My hands are still shaking!!

Clad the Impaler

Hero Member
Jan 11, 2010
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Hi everyone. Decided to try a new spot today, despite the threat of rain. Wasn't even there an hour, when I got a high tone on the E-Trac w/ funky numbers. Almost didn't dig it, as it was shallow (3 inches) and only about 8 or 9 feet from the street. Boy am I glad I decided to dig!! The first coin out of the hole was the walker. MY FIRST!! Pinpointer kept going off, and I kept pulling coin after coin out of the hole.

At first, I thought I had stumbled upon a cache, but the lack of any container (jar, coin purse) and shallow depth (none of the coins were deeper than 3 inches), led me to conclude this was a BIG pocket spill (my biggest yet). I dug an amazing spill back in 2011 (2 Barber dimes, 1 V nickel, and 3 wheats; nothing newer than 1917), and, until today, thought nothing could top that. BOY WAS I WRONG!!

Ended up pulling 9 (NINE!!) coins out of the hole, 7 OF WHICH WERE SILVER!!!

The spill: '20 walker, 2 SLQs ('25 and a no dater), '36 Washington, 2 mercs ('29, '36), '16 Barber dime, '26 buff (date is very faint; not pictured), '13 wheatie (very worn; also not pictured). Nothing newer than 1936!!

Based on the condition of the 1936 coins, I believe the spill is from '37 or '38. Anyone know if $1.61 was a lot of cash to lose back then?? This is by far my biggest spill ever found.

I also found a plated sterling ring and 7 wheats (includes the '13 from the spill). Clad totaled $2.10.

Pics of the spill loot are below. I'm now at 77 silver coins for the year. Enjoy!!

Thank goodness I'm off work tomorrow, you bet I'm going back @ first light!!
 

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Upvote 16
Awesome finds Clad! Congratulations on all that silver and jewelry !!!
 

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:icon_thumright:

Way to go.Awesome finds.Congrats.Looking good.HH.
 

Killer finds for sure. That is the kind of pocket spill we all dream of finding. Big congrats on an awesome dig.
ZDD
 

Congrats and it will be hard to top an epic spill like that. :thumbsup:
 

Only thing that would have made it better is a Morgan! Congrats on an incredible find and hope it produces more for you.
 

Definitely some nice finds! Congratulations. Are you by chance finding these on a known battlefield where Americans fought or do you think they were spilled randomly?
 

Definitely some nice finds! Congratulations. Are you by chance finding these on a known battlefield where Americans fought or do you think they were spilled randomly?

No battlefields in my area, lol. Was found in a park near the base of a small tree. Tree was nowhere near big enough to date to the spill years; it was 20-30 years old @ the most.
 

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Only thing that would have made it better is a Morgan! Congrats on an incredible find and hope it produces more for you.

Thanks Old Dude. Still waiting for my first Morgan. I'm stoked that today I got to cross another coin off my list (the walker is my first ever found). I also found my first seated quarter about a month ago. Still need both types of 3 cent pieces, a two center, a flying eagle, a Franklin half, a Morgan, a 20 cent piece, and a half dime, among other things. Would love a bust coin or two, but my area isn't old enough, lol.
 

GREAT finds man! Congrats!
 

Anyone know if $1.61 was a lot of cash to lose back then?? This is by far my biggest spill ever found.

Hey Clad,

A notable spill, sir, especially then.

"... If they were able to find a job, which was practically impossible, they would not have earned enough to support their families. For example, the net earning for an agricultural migratory worker averaged $110 in 1933 and $124 in 1934. These farmers were some of the hardest hit groups during the depression..." Life During the Great Depression


depressioncamp1.jpg
 

You asked, "Anyone know if $1.61 was a lot of cash to lose back then??" That was the depression, and a lot of people were out of work. I was born in 1937, and at that time my father worked for a creamery, delivering milk 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, for a pay check of $12 a week. Yup, he got a dollar a day. They rented a furnished house, and $15 a month rent sticks in my mind. They had no car. We didn't go to war until the end of 1941, but the powers that be knew there was a war coming, and an army camp was built starting in 39 or 40, and the extra influx of soldiers and their families caused the town to hire more police. Dad got hired as a cop, and talk about a raise in pay. He went from 12 hours and 7 days to 8 hours and 6 days, and the pay was $5.00 a day. So yes, the person that lost that money truly missed it. In 37 that was more than a days pay for my father, so for a lot of people that would be like loosing more than a hundred bucks today. I don't remember anything from that time, but from the way they talked after I could remember it, they thought of themselves as average middle income, not poor. Nobody had a lot of money, they would walk to the tennis court and play tennis, or have friends over for a waffle party, and if they plugged in more than two waffle irons, they blew the fuse, so that was solved by putting a penny behind the fuse. Hey, we all lived through it. I can remember my father as a police officer during the war. He was a motorcycle cop by then, and making enough money to buy a $6,000 house. I have no idea what the payments were on that house, but the lot was large enough that we had a victory garden and raised rabbits and chickens, and when Dad died, Mom made a huge profit on the house.
 

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