreciate.
GL HH , God Bless & Dig careful cause "You Never Know What's Next".
Davers
