what is the most unlikely place you have found an old coin ?

ebaybuyer

aside from fluke purchases, what is the most surprising place you have found an old coin ? ill go first.


found in a junk car at the local salvage yard

GotTheBug

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ricko

I found a 1942 Merc in an old stone wall in the woods...it was right at a corner in the wall, and it was coming apart there... I moved some of the loose stones to sit on while hunting.. and there it was. Cheers, RickO

cmerlo1

I found a 1925-S Mercury dime on the sidewalk in front of an old house that was being torn down. It was almost black in color, so I'm guessing it had been in a wall or under the flooring for some time.

WoodenJefferson

1812 half dollar wedged into a wide rim shot glass in my Great Uncles garage. I was fooling around in the when I was a kid, climbed up to the top of this china cabinet and there it was on top...all dusty and dirty. It was unrecognizable to me, but I knew it was money, old money, so old it did not have reeding, but letters stamped into the edge. After much trial, I finally got the coin out, my Uncle wanted the shot glass and he told me to keep the half dollar.

I passed it around in school and everyone was amazed that when this coin was made, the War of 1812 was raging on. It put things into perspective.

ebaybuyer

old coins should remind us of our mortality, they will look virtually the same today as they will in 200 years, long after all of us are dead.

ahopewell55

When I was a kid in Elizabeth, NJ back in the early 1950s, I was poking around the side of my house with a stick and found a large cent. I think it was from the 1840s. It was pretty well circulated, so I shined it up real good with a Brillo pad. It was the first large cent I ever saw. I think I eventually traded it for a few picture cards. At that time you could still find an occasional Indian cent and Barber silver in circulation. If you had a dollar, you could go to the local bank and exchange it for a silver dollar. I had several of those but eventually spent them all.

mr1931S

Found in a backyard with Bounty Hunter Land Star metal detector....Russia 1803 E.M. 5 Kopeks....the largest,and oldest, copper coin that I have ever found...

mr1931S

And then there was the time this happened:

I was at the hospital and went to the basement where the vending machines are.I put two one-dollar bills in a soda machine and selected a soda for my wife,cost $1.25.

The machine obligingly dispensed my change and, lo and behold, a dime flew out and hit the floor.I knew immediately that the dime was silver when it hit the floor.I picked the dime up and sure enough silver Roosie,date 1959-D.Three clad quarters,correct change for the soda purchase,were found in the coin tray.

Now,what is a dime,a silver dime from 1959,doing in a machine that is supposed to give nothing but quarters in change?

Flatwoods

I remember, when I was maybe 10 years old, my parents had a load of gravel delivered and spread on the driveway.
As soon as the truck left I went to inspect things. Not much else for me to do back then. (Boy how things have changed.)
As I was walking along, I spotted a coin. I picked it up and brushed the dirt off. It was a 1903 Indian cent.
It didn't make much sense for it to have come from the gravel quarry. I assumed that the truck had been hauling dirt from another location
and the coin was stuck in the truck.
You just never know.

MsMorrisine

I found an old roman coin on the floor next to the change machine in the bank

Jinx86

Helping my mom clean out a dresser of junk in the spare bedroom. Started emptying bins and a 1854 Large Cent dropped out. She said I could have it, I was 16 at the time and it was my first pre 1900 coin. Still have it as a gift from her.

FredWeinberg

Maybe someone from China can answer this
Thread's question in another 50-100 years.

When I went to China for the first time in
1983, we were hosted by the China Mint
and the Bank of China, as special guests.

They took us to the Great Wall, outside
of the Bejing area, (it's a lot more steep
than it looks in areas!!), and I did something
spur of the moment.......

(because we had gone to other countries too,
I had made up about a dozen off-center US
Cents, in 2x2 flips, to show them what I was
looking for - "errors like this", w/my name, etc.)

At a point on the Great Wall, I decided it would
be cool to throw over the wall (without the
2x2 flip) 5 Off Center US Cents, wondering as
I did it, what the heck would a future archaeologist
would think when they were doing work on the
wall in 50-10 years from now, and found these
darn Off Center US Cents at the base of the wall!

