Nice Finds found under the Sidewalk! My first Barber Dime!

[sodapoptop]

This is my first post, and I am fairly new to this Hobby. This is my 5th time out with my explorer II... Sunday my family and I were driving around an old mining town here in Colorado dating back to 1876 when I noticed that the town had a section of sidewalk removed from an off-the-beaten path part of town. Guessing that they would re-pour the concrete fairly quick...I told my wife I had to act fast... (she kinda rolled her eyes) but last night after work, I drove over and spent about 45 minutes searching the dirt under the old sidewalk. I didn't get a chance to search the big pile of dirt, because it started raining very heavily. Before I even started searching I noticed three items on the surface...an old marble that had been broken probably from the excavation, and some kind of ornament from what my wife thinks is from an old hat... it has a glass? bead in the center, wrapped by alot of smaller beads.... and an old button. I also dug alot of old nails, square, long, short... Curvy shaped ones... But I didn't want to risk losing anything lying next to one of these...so I dug as many as I could. I was almost to the end of the dirt path when I got that very exciting solid silver signal..... I dug down about 2 inches in the soft dirt and out popped something silver. It looked too new and shiny to be OLD?? I rubbed the dirt off and it read 1897! I couldn't believe it! My oldest coin EVER. Until now, my oldest was a 1960 penny... I also found a 1949 Wheat on the side of where the sidewalk was....but the dime had been under the concrete for how many years?? And it looked new. Just wait...it gets better! I didn't know that it was a Barber....until I got home and tried looking up the value... It was then that I realized that what I thought I had was worth 10-20 bucks.. and I thought man....to bad it wasn't one of them New Orleans-O barbers.....(I thought to myself) But as I turned the coin over and started rubbing the dirt off....I saw that -O looking back at me... I about died...and could not believe it! Now....I need help. How do I get the rest of the crusted carbon dirt off this coin? Should I even try? Any ideas what this coin would grade at? In my excitement I forgot the other items I found. An old 1950s looking matchbox car, a broach?? silver looking thing... and what I believe is an old tax token...about 1/4 of it that is...and one last note...there was a huge old rusted nail about 8 inches away from that dime....sure glad it did not mask the silver signature. Thanks for checking out my post!

 

[goldenapples]

Wow super nice find, I would say its worth between $300 and $500.

 

[Captn SE]

I rubbed the dirt off and it read 1897!

Dang, you rubbed a beautiful key date Barber! I can see the hairline scratches running horizontal to the bust on the obverse. I'm guilty myself of doing this, but most of mine are common date silver coins. I'm always checking/inspecting what I found before I try to do any cleaning. But I know you had no idea what you had.

Still a very nice find!! Not sure if any further cleaning would enhance this coin's value.

If that coin was only a couple inches under the scraped area, I think you have a chance at finding something in the turf next to it if you can work that. The scrape doesn't look extremely deep, and an Explorer machine can locate fairly deep targets.

Congrats!!
CAPTN SE
Dan

 

[CRUSADER]

Welcome to tnet from the UK.

 

[crazyjarhead]

Thats a nice barber. Most of the ones I see are usually worn out Welcome to TNET and you off and running

 

[Bartman]

Man, that is one sweet find. Those scratches make me winch though. The reverse actually looks like it has some mint lust left on it.

 

[shaun7]

you can't beat a bit of opportunism

 

[jsu]

Congratulations on a fantastic find. That is one beautiful coin. Don`t worry about the scratches you were not planning on selling it anyway, right? It will knock some value off of it but it is still a key date barber in great condition.

 

[Lowbatts]

Beautiful hunt and hunt site! Congrats and that is a good old fashioned tootsie toy car. Keep at it and you'll get those cleaner pieces of silver out too.

 

[curbdiggercarl57]

Great find! You were lucky to hit that area before they poured the concrete, I still cannot believe how quick they are when it comes to construction repair out here. Drives me nuts sometimes. Good trick is to carry a old film canister filled with a little water, when you dig a coin or token, just toss it in there to remove the dirt. Less chance to damage a key or semi key date coin. Probably wouldn't try to clean that Barber, anything more would be overkill, I've ruined many coins doing that. Good luck, you are off to a great start!
CurbdiggerCarl

 

[diggergrl]

Great finds! What a way to break into the 1800's. Just take this as a lesson to NEVER field-clean your finds.... You can always pour a little bit of water over it if you can't wait to see what it is.

 

[tymcmurray]

Good eye. Let her roll her eyes, YOU got the treasure!!!!
Nice finds and WELCOME to TNET!!!

 

[mikewaz]

Welcome to the forum!

Way to get the key date Barber out of the way!
Looks like you're off to a great start.You already know the type of places to hunt, so the finds will come easy.
Keep at it!
Mike

PS. Don't feel bad about the scratches. It's hard for a coin to get pushed deep into the soil
without getting a few, but like others have said, be careful with field cleaning.

 

[windrun]

Wow! You are very lucky and better to go out there. Now you did! What if somebody already pour the cement on the sidewalk while you miss it, I guess the oldest coin is waiting for next 50-100 years from today till someone found it.

Keep hunting!
Richard

 

[eggbag]

wow! awesome find on that "O" dime.I found one of those colorado state tax tokens last week only i live in CT.Its a fifth of a cent aluminum tax coin .They were made in 1935 and used until 1945.Whole and shiny Ive seen them on sale for 3to6 bucks.Keep up the good finds.

 

[pjroo33]

Great Barber! Congrats.

 

[karib2517]

nice find,sidewalk tear ups always good.iam gonna start driving around looking for those.nice find and nice pics.

 

[halfdime]

A very nice find! Also a lesson learned about field cleaning.

 

[BuckleBoy]

Dang, you rubbed a beautiful key date Barber! I can see the hairline scratches running horizontal to the bust on the obverse.

Ouch! The value stated in the post above probably doesn't take all the scratches or the oxidation into account.


When and if you get your next key date Barber, you'll know what not to do.


Still a great find--dropped that year, I'd imagine.


-Buckles

 

[Fast_Dave]

If you want to get the carbon off the back of the dime, electrolysis has worked well for me on the same type of stuff. I don't think you can really hurt the coin that way as long as you don't over do it, and you're probably going to find some environmental damage around the carbon anyway. Another way is to use a sonic jewelry cleaner, although not many people keep one around the house. A third way( and some people are going to cringe at this one) is to use a soft bristle tooth brush and navel jelly. Let it bubble for a minute and softly brush away what carbon comes loose, then repeat. Be sure to wash it well with soap and water afterwards to remove any residue from the jelly, because what's taking the carbon off is phosphoric acid. I've had "sidewalk silver" myself from time to time and that's always worked well for me. It also works on war nickels, which always have an area of encrustation or two when they come up. After the carbon is off you'll have to let it tone up again, since the parts under the carbon seem to come out shinier than the rest of the coin.