The 298 Year Old Virgin...Silver!!

romeo-1 · Oct 22, 2017

Today Tony and I got permission for a virgin site that we've been eyeing for quite a while. Lately we've been getting on new sites that had been hunted before but this one was untouched. It is a massive field and actually turned out to be three different sites. A 1920s era site, a Victorian site and a very early French site. Guess which site I found my find of the day?

There weren't a lot of targets on the earliest site but the field we were detecting butts up against a corn field and I suspect the actual bulk of the site is there. The corn should be coming down soon so we will test that theory.

The silver is a 1719 French 10 Sol...a first for me! As soon as I saw the edges I knew it was old. Took a little bit of Googling to positively ID it. It's by far the best coin I've dug in a couple years!

Other notables were the horseshoe brooch and the Canada medal which I need to research further.

We'll be back there next weekend because I think we just scratched the surface! Thanks for looking and happy hunting!

pepperj · Oct 23, 2017

Nothing like getting a new site to produce a first, but that's a home run getting the great looking silver.
I noticed the hole is still sharp so it was lost soon after being done, usually the holes are well worn down on the edges. This coin was lost soon after landing on this side of the big pond no doubt.
Best of luck when the corn comes off, beating stalks down is a fun day out when there's old lurking beneath.

Trezurehunter · Oct 23, 2017

Congrats on a great silver, and the rest of your finds.

Carolina Tom · Oct 23, 2017

Such a sweet coin. Wow & congrats!

fishstick · Oct 23, 2017

New sites are always exciting with the unknown factor but with that silver my boots would not touch the ground on the next hunt there, I'd still be on that cloud!!!!!!! CONGRATZ....

CASPER-2 · Oct 23, 2017

romeo-1 · Oct 23, 2017

Actually finding the French silver was quite a fluke and a funny story itself. I received permission from the land owner on Saturday and we detected there on Sunday. There is a neighbor near the field who is a self-appointed “guardian of the fields” and will approach anyone found on the fields. I was hunting another property nearby last year and when he saw me there he put me under surveillance for a couple hours until I left and spoke with him. I figured that as soon as he saw us on the field he would again put us under surveillance and sure enough, we were there for maybe 20 minutes when I see his car pull up behind our vehicle. The field in question is about a mile long and when I saw him we were right in the middle of the field. We were parked at the top end and he lives at the bottom end. He’s quite elderly so I knew he wouldn’t walk to where we were so he kept driving past the top end of the field and stopping to watch us with binoculars. I was going to trek back to where we were parked to let him know who we were and that we did have permission but he didn’t reappear. I kept hunting and looked to the bottom end of the field where he lived and I saw him pacing around down there watching us from that end. We were into a decent Victorian patch and I didn’t want to leave it but I started feeling bad for the guy so I told Tony that we were going to walk to the bottom end of the field to chat with him and to put his mind at ease before he had a coronary. I wasn’t expecting anything down there but figured we could recce the rest of the field and return to the Victorian site after speaking with him. Well, we got to the bottom end of the field and he was gone. I figured he probably got tired of watching us and called the land owner who filled him in. He’s not a bad guy and we actually know him quite well…he’s even let us detect his yard and joining properties, but he’s getting a little senile so I am sure he didn’t recognize us from that distance. I figured we would detect a bit on the bottom end of the field and give him a chance to come speak with us but he never did. Tony and I were both digging targets and I was in the extreme bottom corner of the field. Tony comes over and said that he just dug a worn copper, completely smooth. I was just pulling the earth away from the silver when he was saying that so I told him that I just dug something round as well…so I dropped it into his hand! The rest is history!

ironhorse · Oct 23, 2017

great story
it almost didn't happen at all and that is the twist that makes it better

port ewen ace · Oct 23, 2017

Lord Verdigris · Oct 23, 2017

Amazing coin and finds. Congrats! [emoji106]
P.s. Im a little bit jealous of that one! 🤑

The Rebel · Oct 23, 2017

Amazing Silver! Can't remember if I've ever seen one posted before. You got a nice site to hit up this fall/winter before the crops go in.

pepperj · Oct 23, 2017

romeo-1 said:
Actually finding the French silver was quite a fluke and a funny story itself. I received permission from the land owner on Saturday and we detected there on Sunday. There is a neighbor near the field who is a self-appointed “guardian of the fields” and will approach anyone found on the fields. I was hunting another property nearby last year and when he saw me there he put me under surveillance for a couple hours until I left and spoke with him. I figured that as soon as he saw us on the field he would again put us under surveillance and sure enough, we were there for maybe 20 minutes when I see his car pull up behind our vehicle. The field in question is about a mile long and when I saw him we were right in the middle of the field. We were parked at the top end and he lives at the bottom end. He’s quite elderly so I knew he wouldn’t walk to where we were so he kept driving past the top end of the field and stopping to watch us with binoculars. I was going to trek back to where we were parked to let him know who we were and that we did have permission but he didn’t reappear. I kept hunting and looked to the bottom end of the field where he lived and I saw him pacing around down there watching us from that end. We were into a decent Victorian patch and I didn’t want to leave it but I started feeling bad for the guy so I told Tony that we were going to walk to the bottom end of the field to chat with him and to put his mind at ease before he had a coronary. I wasn’t expecting anything down there but figured we could recce the rest of the field and return to the Victorian site after speaking with him. Well, we got to the bottom end of the field and he was gone. I figured he probably got tired of watching us and called the land owner who filled him in. He’s not a bad guy and we actually know him quite well…he’s even let us detect his yard and joining properties, but he’s getting a little senile so I am sure he didn’t recognize us from that distance. I figured we would detect a bit on the bottom end of the field and give him a chance to come speak with us but he never did. Tony and I were both digging targets and I was in the extreme bottom corner of the field. Tony comes over and said that he just dug a worn copper, completely smooth. I was just pulling the earth away from the silver when he was saying that so I told him that I just dug something round as well…so I dropped it into his hand! The rest is history!

If it wasn't for the old guy you wouldn't probably got the silver this trip out.

Relicific · Oct 23, 2017

Very cool brooch and that French Silver is so nice it brings back memories.
Found the same coin this past June.
Congrats

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/t...-lister-1719-louis-xv-french-silver-coin.html

romeo-1 · Oct 23, 2017

Relicific said:
Very cool brooch and that French Silver is so nice it brings back memories.
Found the same coin this past June.
Congrats

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/t...-lister-1719-louis-xv-french-silver-coin.html

Nice...i found that post when I was researching mine in the field.