Today's Coin Find 1 1

[J P M]

A good friend is painting a house in a town called Mashpee it is the home of the Wampanoag Native Americans. Most of the towns are very old where I live. So, he is outside walking to the truck, and he spots an old rusty quarter laying in the black dirt and passes it by. After about two or three times seeing in the dirt, he said ah what the heck and picks it up. After seeing the coin, he gives me a shout  

[Just Bob]

That's the kind of parking lot coin you want to find!

[J P M]

Yes, it is a cool find. He is an avid golfer, so he is going to use it for a marker. I told him. There is no chance of saving it. but it may look better if he were to soak it in some olive oil for a month. Then use it as you wish. 

[Mike Meenderink]

Soak that coin in mineral oil for 2 days then remove and rinse with distilled water. All the verdigris, dirt and corrosion that will come off will be off.

[Fenntucky Mike]

Awesome find. 👏 I wish your friend was my friend. 😆 

[powermad5000]

Finding a 30's or 40's nickel in circulation is one thing, but that is a heck of a find in the dirt! I wasn't expecting that when you said quarter.

I don't know if it is worth trying to determine if it is any of the roughly 20 varieties for the year (according to the NGC description for the year, the N-23 is the scarce variety over any of the others).

[R__Rash]

This reminds me of an old story I heard camping one time, hope you don’t mind if I share. I’ll tell it in the first person context like I heard it….

A friend of mine’s wife told me she was getting Joey a water proof metal detector for his birthday. I told her ‘great”, I won’t have to hear how bad he wants one anymore. He wanted a water proof one because he thought it would help him to pan in the right places.

She got the thing, cost her two weeks tip money. She was pretty proud of it and asked me if I could think of a way to help him get the feel of it down on his birthday.

I said sure. I have a bunch of junk silver dimes, quarters and old copper wheat cents we can put out in the yard and he can hunt his little heart out. I went over and stomped several dimes, a few quarters and a handful of wheats all over the back yard.

Needless to say on party day, after several toast, many salutes, a burger and some home made lager the detector   came out of hiding and was a hit. He in his blurry, found out how to turn it on and get in in auto mode. We all cheered him on as he staggered out through his wife’s beautiful lawn and garden in search of a fine tuned tone. 
He only had to go 10 ft, (about 20 minutes) to find the first wheat. He yelled we’re rich after digging up the lawn to sift out the penny.

I had to leave early and my driver (Mrs. Rash) told me on the way home she was not sure that salting the back yard was a great plan on my part. Just in different words.

to make a long story short I failed to tell him before I left that the coins were planted around the yard for learning how to run his new tool. His wife on the other hand, I found out rather bluntly, had tried to tell him many times but we all know how men are when SOMEONE tries to tell us how to run our tool.?

I got back there when the visual of possibilities came to me (3 days later) only to find that beautiful lawn and garden with holes dug everywhere, some 2 feet deep, a screen box for sifting, a pick and a post hole digger.

I have not been back since, I hope she will forgive me someday. I would really like to know if he found them all or not!

 

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by R__Rash

[J P M]

Thanks R_Rash.  I worked for many years as an electrician here on old Cape Cod and there have been many a old coin found on job sites just laying around One of the carpenters I used to work with decided to buy a nice $4000 detector. I can't say what the homeowners' yards look like, but I think he replaces the divots. 

[J P M]

On 12/13/2023 at 12:18 AM, powermad5000 said:

Finding a 30's or 40's nickel in circulation is one thing, but that is a heck of a find in the dirt! I wasn't expecting that when you said quarter.

I don't know if it is worth trying to determine if it is any of the roughly 20 varieties for the year (according to the NGC description for the year, the N-23 is the scarce variety over any of the others).

Yes powermad, it would take some time to find out due to so much corrosion. Has anyone seen a comment by dprince lately. This coin would be just the thing he would eat up with so many varieties. 

[Mike Meenderink]

On 12/12/2023 at 11:34 PM, R__Rash said:

This reminds me of an old story I heard camping one time, hope you don’t mind if I share. I’ll tell it in the first person context like I heard it….

A friend of mine’s wife told me she was getting Joey a water proof metal detector for his birthday. I told her ‘great”, I won’t have to hear how bad he wants one anymore. He wanted a water proof one because he thought it would help him to pan in the right places.

She got the thing, cost her two weeks tip money. She was pretty proud of it and asked me if I could think of a way to help him get the feel of it down on his birthday.

I said sure. I have a bunch of junk silver dimes, quarters and old copper wheat cents we can put out in the yard and he can hunt his little heart out. I went over and stomped several dimes, a few quarters and a handful of wheats all over the back yard.

Needless to say on party day, after several toast, many salutes, a burger and some home made lager the detector   came out of hiding and was a hit. He in his blurry, found out how to turn it on and get in in auto mode. We all cheered him on as he staggered out through his wife’s beautiful lawn and garden in search of a fine tuned tone. 
He only had to go 10 ft, (about 20 minutes) to find the first wheat. He yelled we’re rich after digging up the lawn to sift out the penny.

I had to leave early and my driver (Mrs. Rash) told me on the way home she was not sure that salting the back yard was a great plan on my part. Just in different words.

to make a long story short I failed to tell him before I left that the coins were planted around the yard for learning how to run his new tool. His wife on the other hand, I found out rather bluntly, had tried to tell him many times but we all know how men are when SOMEONE tries to tell us how to run our tool.?

I got back there when the visual of possibilities came to me (3 days later) only to find that beautiful lawn and garden with holes dug everywhere, some 2 feet deep, a screen box for sifting, a pick and a post hole digger.

I have not been back since, I hope she will forgive me someday. I would really like to know if he found them all or not!

 

 

This describes my father perfectly. Give them ANY glimmer of treasure and it's all over...lost in the fever.

[powermad5000]

On 12/13/2023 at 5:32 AM, J P M said:

Yes powermad, it would take some time to find out due to so much corrosion. Has anyone seen a comment by dprince lately. This coin would be just the thing he would eat up with so many varieties.

The problem with that @J P M is dprince would direct you to the various varieties of Capped Bust Half Dollars when what you have is a Braided Hair Large Cent. He never stayed on topic because his threads were self serving, not helpful to the OP's or the community in general.

[The Neophyte Numismatist]

Woah momma - that's one heck of a find in the wild.  Congrats to your friend, hopefully the soak in acetone and/or oil will help improve it a little... but, I would be thrilled to find something like that in the street.