Best Accidental Find WITHOUT a Metal Detector

don129

Years ago as a teenager growing up in Staten Island, NY a neighbor across the street from my parents home paid me to clean up her yard and put in an edging of bricks. This was in a neighborhood of home built around 1953.... I have no clue what was there before then.

I remember working all day on the yard and as I was digging in her front yard with a hand trowel for the brick edge, I heard the clink of metal against my trowel. I looked down and saw a coin. Turns out it was a large cent! It's corroded and the date is REALLY tough to discern, but it looks like 1830! Pics attached...

This happened almost 25 years ago.... but I remember it like yesterday.

What have you found without a detector?

Edit: I should have added... .I have NEVER found anything even remotely as interesting as this WITH my detector!!!!

Purple73

Have you tried cleaning it up at all? Not saying you should , just asking. Also, do you have larger photos of that?

Purple

jessecarlk

That's a cool story. I've found some nice things in my change; like a 1950-D Jefferson nickel, 1943 Steel Cent, 1934 Washington Quarter in AU, 1903 Liberty Head nickel. A friend of mine a few months ago found a 1909 Indian Head cent in change and another friend about 10 years ago found a Standing Liberty Quarter with no date.

The coolest thing that I found NOT in my change and without a metal detector was a 1934 Lincoln Cent in XF, just lying on the ground. Another thing that I found was in the mall. I was probably about 13 or 14 years old, but I was walking through the mall kicking something along the way. I kicked it maybe 3 or 4 times before realizing that it looked sort of familiar. I picked it up and it was about 25% of a Jefferson nickel cut into a crescent moon shape, still showing the date of 1988-P. I still have the piece these dozen or so years later.

But with a metal detector my best find is only a Lincoln cent from 1917. Still trying for the old stuff but I'm not that patient enough to dig any of the weaker, deeper beeps.

marym

Jesse, I find most of my oldest coins in the CoinStar machines. They don't seem to be able to read any .05-.25 prior to 1964 or wheat pennies. It must be the metal compounds? I have no idea, but I do know that if I keep my eyes open I can spy some great finds in the reject bins. -Mary

ricko

While hunting in Arizona about 28 years ago, I was moving up a dried gully when I saw a tributary wash. I decided to check it out and after about 25 yards it opened into a small grotto. I was intrigued since it looked as if it had been formed long ago due to water flow. I saw a crevice at the far end, (about six yards across) and I moved closer to examine it. I saw some detritus piled inside the crevice and reached in to move it about since it looked as if it had been placed there. Underneath the leaves etc, I found a small crystal skull, a little larger than a hardball. I still have it to this day. Cheers, RickO

SaorAlba

A 1926-S cent that I found in front of Mission San Jose in California - darkly toned but not corroded. My guess is that it had been there awhile in the dirt.

TonyCash

almost two months ago I went to one of those coin changing machines in the local super market (Publix ) and before i went to pour my bag of change in the machine I noticed a small coin stuck to the top ( where the change slides in and has a magnet in it to keep i guess non coin objects from going in ) and i went to push it in and realized it was magnetised to the side so I pick it up and it was a 1943 D steel penny! The first and only one I have found, so far.

lordmarcovan

Accidentally finding a large cent is totally cool, no matter what it looks like. Thanks for posting that.

Heck, I've tried hard to find them over the years with a metal detector, and so far only three have surrendered to my coil.

laserart

lordmarcovan

The paleolithic projectile point at the left side of this picture is probably my best accidental find.

I thought it was a few hundred years old when I accidentally dug it (while recovering a rusty nail from an old churchyard while detecting).

Turns out it is several thousand years old.



The unfinished or broken point at the right was also found in an old churchyard in Western NC, while digging up my first Seated dime (an 1884).

Both points are of a white quartzlike material, and are more translucent than the flash picture indicates.

Speaking of accidental Indian artifacts while digging Seated coins, I also once found a perfectly rounded Indian gaming stone in the hole with my first Seated quarter (an 1855).

I suspect these were all coincidence- the Indian artifacts had been in the ground for a very long time when the coins or other metal targets happened to be dropped next to them.

I do periodically find interesting bits of pottery, clay pipes, marbles, and other nonmetallic targets, while out detecting. Sometimes I spot them on the surface and sometimes they turn up in holes I've dug.

drwstr123

Found by my wife in Woodbridge, NJ, 4/13/09, in a ShopRite parking lot. 14K, YG, 4.2g. Clasp marked 'B&M', approx. 16".

metalmeister

Don129, Nice eyeball find!

Ricko, Pics of the crystal skull? Awesome!!!pre-historic!! Aztec? Maya????

My great accidental finds hiking on a mining claim on private land.

It was broken, had to glue it

robkool

A 1909 s Indian Cent XF details (corroded)... About 25 years ago in the back of my school's 6th grade classroom bungaloo.

