THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB updated photos

[waseeker]

Won't try to keep you in suspense. As the title says I found a 1909 S VDB today while searching a bag of cents.

Here is the rest of the story. It's kinda long but hey I don't find one of these every day.

I have 3 branch banks that sell me the bags that come off of their coin counters. Recently the big volume one got a new counter that uses a big bin rather than individual bags to store coin that is run through the machine. I was pretty bummed out about it since my volume is way down. However, a couple of weeks ago one of my favorite tellers from that branch got a promotion to another branch that I never visit because it is out of the way. Anyway, yesterday I had some extra time while running errands and pick-ups so I went by that branch to see what they had. I managed to pick up 2 cent bags and 1 dime bag. The dime bag had 4 silver roosies in it, which is about normal these days so I was pretty happy with that.

I had intended to play golf or metal detect today, but it was one of those Pacific Northwest days where it was raining at home, snowing in the higher elevations and just too darn cold and windy to play golf or detect. So I grabbed a bag on cents and started searching. It was a typical bag and I had found 7 or 8 wheats and put them in my little collection bowl. I found a very worn cent that was wheat side up and as is my practice I put it off to the side to look at when I finished the bag. Soon thereafter I found a pretty nice 1919 and into the bowl it went. Then found another one wheat side up that looked like it might be old so I sat it to the side. After finishing the bag I turned my attention to the 2 that I had set aside. The really worn one was a 1913, so I was happy. Then I picked up the other one and looked at the reverse (without a magnifying glass). I noticed what I figured was a bit of damage at the bottom and flipped the coin over. Staring at me was a gorgeous 1909S. Remembering what I thought was damage and immediately recalling that some of the S VDB reverses have a very weak S VDB, I turned the coin back over and looked at it with a magnifying glass at a slightly different angle. Sure enough there it was. I screamed and yelled to my wife that I had found the holy grail. She humored me by saying that's nice dear and went on with her work

Once I came down from the ceiling I called or texted everyone I know who would be interested in my find. Then I thought time to get this puppy on TN. Of course the battery in my camera was flat, so I posted a quick note about the find in another thread here about the oldest finds among the rare cents. I put the battery in the charger and tried to get a few other things done. After about an hour I checked the charger and the charged light still wasn't on so not wanting to rush things, I went out to run my errands and came back a couple of hours later figuring that the battery would be charged. The charged light still wasn't on, but I figured it had enough charge by now so that I could get a couple of pics taken. Turns out the battery wasn't flat it was DEAD. I tried another camera, but couldn't get a close enough focus for a good pic. So now I'm really p*ssed, so I go to the Sony website to see if they even still stock a battery for this camera. ( it is an old Mavica that uses 3.5" disks as the recording media). They did have the battery so I ordered one. At about the same time I pressed the purchase button on the Sony site I thought maybe Batteries Plus would have one. So I went to their web site and sure enough there it was. Called the local store to inquire and they had it in stock. They did so it was back in the car for a 15 mile trip to the area where I had just been running errands to pick up a battery. Of course all the way there and back I'm hoping some idiot doesn't hit me or that I don't have a heart attack or car trouble because I was so excited to get the battery and be able to post the pic.

So here is the pic. As you can see the VDB is kinda faint when looking straight at the reverse. But, one of the known reverses is referred to as the faint VDB. You can see it a bit better in the partial pic.

 

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[waseeker]

Thanks everyone for all of the additional information and the great comments.

As mentioned earlier the coin is en-route to PCGS for authentication and grading. I'm thinking it will come back as VF 35. I know it my pictures the wheat lines aren't real clear but that is because I was focusing on the VDB rather than the wheat lines. I'll let you know as soon as I get it back.

 

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[PI PETE]

You ROCK!

Worthy of the BANNER!

I found a gold ring in a used car and put it on the board for find of the month at my club. It's still a find and I got a silver dime for it. Both have been sold since, and I have had 10 other months where I found gold with the coil of my metal detector and placed them on finds of the month!

That would win at my club for find of the month!

 

[waseeker]

You ROCK!

Worthy of the BANNER!

I found a gold ring in a used car and put it on the board for find of the month at my club. It's still a find and I got a silver dime for it. Both have been sold since, and I have had 10 other months where I found gold with the coil of my metal detector and placed them on finds of the month!

That would win at my club for find of the month!

I like your club. For my metal detecting club it has to be found with a MD to count. We have had one 09S VDB found in a private yard in the last 6 months and I know of 3 other club members who have also found them under their coils.

