Is Liberty Dead?

Erik in NJ

Silver Member
Oct 4, 2010
4,037
3,043
The Garden State
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Detector(s) used
Minelab Explorer SE Pro & CTX-3030
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
No not a political rant about Sleepy Joe potentially getting into the WH but I'm tempted :tongue3:

Only had about 45 minutes before dark detecting iffy signals at a house that I've pounded with my Explorer SE Pro. Same house I found that strange unidentified bitted key about 6" above a but old rusted piece of iron in the size and shape of a slice of pizza a couple weeks ago.

The Equinox 800 is really impressing me with the number of finds I am making that are co-located with large rusted iron nails/objects. This find was no exception.

In an area I know I've been over before I got a very strange signal with the 800. Different signals that were not repeatable in different direction. One of them hit high around 30 but seemed like some kind of strange falsing. Pinpointing was nearly impossible, but after years of experience with an Explorer I was able to kinda localize a target and b/c targets are now rare at this site decided to dig and check it out--was a bit concerned it was a pipe or something.

In the pile of dirt the Garrett carrot picked up on what I thought was aluminum junk, but I could see an oddly shaped reeded edge and on the other side the word "Dollar" but it seemed to have a strange shank, so I put it in a plastic zip-lock bag and told my partner "maybe a silver quarter turned into a button...strange this thing should have sung out REALLY clearly...there's gotta be something else strange down there." So I located another difficult signal and a few inches away was a huge rusted nail or bolt. I was astounded at the performance of the 800 in terms of the number of items I have found now co-located with iron.

So it was cold getting dark and we went to get some pizza. Still had no idea what I'd dug but thought it was something cool.

Upon getting home and running it under some cold water, turns out to be a REALLY interesting find--a Standing Liberty Quarter with a hole blown straight through it! I grab my jeweler's loupe and I see an "S" mint mark and then a clear 1918 :icon_thumright: now I'm actually praying that there is NO 7 visible below the 8! :laughing7: Doesn't appear to be. Whew! Sad though, the SLQ was in pretty nice shape when shot before its 100 year big sleep.

I've dug a handful of annoying .22 casings in the general vicinity of this find so I can only surmise that someone had fun imitating a Western and trying to hit this coin in the air with a .22 slug. A very cool and really unique piece of history. The hole is blasted right through the image of standing Liberty--will make another great display piece from this house! Hopefully not a sign of things to come for Liberty in the US.

I have found a KG up in MA that looks like it was shot by a BB gun, but it only bent the coin. This one is blasted clean through the center and I have never seen a silver coin that's been shot before--when it was done this quarter could probably have bought lunch. So what are the odds of a cleanly shot through *and* dated S mint mark SQL? :icon_scratch:
 

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Hi feel free to post yours here....I'd like to see some other shot coins. I'm not in a super rural area so there was less gun play around here for that kind of thing though obviously there was some.
Here's my roundup of shot coins...:thumbsup:
All were in wooded areas where gunfire is no longer permitted.
Too bad the date was whacked on that Canada Large Cent.
Nick
 

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Too bad it looks kind of sharp, would be cool to put it on a chain and wear it around your neck as jewelry.
 

Here's my roundup of shot coins...:thumbsup:
All were in wooded areas where gunfire is no longer permitted.
Too bad the date was whacked on that Canada Large Cent.
Nick

Wow Nick you found a nice collection of shot coins there. There is a large wooded area next to this house that I may have to check out soon for stragglers. :thumbsup:
 

Too bad it looks kind of sharp, would be cool to put it on a chain and wear it around your neck as jewelry.

Great minds think alike! I was thinking the same thing, but yes the blown out parts would be pretty uncomfortable. :laughing7:
 

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Very cool find, but keep the politics out. I come here to get away from that
 

Very cool find, but keep the politics out. I come here to get away from that

It was just a bit of humor that's all :laughing7: I post what I want, you read what you want.
 

Nice find Erik. I love shot coins and I agree with the above post that it was probably a higher powder firearm that punched that hole but you never know
 

Wasn't 1918 the year of the last plague? I wonder if people were complaining about 1918 like they do about 2020? I'll bet there will be quite a few holed 2020 coins found in the future, some detectorist in 100 years will be like "what did people have against the 2020 bat quarters?"
 

Please keep political comments out of the thread.
 

Thanks. I did find a larger live round that's still in my junk bucket. I'll have to go thru that stuff and see what it was. What caliber round do you think it might have been hit with?
Here is a quick visualization of caliper vs hole size. Entry vs. Exit.. I would venture to say it was at minimum 357

Screenshot_20201119-135548_Google.jpg
 

Here is a quick visualization of caliper vs hole size. Entry vs. Exit.. I would venture to say it was at minimum 357

Thank you WS, this chart is really helpful! I did find a live round of higher caliber not too far from it which is in my junk bucket, I'll have to pull that out and check the caliber and age. Again, I appreciate your post!
 

Who's the one hiding in the basement now? :laughing7:
Your post is out of community guidelines. Take your comments over to the Political part of our forum. I try to come here to avoid having to listen to political commentators. God knows we get enough of it everywhere else.

Cheers
 

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