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Visiting family back home in PA -- and was blessed with a priceless hunt!
Posted by steveg
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Visiting family back home in PA -- and was blessed with a priceless hunt! July 22, 2013 06:30PM |
Hi all!
I don't usually post finds on this forum, but wanted to share an awesome experience that I had on Saturday. Living in Oklahoma, the prospects for digging 19th century coins with any regularity are obviously quite slim. SO, I look forward to my annual visits back home to western Pennsylvania, where the chances to dig something old are much greater. I spent quite a bit of time researching a few spots not far from my childhood home, and Saturday I gave one of the spots a shot. It was an old church that was built in 1857, but is long gone; the only thing remaining is the old cemetery. I had a general idea where the church building should have been, so I took a short hike through the woods to find it. I arrived at where I guessed the church would have stood -- and it looked like this:
That's the old cemetery; here's what it looked like facing the other direction:
So, I started swinging. After about a half hour, I had dug a couple of old shotgun shells, and was moving into an area where I was picking up some scattered square nails, when I got a solid, shallow penny-type signal. Certain that I had located a penny dropped recently by a deer hunter, I calmly dug, with zero expectations, a four-inch deep plug, and saw a coin drop from the dirt clod back into the hole. But...I thought I saw a silver rim...
Well, I was so shocked at this find (which before digging I had been sure was a penny), that I forgot to take a picture. So, I'll keep you in suspense and wait to show it to you until the end (the pictures of the cleaned coins). I called my wife, and once I stopped shaking, I continued. Two feet away, I hit a classic silver dime signal, about 5-6" deep. Knowing what I had just dug, THIS target REALLY got the adrenaline up! Here's what came out of the plug...
SILVER!
I cleaned it off just a tad, very gently, with some water I carried in, and here it was...
An nice, detailed 1853 Seated Dime (with arrows)!
After some more shaking, and another call to my wife, I started to hunt again. Within 10 feet, I got another hit; I was so excited this time, that I didn't even care to pay attention to the numbers. It was a lower tone than a silver dime, but at this point, ANY coin was possible, so there was no hesitation in this dig decision.
Here's what came out of the plug...
SILVER AGAIN!
I cleaned it just a bit, and saw this:
An equally-detailed, equally nice 1853 Seated HALF Dime! (with arrows)
I made another call to my wife, as I was now in shock! There's a reason why these pictures are a bit blurred and out of focus!
After composing myself, I hunted another hour and a half or so, with no more luck (except a bunch of square nails, more shotgun brass, and a few modern cartridges and lead). I will be going back, but even if I find NOTHING else, this spot will go down as my best ever! A very lucky day for me, one I will likely never top -- and for ONCE my research actually paid off!
OH...about that first coin... Here's a look at the finds after cleaning. None of the three were rare or particularly valuable (despite their very decent conditions) after checking them out at a couple of coin sites online (roughly $50 to $75 or so), so I went ahead and did some light cleaning with water and baking soda...
The obverses...
And the reverses...
That other coin was, unbelievably, an 1830 Capped Bust dime! I NEVER thought I'd dig one of those, and had no thoughts of it being even possible at this spot (with the church built in 1857). Clearly, this one was in circulation for a long time, and I'm thinking all three coins were dropped by the same person at the same time, given their proximity. Given the nice condition of the two Seated coins, I'd expect them to have been dropped right about the time the church was built -- almost definitely before the Civil War began...just thinking about that is mind-boggling for me, and is why this is such an AWESOME hobby!
Thanks all for looking!
Steve
I don't usually post finds on this forum, but wanted to share an awesome experience that I had on Saturday. Living in Oklahoma, the prospects for digging 19th century coins with any regularity are obviously quite slim. SO, I look forward to my annual visits back home to western Pennsylvania, where the chances to dig something old are much greater. I spent quite a bit of time researching a few spots not far from my childhood home, and Saturday I gave one of the spots a shot. It was an old church that was built in 1857, but is long gone; the only thing remaining is the old cemetery. I had a general idea where the church building should have been, so I took a short hike through the woods to find it. I arrived at where I guessed the church would have stood -- and it looked like this:
That's the old cemetery; here's what it looked like facing the other direction:
So, I started swinging. After about a half hour, I had dug a couple of old shotgun shells, and was moving into an area where I was picking up some scattered square nails, when I got a solid, shallow penny-type signal. Certain that I had located a penny dropped recently by a deer hunter, I calmly dug, with zero expectations, a four-inch deep plug, and saw a coin drop from the dirt clod back into the hole. But...I thought I saw a silver rim...
Well, I was so shocked at this find (which before digging I had been sure was a penny), that I forgot to take a picture. So, I'll keep you in suspense and wait to show it to you until the end (the pictures of the cleaned coins). I called my wife, and once I stopped shaking, I continued. Two feet away, I hit a classic silver dime signal, about 5-6" deep. Knowing what I had just dug, THIS target REALLY got the adrenaline up! Here's what came out of the plug...
SILVER!
I cleaned it off just a tad, very gently, with some water I carried in, and here it was...
An nice, detailed 1853 Seated Dime (with arrows)!
After some more shaking, and another call to my wife, I started to hunt again. Within 10 feet, I got another hit; I was so excited this time, that I didn't even care to pay attention to the numbers. It was a lower tone than a silver dime, but at this point, ANY coin was possible, so there was no hesitation in this dig decision.
Here's what came out of the plug...
SILVER AGAIN!
I cleaned it just a bit, and saw this:
An equally-detailed, equally nice 1853 Seated HALF Dime! (with arrows)
I made another call to my wife, as I was now in shock! There's a reason why these pictures are a bit blurred and out of focus!
