1914d Wheatie Found

[bigfootokie]

I have been detecting off and on for 44 years and have found too many Wheats to count. Finally I found a rare one and it's in pretty decent shape with good detail.

Last Monday and Tuesday I hunted 3 different trashy spots with the Deus and my finds were meager at best, or so I thought. A handfull of clad, copper memorials, a few zincolns, the usual bits of trash, and 3 Wheats. I put all the coins in a container of distilled water to loosen the dirt and left it until Wednesday evening when I had time to check dates. The last Wheat I looked at was a 1914d and I stood there thinking I had an unusual find, but I kept thinking there was no way after all these years I could have recovered a rare Penny.

I headed for my computer room to take a look at my extremely outdated coin book (2002 edition) to see what I had. This old book showed the minimum value at $80 and the highest value at $1700. I was pretty much in shock after that knowing that my find had nice detail and should fetch a higher price than $80 especially since my price book was 10 years old.

I have not cleaned the coin and I'm not sure what to do with it next since none of the companies that authenticate and slab coins will do any cleaning...none that I have checked so far.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Deusdigger]

Great find!

 

[MHirschmann]

I don't have any coins that are worth much but from what I have been told, if you get a coin that has some real value, dont clean it at all. I've been told that they are better off left with dirt on them and its the collectors problem if/when/ho to clean it. I wouldn't touch it if I were you. If you "have" to do something, I would recommend an olive oil bath to loosen the crud and then wash it of WITHOUT RUBBING IT. This is the hardest part as its out nature to want to rub that little extra crud off, but don't do it. Good luck and let us know what ends up happening with it. -Marc

 

[Schultzie]

Cool story! Congratulations on the find too!!!!!

 

[Schultzie]

Okay, curiosity got the best of me. I looked it up in the 2013 Red book. Not exactly sure how to grade it because of it not being cleaned but assuming the dirt would come off, I would say it would be at an F-12 Fine which is, "wheat lines worn but visible" and that puts it at a price of $385. It also has a footnote - "Beware of altered date or mint mark". Not sure what that means... Counterfeits maybe??? Anyway, good deal!

 

[bigfootokie]

Okay, curiosity got the best of me. I looked it up in the 2013 Red book. Not exactly sure how to grade it because of it not being cleaned but assuming the dirt would come off, I would say it would be at an F-12 Fine which is, "wheat lines worn but visible" and that puts it at a price of $385. It also has a footnote - "Beware of altered date or mint mark". Not sure what that means... Counterfeits maybe??? Anyway, good deal!

Thanks for the Congrats Shultzie. I went to a trusted coin dealer today and his determination was that it is not counterfeit and would grade about EF-40 if it were clean and without corrosion. His opinion was that I could get about $250 for it as is without restoration or cleaning. With professional cleaning and restoring I'm sure I could get at least a bit more.

I'll be in contact with NCS hopefully this next week to get their opinion and go from there.

Jim

 

[Deusdigger]

Keep us posted.

 

[MHirschmann]

Just curious, how deep was it? Also what freq were your hunting in and what was the VDI?

I ask because I know a lot of guys on here skip penny signals that will probably be exactly what you describe. I am always encouraging people to dig good repeatable signals and the value of your find, mixed with the info of where it was when you found it, might push some people to dig more signals that they "know" are just another penny.

Thanks in advance for the info. -Marc

 

[bigfootokie]

Just curious, how deep was it? Also what freq were your hunting in and what was the VDI?

I ask because I know a lot of guys on here skip penny signals that will probably be exactly what you describe. I am always encouraging people to dig good repeatable signals and the value of your find, mixed with the info of where it was when you found it, might push some people to dig more signals that they "know" are just another penny.

Thanks in advance for the info. -Marc

I was hunting a very trashy site Marc. The soil is very tight, even Barbers and Indians are found at 4-5 inches on occasion. I recall that no coins were deeper than 6" that day and most were in the 4-5" range.
I always hunt at 11.7 Khz at this site. This spot has been hammered bad for the last 40 plus years and I have to work very hard to find older coins each time I hunt there. I would say that only 1 out of every 10 targets I dig are solid signals right on the numbers. Most of those are modern coins. The good finds I usually make are "iffy" signals bouncing around a bit on the numbers, but still no more than about a 5 number spread. I found a coin on that first day that I am sure is going to be a Shield Nickel. It's horribly corroded and is larger than a penny but slightly smaller and thinner than a modern nickel. I have been working on it and I can barely see 4 vertical bars in the middle on one side. I doubt I will get a date on it, but I hope to verify that it is a Shield. It read 88-92 bouncing back and forth, but sounded good and repeated from all directions. I specifically remember that one because it was my last dig of the day and it was an odd sized coin.

I can't say for sure what the penny read...but I can almost guarantee it was one of the "iffy" signals.

 

[Deusdigger]

Just curious, how deep was it? Also what freq were your hunting in and what was the VDI?

I ask because I know a lot of guys on here skip penny signals that will probably be exactly what you describe. I am always encouraging people to dig good repeatable signals and the value of your find, mixed with the info of where it was when you found it, might push some people to dig more signals that they "know" are just another penny.

Thanks in advance for the info. -Marc

Too many people here are posting concerns about VID #. From the experience I have had, these numbers are used as a guide reference only. As Marc said,

 

[Ism]

Very nice find...should submit it.

 

[bigfootokie]

I appreciate the nice replies...thanks all.