Broke my US silver coin record by 44 years! Found an 1853 seated liberty half dime!

[FreeBirdTim]

Went to a baseball field built in the early 1990's today. I've done it a few times, but never found any old coins, except for a few wheaties. But I have found a lot of clad and a few silver rings there, so I gave it another shot. Glad I did!

After about an hour of detecting, I had around three bucks in clad. Got a 76 signal that was reading 10 inches down. Kind of deep for a zincoln Lincoln, but that's what I was expecting to unearth. At about 9 inches down, I saw something shiny! Pulled it out of the hole and there was a very tiny seated Lady Liberty staring up at me! Totally shocked to find an 1853 seated half dime at this field!

Looks to be in pretty good shape. Just glad it hasn't been holed. So many silvers from the 1800's are holed, so I dodged a bullet on that one. Unfortunately, it's the most common seated half dime, with a mintage of 13 million. Oh well!

This coin beats my oldest US silver coin by 44 years. I found an 1897 Barber dime a couple of years ago and that was my record holder. I liked finding that Barber dime, but this coin is so cool! Never saw one before, so I didn't realize how small they really are.

Here's a few pics:

 

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[Patriot Relics]

Such a tiny coin, recovered a 1853 as well at a CW camp and couldn't believe how small it was. Great dig

 

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[park pirate]

It is a very small coin I only found one in all my time in this hobby, congrats on beating your record ....

 

[Trezurehunter]

Outstanding coin ! Congrats on breaking your own record for oldest silver coin.

 

[JeffInMass]

Congrats on the great find FreeBird- those little babies are tough to get your coil over!

-- Jeff --

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Thanks again, guys! Always wanted a seated dime, but I got a seated half dime instead. But I'm not complaining at all! I'll get a seated dime eventually.

Weird thing is that I've found 3 Spanish silvers from the 1700's, but only 2 US silvers before 1900. Lots of 1800's large cents and Indians, but slim pickings on silver coins. Almost all my spots are on public land, so maybe someone cherry picked the silvers decades ago. They missed this one, though!

 

[dsdigger]

Congrats on the sweet Half Dime!

 

[trapperart]

Congrats on the nice half dime, those little silvers can be hard to find

 

[BeenFishin]

Congrats dude! I love the older seated design. I also feel like they hold up better in the ground. Great find!

 

[Stef45]

I just dug my first 1853 half dime a few weeks ago! Must be in the air! Congrats

 

[winslow]

Love those seated coins and a half-dime is the hardest of the lot to find with a detector. Congrats!

 

[pepperdawg]

Love it - always blows my mind what shows up where.....

 

[RustyGold]

Congratulations on the awesome SL! That's a bucket lister for sure. Way to go!

 

[CASPER-2]