April 29, 2015: 100+ year old GOLD! Also a little silver
pcgs69
Posts: 4,377 ✭✭✭✭
Tried a couple of old favorites last night. First place was pounded hard with the e-trac previously. Barely a signal there, but did squeak out an 1899 V nickel. Also got an old pocket knife. Since it was slow, moved onto a second spot that's been great in the past. As expected things were very slow, but within 20 minutes got an unsuspecting low tone. I must have been over this exact spot 10 times previously, but the detector picked it this time. A nice yellow-tone ring came out. Totally unexpected, and it looked good, but didn't want to clean it there.
A few minutes later got a flat button. And later got a 1934 buffalo nickel. Near the end got a merc. Upon cleaning later that night, 1916 showed on the obverse. Flipped it over and saw a mint mark and resembled a D!!! Ran to find the 10x. But it's just an S. Had to check several times to make sure, and it's still an S. A bit of a disappointment, but still excited for silver.
Took more pics than necessary of the ring before cleaning. After taking the dirt off, couldn't find any markings, so I'm assuming it's pre-1907-ish. From what I understand, that's when it was mandated to put a karat marking on jewelry. Not sure much else can be determined as a plain gold band is a generic design. Nice to have the first gold of the year, and hopefully not the last!
Video here: Ring Video here
On a sort of related note, here is a video breaking up a cookie coin. Kind of like opening up a Russian Nesting Doll eh? Cookie Coin break-up
HH all!
A few minutes later got a flat button. And later got a 1934 buffalo nickel. Near the end got a merc. Upon cleaning later that night, 1916 showed on the obverse. Flipped it over and saw a mint mark and resembled a D!!! Ran to find the 10x. But it's just an S. Had to check several times to make sure, and it's still an S. A bit of a disappointment, but still excited for silver.
Took more pics than necessary of the ring before cleaning. After taking the dirt off, couldn't find any markings, so I'm assuming it's pre-1907-ish. From what I understand, that's when it was mandated to put a karat marking on jewelry. Not sure much else can be determined as a plain gold band is a generic design. Nice to have the first gold of the year, and hopefully not the last!
Video here: Ring Video here
On a sort of related note, here is a video breaking up a cookie coin. Kind of like opening up a Russian Nesting Doll eh? Cookie Coin break-up
HH all!
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Comments
Excellent pictures.
That ring must have got your blood pumping, it's nice to find gold, particularly on land (dirt hunting).
I think I've managed a total of three gold rings on land over a number of years. Two women's rings and one man's ring.
The rest all came from beach hunts. One year in particular in fact, 2011, when we had a pretty good cut in the sand, I came up with
somewhere around a dozen gold rings over the course of about five weeks. Everything from baby rings to men's wedding bands to very very old high school rings. That was a good summer.
Congratulations on your finds!
Boy, my heart skipped a beat when I saw the mintmark on the reverse of that 1916 Merc! I know yours did, too!
This one had me going. It had a clear "D" but the date on the obverse was... well... tantalizing, you might say.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Searching for gold in the grass is a numbers game...dig enough foil, bottle caps, pull tabs, and other misc junk and gold will show up eventually.
Lordm, that merc sure does look like a 1916!
Ricko, hope your $20 shows up some day. Might need to head west for better odds.