Beautiful 1859-O Seated Dime

[Tony Two-Cent]

Saturday, May 17, 2014:

Yesterday I met up with a father and son that I had met through YouTube. Tom and Neil are great guys and it was a pleasure meeting them finally. They live in the Peoria, IL area and we agreed to meet up for some detecting. We picked a few small town parks in central Illinois to hunt. After finding only a few clad coins at the first park we decided to try the older town square park in the same town. At this park I found a Shield Nickel in the very first hole I dug. Hard to read the date but it might be 1869. We tried an old school yard and another park after that, and we all got lots more clad and I got a couple of wheaties. It was a pleasure hunting with Tom and Neil and I'm sure that we'll get together again.

Sunday, May 18, 2014:

Last night I got a call from zrickkid and he was going to be in central Illinois today so we decided to meet up for some metal detecting. We met at a small town park that was about halfway between our two locations. At this first park I found 2 Mercury Dimes and 2 silver Washington Quarters pretty quickly in one small area, but then the finds seemed to dry up.

After about 3 hours at this park we decided to move on to the next small town. To be honest, I was about to give up on this park because I had found only 1 wheat cent in about 45 minutes. But then I got an iffy 12-46 signal that was about 6" deep near the old bandstand. I cut a pretty deep plug and when I flipped it over there was a silver dime visible in the bottom of the plug. I could see stars on the obverse so I knew it was an oldie! I went back to my car and and got my cup of leftover diet Coke from McDonalds. Ricky shot video of me washing the coin off with Diet Coke. It was a really nice 1859-O Seated Dime! I couldn't believe it! Only 480,000 minted, it might be the lowest mintage coin I've ever found.

After that I found another Merc and then a Rosie at the last park we hunted. It was a pleasure meeting zrickkid and it's always nice to hunt with another forum member. He's a very nice guy and I hope to hunt with him again someday.

Here are all of the coins from this weekend:



Here are the keepers before cleaning:



Seven silvers today:



Here is the Shield Nickel I found yesterday:



And my best find of the weekend:



Thanks for looking and happy hunting!

[Full Metal Digger]

OMG Tony! That dime is INCREDIBLE! Congrats on all the oldies and silvers. Back then, that dime probably came up the Mississippi River on a barge. Wouldn't you love to know the story of how it came to be in that park? Again, congrats and Best Wishes, Dave.

[Timewarpdigger]

congrats!!! Awesome finds!!!!

[Skamaniac]

What a weekend! Love that 1859 dime!

[POKIE73]

after the 1877 indian i thought you had a find of a lifetime i guess you arent done yet congrats on your finds dennis

[The Rebel]

Awesome pile of silver Tony!

[Digger Don]

It's great when you can hunt with friends, it's eve better with results like like yours.
Congrats on that great looking Dime.

[zrickkid]

Tony it was a pleasure to hunt with you even if I did get skunked. Oh well I will try to load the video tomorrow. Pleasure meeting you for the first of what I am sure will be many more fun hunts in the future.

[Epi-hunter]

Tony, that dime is a beauty From the photos it looks like full liberty. Congratulations!!!!

[Tony Two-Cent]

OMG Tony! That dime is INCREDIBLE! Congrats on all the oldies and silvers. Back then, that dime probably came up the Mississippi River on a barge. Wouldn't you love to know the story of how it came to be in that park? Again, congrats and Best Wishes, Dave.

Thanks, Dave! I think it's the best US silver coin I've ever found. I had previously found an 1857 seated dime but it was extremely worn and didn't have a mint mark. This one is much nicer. Yes, I would love to know the story of how it came to be in that park.

congrats!!! Awesome finds!!!!

Thanks! It was a beautiful day weather-wise as well. Sunny and 68 degrees with very little wind. Perfect metal detecting weather!

What a weekend! Love that 1859 dime!

Thanks! I was glad to get some silvers after having a "silverless" Saturday.

after the 1877 indian i thought you had a find of a lifetime i guess you arent done yet congrats on your finds dennis

Thanks, Dennis! It's finds like this that keep us going. It's good to know that there are still some great coins out there just waiting to be found.

Awesome pile of silver Tony!

Thanks! I still can't catch up with DaddyDigger on silver count though!

It's great when you can hunt with friends, it's even better with results like yours.
Congrats on that great looking Dime.

Thanks, Don! You and Alec are doing really well lately too! You guys have now found more Barber Halves this year than I've found in my entire life!

Tony it was a pleasure to hunt with you even if I did get skunked. Oh well I will try to load the video tomorrow. Pleasure meeting you for the first of what I am sure will be many more fun hunts in the future.

I'm really glad that we were able to hunt together, Ricky. We will definitely have to do it again. Thanks for shooting the video of me with the dime.

Tony, that dime is a beauty From the photos it looks like full liberty. Congratulations!!!!

Thanks, Angie! It's one of my favorite finds in recent memory. It looks to be in VF to EF condition. And I didn't scratch it!

[del]

what a super coin Tony , its definitely finds like this that keep us interested in the hobby . Mega-congrats

Dan

[chief5709]

Wow! nice dime Tony Congrats! Great hunts this weekend!

[wisconsin digger]

What a nice stack of coins. great hunts. Congrats Wisconsin Digger

[giant056]

Totally awesome bunch of finds you got Tony

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[aloldstuff]

Tony, once again your post does not disappoint. That seated dime is a real beauty and I'll be looking for that video. on all your keepers.

[Tony Two-Cent]

what a super coin Tony , its definitely finds like this that keep us interested in the hobby . Mega-congrats

Dan

Thanks, Dan! It was nice meeting zrickkid and I'm glad that I was finally able to hunt with him. We had a very enjoyable day.

Wow! nice dime Tony Congrats! Great hunts this weekend!

Thanks, Chief! Without a doubt it is the nicest dime I've ever found. It definitely put a big smile on my face!

What a nice stack of coins. great hunts. Congrats Wisconsin Digger

Thanks! The stack of coins is mostly clad but I put the good stuff on top of the pile for the photo.

Totally awesome bunch of finds you got Tony

Thanks, Larry! It was encouraging to discover that there are still great old coins like that dime in public parks around here.

Tony, once again your post does not disappoint. That seated dime is a real beauty and I'll be looking for that video.

Thanks, Al! I just uploaded the video this morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55_2jsshpa4

[Bell-Two]

Wow what a haul of nice finds Tony! I like them all! But that dime....

[Tony Two-Cent]

Wow what a haul of nice finds Tony! I like them all! But that dime....

Thanks, Tony! It's almost as old as some of the great coins you find there in Ohio!

[zrickkid]

Tony I will try to post the video tonight as I will finally have some time.
Ricky

[coinnut]

Beautiful New Orleans mint dime. Nice catch Tony!