Another Fire Victim....I'm at Peace With It

Some of you might remember that I found a fire damaged 1876 CC Seated Liberty dime at a permission a little over a week ago. I went out to the same permission today to sneak a hunt in between rain storms. I wasn't having much luck outside of trash - a couple old ceramic fuses (patent number was awarded in 1950), lots of tire valve stems, and a couple other doodads.

Thunder started rumbling in the near distance as I finished up the side yard, so I moved to a new spot a little closer to my car in case I needed to make a fast dash through a sudden downpour. Within a couple minutes, I got a diggable signal that turned out to be a neat old brass item...maybe a hair clip?

Then immediately after that, I got over a mostly solid 90 signal showing 6" down. I opened the plug, and at the 5" mark my pinpointer only just started to sound off. Hmmm...this might be big junk - it's deeper than expected. I got up and swept the hole again with the detector - still solid 90 one way, but turning 90 degrees brought a little hiccup to the tone, and I saw the VDI dip momentarily to 40s. "Well, I've gone this far, may as well see what it is", I thought. I dug down a little more, just past 6". The pinpointer was sounding off in a pretty large area at the bottom of the hole - this was looking even more like a "bigger than coin" target.

The thunder was closer now, and the rain started falling again - just one or two drops at first, but noticeably increasing in intensity with each passing second. I almost considered closing the hole and calling it a day - but figured "nah, it's the last hole - may as well finish". A couple more small scoops, and I suddenly saw something big, round, and dark pop and then quickly settle back to the bottom. I reached in to retrieve it and placed it on my dirt pile - at first I thought it was a medal of some kind, but then I noticed the reeding around the edge.

Suddenly, I knew this was dollar coin - but I could also tell right away I had another fire victim. Now that I know exactly what a fire damaged silver coin looks like, the evidence was immediately recognizable - a pebbled and warped surface, distinct staining. Despite all the damage, I was able to make out just enough vague detail to ID it as a Peace Dollar. The detail is actually a little easier to see in the dirty pics...the spikes of Liberty's crown, the shape of her head, and a "2" to likely nail it down as minted in "192?". On the back, you can barely make out the curve of the Eagle's breast, and some rays of the sunrise at the edge of the coin.

It would have been an awesome find - Peace Dollars are just such beautiful coins! It easily would have been one of my absolute favorite finds. Instead, it might just be one of my most disappointing Still, it's big silver...and I can technically say I've found a Peace Dollar! So I've made my peace with the find