Last Friday I had a couple of hours to kill so I stopped by this trashy pumpkin patch that sits on a main road not far from my house.
From my old map research it appears this 3 acre property has been farmed since settlement began and sits surrounded by developed lots.
I'm sure it's been pounded to death over the years and the fact that every step has your detector beeping like crazy probably keeps most of the regulars away.
I was practicing using my new 12x15 SEF that day so a trashy site is not exactly the place you would be looking to use a coil like that.
After about 15 minutes of hearing tones (everywhere I stepped) I decided to focus only on high tones with good repeatable signals.
I picked up a dime and a round item that was cut in half. Not rubbing either in the field I placed them in my pocket and finished up my detecting.
The dime turned out to be a 1952 Rosie (always nice to find silver) and the cut object turned out to be.....well you can see by the pictures - a 1759 Carolus III 8 reales silver dollar - only minted from 1759 to 1788 - I can clearly make out the 9 and the number next to it looks like a 3 or 5 so it has to be a 1759 based on the minting dates - and, as was the custom up until the mid-1800's, 8 reales silver dollars were sometimes cut into 8 bits hence the name "pieces of eight" and the term "two bits" - we've all come to understand - would be a quarter (2/8 = 1/4)...so it looks like I have myself a really cool half-dollar....
I added a shot of a similar "full" coin from the internet (same coin - different date) to give you some perspective on what this coin would have looked like. I cleaned it up some but basically left this 8 reales in pretty much tarnished condition - don't know if I really want to have it shined up. In person you can make out the detail quite well - the picture doesn't do it justice.
Moral of the story - you never know what you're gonna find, especially in a plowed field, with tons of trash that's been hunted to death. That ETRAC can really smell the silver. HH.
From my old map research it appears this 3 acre property has been farmed since settlement began and sits surrounded by developed lots.
I'm sure it's been pounded to death over the years and the fact that every step has your detector beeping like crazy probably keeps most of the regulars away.
I was practicing using my new 12x15 SEF that day so a trashy site is not exactly the place you would be looking to use a coil like that.
After about 15 minutes of hearing tones (everywhere I stepped) I decided to focus only on high tones with good repeatable signals.
I picked up a dime and a round item that was cut in half. Not rubbing either in the field I placed them in my pocket and finished up my detecting.
The dime turned out to be a 1952 Rosie (always nice to find silver) and the cut object turned out to be.....well you can see by the pictures - a 1759 Carolus III 8 reales silver dollar - only minted from 1759 to 1788 - I can clearly make out the 9 and the number next to it looks like a 3 or 5 so it has to be a 1759 based on the minting dates - and, as was the custom up until the mid-1800's, 8 reales silver dollars were sometimes cut into 8 bits hence the name "pieces of eight" and the term "two bits" - we've all come to understand - would be a quarter (2/8 = 1/4)...so it looks like I have myself a really cool half-dollar....
I added a shot of a similar "full" coin from the internet (same coin - different date) to give you some perspective on what this coin would have looked like. I cleaned it up some but basically left this 8 reales in pretty much tarnished condition - don't know if I really want to have it shined up. In person you can make out the detail quite well - the picture doesn't do it justice.
Moral of the story - you never know what you're gonna find, especially in a plowed field, with tons of trash that's been hunted to death. That ETRAC can really smell the silver. HH.
