mr_larry
Hero Member
- Jun 22, 2010
- 504
- 169
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 1
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Explorer SE Pro
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
Large Pre-"Gold Rush" 1833 silver found in San Francisco
On Saturday, Chris (Nicasian) and I headed to a park that has been on my To-Do list for quite a while. We did quite well that day, pulling a few silvers and a bunch of old wheats. We did so well that we returned on Sunday. I didn't do so well that day, but Chris really nailed it with a bunch of silvers and very high wheat counts. At the end of both days I texted Jayson (StayDetuned) with our totals for the days and I could hear him licking his chops from across town. Jayson wanted to know where we had found such good numbers and I told him he would have to ask Chris as it was his honey hole that he brought me to. When Jayson asked Chris where it was he said to ask me since I brought him there!
Monday morning I eventually filled Jayson in on where we had been hunting, and Jay was on the spot at the crack of noon. For him to get out so early you know that he was motivated!
I was still on the couch recovering from Saturday's 7-hour hunt and Sunday's 9-hour hunt while drinking coffee and watching the Watkins Glen NASCAR race.
Jayson hadn't been swinging his coil for more than 2 minutes when he texted me saying he had found an 1898 Barber dime. I was beginning to panic so I got my act together to head over. Strangely I couldn't find my Lesche, and I thought maybe I left it at a construction site the night before. I was thinking that maybe this was a sign to take a day off of metal detecting and slow down. But Jayson was pillaging my new site; I had to get out there! It took me about half an hour of searching before I finally found a hand trowel and headed over to the park.
By the time I arrived Jayson had already added a war nickel and a few wheat cents to his haul, picking up coins I had missed the day before. I looked around and decided to swing a little further down the hill. This was an area that Chris and I had not yet hunted. There were no good views and I was thinking it might not be the most popular area to sit.
Right away I got a few wheats and a war nickel. I kept running into the sprinkler system pipe that went along the bottom of the hill. There were actually two sprinkler systems, with an older one that had the heads buried a good 8-10 inches deep. I had dug about a half dozen of those heads over the past two days because they ring up like a half dollar/dollar, reading 0-27 on the Explorer.
As I continued swinging I got another strong signal that read just like one of those brass sprinkler heads but this one indicated that it was only an inch or two deep. I got down on my knees and hit the area with the Sunray probe. Sure enough, this target was quite shallow. As I stirred up the loose dirt I saw a large silver object appear. When I first picked it up I thought maybe it was some medal or something (I had found a large medal two days prior). When I flipped it over I saw a date.
1833!
That was the exact moment when I started frantically waving Jayson over. I didn't even know what it was. I covered it in my hand, not showing Jayson, and asked him to swing on it and tell me what he thought it was. Seated Half? Dollar coin?
It's still a little fuzzy, but at some point Jayson started shooting some video.
Here is a photo of the coin as it was found:
At first I thought it was Spanish silver, but after trying to read the coin we thought it must be something different. After texting Chris and asking him to look it up, it was determined to be an 1833 Rigsbankdaler from Denmark.
Here are some pictures taken this morning after the coin has been rinsed in water but not "cleaned." The coin is the same diameter as a U.S. silver dollar but noticeably thicker and heavier. The coin is 87.5% silver.
The origins of the coin are a bit of a mystery. The park is plenty old, but not pre-Gold Rush old. Prior to the Gold Rush, in 1847 the population of San Francisco was 459! There are "Environmental Factors" at work in this park that bring old coins to the surface. I will leave it at that.
There you have it, my oldest coin and my biggest silver, all rolled into one great find.
Thanks for looking and happy hunting!!
On Saturday, Chris (Nicasian) and I headed to a park that has been on my To-Do list for quite a while. We did quite well that day, pulling a few silvers and a bunch of old wheats. We did so well that we returned on Sunday. I didn't do so well that day, but Chris really nailed it with a bunch of silvers and very high wheat counts. At the end of both days I texted Jayson (StayDetuned) with our totals for the days and I could hear him licking his chops from across town. Jayson wanted to know where we had found such good numbers and I told him he would have to ask Chris as it was his honey hole that he brought me to. When Jayson asked Chris where it was he said to ask me since I brought him there!
Monday morning I eventually filled Jayson in on where we had been hunting, and Jay was on the spot at the crack of noon. For him to get out so early you know that he was motivated!
I was still on the couch recovering from Saturday's 7-hour hunt and Sunday's 9-hour hunt while drinking coffee and watching the Watkins Glen NASCAR race.
Jayson hadn't been swinging his coil for more than 2 minutes when he texted me saying he had found an 1898 Barber dime. I was beginning to panic so I got my act together to head over. Strangely I couldn't find my Lesche, and I thought maybe I left it at a construction site the night before. I was thinking that maybe this was a sign to take a day off of metal detecting and slow down. But Jayson was pillaging my new site; I had to get out there! It took me about half an hour of searching before I finally found a hand trowel and headed over to the park.
By the time I arrived Jayson had already added a war nickel and a few wheat cents to his haul, picking up coins I had missed the day before. I looked around and decided to swing a little further down the hill. This was an area that Chris and I had not yet hunted. There were no good views and I was thinking it might not be the most popular area to sit.
Right away I got a few wheats and a war nickel. I kept running into the sprinkler system pipe that went along the bottom of the hill. There were actually two sprinkler systems, with an older one that had the heads buried a good 8-10 inches deep. I had dug about a half dozen of those heads over the past two days because they ring up like a half dollar/dollar, reading 0-27 on the Explorer.
As I continued swinging I got another strong signal that read just like one of those brass sprinkler heads but this one indicated that it was only an inch or two deep. I got down on my knees and hit the area with the Sunray probe. Sure enough, this target was quite shallow. As I stirred up the loose dirt I saw a large silver object appear. When I first picked it up I thought maybe it was some medal or something (I had found a large medal two days prior). When I flipped it over I saw a date.
1833!
That was the exact moment when I started frantically waving Jayson over. I didn't even know what it was. I covered it in my hand, not showing Jayson, and asked him to swing on it and tell me what he thought it was. Seated Half? Dollar coin?
It's still a little fuzzy, but at some point Jayson started shooting some video.
Here is a photo of the coin as it was found:
At first I thought it was Spanish silver, but after trying to read the coin we thought it must be something different. After texting Chris and asking him to look it up, it was determined to be an 1833 Rigsbankdaler from Denmark.
Here are some pictures taken this morning after the coin has been rinsed in water but not "cleaned." The coin is the same diameter as a U.S. silver dollar but noticeably thicker and heavier. The coin is 87.5% silver.
The origins of the coin are a bit of a mystery. The park is plenty old, but not pre-Gold Rush old. Prior to the Gold Rush, in 1847 the population of San Francisco was 459! There are "Environmental Factors" at work in this park that bring old coins to the surface. I will leave it at that.
There you have it, my oldest coin and my biggest silver, all rolled into one great find.
Thanks for looking and happy hunting!!
Upvote
0
Excellent score 
thats a hell of a score.... I'd love to know the story behind that coin!! ... Banner IMO 
