I never thought I would ever find one! 1851 US Gold Coin - BINGO!

TheDirtKing

Sr. Member
Mar 5, 2017
307
522
Colorado
Detector(s) used
Nokta Makro Simplex +
Teknetics T2
Teknetics Patriot
Bounty Hunter Time Ranger
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Who would have ever thought I would find my holy grail of metal detecting, a gold coin, and in Colorado of all places. I am still shaking.

My digging friends and I have been working on some old trail systems here in Colorado and have discovered some areas where Union cavalry soldiers were camped out along their long journeys up and down these old trails. We were on a new permission and turning up some pretty cool finds. My friend found two 1840 eagle and anchor tin-back US Navy cuff buttons. What where they doing here in Colorado? We have now found a total of three of them so far. The day we found the first two Navy cuff buttons, it was getting close towards the end of the day and I was exhausted having detected three days in a row and having hiked up and down mountains the previous two days, I was beat, but another YouTube digging friend of mine had come into Colorado for a visit and asked if we would take him out detecting so we did.

After our last break, I decided to pull out the Nokta Makro Simplex because I hadnt used it or 'learned' it very much since buying it a couple years ago. I wanted to finish my day just getting some time in on it. I quickly became frustrated because I didnt understand what it was telling me and it was very different than my main machine, the Teknetics T2 which I am very familiar with. I was digging almost any repeating signal not because I knew it was a good signal but rather just to uncover it and learn more about the machine and what it was telling me. We had been hitting this small field behind this house all day and we had all gone over it with our machines including two Equinox 600's and my T2. My second signal that I thought was diggable, was a scratchy, jumpy signal bouncing between 17-22 but was repeating. I decided to dig it thinking it would be junk foil or something. Shovel in 4" and pulled the plug. Pinpointer in and no signal, swung over the hole and plug again, and it was still in the hole. Shovel in again another 2", swung over the plug and no signal, over the hole and its still in the hole. Pinpointer in and no signal. You ever get those targets like this? I was just about to give up on it and fill the hole back in but used my hand digger and made the hole a bit wider and this time my pinpointer caught a beep, it was deeper in the side wall. Hand digger pulled more dirt away and out popped this tiny round object and fell into the center of the hole. As I peered into the hole, it became clearer what it was. I was totally shocked and I picked it up out of the hole and freaked out and laid it down next to the hole and started yelling for my friends to come over and see. I was yelling and cursing a bit telling them they wont believe what I had just found. It turned out to be the smallest US coin ever produced. An 1851 $1 Gold Coin with no mint mark. I imagined this had to be part of the pay from one of the Union soldiers that had stopped along this part of the trail next to a gully. It was covered in dirt but I didnt want to touch it. I had to gather myself as I couldnt believe it. We eventually sprayed water on it and dabbed it off to reveal the date and its gleam. I still keep looking at it to make sure it is real.

As I think back on it, I realized just what a fluke it was.... if my YouTube friend hadent come to Colorado, I probably wouldnt have gone out that day because of how tired I was and if I hadnt switched to the Simplex, I probably wouldnt have dug that target with my T2. Afterwards, I let the Nox 600 users swing over it out of the ground and they were hitting 12-13 so I let them hit the entire area to see if there was any more and there was about 5-6 more targets coming in that 11-13 range on the Nox 600's but they all turned out to be small dropped pistol round balls. My friend put a video together of that day and the find if you are interested in seeing me completely out of my mind, linked below.


246300162_10223529481359186_766518188860930710_n.jpg 246450646_10223529481639193_8105541945316107181_n.jpg a246132261_10223529481839198_20984938278209057_n.jpg 247406578_303865624884607_6627985240569982107_n.jpg a246159544_10223529482359211_4001743748655739999_n.jpg a246428193_10223529482559216_8798725637170471933_n.jpg

 

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TheDirtKing

TheDirtKing

Sr. Member
Mar 5, 2017
307
522
Colorado
Detector(s) used
Nokta Makro Simplex +
Teknetics T2
Teknetics Patriot
Bounty Hunter Time Ranger
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
WOW! Living the dream and in my state. FANTASTIC! Now, where are ya huntin', exactly?? lol
Thanks for the great post and continued luck up thar!
The gps coordinates are... 39.7392° N, 104...... ha ... thanks, it felt amazing... who would have thought?
 

