Re: What's the most valuable coin YOU'VE ever discovered?
This may be WAY after the fact,(the survey ended in 2004!) but about fifteen years ago when I was still teaching, we got out early from school one day because of snow.
I hightailed it to my (then) favorite digging spot, the site of an 18th century county seat. Almost as soon as I started to hunt, I got a good signal and dug a small silver coin under about three inches of snow and about five inches of dirt.
Since I couldn't tell what I had because of the mud, I did the worst possible thing--rubbed the mud off to see what I had. It turned out to be a 1797 half- dime in near perfect condition--that is, except for the tiny hairline scratches I put on it wiping it off.
I put the coin away for several years, but one day while looking at a recent coin book, I noticed that this one was fairly rare. I decided to have it sent to one of the grading companies and have it slabbed. It came back "almost uncirculated, cleaned (because of the tiny scratches imparted when I rubbed the mud off)
We advertised the coin on a popular auction website, and it brought ten thousand two hundred dollars!(which went to the landowners minus a finder's fee) This is minus the approximately $1000 rub-the-coin-with-no-water stunt I pulled!