On Aug. 30th 2013 something amazing was found. During the work week I typically don’t get to much time to myself to go metal detecting so I typically go for an hour each day during my lunch break to get away from the office and to clear my head. I have been enjoying this hobby for over 3 years and love my Minelab E-TRAC which I have had for over 2 years.
I have done very well over the years. But lately a lot of my spots near work have been drying up since I have pounded them over the years. I needed to find some new spots. After some research I located a beautiful hill side field that is currently used for harvesting hay. I drove by it recently and noticed it was finally mowed. Awesome, I decided to try it out. The first few times there I was not finding too many things that got my heart to skip a beat. However I did manage to find some relics that gave me a better understanding of the land. I found some misc. machinery parts, livestock tags, skeleton key, lead pieces, horse tack, some clad, and a few square nails. I could tell the land was mostly used for livestock back in the day and research has shown it to be from the 1800’s so I was not going to give up on this spot.
Well after 4-5 attempts I finally got rewarded. Friday, Aug. 30th during my lunch break I hit the lower part of the hill side with my E-TRAC. It was super hot and humid so I decided to hunt with no headphones. I made some adjustments to my machine so I could hear it by raising the threshold to 24 and volume gain to 30. I also set my thrash setting to “Low” and Ground to “Neutral” since my sensitivity was running at 24 in auto +3. Going slowly along the hill side I get this high pitch signal but not very loud. I kept scanning it with my machine and was getting a decent reading of 13-47 at 10”. I got very excited. I was thinking silver quarter or one of those livestock tags I have found in the past. I dug a nice round plug with my Sampson and popped the plug. I scanned the hole with my PRO-FIND 25 and did not hear anything so I checked the plug, nothing. I scanned it with the E-TRAC and sure enough it was still in the hole. Being careful with my digger I dug down another few inches and loosened the soil. I them picked up a signal with my PRO-FIND 25. Scooping away the soil out of the hole I see the rim of something shiny! Holy Cow!!!! Half dollar…there was hardly any dirt sticking to it since the ground was so dry. I could make out the date and some of the detail. 1853 Seated Half dollar!!! WoooooooHoooo!!!
I grabbed my cell phone and took some pictures so I could text my hunting buddy Ryan. I was smiling from cheek to cheek…My lunch break was coming to a end and headed back to work smiling the entire way..haha. When I got back to the office I went straight to the bathroom to rinse the coin off with water. The detail on this coin was stunning! After getting the dirt off I realized it was better than a average seated half but a 1853-O seated half with the arrows and rays around the eagle. Sweet!!!! My co-worker grabbed the high power camera scope and took some beautiful detailed pictures. I am so glad I was the lucky one to recover this beautiful specimen. I can’t wait to display it for years to come. Love this hobby and love my Minelab E-TRAC!
Dave - MA, USA
