Wonder Coin

Ill Digger

Moderator
Weekend trip to Wisconsin:
We took the boys along to Wisconsin for the weekend. We went up to celebrate my parents anniversary. They were celebrating by going on a weekend fishing trip on thew Mississippi. We stayed at a old roadside motel. It looked late 50's early 60's. I asked the owners how old it was. The owner confirmed. Building started in 1960 and finished in '61. I then asked if I could detect it. :cheesysmile: The wife said "What ever makes you happy. Go ahead." :thumbsup01: Friday night I was only able to scare up one wheatie. Knowing there are wheats in the area I hunted for another hour and a half Saturday night after fish cleaning and grilling dinner. After dinner I found 2 more wheats and a 1957d Washington quarter! :happydance01:

Wisconsin motel finds. :lol:



Monday:
A guy at work recently told me about a old house scheduled to be torn down in the town he lives in. He knows the owner and ask for permission for me to detect it before the demo began. The owner said "sure". Monday after work I had some free time. So headed to that town. The only thing, it's a half-hour drive in the opposite direction from home. I knew my time was limited. I'd only have about a hour and a half to hunt before darkness set in. Pulling up I got butterflies in my stomach! :drool: Nice old house, short grass, HUGE yard, on a corner lot, mongo trees in the front.... everything you want in a old house site.;) Second hole was a wheat at 2 inches.
In the 2 hours I was there (yeah I was hunting in the dark for a while. :crazy::lol:) managed 5 silvers!!
2 Rosies and 3 Mercs!! 10 wheaties.



I also found a couple of tokens. This one is a old auto parts one.
Front:


Reverse:


It was totally dark out and I was heading (slowly) towards my truck and I got a jumpy, broken 12-39, 40, 41 @ about 5 inches. And out pops this disk. As I'm cleaning it off I seen it had a square hole in it. A Chinese cash coin? Too big. It was so dark I couldn't see anything hardly. But as I was wiped some dirt off I seen some letters! :shocked04: Rubbed a little more and seen a swastika. :shocked01:
The whole hour long drive home all I could think about was the swastika coin/ token thing!

Heres the first side I seen in the dark.
Wonder Coin


The other side.
Thurston Magic


I can't find too much on line about the "Wonder Coin". Just that it's a prop from Thurston the Great. One site was an magician token auction site. Theres one expired auction that had a $50 starting bid!!
It's listed as:
Description

[TD="bgcolor: #586077, colspan: 2"]
pix.gif
[/TD]

[TD="colspan: 2"]Known as the Thurston Wonder coin. It reads, "Thurston Magic" with diamonds on one side and "Wonder Coin" with swastikas on the other. Listed by Kuethe as MT325. Made of Zinc.

VERY SCARCE - NO RESERVE[/TD]

Thanks for lookin' & HH!! :peace:
 
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Nice going Timmy . It's always great when an unexpected opportunity shows up and pays off .:thumbsup01:
Thanks man! Yeah this co-worker got me permission one other time too. It had potential but it was infested with iron! Big time! So he's trying. Can't complain about that!:lol: And the places are old.:yes:
I'll be going back here for sure! I don't know when the demo date is. So it's , Hit it hard, till I can't anymore.:detecting:
 
I was drooling over your description of the house being torn down :drool:. Very nice hunting and the two tokens are really cool.

Tim, 5 silvers and 10 wheats is a great hunt......:thumbsup02:
 
Those were a couple of very productive hunts, Tim, especially at the old house! :cheering:

Five silver dimes, WOW! :loveit:

I really like both of the tokens. So much interesting history in the ground, you never know what you're going to find!

Congrats on all the great finds! :clapping:
 
There was a magician by that name and probably gave or sold those tokens at his shows. They are kind of rare these days. Seen a couple on auction sites and on one site they got as high as 48ish dollars but did not meet the reserve. I believe the other one was 100 bucks starting price. So a nice token and a house I would sneak out of work early for :lol:
 
Thats a nice haul for one weekend. 5 silvers at one house and a Washington at the Motel. how awesome is that.
I really like that automotive token. Great job Tim, CONGRATS
 
Excellent hunt. Always nice to have friends seeking permissions for you. Hope you buy him a couple :beerbuddy: In return. Looking forward to your next post after your return to the old house.
 
Great to see you getting some time detecting Tim , congrats on some nice silver but i love the "wonder coin" and its story .:smitten:
 

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