halfdime
Silver Member
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2006
- Messages
- 4,514
- Reaction score
- 1,486
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Zelienople
- Detector(s) used
- White's XLT
No foolin'; I exhumed FDR!
Normally, I don't get too excited about Rosies; they're pretty common and I've been fortunate to find a lot of them. They make good trade bait when the price of silver goes up. We started out with a rainy morning, but my little weather forecaster indicated that the sun would come out eventually and it did. By noon, the sun was out, breezes were blowin' and the afternoon got better and better. I had a load of yard debris to dump, so I hatched a plan to go over to my mother's house after the kids were out of school. I threw their bikes in the truck with the refuse and off we went. Mom lives beside woods where we've been able to dump leaves, branches, anything organic for decades and it's handy to be able to take my stuff there, too. Her house was built in 1941, and it's never been owned by anyone other than halfdimes
. My dad's parents built the place and he grew up there; sadly, it's also where he died. I've given the place a pretty good going over, but once in a while I pull out the detector to give it another go. Today was one of those days. I wandered around the back yard, where most of the finds have been made; several generations of neighborhood kids joined the hosts in playing ball out there and I've done pretty well cleaning up after them. I didn't hit anything good in the back today, but did find a pair of keys for small padlocks. I moved to the front yard, where I've found nothing but modern stuff. This I've always found puzzling, but it is what it is. Or, should I say, it was what it was. I ran along the east edge of the front yard, discovered that someone had found the corner the perfect place to let their dog defecate, then headed west in front of the house. There, directly in front of the window where dad spent his last days, I got a signal. I thought, by the sounds of it, that it might be a Memorial penny that I'd missed before. I was resigned to that being my only coin for the day; it was time to get the kids home and start supper. I dug, and saw the obvious color of silver encased in the dirt. I could tell it was a Rosie and went inside to wash it off and get a date. After cleaning, I found that the dime was a bit concave/convex, depending on which way you're looking at it. FDR's head is bulging slightly right at the temple 
. The date was 1953. On the way home, I started to put together, in my head, the story. In all likelihood, someone I knew dropped that thing, probably better than 45 years ago. Could it have been one of my grandparents? Uncle John? Aunt Shirley? Dad? Dad was in high school in 1953, and the dime's wear indicates that it was in circulation a while before it was lost. Dad spent most of his life in that house, but of course we'll never know who lost it. I was just happy to rescue it from its lonely spot in Mom's front yard.
Normally, I don't get too excited about Rosies; they're pretty common and I've been fortunate to find a lot of them. They make good trade bait when the price of silver goes up. We started out with a rainy morning, but my little weather forecaster indicated that the sun would come out eventually and it did. By noon, the sun was out, breezes were blowin' and the afternoon got better and better. I had a load of yard debris to dump, so I hatched a plan to go over to my mother's house after the kids were out of school. I threw their bikes in the truck with the refuse and off we went. Mom lives beside woods where we've been able to dump leaves, branches, anything organic for decades and it's handy to be able to take my stuff there, too. Her house was built in 1941, and it's never been owned by anyone other than halfdimes
. My dad's parents built the place and he grew up there; sadly, it's also where he died. I've given the place a pretty good going over, but once in a while I pull out the detector to give it another go. Today was one of those days. I wandered around the back yard, where most of the finds have been made; several generations of neighborhood kids joined the hosts in playing ball out there and I've done pretty well cleaning up after them. I didn't hit anything good in the back today, but did find a pair of keys for small padlocks. I moved to the front yard, where I've found nothing but modern stuff. This I've always found puzzling, but it is what it is. Or, should I say, it was what it was. I ran along the east edge of the front yard, discovered that someone had found the corner the perfect place to let their dog defecate, then headed west in front of the house. There, directly in front of the window where dad spent his last days, I got a signal. I thought, by the sounds of it, that it might be a Memorial penny that I'd missed before. I was resigned to that being my only coin for the day; it was time to get the kids home and start supper. I dug, and saw the obvious color of silver encased in the dirt. I could tell it was a Rosie and went inside to wash it off and get a date. After cleaning, I found that the dime was a bit concave/convex, depending on which way you're looking at it. FDR's head is bulging slightly right at the temple . The date was 1953. On the way home, I started to put together, in my head, the story. In all likelihood, someone I knew dropped that thing, probably better than 45 years ago. Could it have been one of my grandparents? Uncle John? Aunt Shirley? Dad? Dad was in high school in 1953, and the dime's wear indicates that it was in circulation a while before it was lost. Dad spent most of his life in that house, but of course we'll never know who lost it. I was just happy to rescue it from its lonely spot in Mom's front yard.
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Very cool. One of my most treasured finds is one that either my Dad or one of his brothers lost. Of coarse it's speculation but speculation with a high probability. 
