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

Mike from MI

Silver Member
Oct 13, 2007
3,259
2,459
Vicksburg Michigan
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
15
Detector(s) used
Etrac, Minelab Explorer II, Exterra 30, Fisher CZ-21, and CZ-20
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
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.
 

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Upvote 33

digging440yrs

Gold Member
Dec 5, 2012
5,946
4,410
UPSTATE NEW YORK
Detector(s) used
1970 COMPASS-
WHITES SILVER EAGLE-
WHITES DFX, 4X6DD COIL, 6X8DD COIL, 950 COIL, 10X12SEF COIL-
GARRETT PRO POINTER AT, GARRETT AT PRO , MINELAB EXPLORER SE with 8.5x12.5 Cors coil
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
THAT IS AN AWESOME FIND !!!:thumbsup:
 

deershed

Silver Member
Apr 25, 2013
3,305
4,103
Maryland
Detector(s) used
AT Pro, Whites Coin Master Pro, Bounty Hunter Lonestar, Minelab CTX
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Awesome find!!
 

patack1101

Jr. Member
Jan 29, 2014
30
12
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
What a great story and even better find. Congratulations!
 

pepperj

Gold Member
Feb 3, 2009
38,024
141,529
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Deus, Deus 2, Minelab 3030, E-Trac,
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Very nice recovery, congrats on the big silver.
 

JimK

Full Member
Aug 19, 2009
231
276
Central Kentucky
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
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
 

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Carolina Tom

Gold Member
Apr 4, 2014
10,059
17,064
Charlotte
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus V3.2 9" & 11" Coils, AT Pro, ProPointer AT, Lesche 55, 75 & 80LT
Primary Interest:
Other
Very nice find. Congrats on the BIG SILVER!
 

46Wheat

Silver Member
May 23, 2014
3,648
3,357
Upstate NY
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Minelab Etrac / Equinox 800 / 8.5x11 DD and 5x8 DD coil /
Garrett ProPointer / Lesche Digger
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Very Very nice coin . Grats
 

Ahab8

Gold Member
Oct 15, 2013
8,408
8,289
Topsham, Maine
🥇 Banner finds
2
Detector(s) used
Teknetics T2 SE w/15' SEF Coil/ Minelab GPX 4500/2 Garrett Pro Pointers/3 Sets Killer B Headphones/ Koss Headphones/ Detekniy Wireless headphone Adapter
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Congrats on a huge chunk of spanish! That is a beauty
 

Diggin Dude

Silver Member
Apr 6, 2014
2,750
3,834
New York
🥇 Banner finds
2
Detector(s) used
Tarsacci MDT 8000
XP DEUS II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
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.
 

Old Dude

Gold Member
Feb 20, 2013
8,799
9,850
Luzerne County, Pa
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Fisher F75, Garrett ATPro, Garrett GTAx 500
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I am sure there were more than one jealous eye trained on that big chunk of silver at your meeting. Congrats!
 

Argentium

Gold Member
Feb 2, 2008
9,058
5,574
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Detector(s) used
Whites, MXT.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
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)

Silver Member
May 8, 2008
4,098
2,711
🥇 Banner finds
3
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
Omega, F75, AT Pro
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
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.
 

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