🥇 BANNER Dug Up a VERY OLD Gumball Machine - And It Was Filled with Coins!

[UnderMiner]

Certainly one of the more unique treasures I've found this year. A 70+ year old buried gumball machine that's clearly been in the ground for a very VERY long time. Still had a nickle in the slot from the very last customer that tried to use it long ago. Watch the live "cracking open" video of me revealing the cache of coins that was within.

In total there were 17 US nickles, a US Wheat Cent, and a South American "5 Centavo". Most of the coins are buffalo nickles, there are a few Jefferson nickles - a couple appearing to be of the silver "War" variety, the 5 Centavo's date of 1920 is very clear to see. One of the US nickles remains in the coin mechanism slot which I removed from the machine and brought home. I'm planning to leave this nickle in place due to its uniqueness.

Initial find - before opening:


Video of the opening (must watch):






The washed but still "uncleaned" coins, war nickles are the darker ones to the bottom right:


The 1920 5 Centavo can be seen on the upper left and a Buffalo to the right of it:


Will update this post when I'm able to clean the coins more and/or reveal any more details about them.

Update 9:45PM!! Conservation of the coins is going AMAZING!! Not only are the coins cleaning up well - but even the dates on the BUFFALO NICKLES are visible! Not only that but I've found a coin that I have yet to identify that is dated 1876! Not sure what it is yet!! The process is slow but the results are fantastic so far!


Some of the newly conserved coins:


Contrast between the conserved and non-conserved coins:


Just confirmed, this "mystery coin" is infact an 1876 Imperial German 5 Pfennig:


Looks like I found silver in this machine after all!
My suspicions have been confirmed - a 1943 silver war nickle!


Silver War Nickle #2! 1945-P!


No way!! Nearly every Jefferson Nickle from the machine is Silver!!
Yet another 1945-P Silver War Nickle! (Note I am posting these as I clean them)


Okay, the grand total is in - out of the 9 Jefferson Nickles in the machine 6 were Silver War Nickles!


The newest coin in the lot was this 1946 Jefferson Nickle, meaning the machine likely went out of service around this year:


Cleaned coins so far include a 1941 Penny, a 1926 Buffalo, 1920 Cuban 5 Centavo, an 1876 Imperial German 5 Pfennig, three 1943-P silver War Nickle, two 1945-P silver War Nickles, one "S" silver War Nickle date unknown, a 1939 Jefferson Nickle, a 1946 Jefferson Nickle, and a 1925 Buffalo. Conservation is still underway for all the coins so expect more updates soon. I've been using a new technique that I will share to all those interested in cleaning coins considered "toasted".

 

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[Gridwalker306]

Haha that's a crazy find! Nice job, congrats!

 

[ARC]

Those coins have long died and gone to vending heaven... to ,,,"the big coin roll in the sky"...
But...
Ya just never know...
electro shock might just bring em back to life.

 

[Johncoho]

I must say that is one awesome find. Congratulations.

 

[Beans]

That is why we can't have anything nice. You young whipper snappers always going around with rusty pipes breaking into gum ball machines. I know your parents and I will be sure to let them know of this little incident.

 

[WHADIFIND]

With a coin still stuck in the slot, I can just see somebody getting angry and just throw the whole machine into the water! LOL

You did dislodge the one in the slot too, right?

Way to think out of the box! I tend to say too big on some targets too, sometimes. But, I don't completely ignore them. Sometimes, when I come back to that place, I'll remember the signal and just take time to see what's up.

 

[Fingerlakes119]

great save. you have done it again

 

[testing123]

that was a cool video! Thanks for posting the breaking out of the coins.

 

[UnderMiner]

Results are in! Out of the 9 Jefferson Nickles in the machine 6 turned out to be silver War Nickles!

 

[jeff of pa]

Results are in! Out of the 9 Jefferson Nickles in the machine 6 turned out to be silver War Nickles!

Cool ! You didn't need a Dime machine to get silver after all

so I'm going to Guess 46 was the Year the machine got Chucked.
odds are the coins were at least a year old when used in circulation

 

[UnderMiner]

Cool ! You didn't need a Dime machine to get silver after all

so I'm going to Guess 46 was the Year the machine got Chucked.
odds are the coins were at least a year old when used in circulation

Yes, and the newest coin I found inside was a 1946 Jefferson - it was the only post-WWII coin in the machine, the oldest coin being the 1876 5 Pfennig. I was very surprised to discover that so many of the nickles were of the silver-containing variety. This literally turned out to be a buried box of treasure, perhaps stolen long ago and dumped by the thieves as they panicked and ditched the loot. Modern day pirate loot if I don't say so myself, yar!

 

[UnderMiner]

With a coin still stuck in the slot, I can just see somebody getting angry and just throw the whole machine into the water! LOL

You did dislodge the one in the slot too, right?

Way to think out of the box! I tend to say too big on some targets too, sometimes. But, I don't completely ignore them. Sometimes, when I come back to that place, I'll remember the signal and just take time to see what's up.

I didn't take the coin out of the slot, I simply left it in there and removed the entire coin acceptor slot and all. It was made of brass while the rest of the machine was made of cast iron so it was easy to remove. I'm leaving the coin in place because I think it is very unique, much more interesting than if I removed it and had just a nickle.

 

[WHADIFIND]

I didn't take the coin out of the slot, I simply left it in there and removed the entire coin acceptor slot and all. It was made of brass while the rest of the machine was made of cast iron so it was easy to remove. I'm leaving the coin in place because I think it is very unique, much more interesting than if I removed it and had just a nickle.

I can see that, especially if that happens to be a 3 legged buffalo. WTG!

 

[Brother Al]

Once again thank you for sharing your amazing finds.. .I sure do miss hunting the East coast!

 

[prolab69]

how cool is that, . . i always hoped to dig up an old pay phone.

 

[FlightRisk]

Wow great find! How deep was the this and was there a storm or something that uncovered most of the sand?

 

[Professor of Engineering]

A very interesting and unique recovery, congratulations!

 

[curbdiggercarl57]

I didn't take the coin out of the slot, I simply left it in there and removed the entire coin acceptor slot and all. It was made of brass while the rest of the machine was made of cast iron so it was easy to remove. I'm leaving the coin in place because I think it is very unique, much more interesting than if I removed it and had just a nickle.

This might sound silly, but when you do clean up the slot with the nickel in it, I'd love to see the end results. That's the stuff I love to have, things so strange looking that non detectorists just have to ask, "what the Hell is that?", when it's sitting on a table or desk To me your find is more interesting than a coin cache. (Coming from someone who has never dug one, granted). With a cache, one person buried it, simple. Your find, you'll never know the story behind it. Robbery, more than likely, but what scene unfolded? Kids grab and dashing being chased by cops, maybe? Whatever it was it made for a really unique find. Kudos! Carl

 

[RobRieman]

Cool ! You didn't need a Dime machine to get silver after all

so I'm going to Guess 46 was the Year the machine got Chucked.
odds are the coins were at least a year old when used in circulation

I don't see how you can determine when the machine was chucked by date of the coin stuck in it at all. I find 50 year old nickels in my pocket all the time.

 

[scruggs]

Can't get much better than that unless its a safe....What a find!!! Nice one!!!