Well the final count was 346 coins:
1 Washington Quarter
1 Barber Dime
99 Roosevelt Dimes
245 Mercury Dimes
The oldest was the 1909 Barber, the newest was a 1952 Roosevelt.
So heres the story (This was back in december of 2012, a few days before christmas), I went metal detecting since my other plans for the day got cancelled.
Hour 1: nothing (when I say nothing, I mean some clad and junk)
Hour 2: nothing
End of hour 3: ... things got interesting
I saw an old tree, started detecting and my signals spiked (alternating between Silver and Iron). I dug out an old lead figure, no paint on it, about the size a melon. Thought nothing of it at first since ive found lead figures and toys both big and small in the past so I put it in my bag, finished detecting around the tree with no luck, went to my car and drove home because by that point my hands had turned bright red from the cold.
I get to the garage, I have shelves for smalls (and where I unload my gear) and was about to put the figure up on one of them. Then I noticed some dirt spilled out, I see that on the side it has a small hole, most lead figures even small ones are hollow. I decided to take it home to rinse it out through that small hole (let it fill up with water, then let it drain out). After the first cleaning I noticed that it was still heavy and that no dirt was coming out of it anymore, heavier than it should be. I let it dry and took a look in the hole. I noticed that there was something shining inside. I looked on the back and to my surprise I noticed a slit on the neck of the figure which turned out is a piggy bank. I look in the hole again with a magnifying glass and noticed that there were a few ribbed coins with white sides, that looked like silver dimes.
Grabbed the camera, and by that time my dad was home, he filmed, I opened and there you have it!
Since opening I have not done ANYTHING to the coins. They (along with the bank) are in a plastic tub in a box in the same shape as the day I pulled them out.
I tumble alot of coins but I know that I shouldnt even touch these unless they get cleaned by a professional. So until the day that happens they will stay in that plastic tub.
