Holy smokes! My first shield nickel...and in Washington too!

Ray in CA

Hero Member
Oct 11, 2007
983
16
Quincy, CA
Detector(s) used
Minelab Safari with SEF 8x6; coming soon: FORS Gold+
I guess I shouldn't be surprised at finding a shield nickel in Washington state, given that people have been here since the mid-1800s, but dang! I never thought I would find one myself.

I haven't gone detecting for a while so this morning I went to an out of the way town and detected a vacant lot that was city owned and had been recently scraped. First target was a 1919 wheatie. It thought, good, there might be some silver here. Three more 1940s wheaties later I get a low tone on my Safari...dug it up and thought to myself, "What a strange looking coin. Oh, no wonder, it's a shield nickel!"

The coin is in pretty bad shape. In fact I can't even get a date off it yet with my low power magnifying glass. I think I will have to get a loupe to see if a date is still readable, but I do know its another 1800s coin for me. Sorry, second pic the coin is upside down.

HH,

Ray
 

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Awesome job on the Shield Nickel ive only found 2, and they both came up the same way really worn and corroded! Happy Dirt Fishing.

-Dan
 

Nice find!

I'm still hunting out clad here in Puyallup. I am trying to find out when most of these parks were founded around here. Doesn't seem to be much information about the origination of them. I have been thinking of going out towards Carbonado...my Grandmother was from there.
 

LJHanley06 said:
Nice find!

I'm still hunting out clad here in Puyallup. I am trying to find out when most of these parks were founded around here. Doesn't seem to be much information about the origination of them. I have been thinking of going out towards Carbonado...my Grandmother was from there.
jethro1982, another Junior Member, is also in Puyallup. Don't believe he has a detector yet, though. As for the Shield nickel, those dates were so small they're hard to read on a good nickel, let alone one that's dug.
 

congrats on the shield. Found my first one last week, Know the feeling
 

Hi Ray
Ever heard of Nic-a-Date? Its used to pull dates off of coins. Particulary nickels in general. Ive used it on Buffalo and Sheild nickels i have found detecting. Now i wouldnt recommend using it on a Key date coin that i found, but on something common my feelings are the coin is basicly enviromentaly damaged anyway. I think its Ferric acid. Just Google Nic-A-Date and you will find it. Just a option for you. Nice find!
Coinman66
 

Very nice find. Whatever you do, don't try to clean it. You know what it is and that's enough. Any cleaning will leave you with a blank. I have found one and I "cleaned" it. I now have a very nickle colored blank. I really liked it when it was red and I could see the five on the obverse. :'(

Randy
 

People have been in the NW states since the
1800s but they seemed to have been more "tight fisted"
with theit coins than in other places. Congrats on a nice
find. Gold Nuggets :hello:
 

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