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What I bought with my clad finds in 1999:

WeissWeiss Posts: 9,941 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Metal Detecting

Came across some stuff today I thought you guys might enjoy.

I was pretty heavy into detecting back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I decided early on that I would cash my clad in at the end of each season and buy the type of coins I wish I could find with the money. It was a fun way to motivate me to get out there and swing, and I still have all the finds. This would have been with the Fisher CZ6a, the Minelab Explorer SX (I think), and the Tesoro Sidewider Umax.

1999 was my most aggressive year. I found 2357 clad coins in addition to the silver and obsolete coins I kept separate. That probably represents over 5,000 total targets dug if not more. Here's the old school photo of those finds, and the totals I wrote on the back. Over 1,000 cents! :o

The total was $162.99.

So at the end of the year as always, I'd clean my clad by hand (thick plastic jug, aquarium gravel, vinegar, lots of shaking). Headed to my local B&M and bought these two pieces. 1880-S PCGS MS65 Morgan dollar, 1935 PCGS MS64 Peace dollar:

A little hard to tell, but the Morgan has pretty rainbow toning on the reverse, and the Peace dollar has unusual and nice violet and gold toning around the edges. I sent the Peace to CAC a few years ago with a lot of other stuff, hence the green bean.

Anyway, the Morgan was more heavily valued at the time, so I likely paid $90 or $100 for it, then the balance of $70 or so for the Peace.

Fast forward to 2021. MS65 common date Morgans have risen, but not too terribly much. A quick scroll through eBay shows a comparable coin would sell for about $150 +/-, maybe a bit more for the toning and older slab.

But the Peace dollar has risen pretty dramatically. A very similar PCGS MS64 CAC sold in December for $525. So maybe on a good day I could get $600 to $700 for that $162.99 worth of clad I found back in 1999 (plus the cac fee). Probably not as much as the stock market would have given me. But sometimes you need trophies more than electronic credit. Maybe I need a new Tesoro... ;)

We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
--Severian the Lame

Comments

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Weiss... That is great .... looks like your found treasure paid off... and further appreciated in value. Cheers, RickO

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