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GREATEST FIND EVER

G

garwadd1

New member
My Greatest Find ever was finding this Barber half dollar in April of 2012. I was using my Garrett ATPRO that I had purchased the year before. I have been hunting this site for 23 years now and it keeps yielding good coins. How I missed this for 23 years I cannot explain. My first detector was a Fisher CZ6,followed by a CZ70 Pro.then a Garrett Ace 250. The ATPRO is a great machine. The coin was about 7 ~ 8 inches deep and laying at a slight angle. It did not give a good signal at first. The site is polluted with nails and shotgun shells and big iron.I guess it was masked for all those other years. I did not realize at first what I had found other than my first Barber half which made me pretty excited. It looked like it was in pretty good shape with some corrosion on the reverse.Once I got home I showed it to my wife who always asks jokingly "Well did you find the big one?" I went and got my Red Book and looked up 1904s half dollar, Wow what a great surprise! I really had found the Big One.As it turns out the coin is a R5 rarity due to low mintage and hard to get in the upper grades.I had the coin professionally cleaned as I wanted to show it's full beauty. I sent it to be slabbed by SEGS and it came back AU50 details cleaned. A local coin appraiser valued it at $3000 ~ $3500 dollars. I sent pictures and my story to Western and Eastern magazine where it was chosen as one of the best finds of 2012 and made the cover of their magazine for April 2013.It also was published in The Silver and Gold issue by Western & Eastern and my story was published in the Barber Coin Collectors Society quarterly issue of last year.The coin also took Find of the Year at all three metal detecting clubs I belong to. Since finding that coin I have purchased a Blisstool metal detector and going back and finding more old coins at that old site. So far I have been able to coax 2 barber dimes and a merc along with some Indian head penny's out of that tough site. I can't wait for spring to come.:detecting::detecting::detecting:
garwadd1
 
That's a beautiful coin and a great story of how you retrieved it and took all the right steps to have it professionally cleaned and graded etc;. You deserve all the recognition you recieved for this awesome find!! H.H. as you go for more silver at that spot:clapping:
 
Makes you wonder how you were never able to get your coil over that beautiful coin over a 23 year period.....amazing! Congrats on hanging in there and finally nailing it!!!
 
Great find - great story - congrats ! :clapping:
 
Thanks to all for the kind comments.I sure do appreciate them. I resized the pics I have of the coin slabbed by SEGS for those that want to see them. It cost me about 35 bucks and it took only a week to get it back.
garwadd1
 
Niiiiice,

If you ask me though I'd think your local appraiser may have wanted that
coin for himself, did he offer to take it off your hands?

At that grade of almost being uncirculated, $ 3-3.5K seems very low, there
were only 553K minted also....and it's an 'S'.

Great find!!...keep looking for the twins.

Bunited2
 
The picture of the Reverse doesn't do justice to the detail on the eagle and the banner it holds. The wing tips,banner and tail feathers are part of the way they grade the coin besides the Liberty on the crown she wears.Speaking of offers the coin dealer that I first showed it to offered 600 bucks just they way it was in the first two pictures, right out of the ground with just some of the mud washed off.He did do a nice job cleaning it to remove the dirt and almost all of the corrosion off of the reverse. He graded it Fine to XFine. After it was cleaned and slabbed he offered 800,even though it was graded AU 50.When I asked why so low he said " because it was cleaned". Catch 22 I guess.Before it was slabbed I took it to a coin show where there was a lot of dealers and went around getting opinions on the value.They ranged from, "That mint mark was applied" What?? I guess some people have taken mint marks off of other coins and applied them to no mint mark coins. I just laughed at him and said it's been laying in the ground for about 100 years and I had found it metal detecting earlier that year.Other dealers quotes ranged from $500 to $1200.One dealer looked at it and said" You know you really have something here" and said it could be over 3 grand. He recommended I send it to SEGS for slabbing.The cost included $5000 insurance in case it was lost( Gulp) I was nervous to send it,but he assured me he had never lost any coins through them.It came back in a week. They had called me to say they had received it and called me again to say it was shipped. I thought that was very considerate of them. By the way that dealer was the only guy I bought coins from at that show. I felt he was honest with me and would buy from him again.
After it came back slabbed I decided to enter it in Western and Eastern Treasures Best Finds issue. But that's a whole other story.
garwadd1
 
Very sweet find, it's something any one of us would be thrilled to have dug. Your jaw must have absolutely dropped, pulling that bad boy out of the ground. Hope you hit more on your favorite old faithful ground. George
 
Congrats!!! That's a beautiful coin!!!! That story reminds me of the only Barber half I have ever found (a 1905) on a site I have a hunted many times over the years. I have found many Indian Head pennies, several large cents, a Barber quarter, and even dug up 3 seated dimes on that site ... had to have walked over that Barber half a thousand times before finding it.
 
Absolutely beautiful coin! Amazing how you walked over this coin for 23 years with a bunch of different detectors. So many variables come into play. You were in the right spot at the right angle with the correct moisture content, possibility that it shifted in the ground and moved far enough away to be unmasked, right size coil, fast processing machine, right amount of sensitivity just the right sweep speed etc. Congratulations! - Jim
 
Amazing Finds!!!!
 
:detecting:Thanks for your comment. Sure makes me scratch my head how I missed this for all those years,my friends too. I know of at least 6 or 7 guys that hunt that field too over the years all with different machines.Now I have a Blisstool and going back again.:thumbup:
Garwadd1.
 
All I can say is WOW! What a great find and story! Congratulations, you sure earned that one!
 
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