Bushido Dude
Sr. Member
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2005
- Messages
- 304
- Reaction score
- 16
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Kill Devil Hills, N.C.
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Well, its nothing but rain once again here in Upstate New York, but we still can find treasures. I generally don't write too much on this forum. My posts are usually short and have a few quick pictures, mainly to share with my fellow detecting buddies who I periodically hunt with. But I am taking the time today (because of the rain 
) to share something with you all who decide to read it. I received a phone call last week that a single coin I had sent out to be graded and slabbed had come in the mail. Due to circumstances I was unable to retrieve it until today, and I have been on nothing but cloud 9 since. It's a simple coin, a meager Indian Head Penny. But this single find from a hunt over a year ago means so much more. As the story goes....
......my friend John (Bezjo) and myself had a few hours to hunt in mid spring 2010 and with the price of gas on the rise had decided to keep it close to home for the day. With our eyes set on a private section of the Chenango Canal (1834 to 1878) which connected the Susquhanna Rive to the Erie Canal, we set out. The area we decided had a lock located on it but the lock was full of debris and garbage from decades of people dumping on the property. The ground was trashy and not giving up any goodies. I ventured along the top of the lock and fought last years blackberry bush stalks (and the subsequent ticks which I later found on myself at home) while John detected the river bank of the Chenango River which parallels most of the canal. Most signals once again were canslaw or large iron spikes/nails. One signal barely came in but sounded more solid-toned as compared to the squelchy iron signals, and as I pulled out the loose dirt saw a single penny-sized coin come out. It looked haggard and toasty on the front,yet ,from the back you could tell it was an Indian Head....
......so we continued to detect for a few more mins, switched sites to an abandoned school that is still standing only to be met with waist high grass and enough rotting deer carcasses to make the people who enjoy the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre cringe, and decided to head back and clean up our finds. Totals for the day were usual "bummin' day" finds, a few bucks in clad, a few pulltabs, nothing fancy, the best find for the day was my ugly Indian Head cent. So I washed it fast with some soap and water and tossed it in some oil to soak overnight hoping I would at least be able to pull a date off from it.....
.....The next morning after my coffee I decided to play with the coin and see if there was a readable date, but to my surprise as I dried the oil from it, little pieces of the black dirt encrustation would fall off along the rim all on their own, without any coaxing, exposing very nice detail under it . With some very gentle rubbing with a toothpick, or as I call it "coaxing", I got some of the black to come off basically on its own without having to force any off. When I was satisfied with my work I let the coin soak in some warm water with dish detergent in it for about 3 hours to pull some of the oil out of the dirt to help coax more of it off.......
.......and put it back in the oil to soak again over night.....
........I repeated the process daily, every time getting more of the crust off but never forcing it clean, letting the coin basically clean itself. The back came off more easily than the front which had a THICK coating of the black crust......
........When the back was almost clean I noticed that the front was finally starting to shed its thick crust and like the reverse, exposing a very beautifully detailed coin.....
.........3 weeks of repeating the process everyday and the coin was gorgeous, the most beautiful Indian Head I have dug I believe. And the kicker to the whole story is when I was finally able to read the date, it was 1872.....a low mintage year....making this coin not only beautiful, but also semi valuable! That's when I decided to get it graded. A few more soft cleanings and treating with oil and the coin was about ready to sent out to be graded.
