I was driving around an old Colorado mining town with my family and I noticed a section of sidewalk adjacent to some Victorian homes that had been removed.... and I thought to myself, I need to detect there tomorrow after work before they re-do the concrete. After work the following day, I drove over and started detecting with my Minelab Explorer II detector, which I have been using about 4 months. I was getting lots of low tones from square nails when suddenly I heard a real sweet high tone between a bunch of low tones. Just about an inch and a half down was this beautiful 1897 barber dime! This was my first Barber ever! In fact, I had no idea what a barber even was. The Obverse (head) side came out of the ground looking like it had just been minted, beautiful and shiny! However the reverse was caked with hard dirt. It wasn't until I got home and rinsed it with water that I realized it had a mint mark. I could see an "O" at the bottom of the coin. Thanks to the internet, I soon realized that I had found a pretty rare 1897-O Barber Dime which graded at EF45. This was simply unbelievable... my first pre-1900 coin and it just paid for my metal detector!
Jeff - Colorado, USA
