Well yesterday was a day that I had dreamt of for a while. I was really starting to contemplate whether I was going to pull an 1800s silver by the end of the year... well... Screw 1800s silver!!!
My dad picked me up right from school, it was a beautiful day, we both wanted to hit the 1824 house again that's about a half hour drive... it was well worth it. While in the car I told him I'm going to dig old silver coinage today...
I got to the house site and the WHOLE day I worked slowly on picking out iffy signals with the 5x8 small DD coil out from iron... in a 30x20 foot area on the left side of the front of the house... it paid off pretty nicely.
This is the area I hit today.
The first signal I got I started gridding horizontally from the front of the house down to the road. My first signal was a very faint high tone... this turned out to be a nice Bucky ball. In the next strip of land to grid is where the coins came out. I first get a choppy signal with a little squeak mixed in. First I pull a plug out and dig two nails... couldn't find the alleged high tone so I assumed it was junk. I closed the plug up and got the higher tone separated again and found a green penny sized coin. This was a 1911 wheat cent. I keep heading down that little grid and bam a solid but faint coin hit. Turned out to be another green disk which this time was an Indian head, an 1865 to boot... bent, but I still love it! Then I get a blip of a signal... high tone blip 64-80 VDI I do a live dig on this one, there was not much iron next to this signal. I open the hole up and don't get a single hit with the Pro pointer. Assuming it was complete junk I turn the camera off and then was about to close the hole up when I see silver... the worlds smallest pizza slice!
I knew immediately what I had and my heart I think missed a beat... it was a freakin piece of eight!!! An eighth of a two reales - would've been 3.125 cents!!! Man that was an amazing feeling!!! I texted my dad a pic and told him to come ASAP! I wish he was there with me, he was getting gas quick...
After that I go onto my third pass picking up another wheat penny and I get a mid tone and it turns out to be 20 shards of aluminum can in one hole all separated so I had to pinpoint each one then after I get all the aluminum trash out I get a high tone 76 signal and it turns out to be this gorgeous flat button. Gold guilt was preserved well.
I get another signal and that turns out to be a musketball ... I can't believe I missed all this the first time I came here. The next diggable signal was the crappiest most iffy signal ringing up from iron in one direction and 60s in the other... I pull out a few nails from that hole and when I think I'm pulling out another nail I see a green disk roll past and see the shield. I thought I had another two cent piece at this point but then thought it could've been a shield nickel, my first ... well it rang up a solid nickel on my machine... so yes!!! my first shield nickel. Too bad it's super worn but I can finally cross that off my list
As I get closer to the road the signals start to deplete. I got a nice mid tone signal very faint once again... turned out to be this little two piece cuff button! I thought it was an eagle at first but it's a star.
It's starting to get dark now but I get one last signal right next to the road... another iffy one of course but it's not iron for a fact. I dug down in the hole and pulled out, you guessed it, a nail :/ but then I hear a solid mid tone after I pull that nail out... it was pretty shallow at 2" but when I saw it I knew immediately I had GOLD!!!! Wooooooo!!! Finally!!! It's definitely old gold too! It's a very fancy pocket watch winder! I don't know. But man this day was awesome!!! I'm still shaking
Any ideas on what age this piece if?
Upon James (RIDirtDigger) helping me with the dating, he concluded this was a Phillip V (first reign) from 1700-1724!!!!! Makes my new oldest coin by over 100 years!!! This coin very well could be over 300 years old!!! My first colonial silver ever!!!!!!!! So stoked right now!!!!!!!
Thanks for reading everyone. Good luck and Happy hunting!!!