WOW! never thought I would find one of these!!!!!

[Mike from MI]

I have been on many CW hunts out east and have seen many reales found. Always wanted to find one but never figured it would be a "BIG" 8 reales! I met up with some friends to hunt an old park. On our way we came across some street construction in the old part of town. We decided the the park wasn't going anywhere but the construction would be done soon enough. The street was gone and the curbs. The grass areas and sidewalks still remained except for at each intersection, about 10' of sidewalk was gone at the corners. Well a few blocks down I was searching a corner of sidewalk bed and got a good coin hit. I put my hand digger in and out popped a big dark disc. I thought it was a big washer or? Then I noticed an "old" eagle on the back. I knew it was pre Morgan so I thought I had a trade dollar. I soon realized it was an old Spanish 8 Reales. The date is 1832. The sidewalk was laid in 1900 so it had been buried at least 115 years. But since it was about 4" deep in the dark dirt under the sidewalk I think much longer. I had to use electrolysis to clean it up then took it to my coin dealer to authenticate it. I entered it last night in the find of the month contest at our metal detecting club and it won best coin! It's also now my oldest silver. Hope you guys like it as much as I do.

 

[digging440yrs]

THAT IS AN AWESOME FIND !!!

 

[dansalata]

fantastic

 

[deershed]

Awesome find!!

 

[patack1101]

What a great story and even better find. Congratulations!

 

[romeo-1]

That's a nice chunk of silver...good instincts on that hunt!

 

[pepperj]

Very nice recovery, congrats on the big silver.

 

[JimK]

Fantastic find. I found one like it here in Kentucky a short time ago at a Union CW camp we have been hunting. The interesting thing to me are the scratches on your coin and mine look a bit alike. Congrats on the nice recovery

JimK

 

[dirt diva]

Beautiful !! Congrats

 

[Carolina Tom]

Very nice find. Congrats on the BIG SILVER!

 

[46Wheat]

Very Very nice coin . Grats

 

[Ahab8]

Congrats on a huge chunk of spanish! That is a beauty

 

[GaRebel1861]

Wow! What a nice find!!

 

[park pirate]

Damn that's nice..

 

[Diggin Dude]

That find is just fantastic! Be proud of that I would be totally stoked. Great job! I remember reading about Street tear outs and sidewalk tear outs as being great places to hunt. There was a Street tearout near me that I went to and that's where I found my first old coppers King George II 1736 and what is believed to be very worn William III 1690s.

So keep it coming get back to the construction site good luck and congrats.

 

[jewelerguy]

Hope you guys like it as much as I do.

I like it a lot. congrats!

 

[Old Dude]

I am sure there were more than one jealous eye trained on that big chunk of silver at your meeting. Congrats!

 

[BigWaveDave]

great find!!

 

[Argentium]

Great find Amigo ! I wonder if by the 1830's they were still chopping these into bits for for smaller change ? if so it could be that the
scratch marks were preparatory to that .

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Good Job Mike, Those BIG Silvers are hard to loose, and therefore hard to come by...in the dirt.
I know I was very surprised to find one myself last year...So I know the feeling well.

Good Luck Out There.