My first silver coin

[Kevin Bozard]

Yesterday I took my BH Pioneer 505 in the woods behind my house to do some MD'ing. I live approximately 300 - 400 yards from the roadway that Civil War troops used when maneuvering between the small town of Grahamville, and the railroad. I figured I may as well give it a try. Maybe some of the soldiers wandered into this wooded area in their journeys.

About 100 yards in, I discovered a hole in the ground that went down 5 or 6 feet. An old privy maybe? Fifty feet or so on the other side, I found a mound of dirt with old algae covered bricks scattered about the top. I ran the detector over the mound and picked up several iron reading, and one silver reading. I zeroed in on the silver reading, and dug that spot. I scooped 4 inches of dirt onto the ground beside the hole, and moved the detector over it. The silver reading was there, and I began sifting through the dirt. The coin was in the middle of the pile, and I wiped it with my fingers. The face of the coin showed the head of Mercury, and the letter LIB on the left side of the coin. Further cleaning would reveal everything but the date. The coin also had a small hole drilled through the top.

The Winged Head Liberty dime was pretty corroded on the side where the date is located, and I soaked it overnight. This morning I checked my find, and could partialy read the date. It looked to be 1930, but the last two numbers were still hard to read. I put it back into the soak and will check it again this afternoon. Once I get her cleaned up, I'll post pictures of my first silver coin find. Although she's not in the best shape, and has a hole drilled through the top, she's still my first, so she's special to me.

 

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[funkman]

congrats on your first silver! Mine also was a mercury dime about five feet from my driveway.

HH

Funkman

 

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[BuckleBoy]

In the future, silver will come out of the ground in nicer shape for you.  All you'll need will be hard running water to blast the dirt from the coin.  I sometimes use a make-up brush gently on the coin to get the dirt out of the lettering without scratching (while the water is still blasting the coin).  I think you'll find that this silver coin will be the exception rather than the rule in terms of gunk and dirt.


Congratulations!


My first silver was a Mercury Dime as well. 17 years ago this upcoming March.



-Buckles

 

[CRUSADER]

Looking at the condition and apparent texture of the coin, i actually think that it was in a fire or something.
That might explain the buildup on the coin and give reason for the stressed metal look.
My very first silver was also a merc and they just never get old!! Congrats and ATA-BOY on the first, but unfortionately you are now most likely hooked for life! You had your chance to walk away and save yourself but Noooooo. 8)

Yeah, fire damaged. might have been up against other metals & stuff

 

[ringfinder]

Great find and Congrats on first silver coin. I too have found silver that looks like yours. They came out of
a burn pit.

Not sure, but have you ever heard of CW winter huts. You might be digging one. During the CW, soldiers would winter camp in area's. Maybe your site is one of them. If so, there are more huts in this same area.

To find out what a hut would look like, you might want to go to Google and type in Civil War winter huts.

Here is a very interesting site to look at. http://members.tripod.com/~jaken/hutdig.html

HH, Ringfinder

 

[Kevin Bozard]

Thanks for the links Ringfinder. I don't think this a CW winter hut, not with the brick and melted glass in there. The stuff I'm finding is too modern to be from that era, and I haven't found a single Civil War relic yet, even though I'm surrounded by CW history. Here's a map of the area.

The yellow hash marks is the route the Union army marched in
The green star was the location of the confederate headquarters
The blue hash marks is the route taken from the headquarters to the railroad
The red star is where my house sits
The orange dot is where I'm digging
The purple star to the far right is where the Battle of Honey Hill was fought in 1864

 

[Wheresthegoodstuff]

Way to go.

 

[mpostma]

Hey,
I wish you the best on this!

What a great place to live. I love history!

Good Luck!

Mark

 

[Mirage]

Very cool. That's the first Merc I have seen with a hole in it.

Looks like you did pretty good with cleaning. I use Mother's Mag Polish (Walmart) for cleaning silver. The really bad silver requires electrolysis which requires some expertise. It looks fine the way it is. Congratulations.

Bob

 

[curbdiggercarl57]

Congrates, the finds only get better, the addiction only worse.

