Ouch! Lawnmower Coins!

[Cool Hand Fluke]

Every once in a while you will find one of these cliped silver coins damaged by a lawnmower. That 1879 is a Morgan Silver Dollar! Ouch!

 

[Ratman]

I find choppers all the time here in So.Cal . The Captn just happens to be one of my hunting buddies and we have both dug our share of chopped lawn mower coins over the years . Here's a pic of just a few of hundreds that i've saved over the years . This is a common occurence here in our parks .

HH
Mike

Not sure if someone already asked this.. but have you found any parts that match up? I'd think you would if they were mower victims or something like that, and not cut on purpose..

Yes, I have. I've been able to recover at least 4 matching silver and a small handful of matching wheat pennies. Most were no more than 10 ft away from the other piece. I remember one silver Washington was chopped in 3 different pieces, but I was only able to find 2 of the pieces detecting the area in back to back days. Lots of chopped up and mangled silver rings also.

HH,
CAPTN SE
Dan

 

[gleaner1]

I was stuck thinking about spinning blade type mowers, like a helicopter blade. I still say that these mowers will only bend or gash a coin. As soon as the subject of reel-type mowers was mentioned I said YES! that's it! I can clearly see how these mowers can easily shear coins, even multiple times. These manglers have been around for a long time. Note the smooth curved cuts seen in many of the pics, which would be hard to do even with a new pair of snips. Now, finally, I understand the Mystery of the Lawnmower Coins. I'm still workin' on my lawnmower experiment, probably be a 4th of July caper.

 

[RigDean]

Perhaps a combination of several theories contributing to the mysterious cut coins.

Mower seems more valid at this point even with my limited understanding of such things, however I've worked on and around construction sites since I was a teenager and have been around industrial power/hand cutting tools and the men/women using them and have seen all sorts of crazy stuff being done to random objects and materials.

Example: "Look what my new tool can do!" or "I bet them snips can't cut through this..." etc.... coins would be a favorite for this camaraderie because they represent something everyone can relate to and most people have a few in their pocket at any given time. Then these objects end up back in a pocket to be lost like other coins and stuff...Maybe the sharp edges rubbed a hole in a pocket and contributed to many of the lost coins we all love to find...

 

[trapper]

while I have yet to find any lawn mower chopped coins,being a trapper as my miniker indicates I know what a commercial-grade mower used by numerous counties will do to Spring steel traps and 1/2 inch steel re-bar stakes, slices and dices turning them into both clean cut and twisted metal pieces of scrap. So I cast my lot with the believers of the theory that a mower blade can and will slice and dice coins of any metal makeup.
May your detector always find the good stuff! (before the mowers do)
Trapper

 

[bigwater]

Well I certainly don't want to start any conspiracy theory about people chopping up coins and seeding hunting spots... but I've got a pair of shears in my sign shop that will cut a clad quarter in half with no effort whatsoever. It'll make a cleaner cut than my John Deere, I'm sure.

Fun argument I suppose, but I guess none of us have much of a life if we're discussing this issue this far.