I do remember it was very windy, and I had to
really force my arm to throw them Down so they
wouldn't get caught in an updraft.

So, to answer the OP's question - I can't say what
was an unusual place to find an old coin, but I
certainly can say I know an unusual place that I
put a few..........

TPRC

I can't top that story. My most unusual acquisition came from Shanghai, in "bird alley" with a Taiwanese interpreter friend, from a Chinese coin dealer on the street, who first asked if the old coins were for me or the "American." I used to keep them on my dresser and to be honest, I have no idea what they were or where they are.

AUandAG

I and my brother each found dozens of old silver and many gold coins under the sidewalk in
Virginia City Nevada back in the 50's. Sidewalks were wooden and raised a foot or more above
the ground. We found an entry point and cleaned out a whole block in front of the Bucket
of Blood Saloon.

bob

PS: Our Mother took care of them and we never saw them again.

Virginia City sidewalks

DaveWcoins

When I was on vacation, I found a US off-center cent in the dirt at the base of the Great Wall of China. How it got there I'll never know.
Aliens? A powerful wind? Maybe some kid in the USA really did dig a hole in his back yard and made it all the way to China, where the off center cent fell out of his pocket?
I guess we'll never know.













Really cool thread, by the way.

johnny9434

i found a 1984 zincoln in a field that was used in the very early 1950s for music grounds. would that count?

Catch22

While not an unusual place, I've found coins in the fuse box of old houses several times. Back when houses used the screw in type of fuse, people would place a coin between the fuse and the box to create a connection.

zippcity

found a 1915 barber dime a few years ago along side the cart path at a local golf course.

OldEastside

I knew this guy that claimed to find a 31 s Lincoln behind a blown screw in fuse at an abandoned house

Steve

jessewvu

I found a 1943 steel cent in a piano I was refinishing.

ebaybuyer

everything counts, there is no right or wrong answer, just experiences to share. ive searched placed where old coins should be with no luck, and found some in places I wouldn't expect to find anything

Type2

I found some in a tree once. There was a split in it and a property marker on the tree and in the split there was some coins stuck in it I put some new 2005 quarters in it as well but did not pull out the others to look at the dates. I owned the 50 acres that that tree was sitting on back then it was at the Donner's Pass area and there was a plaques on it telling the story of what happen crazy. After the kids saw that they did not want to stay in the cabin any more so I sold it.

mustangmanbob

I am a bit of a scrounger.

Latest is an 1852 Gold $1 dollar coin, with a necklace loop and hole in the top, in the $3 junk Jewelry box last weekend garage sale Viking expedition.

Auto Swap Meet, last month, 7 Morgans for $10 each, several years ago, many book of coins for sale, silver dimes at 50 cents, Silver halves from $2.50 and up, IIRC, and Sac Dollars, $1 each or 6 for $5.

In the attic of our very old house in New York, when I was a kid, an 1883 Swiss coin.

I scrap a lot of cars, and find lots of coins in them, and since I work with 1965 - 1968 Mustangs, there is the occasional silver coin, and sometimes there is lots of money, best being 2 $100 bills rolled like coke straws in a $100 car.

But the best score, which I believe I listed here maybe 6 months or so ago, was about $200 in face value silver coins, dimes, quarters, and some halves, at the bottom of a bucket of bolts bought at a swap meet.

ebaybuyer

it amazes me what some people will pay for original low mileage boss 351 engine parts.

Wabbit2313

Does this count?

mr1931S

Virginia City sidewalks
I and my brother each found dozens of old silver and many gold coins under the sidewalk in
Virginia City Nevada back in the 50's. Sidewalks were wooden and raised a foot or more above
the ground. We found an entry point and cleaned out a whole block in front of the Bucket
of Blood Saloon.

bob

PS: Our Mother took care of them and we never saw them again.

Have you checked around the house? A metal dector sweep through
areas where mom might buried a jar or can containing the coins might
be useful.

Was any of the gold big?

I hope you find those pieces you found with your brother.I can imagine
there being a mint-state or close '74-cc dime in there....some cc gold...
$5 '73-cc...pennies 1871...1872...1876....1877...