 

[Slabman]

Actually, I think you might have been cleaning oxidized silver from the coin.
It's tough to get off, because it's actually part of the coin. Certain soil conditions
will oxidize silver fairly quickly. I pulled a few merc's out of a drained duck pond,
and before I knew they were merc's they were just black slugs. Put them on
electrolysis and after the oxidized silver came off, I had pieces of silver that
was so thin they would cut things.
Another thing, I think most board members would agree, it's fairly rare to find
a holed merc. I would hunt that area hard. I bet there's alot of goodies awaiting
you! Fun Fun!!

HH Slab

 

[ringfinder]

Thanks for the links Ringfinder. I don't think this a CW winter hut, not with the brick and melted glass in there. The stuff I'm finding is too modern to be from that era, and I haven't found a single Civil War relic yet, even though I'm surrounded by CW history. Here's a map of the area.

The yellow hash marks is the route the Union army marched in
The green star was the location of the confederate headquarters
The blue hash marks is the route taken from the headquarters to the railroad
The red star is where my house sits
The orange dot is where I'm digging
The purple star to the far right is where the Battle of Honey Hill was fought in 1864

Hi Kevin, that is a neat map, sure wish I lived near you. I'd be hunting all the time.
By the way, bricks are found at some hut sites, they were used as was regular rocks,
for fireplaces. Many, many bottles are found in these huts, and some are have been found
in the fireplaces, of course they are melted pieces.

Your site does sound like it is a modern burn site, being you found a Mercury dime in it.

What kind of soil are you hunting, is it really hot soil, meaning mineralized soil. I just hunted
in Va. soil and the soil was so hot, you had to rebalance your detector all the time. If that is the
case, and your soil is really hot, let me know. I'll tell you how to hunt that site. With all the
military locations on the map, there has to be something they would have dropped near by.

Wow, what a site, Good Luck
Ringfinder

 

[Kevin Bozard]

What kind of soil are you hunting, is it really hot soil, meaning mineralized soil. I just hunted
in Va. soil and the soil was so hot, you had to rebalance your detector all the time. If that is the
case, and your soil is really hot, let me know. I'll tell you how to hunt that site. With all the
military locations on the map, there has to be something they would have dropped near by.

Wow, what a site, Good Luck
Ringfinder

The soil is hot, and I do have to rebalance the detector often. Any tips on hunting it would be greatly appreciated.
It rained all day yesterday, and doing the same today and tomorrow. So it may be Sunday before I get back out there. I plan on hunting this site heavily, and spreading out from where I am, into areas that are closer to the main road. The property on the other side of the main road was purchased by an RV dealer, but my neighbor knows him, and is trying to get me access to that side of the highway as well.

 

[mpostma]

I would try to get to the area the RV dealer bought before he paves over the entire thing to display product!
Mark

 

[Kevin Bozard]

I would try to get to the area the RV dealer bought before he paves over the entire thing to display product!
Mark

They've already paved as much of the lot as they're going to. The map below shows what area would be accessible.

The second map shows the area I'm digging now, and the accessible areas I still need to cover.

 

[mpostma]

Very Very Very Cool!
You have a dream area to hunt for YEARS! I love hunting woods, especially when the weeds are dead and down.

I use a sniper coil (5") and it lets me get around the brush and into tight spaces. I don't cover as much ground, but I find more in the areas I cover, so I don't think I'm leaving much behind me.

Please keep us posted. I think you are going to be showing us alot of really old finds!

Best of Luck!

HH
Mark

 

[piratesgold]

Dig that privy you said you came across, People used to dump anything/everything down there.

 

[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

You need to make yourself an electrolysis machine. It would have cleaned that gunk off in 30 min. and will still get the rest off. Then use toothpaste as a final Polish.

Here is a link for an electrolysis machine fast easy and fun.

http://gometaldetecting.com/electrolysis_cleaning.htm

Cool find has character!

Keep @ it and HH!!

 

[Born2Dtect]

My first silver was a "MERC". I remember it well. You never get used to the shine of silver. The only thing better is the shine of gold.

Ed D.

 

[berkshire mike]

Hope it's one of many!