Holy moly I found me a Morgan !

Xraywolf

Silver Member
Feb 28, 2005
3,576
4,362
MI USA
Detector(s) used
Ace 400, AT Pro, equinox 800, Simplex,Vanquish 540
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Wow I'm in shock, after a decade + of detecting I have finally unearthed a Morgan dollar !

Just discovered this place yesterday, just a few blocks from my house. House has been torn down and the yard is not completely trashed yet like it will be in a few days, so I decided to hit it in between rail squalls.
Was getting bad interference from one side of the yard so I moved to the other where it was quieter, found some fence parts and misc hunks of iron, no good signals. So I mozied to some bushed by a fence, got a good signal and had to crouch down to dig it up, down about 6" I would say, I popped it out with my first shovel full the ground was so diggable. 1892, has some rim damage not sure if I did it or what, but once I cleaned it off looks like it was dropped last week, very sweet and exhilarating to find one of these.
Only other thing I dug up is what looks to be an old part of a toy pistol.

Went looking around the torn down house to see what I can see, basement is still intact with an unopened door in view. Was very tempted to jump in, kick it in and see whats behind door # 1 but my better sense told me not to. High odds of a nail in the foot, not only that it would be easy to jump in, not so easy getting out. Only way out in fact is to scramble up the debris pile, so I'd need a ladder to investigate the door, also would be safer to have someone with me.
Has a large front yard where I haven't set foot on yet, a 100 year old tree right in the middle, will probably go back and check that tonight, these construction sites change quick around here.

Also found an old bumper laying in the yard and took it, if anyone can ID I'd be much obliged.
 

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Upvote 48
Awesome recovery! That's a beautiful Morgan right there and no, you didn't cause that rim damage. Is there any mint mark on it? 1892 is a scarcer date to begin with for any type, but if there is CC on the reverse you've got yourself a $200+ jackpot coin!
 

Awesome find Xraywolf! The bumper looks Like a 40's Chevy bumper? Just a guess though.
 

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Easy to see why there are so few silver dollars to be found.

* Relatively few in circulation
* Not exactly pocket change
* Likely kids rarely had access to them
* Noticeable when dropped, easy to make an eyeball find - When people lost them, probably made an effort to recover

Same x5 for gold coins


Some excellent observations. In my opinion, many dug Morgans were not actually "lost", but were buried. In those days, a dollar was about a day's wage. That was enough value to warrant saving it in a safe place, maybe even underground. Several Tnetters (me included) have found multiple Morgans in the same location. I don't believe those finds were coin spills, they were coins that had been buried. Like you said, silver dollars are so big they'd be difficult to lose!
 

Nice Morgan
Congratulations
 

Congratualtions on the Morgan and cool old car bumper! :occasion14:
 

Some excellent observations. In my opinion, many dug Morgans were not actually "lost", but were buried. In those days, a dollar was about a day's wage. That was enough value to warrant saving it in a safe place, maybe even underground. Several Tnetters (me included) have found multiple Morgans in the same location. I don't believe those finds were coin spills, they were coins that had been buried. Like you said, silver dollars are so big they'd be difficult to lose!

I agree, a decent % of dug Morgans could very well be a stash, especially if found in multiples.
There are stashes out there as we speak, waiting patiently for decades to be found.
 

Mint mark is S .. I agree rim damage was not caused by me, looks like 2 flat spots on opposite ends of the rim almost like it was in a vice or maybe struck with a peen hammer.
Who knows, man o man, if these coins could talk !
 

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