April 29, 2015: 100+ year old GOLD! Also a little silver
pcgs69
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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!
Charles III Album
Charles III Portrait Set
Charles IV Album
Charles IV Portrait Set
Spanish Colonial Pillar Set
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.
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.