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
g-olden years said:
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

Thanks! I also wonder about the history of what I find, and how it got lost where it was found. Its one of the many things I love about this hobby!
 

great finds .....................i happy to see you carrying a bottle of water .....hot or cold out, water is important thing to bring ..........
 

Awesome find! I just dug up the younger sister last week, lol! :headbang:
 

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jeffandmistie(TEXAS) said:
Awesome find! I just dug up the younger sister last week, lol! :headbang:
Reunited! She's also a beauty!
 

I think you need to post an updated photo of the coin as you showed me yesterday.
 

Neil in West Jersey said:
I think you need to post an updated photo of the coin as you showed me yesterday.

Honestly it doesn't look much better than the updated photo I already posted. The side with the date has really strange environmental damage, and looks really bad in pictures. I think it's referred to as "pitting", however these are not little pits. They are tiny raised little black lumps, but in some strange pattern. If you were to magnify it under a microscope it would probably look like mountain ranges.

Oh well, I still love the old bird. :D
 

Nice dale I have never found a reale like that either. Site still produces goodies. way to go for another nice dvrr find. Congrats. HH Mark
 

Thanks Mark. I never thought I would find such an uncommon Reales. I sure wish it was American silver.... but I guess I am just spoiled. :D
 

:thumbsup:ten inches with that size coil.Hmmm
 

Nice finds :icon_thumleft:

I must say i have heard good things about the Etrac...




Blaze
 

liftloop said:
:thumbsup:ten inches with that size coil.Hmmm

Ok what does that mean? I have found copper coins with the stock coil at 9". It's only logical that a larger coil would go tad deeper. I have a feeling that if it were a dime (something smaller), I would have not be able to detect it.
 

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