Myself and the DA Crew hit some very old and historic woodlands and fields here in Southern NJ. It was a long day of pull tabs and square nails. We were ending our day in a field which had seen some Colonial through 20th century history. Starting off with No real decent targets, I happened to swing the CTX 3030 coil under an old cedar tree. The tone was solid but the numbers were jumping from a 12:37 to a 12:41 ultimately hanging on at 12:45. I dropped and started to dig the target. After a minute of digging and pinpointing, out popped the familiar wreath of the reverse side of a US Large cent. I yelled out to the guys: COIN! They started to slowly head my way to check out the treasure.
I wiped a bit of the loose dirt away and flipped it over hoping to get a date, when I noticed an odd dirt encrusted lump on the front of the coin. When I tried to clear it away, it wouldn't move. I pushed the dirt away with a little more force and the dried mud crust broke away and BAM!!!!! I saw the unmistakable glimmer of gold. Years of patina or possibly a weird Copper/Gold chemical reaction had joined the 2 coins together. I was holding some strange Hybrid coin and It was amazing. An 1828 Large cent and an 1856 $1 Gold piece. I splashed a small amount of water on the 2 and they finally came apart ... But WOW. Definitely one of my more memorable finds to date.
DA Frank Lopergolo – NJ, USA.
