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Nice Metal Detecting Find (by my wife)...

Started by TJ,

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TJ

TJ

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My wife retired a couple weeks ago and now has time for passtimes like gardening, metal detecting. Today she went metal detecting with her grandson at a nearby rustic park.

 

Well, she dug up a 1921-S Morgan dollar. Yup. I could not believe my eyes. (Will post pic later.) Hardcore MDers spend their lives waiting for one of them to pop up. The condition is amazing. Going by Redbook I'd say we have perhaps a MS-63.

 

Now, after looking at Redbook I'm wondering, why there were no silver dollars minted between 1904-1921?

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TJ

TJ

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I don't take a good picture (not tech-savy), but here's the actual coin dug today...I can't capture the details.

f7c0754e.jpg

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JamminJ

JamminJ

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Nice score!

 

Your wife seems to get some good hits. Ah, to live a life of leisure...

 

-JamminJ

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TJ

TJ

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Nice score!

 

Your wife seems to get some good hits. Ah, to live a life of leisure...

 

-JamminJ

She also dug the 1896-S Barber dime (approx value $300) a couple years back with a cheapie detector I got her because she wanted her own detector instead of just following me around. My best find (from the same park as this dollar) is an 1899-S Barber half. She's skunkin' me!

 

Yeah, the leisure life, but being able to afford to let her stay home is its own reward cloud9.gif...(plus her UNION pension helps, long live the union).

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TomB

TomB

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Nice find. I realize that the coins of 1921 were made from different hubs, however, your coin looks a bit flat to be MS, I would go with AU if there is no damage to it.

 

As for the 17 year gap in mintage for the Morgan, I believe that an Act of 1898 required that all silver bullion purchased under the previously passed Sherman Act (I don't remember when the Sherman Act was passed) be coined as dollars. This happened by 1904 and there were no more dollars minted as they weren't even needed previously but were mandated by Congress. Many of these coins were later melted, prior to 1918, and another act called for minting silver dollars to replace the numbers that had been melted with newly purchased bullion silver. Politics.

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TJ

TJ

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Thanks Tom for the explanation of the gap years. And if you could see the coin in person, you might up your assessment. The picture doesn't do it justice. It's actually very white and "shiny" with very few marks. Wasn't in circulation long.

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kryptonitecomics

kryptonitecomics

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I agree that their is little chance it's still uncirculated since it was dug out of the ground, but as a previous owner of a metal detectator....I am simple amazed that folks can still find coins like this 893whatthe.gif

 

 

I searched around Orlando fofr a year or so and the best I did was some beat up wheat pennies and a bunch of old 1965/66 clad quarters foreheadslap.gif

 

Great score on that one 893applaud-thumb.gif

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jtryka

jtryka

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Great find TJ! I was at the county fair over the weekend, and there was a metal detector booth in the commercial exhibits (read: people selling all sorts of stuff), and they had a jar full of coins that were found with their detectors (I don't recall the brand). I thought about it for a minute, but I just don't have the time to have as much fun with a detector as I should! Someday...

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TJ

TJ

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Great find TJ! I was at the county fair over the weekend, and there was a metal detector booth in the commercial exhibits (read: people selling all sorts of stuff), and they had a jar full of coins that were found with their detectors (I don't recall the brand). I thought about it for a minute, but I just don't have the time to have as much fun with a detector as I should! Someday...

Jtryka and all, I am still amazed at her find. She found it about a half inch down in a manicured lawn in the park next to a volley ball-sand court. That place has been searched many times. Could a volleyball player have dropped it? But why would a player be carrying a 1921 Morgan dollar. This will go down as A Great Mystery. Great Find, too.

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