After composing myself, I hunted another hour and a half or so, with no more luck (except a bunch of square nails, more shotgun brass, and a few modern cartridges and lead). I will be going back, but even if I find NOTHING else, this spot will go down as my best ever! A very lucky day for me, one I will likely never top -- and for ONCE my research actually paid off!
OH...about that first coin... Here's a look at the finds after cleaning. None of the three were rare or particularly valuable (despite their very decent conditions) after checking them out at a couple of coin sites online (roughly $50 to $75 or so), so I went ahead and did some light cleaning with water and baking soda...
The obverses...
And the reverses...
That other coin was, unbelievably, an 1830 Capped Bust dime! I NEVER thought I'd dig one of those, and had no thoughts of it being even possible at this spot (with the church built in 1857). Clearly, this one was in circulation for a long time, and I'm thinking all three coins were dropped by the same person at the same time, given their proximity. Given the nice condition of the two Seated coins, I'd expect them to have been dropped right about the time the church was built -- almost definitely before the Civil War began...just thinking about that is mind-boggling for me, and is why this is such an AWESOME hobby!
Thanks all for looking!
Steve
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Re: Visiting family back home in PA -- and was blessed with a priceless hunt! July 23, 2013 02:32PM |
NASA-Tom -- this was absolutely something that won't be forgotten, not ONLY because of the finds, but because it's the first time that something I researched pretty hard actually came to fruition...the confidence-boost that resulted will really help going forward...
Cliff -- where in Western PA? I miss so many things about home, but like you, the woods (and the chance for some really nice finds) is certainly up there on the list!
go-rebels -- Fall or winter would be IDEAL. There's a second spot I researched, but just couldn't pin down due to my short time here, and the thickness of the woods (though I tried). It's a supply road to a fort that was built in 1778 for the Revolutionary War. Most of the supply road has been developed in modern times, but the last 1/4 mile or so runs down a steep hill, through a cut/valley, and I know for certain the cut/valley that the road ran through. The next time I'm here in the late fall, I will most certainly be trying again...
...I also researched like crazy, and was able to narrow down the site of "camp #6" of Col. Henry Bouquet's march through my area in 1764. He marched 1500 men and 1200 pack horses, and made a 50-ish acre camp each night. I zeroed in on three of the camps, each about 10 miles apart, but two are built over now -- one by a shopping center and the second, a country club. The third, though, camp #6, is in the middle of nowhere. I found it, and slowly was able to zero in on the exact spot. BINGO! BUT...one of my finishing touches was to find the camp site on the 1:25,000 topo map and plan my hunt -- and in doing so, happened to notice that the area is now within a State Nature Preserve....ARGH!!!
Dew -- you are right, you just never know! By the way, which old "atlas" are you referring to? Do you just mean old atlases in general, or is there something more that I should know about?!
Steve
Cliff -- where in Western PA? I miss so many things about home, but like you, the woods (and the chance for some really nice finds) is certainly up there on the list!
go-rebels -- Fall or winter would be IDEAL. There's a second spot I researched, but just couldn't pin down due to my short time here, and the thickness of the woods (though I tried). It's a supply road to a fort that was built in 1778 for the Revolutionary War. Most of the supply road has been developed in modern times, but the last 1/4 mile or so runs down a steep hill, through a cut/valley, and I know for certain the cut/valley that the road ran through. The next time I'm here in the late fall, I will most certainly be trying again...
...I also researched like crazy, and was able to narrow down the site of "camp #6" of Col. Henry Bouquet's march through my area in 1764. He marched 1500 men and 1200 pack horses, and made a 50-ish acre camp each night. I zeroed in on three of the camps, each about 10 miles apart, but two are built over now -- one by a shopping center and the second, a country club. The third, though, camp #6, is in the middle of nowhere. I found it, and slowly was able to zero in on the exact spot. BINGO! BUT...one of my finishing touches was to find the camp site on the 1:25,000 topo map and plan my hunt -- and in doing so, happened to notice that the area is now within a State Nature Preserve....ARGH!!!
Dew -- you are right, you just never know! By the way, which old "atlas" are you referring to? Do you just mean old atlases in general, or is there something more that I should know about?!
Steve
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Re: Visiting family back home in PA -- and was blessed with a priceless hunt! July 24, 2013 02:53AM |
possum -- that's outstanding! (The large cent...)
I was swinging my Explorer SE Pro...I love that machine...
Cliff -- Beaver County also? WOW...some coincidence! I, like you, spent loads of time in the woods and waters here -- Lawrence, Beaver, Butler, and Washington Counties, as well as McKean and Warren counties up north. While my first introduction to a metal detector was my grandfather's machine, when I was a kid, I didn't really get into the hobby big-time until I moved out of state (unfortunately). However, I have always been an outdoors/hunting and fishing enthusiast, so more often that not, it was woods and waters for me.
Maybe someday we'll be visiting home at the same time, and can hook up for a hunt...
Steve
I was swinging my Explorer SE Pro...I love that machine...
Cliff -- Beaver County also? WOW...some coincidence! I, like you, spent loads of time in the woods and waters here -- Lawrence, Beaver, Butler, and Washington Counties, as well as McKean and Warren counties up north. While my first introduction to a metal detector was my grandfather's machine, when I was a kid, I didn't really get into the hobby big-time until I moved out of state (unfortunately). However, I have always been an outdoors/hunting and fishing enthusiast, so more often that not, it was woods and waters for me.
Maybe someday we'll be visiting home at the same time, and can hook up for a hunt...
Steve