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TheDirtKing

TheDirtKing

Sr. Member
Mar 5, 2017
307
522
Colorado
Detector(s) used
Nokta Makro Simplex +
Teknetics T2
Teknetics Patriot
Bounty Hunter Time Ranger
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
That little bugger has been waiting to be found for a long time, glad you saved it. Awesome!
Isn't that such an amazing thing about most old things we rescue? Something like that can sit in the ground just waiting for people like us to come along and in the whole wide world of possibilities, swing a relatively small coil over a relatively small area and pick up on such a tiny object and save it from being hidden and forgotten. Just amazing. That little bugger is now being appreciated by you, me, and everyone else I will continue to show it to (which will be a LOT) ;-) Cheers.
 

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OP
TheDirtKing

TheDirtKing

Sr. Member
Mar 5, 2017
307
522
Colorado
Detector(s) used
Nokta Makro Simplex +
Teknetics T2
Teknetics Patriot
Bounty Hunter Time Ranger
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Congrats on an excellent coin. I also enjoyed seeing your emotion on the video, which was very nicely done.
Thank you. I was glad Zach was there to capture some of the moment with that video. I can still go watch it and get the goosebumps all over again. Cheers.
 

RussM

Full Member
Oct 2, 2019
180
353
Sebastian, FL
Detector(s) used
XP Deus 2
XP ORX

Garrett Carrot

XP MI6 Pointer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Who would have ever thought I would find my holy grail of metal detecting, a gold coin, and in Colorado of all places. I am still shaking.

My digging friends and I have been working on some old trail systems here in Colorado and have discovered some areas where Union cavalry soldiers were camped out along their long journeys up and down these old trails. We were on a new permission and turning up some pretty cool finds. My friend found two 1840 eagle and anchor tin-back US Navy cuff buttons. What where they doing here in Colorado? We have now found a total of three of them so far. The day we found the first two Navy cuff buttons, it was getting close towards the end of the day and I was exhausted having detected three days in a row and having hiked up and down mountains the previous two days, I was beat, but another YouTube digging friend of mine had come into Colorado for a visit and asked if we would take him out detecting so we did.

After our last break, I decided to pull out the Nokta Makro Simplex because I hadnt used it or 'learned' it very much since buying it a couple years ago. I wanted to finish my day just getting some time in on it. I quickly became frustrated because I didnt understand what it was telling me and it was very different than my main machine, the Teknetics T2 which I am very familiar with. I was digging almost any repeating signal not because I knew it was a good signal but rather just to uncover it and learn more about the machine and what it was telling me. We had been hitting this small field behind this house all day and we had all gone over it with our machines including two Equinox 600's and my T2. My second signal that I thought was diggable, was a scratchy, jumpy signal bouncing between 17-22 but was repeating. I decided to dig it thinking it would be junk foil or something. Shovel in 4" and pulled the plug. Pinpointer in and no signal, swung over the hole and plug again, and it was still in the hole. Shovel in again another 2", swung over the plug and no signal, over the hole and its still in the hole. Pinpointer in and no signal. You ever get those targets like this? I was just about to give up on it and fill the hole back in but used my hand digger and made the hole a bit wider and this time my pinpointer caught a beep, it was deeper in the side wall. Hand digger pulled more dirt away and out popped this tiny round object and fell into the center of the hole. As I peered into the hole, it became clearer what it was. I was totally shocked and I picked it up out of the hole and freaked out and laid it down next to the hole and started yelling for my friends to come over and see. I was yelling and cursing a bit telling them they wont believe what I had just found. It turned out to be the smallest US coin ever produced. An 1851 $1 Gold Coin with no mint mark. I imagined this had to be part of the pay from one of the Union soldiers that had stopped along this part of the trail next to a gully. It was covered in dirt but I didnt want to touch it. I had to gather myself as I couldnt believe it. We eventually sprayed water on it and dabbed it off to reveal the date and its gleam. I still keep looking at it to make sure it is real.

As I think back on it, I realized just what a fluke it was.... if my YouTube friend hadent come to Colorado, I probably wouldnt have gone out that day because of how tired I was and if I hadnt switched to the Simplex, I probably wouldnt have dug that target with my T2. Afterwards, I let the Nox 600 users swing over it out of the ground and they were hitting 12-13 so I let them hit the entire area to see if there was any more and there was about 5-6 more targets coming in that 11-13 range on the Nox 600's but they all turned out to be small dropped pistol round balls. My friend put a video together of that day and the find if you are interested in seeing me completely out of my mind, linked below.


View attachment 1988976 View attachment 1988977 View attachment 1988979 View attachment 1988980 View attachment 1988981 View attachment 1988982


Banner! My sincere congratulations for bringing her back from the dead... what a lovely coin!
 

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