....And that brings us up to today, where I pick up the coin from the shop after a three month absence from my possession. NGC graded it with XF details but corroded as it was a dug coin but has a beautiful green waxy patina. Redbook puts it at about $500 but I would never sell it. As I picked up the coin a severe thunderstorm was passing, no biggies, it has rained pretty much all day. And At first I was really bumming that I couldn't be out detecting today. But I looked at that coin, and its final grade, and beauty, I looked at the old timers at the coin shop who were there just talking about coins, politics, history, I looked at myself and my life, where I have gone, what I have done and where I am going. I though about my grandfather and how I wished he was still alive so I could share some of this hobby with him because I think he would have loved it. And finally I had an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment and pride, in everything. And I then remembered why I started this hobby, for days just like today. Thanks for reading my post....if you have made it this far. Get out and find stuff, share time with your hunting partners, your family, yourself...and make time to enjoy life, its too damn short! Good luck everyone and Happy Hunting
-Dude-
) to share something with you all who decide to read it. I received a phone call last week that a single coin I had sent out to be graded and slabbed had come in the mail. Due to circumstances I was unable to retrieve it until today, and I have been on nothing but cloud 9 since. It's a simple coin, a meager Indian Head Penny. But this single find from a hunt over a year ago means so much more. As the story goes..........my friend John (Bezjo) and myself had a few hours to hunt in mid spring 2010 and with the price of gas on the rise had decided to keep it close to home for the day. With our eyes set on a private section of the Chenango Canal (1834 to 1878) which connected the Susquhanna Rive to the Erie Canal, we set out. The area we decided had a lock located on it but the lock was full of debris and garbage from decades of people dumping on the property. The ground was trashy and not giving up any goodies. I ventured along the top of the lock and fought last years blackberry bush stalks (and the subsequent ticks which I later found on myself at home) while John detected the river bank of the Chenango River which parallels most of the canal. Most signals once again were canslaw or large iron spikes/nails. One signal barely came in but sounded more solid-toned as compared to the squelchy iron signals, and as I pulled out the loose dirt saw a single penny-sized coin come out. It looked haggard and toasty on the front,yet ,from the back you could tell it was an Indian Head....
......so we continued to detect for a few more mins, switched sites to an abandoned school that is still standing only to be met with waist high grass and enough rotting deer carcasses to make the people who enjoy the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre cringe, and decided to head back and clean up our finds. Totals for the day were usual "bummin' day" finds, a few bucks in clad, a few pulltabs, nothing fancy, the best find for the day was my ugly Indian Head cent. So I washed it fast with some soap and water and tossed it in some oil to soak overnight hoping I would at least be able to pull a date off from it.....
.....The next morning after my coffee I decided to play with the coin and see if there was a readable date, but to my surprise as I dried the oil from it, little pieces of the black dirt encrustation would fall off along the rim all on their own, without any coaxing, exposing very nice detail under it . With some very gentle rubbing with a toothpick, or as I call it "coaxing", I got some of the black to come off basically on its own without having to force any off. When I was satisfied with my work I let the coin soak in some warm water with dish detergent in it for about 3 hours to pull some of the oil out of the dirt to help coax more of it off.......
.......and put it back in the oil to soak again over night.....
........I repeated the process daily, every time getting more of the crust off but never forcing it clean, letting the coin basically clean itself. The back came off more easily than the front which had a THICK coating of the black crust......
........When the back was almost clean I noticed that the front was finally starting to shed its thick crust and like the reverse, exposing a very beautifully detailed coin.....
.........3 weeks of repeating the process everyday and the coin was gorgeous, the most beautiful Indian Head I have dug I believe. And the kicker to the whole story is when I was finally able to read the date, it was 1872.....a low mintage year....making this coin not only beautiful, but also semi valuable! That's when I decided to get it graded. A few more soft cleanings and treating with oil and the coin was about ready to sent out to be graded.
....And that brings us up to today, where I pick up the coin from the shop after a three month absence from my possession. NGC graded it with XF details but corroded as it was a dug coin but has a beautiful green waxy patina. Redbook puts it at about $500 but I would never sell it. As I picked up the coin a severe thunderstorm was passing, no biggies, it has rained pretty much all day. And At first I was really bumming that I couldn't be out detecting today. But I looked at that coin, and its final grade, and beauty, I looked at the old timers at the coin shop who were there just talking about coins, politics, history, I looked at myself and my life, where I have gone, what I have done and where I am going. I though about my grandfather and how I wished he was still alive so I could share some of this hobby with him because I think he would have loved it. And finally I had an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment and pride, in everything. And I then remembered why I started this hobby, for days just like today. Thanks for reading my post....if you have made it this far. Get out and find stuff, share time with your hunting partners, your family, yourself...and make time to enjoy life, its too damn short! Good luck everyone and Happy Hunting
-Dude-
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