Is Liberty Dead?

[Erik in NJ]

No not a political rant about Sleepy Joe potentially getting into the WH but I'm tempted

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 now I'm actually praying that there is NO 7 visible below the 8! 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?

 

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[jewelerguy]

that's a cool find. Interesting that someone would have been able to discard 25 cents for a target at that time. 25 cents in 1918 was equal to a little more than $4.25 today. Now, just because the coin is dated 1918 does not mean it was lost that year. It doesn't show a lot of wear though, so we could assume perhaps it was shot/lost in the early 1920's. Even then, a quarter had enough buying power to purchase a decent amount of food or other items. I think whoever shot that must have been better off than a lot of people at the time.

 

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[CTXAgGetter]

I agree that the political stuff doesn't belong here. Noticed it in a bunch of your posts.
Also, potentially?
Haha.

 

[Erik in NJ]

I agree that the political stuff doesn't belong here. Noticed it in a bunch of your posts.
Also, potentially?
Haha.

Not much gets past you, huh?

 

[Erik in NJ]

that's a cool find. Interesting that someone would have been able to discard 25 cents for a target at that time. 25 cents in 1918 was equal to a little more than $4.25 today. Now, just because the coin is dated 1918 does not mean it was lost that year. It doesn't show a lot of wear though, so we could assume perhaps it was shot/lost in the early 1920's. Even then, a quarter had enough buying power to purchase a decent amount of food or other items. I think whoever shot that must have better off than a lot of people at the time.

Hi JG! Yes I also thought it was probably done in the 1920s. As someone here mentioned 1918 was the year of the Spanish Flu so there may have been some animosity towards that year (possibly), but it was a fair amount of money and would have bought a meal at the time (excellent point!). I've seen on Westerns like Gunsmoke and The Rifleman gunslingers proving their prowess by tossing one or more silver dollars in the air and shooting them. Probably didn't happen very often, but boys reading Western novels in the 20s might have been inspired by this. I've never tried to hit a coin in the air and can't imagine it's very easy even for a good shot. Of course Lucas McCain was an amazing shot with that rifle (still love the show). I guess the value of the coin at the time and the fact that it was hit in the center made it a very cool conversation piece. Probably one of my more unexpected and favorite finds over the years. Thanks for your kind post.

 

[treblehunter]

Just never know whats going to come out of that hole, nice find bud.