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

Tpmetal

Silver Member
Jan 4, 2017
4,406
7,506
Western ny
Detector(s) used
equinox 800, Whites mx sport, Garrot carrot, bounty hunter time ranger
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Congrats, a coin right up at the top of my bucket list! Funny how the good stuff is found sometimes when it just seems the odds were impossible.
 

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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
Congrats, a coin right up at the top of my bucket list! Funny how the good stuff is found sometimes when it just seems the odds were impossible.
Thank you. We rarely find any coins at all in these remote areas we are searching. If people lost them, they found them. Our best finds, and rare for Colorado, have been relics from the Union soldiers that were in the area back in the 1850s but never, ever thought we would find a gold coin.
 

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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
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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, Congratulations! That is a beautiful gold coin. And thank you for the great story along with your amazing journey finding that Treasure.
Thank you so much. Still in disbelief and keep going back to the moment I found it ...
 

JVA5th

Silver Member
Mar 1, 2014
4,785
26,591
Merced, CA
Detector(s) used
Deus 2, Deus XP, AT Pro, Whites TRX pinpointer, Sampson Ground Shark shovel
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
That is such an awesome find. Only gold coin I've ever seen in person was a 5 dollar gold piece my father found sitting in some gravel at his work he had it for awhile then someone stole it. Congrats on the super find.
 

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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 is a an over the top and a once in a lifetime save and find. Congrat's!
Thank you... I keep looking at that tiny little thing... still can believe it
 

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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 is such an awesome find. Only gold coin I've ever seen in person was a 5 dollar gold piece my father found sitting in some gravel at his work he had it for awhile then someone stole it. Congrats on the super find.
Oh how heartbreaking to have had someone steal it.... grrr.... thanks, I still cant believe I found it
 

BuckleBoy

Gold Member
Jun 12, 2006
18,123
9,688
Moonlight and Magnolias
🥇 Banner finds
4
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Fisher F75, Whites DualField PI, Fisher 1266-X and Tesoro Silver uMax
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


Once again a huge congratulations! You certainly deserve it. I’m still waiting on my first one, for more than 30 years now, but I hope one day to experience that excitement. Cheers,

Buck
 

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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
Once again a huge congratulations! You certainly deserve it. I’m still waiting on my first one, for more than 30 years now, but I hope one day to experience that excitement. Cheers,

Buck
Hey there Buck. Thank you very much. Still feels unreal. (are you BuckleBoy LA?) - Ken
 

pepperj

Gold Member
Feb 3, 2009
37,024
136,969
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Deus, Deus 2, Minelab 3030, E-Trac,
Primary Interest:
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Huge congratulations on the gold coin.
An ever lasting memory for you.
 

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