 

[Yinzi50]

Congrats on the banner! How many cents have you searched before you get to this point?

I've been searching rolls for almost 40 years and doing it every day since 2005 when I retired. I don't normally keep statistics about how many coins I search, but in 2010 I did it just for grins. That year I did 1.1 million cents, almost half a million dimes and around 20k in half dollars. I got somewhere around 10k wheat cents 40 or so Indian Head cents and several hundred silver dimes that year. My totals are less now that my main pick up branch has a new coin counter that uses 1 big bin instead of bags so I can't buy from them now.

A follow-up question: in 2010 you had 22.7 wheats per box; how many wheats per box (or 50 rolls) in 1970's when you just started?

 

[waseeker]

Congrats on the banner! How many cents have you searched before you get to this point?

I've been searching rolls for almost 40 years and doing it every day since 2005 when I retired. I don't normally keep statistics about how many coins I search, but in 2010 I did it just for grins. That year I did 1.1 million cents, almost half a million dimes and around 20k in half dollars. I got somewhere around 10k wheat cents 40 or so Indian Head cents and several hundred silver dimes that year. My totals are less now that my main pick up branch has a new coin counter that uses 1 big bin instead of bags so I can't buy from them now.

A follow-up question: in 2010 you had 22.7 wheats per box; how many wheats per box (or 50 rolls) in 1970's when you just started?

I have no idea. back in 2010 I had a couple of bags that each had over 1,200 wheat cents which certainly helped my numbers. Back in the 70's I only looked at cents to try to find ones I was missing from my set. My focus then was more on finding coins to add to my collection. Back in the late 60's though I was working at a grocery store when the Government announced that they were going to stop redeeming silver certificates for silver. I bought all I found in my register and paid the other cashiers 1.25 for each one they found and would sell me. Then I would send them off to a dealer in Philadelphia who bought them for somewhere around 1.75 or so. He got the silver for them and I made a small profit.

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

I have only three things to say:


First: CONGRATULATIONS, HOLY SMOKES

Second: The name of this place is "Treasurenet-The Original Treasure Hunting Site" and the forum is "Coin Roll Hunting", Not "Finding Treasure with Metal Detectors" and the forum is not called "metal detecting".

Third: CONGRATULATIONS, HOLY SMOKES

Beth

 

[diggummup]

It's a bit different here, our Manarch has been on the thrown for nearly 60 years, and there have been many changes, the last silver coins were in the pounds, shilling and pence system, and were quickly removed from circulation when the decimal coinage came in. You will never get a silver coin from our banks, or anywere else and they would not be legal tender.

SS

One more reason to love US! We can get silver coins from our banks at face!

Maybe...but you should see what's buried here, 2000 years of lost coinage

Not to mention the Treasure Act to boot!

You can hunt in Scotland without problems.

You can here to, I don't know why people are mentioning the Treasure act it only covers certaine aspects of detecting.

SS
[/quote]

If you find something great, there might be a problem.
[/quote]

I actually meant it as a good thing. I think it beats the hell out of our Treasure trove laws. The only problem I would foresee is the valuation determined by the Treasure Valuation Committee. Unless you actually wanted to keep something worth major dollars. Me, i'm poor so i'd be all for selling.

Besides, i'd already have my favorite piece stashed away for myself anyway.

waseeker- congrats on making the banner. Any rare find deserves to be there, regardless of the method/s used to find it.

 

[halfdime]

First, let me congratulate you on a fantastic find! In the 1970's, my dad bankrolled our hobby of looking through rolls of pennies from the bank. We'd get $50 or $100 at a time, and the tellers hated to see us walk in . Doing that, we pulled over 8500 wheaties, tons of Canadians and 1 Indian head penny (1886). I know we got some 1909 and 1909VDBs, but never an S or SVDB. We usually found enough dirty dimes in the rolls to cover the coins we took out, too! Sometimes the rolls were open ended and you could see wheats on the end; of course, these rolls were opened first . I was in a bank the other day and was talking with the teller; I asked if any silver ever comes through and was floored at what she told me. Just last week, an older lady came in to cash in silver; she didn't want to be bothered with selling it, just wanting face value. Of course, the teller bought it, dollar for dollar. I need to work in a bank!

 

[SilverForBrains]

Dang!!!! Nice find!! Oldest wheat I have found in penny boxes is 1918