I was given permission to look around an old house that was built in the 1880's. When I arrived I could tell someone had beat me looking, because of the plugs in the soil. Looked anyway but didn't find anything buy a few brass items. Just before I was ready to leave, thought I would look around the front door as the wooden front porch had been removed. Very first signal was a solid hit on the nickel at 2". Digging down and that's when I saw it, GOLD! Since it had rained a couple of days ago, the coin had mud on it and I didn't want to scratch the coin removing the mud. At home, let it soak for a few minutes and when I looked at it, an 1897 V Nickel. WHAT!!! Sure enough, it was a GOLD PLATED 1897 V Nickel. What a disappointment.