Find Blows Mind 2 Years Later!

digginsilver

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2013
Messages
361
So this particular piece was found about 2 years ago at a lake I live near by. If some of you remember, this is the same lake I found a 1862 S Seated liberty dime at. After finding that dime, I became interested in the history of the lake and found out that there was a fort built in the early 1850s which is now at the bottom of the lake. It was built as a place for native americans and the settling gold miners to come to sign peace agreements on land, and was actually occupied by the north during the civil war.
Anyway, about 2 years ago I found this item by the waters edge. I thought immediately it was probably a piece of jewelry or some other kind of reproduction and it went into my pocket, and then sat in the back of my truck for probably about a year in a compartment in the back where I just throw my junk finds in to empty out later. I finally clean the compartment out about a year later and ALMOST threw this away thinking it was just junk but decided to hang onto it just because. I moved it into my junk box in my room where it sat for the next year, where I forgot about it until yesterday when I decided to go through my box to look at my junk I've accumulated. So I'm looking at this find and the longer I look at it the more I begin to think it looks real. The age, the weight, it just didn't seem like a junk reproduction to me so I started to look it up. And I found it.







This coin is a No Date (1835-70) Japanese 100 Mon (Tempo Tsuho) made out of copper, and depending on the year it was minted, it could be my oldest coin ive found and didnt even know it. Even after finding the coin i was still in doubt, until i learned these coins have a mintmark on the rim, which this one does.



After doing the research on the area it makes complete sense on why it would be in the area. The fort had migrant Chinese and Japanese workers who lived in their own settlement about a half mile to the west of the fort, where I found this coin. And the hole in the middle is what made me think it was junk, but after learning the history of the area, and finding all the fired bullets and round balls it clicked, this coin was used as target practice. There is so much history in this piece that is directly tied to the area that I'm from that it has just blown my mind! A Japanese migrant probably brought this over, and either they used it as target practice or lost it and was found by a soldier who used it as target practice. And coming to this realization almost two years after finding it is pretty amazing. And to think I almost threw it away. Just goes to show you should not throw away anything unless you know for sure what it is. It could be something with an inredible story to tell like this piece.

Here are a couple other pics with a round ball and a dropped 2 ringer that I found in the same area in the middle of the coin.





Thank you for looking everyone! Happy Hunting and remember to not throw away anything unless you know for sure it's trash, because it could very well be treasure!
 
Really great find and an awesome story to go with it! Thanks for share my it with us. (I've got 4 or 5 feed sacks full of the trash I've dug, and stories like this is why I've squirreled it away. You just never know!)

Congrats.
 
That is a beautiful find, write up and pics too! Thanks for a really cool post here, and congratulations on that sweet old coin!
Mud
 
Thank you everyone for the responses. And you're welcome for the post! It is my pleasure to share the history behind this amazing piece.

And on the ID of the coin, I spent hours looking through EVERY Chinese coin in my krause catalogues and couldn't find a match. I finally Google "oval chinese coin" and it was the first hit. Should've gone the Google route first. Oh well.

Thanks again everyone for the responses! HH!
 
What an interesting post DS . It's 5 AM and I'm having my morning coffee.
Thanks for taking the time to put it all together and share .
Some of the things we dig up & the Various odds and ends
Tell these great stories and I'm learning to appreciate them more and more every day.
HH , Dew
 
The wear looks more like it was worn as a necklace and slowly eroded evenly more than a bullet hitting it. If it had been a bullet it would have a raised portion on the exiting side. probably wore it to remind him of their homeland
 
Awesome find I found an old Chinese coin on the beach last year it took until this past winter to research it and it turns out it is from the 1600's and I found it my local beach in NJ
 
If the coin was shot, wouldn't the impact of the bullet bent the entire coin? Also, it appears that the shot was dead center. What is the likelihood of that happening? I'm thinking that the coin was bored out using a punch or drill to make that square hole into a round hole for wearing on a chain/string/leather etc. Done properly, that would expand the hole without bending the coin.

Still, pretty cool find.
 
I was thinking the same about there maybe being more damage to the coin if it was shot. I just figured it was a lucky shot and hit dead center of the hole so the coin didn't absorb most of the energy from the bullet. I didn't think of it being worn as a necklace though. That could very well be it too. But we'll never know. Just another cool and interesting part of this find.
 
Very nice find. Now imagin...back in japan during that time a 100 mon could buy you a round of sake and a bowl of ramen too.
 
Back
Top Bottom