Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Matron Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

Elad

Hero Member
Apr 23, 2008
570
123
MA
Detector(s) used
Teknetics T2SE
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I was going to return to the fields this today, but Jason called me and changed my mind. He gave me a tip to hunt a spot where he pulled out 12 buttons in a hour. He described the location and as it turns out it was the first spot I ever hunted with my E-Trac, a little over a year ago. Inspired, I returned to the spot where I had once learned to use my machine. The last few times at this spot I was skunked or found very little.

FYI my E-Trac is set up with Andy's pattern, a 12x15 SEF coil, deep on fast off, trash high, ground difficult, and maxed out manual sensitivity.

After about 3 hours of digging shotgun shells and other random junk I came across an iffy signal. The signal was just a whisper, and I almost passed it up because I thought it was iron. I analyzed the signal in every way possible for about 5 minutes. Out of curiousity, I switched to Auto +3 to see if it would pick it up - it didn't. This deep target was invisible to E-Trac's auto feature! (This is not the first keeper I found in this situation.) I dug a generously sized plug and the target was still in the hole. I used my hand shovel to dig a little bit deeper and there it was - a pleasant surprise. It was thick, heavy, and encrusted with dirt - I figured it was a large cent. Cleaning it revealed that it was a Matron Head but the date was corroded away.

I wandered off from that spot and about 30 minutes of finding more of nothing I went back to the large cent hole. I started going over every bit of ground real careful like. I came across another whispering DEEP target. This time instead of deep copper it seemed like deep & large SILVER (8-48/9-49). Once again, I switched it to auto and my machine was silent. (Once again, another deep coin invisible to auto mode!) Pinpointing on this target was also a faint whisper. I dug a rather large plug, scanned, but it was still in the hole. At this depth (10inches) the ground was sandy, so I could just scoop it out with my hand. Then in one scoop I could feel something - a coin! Right away I could see the sun-ray pattern and I knew it was something good. I picked it up and the dirt fell off the eagle side and I saw silver - cleaning it later at home revealed a 1825 2 Reales! My second Spanish silver ever! The date side is kinda dark and rough but it has decent detail all around. Ironically, in my last post here I mentioned I am waiting for my first old silver of the year - I should mention things more often here. Now I am after my first gold of the year! Yeah! ;D

Thanks for the inspiration, Jason! :thumbsup:

*Cleaned pics added. The date side has some pitting issues, but I cleaned and polished it the best i could.
 

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Upvote 0
Re: Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Marton Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

Fantastic finds!!! I was commenting about a week ago that we do not see many post-1800 reales dug. Most seem to be pre-1790 or so.

Those finds seem to fit right into the time period of all the others from the site: 1800-1840. There must have been a lot of activity there during the period.

Being a White's guy, I must say that I am amazed at the ETracs ability to tell copper from silver. Not that it matters, If it is a good sounding target I just have to wait for the visual ID.

My only finds in a short outing was the deepest penny I ever dug, a Wheatie at 12 inches and some buttons that were reading on the ferrous side of the VDI scale.

Nice going!

Neil
 

Re: Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Marton Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

Darn! Knew I should have kept the secret haha... Congrats Dale!!! She's a real beauty!! I hit AC today after all and wasn't surprised to find 7 other guys in a 1 block section lol... Well I joined in with out much success until they all left. Then I found a 1935 Buffalo Nickel, then my last signal of the day was a real garbage sounding tone, dug a scoop and still had the crap tone in the sand I removed... kicked the sand apart and it turned into 2 signals!! One was a merc dime and the other a opal and diamond 14k ring!! No wonder it sounded like crap... HAHA!! DVRR STRIKES AGAIN!!

-Jason
 

Re: Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Marton Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

Neil in West Jersey said:
Fantastic finds!!! I was commenting about a week ago that we do not see many post-1800 reales dug. Most seem to be pre-1790 or so.

Those finds seem to fit right into the time period of all the others from the site: 1800-1840. There must have been a lot of activity there during the period.

Being a White's guy, I must say that I am amazed at the ETracs ability to tell copper from silver. Not that it matters, If it is a good sounding target I just have to wait for the visual ID.

My only finds in a short outing was the deepest penny I ever dug, a Wheatie at 12 inches and some buttons that were reading on the ferrous side of the VDI scale.

Nice going!

Neil

I was praying for a capped bust something, but old silver is still sweet, no matter where it's from.

Well, as far as being able to tell silver from copper - it's not 100%. I was just going by past experiences and my gut.
 

Re: Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Marton Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

fir469 said:
Darn! Knew I should have kept the secret haha... Congrats Dale!!! She's a real beauty!! I hit AC today after all and wasn't surprised to find 7 other guys in a 1 block section lol... Well I joined in with out much success until they all left. Then I found a 1935 Buffalo Nickel, then my last signal of the day was a real garbage sounding tone, dug a scoop and still had the crap tone in the sand I removed... kicked the sand apart and it turned into 2 signals!! One was a merc dime and the other a opal and diamond 14k ring!! No wonder it sounded like crap... HAHA!! DVRR STRIKES AGAIN!!

-Jason

I thought for sure after I texted you about the LC that I would look up from a dig to find you standing over me. We seem to be an unstoppable force this year. :D
 

Re: Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Marton Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

Mackaydon said:
.903 silver, 'JM' assayer, Mexico City mint and 27mm; great find!!

I was wondering, does the M with the o over it mean Mexico City? (thanks for the info!)
 

Re: Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Marton Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

nice job! bet ya pluck a few more now!
 

Re: Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Marton Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

Very nice finds!
 

Re: Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Marton Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

Nice coin...congrats ! :thumbsup:
H
 

Re: Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Marton Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

Congrats! Fantastic finds!
 

Re: Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Marton Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

Damn Dale nice work! Thats the newest old reale I've ever seen! Very cool! :icon_thumleft:
 

Re: Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Marton Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

Thats whats great about this hobby ! it only takes 1 or 2 nice finds to make a great day ! congrads on the spanish and the L C ! :thumbsup: MaineRelic
 

Re: Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Marton Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

SouthJerseyJim said:
Damn Dale nice work! Thats the newest old reale I've ever seen! Very cool! :icon_thumleft:

Not as cool as your recent old silver, but it's still a beautiful coin to hold in your hands. It is also the newest old reale I've ever seen too.
 

Re: Old spot gives up a 1825 2 Reales and Marton Head. Both were SUPER DEEP.

MaineRelic said:
Thats whats great about this hobby ! it only takes 1 or 2 nice finds to make a great day ! congrads on the spanish and the L C ! :thumbsup: MaineRelic

Thanks! You're from Maine? I wish I spent more time in New England, I was born in MA but live in NJ. Hopefully I will be doing some swinging in MA in a few months. Can't wait!

Thanks for the comment. :D
 

Great Finds ! The E-Trac is an Awesome Machine. I think mine has started growing to my arm. Again, Great Diggs

HH
BB
 

Congrats on your Republica Mexicana 1825 2 reales coin! Quite an interesting bit of history in your hands since Mexico won independence from Spain only four years earlier in 1821. Would be fascinating to be able to trace your coin from hand to hand as it passed through the turmoil of those early times both in Mexico and in the USA. Andi
 

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