ben_ks
Full Member
For the past few weekends I've been working a street & sidewalk tearout in an older part of my town. I've been having pretty good luck, but I'm not the only one hunting it, and pickins are gettin pretty slim.
Before this weekend I'm up to 5 silver dimes, a war nickel, a V nickel, an Indian Head, and countless wheaties. So, a pretty good spread of dates from the late 1800s to the mid 1950s.
This past weekend, on the edge of the torn-out sidewalk I was getting a weak 9 - 10 signal on my Equinox, so I decided to take a look. I really figured it was a piece of trash, but then out popped this tiny gold disc. Immediately I could see the ridges around the edge, so I figured it was maybe a clock gear. After picking it up though, I could see a picture had been etched into it. Gold jewelry, I thought? Because this was almost pre-dawn, and there were some "interesting" folks walking around, I just stuck it into my pocket and went about my day.
Later, I ran into a couple fellow detectorists and showed it to them. One made the comment that it could be a gold coin that was shaved down so it could be etched. I thought, yeah sure, but I liked his optimism!
Upon getting it home and under the loupe though... Is it??? Could it be???
Being pretty new to this game, I know NOTHING about old gold coins. I do find it interesting that it's exactly 13 millimeters, which is the same as a $1 Liberty Head. Also, the ridges around the edge are perfect like they were stamped, while the etching is not. Also, if it were a piece of jewelry, wouldn't it have a karat stamp, and maybe some shine left?
What do you think? Did I really find a gold coin?
Before this weekend I'm up to 5 silver dimes, a war nickel, a V nickel, an Indian Head, and countless wheaties. So, a pretty good spread of dates from the late 1800s to the mid 1950s.
This past weekend, on the edge of the torn-out sidewalk I was getting a weak 9 - 10 signal on my Equinox, so I decided to take a look. I really figured it was a piece of trash, but then out popped this tiny gold disc. Immediately I could see the ridges around the edge, so I figured it was maybe a clock gear. After picking it up though, I could see a picture had been etched into it. Gold jewelry, I thought? Because this was almost pre-dawn, and there were some "interesting" folks walking around, I just stuck it into my pocket and went about my day.
Later, I ran into a couple fellow detectorists and showed it to them. One made the comment that it could be a gold coin that was shaved down so it could be etched. I thought, yeah sure, but I liked his optimism!
Upon getting it home and under the loupe though... Is it??? Could it be???
Being pretty new to this game, I know NOTHING about old gold coins. I do find it interesting that it's exactly 13 millimeters, which is the same as a $1 Liberty Head. Also, the ridges around the edge are perfect like they were stamped, while the etching is not. Also, if it were a piece of jewelry, wouldn't it have a karat stamp, and maybe some shine left?
What do you think? Did I really find a gold coin?
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nice dig!!!
