Best Day Ever....900 year-old pocket spill!!

stewart73

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Went detecting along another old mountain path that runs from Bishamon Temple (http://www.taleofgenji.org/bishamondo.html) to Nanzenji Temple (http://www.sacred-destinations.com/japan/kyoto-nanzenji.htm) in Kyoto. I wasn't expecting to find much but figured that if I did hit something it was going to be old. About halfway along the walk I hit a solid 12-25 on the Etrac and bent down to dig in the ancient clay. Just about an inch under the surface and out popped a little stack of coins, all fused together. I was super-excited and assumed that they were Edo Period (1603~1868) coins called Kanei Tsuho like ones I have found before. They would have been strung together on a string and carried that way. I threw them in the finds pouch and kept on for the whole day.

When I got home I gently brushed the coins and eased them apart and realized instantly that the kanji (Chinese characters) were very different from the regular Edo coins. I started to get excited and my wife and I (she's Japanese) spent about an hour looking the coins up on the internet. Turns out they are almost 1000 years old (and one almost 1400 years old)! :wow: Back when Japan used coins from China. Strange that whoever lost these had one coin that was 400 years older than the others but that's how it was...all seven glued together with time and corrosion. Still pretty excited and can't wait to get back out there. Definitely my oldest find ever!!! :D:D:D

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Can you host 100 guys in your house? We'll be there next month.
 
WOW! CONGRATULATIONS...looks like you've found a great spot there. Makes you wonder how you'd loose that many coins at once, being so heavy and all...
 
Man oh man! The stories those coins could tell! Awesome save! You just never know where coins may be lurking just right under our feet!

Congrats on that very cool find!
G2M
 
Congratz Stewart!! :shock: You have made awesome finds there and I appreciate you sharing them here!!:yes:
 
WOW! I am so surprised that such an ancient items safe in the earth - it was waiting for YOU a 1000 years!!!!!!! Great!!! I have no words...... just curiously how much it could cost?
 
Congratulations on the super old pocket spill find! That is really impressive!
 
Right on! Very cool to see the imported coins from China. If you're not worried about the value and want to highlight the details of the coins, soak them in citric acid for a couple of hours and take a soft toothbrush to them. Daiso (100 yen shop) sells powdered citric acid or just use pure lemon juice. Congrats on some neat finds.
 

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WOW those are old, fantastic find. This should go into the best of the best here on Friendly. One question, are they going to let you keep them living in Japan or are they going to send you off to the reactors to clean up the radio active material? :roll:
 
that's an amazing find! :shock:
what's your best guess about it? maybe some plunder of some sort? where some of them are 400 years apart, did they keep coins in circulation for that long, or do you figure it was (part of) someone's treasure?
thanks for sharing your story! :yes:

Pete
 
that's an amazing find! :shock:
what's your best guess about it? maybe some plunder of some sort? where some of them are 400 years apart, did they keep coins in circulation for that long, or do you figure it was (part of) someone's treasure?
thanks for sharing your story! :yes:

Pete

Good questions...I'm not sure about the answers though. ;) It is also odd that, as far as I can tell, each coin is different. Usually when you find a group of those kind of coins together they are of the same type. Perhaps this was somebody's little collection? I guess I'll never know but it's fun trying to imagine the circumstances long, long ago. :yes:
 
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