IloiloKano

1944-S Wheatie while walking around outside at work on the SeaBee Base in Port Huneme, CA. During WWII the base was hopping with sailors headed out to sea in the Pacific, and since I found the cent where a bunch a corrugated metal had been removed, (the metal had been a temporary road surface), I figured it had lain there untouched since the war. It wasn't a great find, but circumstances and location made it a pretty good find anyway.

ColinCMR

I've found a 1924 Canadian cent in change, with some red, and a 2000-W prooflike twoonie in change that was removed from a set

in Scotland I found a 1939 1/2penny on the side of the road on an island in the Hebrides

A few weeks ago a friend and I found tons of petrified wood in Washington state, we couldn't identfy the species in the field, but it was fun to track it down, and we did uncover a nice block. The ''wood'' was about 15-16 million years old

BunchOBull

<< <i>I've found a 1924 Canadian cent in change, with some red, and a 2000-W prooflike twoonie in change that was removed from a set

in Scotland I found a 1939 1/2penny on the side of the road on an island in the Hebrides

A few weeks ago a friend and I found tons of petrified wood in Washington state, we couldn't identfy the species in the field, but it was fun to track it down, and we did uncover a nice block. The ''wood'' was about 15-16 million years old >>



That reminds me of a find I made when I was 9 or 10.

I was riding down the street on my bike when I passed over a few piles of horse dung that had been ran over by multiple vehicles. As I passed by one pile I looked down and saw a coin...being the little boy I was, I stopped, grabbed a stick, and popped the coin out of the pile...a 1920 Canadian Cent.

That in itself isn't too odd, but what makes the story strange is this occurred in Central Florida in 1993...that coin must have had an amazing history...



I received this in change in '06...

mrmojorisin

back when a friend of mine was in high school, he was a laborer for a brick layer. he was working on a new building that was being built in the old downtown of that city. one day he was bringing stuff to the dumpster, walking where the sidewalk would have been and noticed a twinkle on the ground. he bent down and picked up a $5 gold half eagle (late 1800s date) that had been kicked up when the ground was being dug up. i couldn't believe his luck! he still has this coin BTW. i told him i wanted it if he ever were to sell it.

C

mr3holesinone

When I was in junior high school we had an old gym where they held PE classes. The gym was from the turn of the century and used to be the gymnasium for the college. The college was open from the late 1800s until, I think, the 1930s or so.

Anyway... we were playing softball in the field behind the building and a classmate had slid into second base. We had these hard plastic square to use for bases. The slide had moved the base and as he replaced it he saw an old Liberty nickel just laying on the ground. I searched the area a few times and my best finds were a 1912-D penny and nickel found on the same day; both were in VF/XF too.

My detecting buddy's dad had an old metal detector and his dad used it a lot in the 1970s in our town. He had jars full of finds. The best he had was a gold coin he had found at the court house. I think it was a gold dollar from the 1880s. (It's been a long time since I've seen the coin, it may have been a $2.50 but I'm leaning towards a dollar coin. Either way, gold is Gold!)

I've found quite a few old bottles just laying on top of the ground while detecting. I don't think they're worth a lot but I brought 'em home. They're old and probably small medicine bottles I think.

GoldenEyeNumismatics

Found a 1972 Type 1 DDO Lincoln cent in circulation a couple years ago. That's the best I've ever found.

robec

About 30-35 years ago a friend and I were rummaging through an old house in the country that had been abandoned for years. There were stacks and stacks of old newspapers dating from the mid 1920's to mid 1930's. One of our local papers (Fresno) was from 1927 and the cover of the sports page had a photo of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig with some local baseball players. I had it for years, but don't know whatever happened to it. In the same house my friend found a 1921-S Walker in VF-XF condition under the floor heating grate.

Barberian

Over 30 years ago, I was walking along the edge of a lake (Herrick Lake, IL) when I spotted a coin in the sand underwater. I picked it up and was surprised to find a 1876-S dime in AU.

While digging in his garden in Great Neck, NY, my grandfather found: an 1809 US half cent, and 1854 US large cent, a 1782 Mexican Real, and an 1829 large Brazilian copper coin counterstamped 40 Reis.

unknowncomic

Found this gold (?) bangle in a restaurant parking lot last weekend. I am having it checked today.


Update:::::: not gold ...
Oh well maybe next time

OchoReales

Not numismatic, but as a young boy growing up in Northern New Jersey (ca. 1973), I unearthed in my backyard a 1928 Alfred E. Smith Presidential Campaign button. It has the most minimal amount of corrosion on the printed side and I still have it to this day!

Gary

KUCH

Fun find without detector, 29 yrs ago hill country of Texas, Was bird hunting on ranch, came upon a large junk pile. Briefly looked around and eye caught glimmer of metal on ground. 2 round, very dirty, metal boxes were found the size of a half dollar. When we got back to ranch house, they were cleaned low and be hold..... made of brass. Obverse with eagle and I can't remember what is on the reverse. The rim had alphabet on one side and numbers on the other. Some type of code piece?

After further research, these brass tokens (round boxes) were placed in cereal boxes in the 40's and 50's