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My First Silver Dollar! :beers: (and a very old Indian Head cent too)

E

Erik in NJ

New member
I put the little guys with beers in the title because I treated myself to a cold one when I got in! I've been detecting since 1999 and this is my first silver dollar! Skipped right over the half which still eludes me. I hunted an old home site that's boarded up. Looks like it was an old Victorian country estate for city folks back in the 1800's. I wasn't finding any coins really, but I did pull some interesting relics which I'll display later. Anyway, I headed around back and got what I thought was a clad quarter signal at about 2". As I dug, a thick silver reeded edge appeared. Thought it was a US half dollar, but didn't recognize the pic on the obverse at first. Then I saw the word dollar! Wow - a silver dollar. Turns out it's Canadian, which a rare find down here in NJ and it's only a 1966 (please tell me it's all silver). It cleaned up really nice and except for a small knick on the obverse rim - it's AU to boot. Despite being fairly young, it's a magnificent coin and I feel as though I've passed a milestone of sorts.

Now the second coin turned out to be only 2" - 3" inches down as well. I have not found any wheats at this site yet, only memorial cents, which I thought was odd, then this lovely old girl popped out! It's a 1869 Indian Head cent - one of my older Indean Heads for sure. I doubt this place has been detected so I'm sure there's got to be more good stuff there, but it's a tough site....super soft soil (goodies are perhaps quite deep) and lots of iron and junk in various areas, plus a crushed stone driveway that's been covered over with grass.

I pulled a few interesting relics which have yet to be cleaned, but will get to these a little later this evening.
 
The dollar is 80% silver and 20% copper. I just started collecting the series and that's
that is says for composition in the back of the blue Whitman folder for Canadian Dollars.
Any Silver dollar is a great find, but I've never even heard of anyone finding a Canadian
Dollar down here in the good old USA. Hope you'll find a lot more good stuff at that site.

Mark
 
Thanks for the info - are the older ones 100% or also the 80/20 mixture? Yeah I was very surprised to see that it was from Canada. I also found a Canadian large cent once, but Canadian coins down here are few and far between.
 
The Coins of Canada guidebook says they switched from .925 silver/.075 copper to 80/20 in 1920,
the same year the small cent was first issued. Guess I'll have to take a vacation sometime to increase
my percentage of Canadian finds.

Mark

Erik in NJ said:
Thanks for the info - are the older ones 100% or also the 80/20 mixture? Yeah I was very surprised to see that it was from Canada. I also found a Canadian large cent once, but Canadian coins down here are few and far between.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the info Mark - nice to see that it's the same composition as silver going back to 1920 and not some modern mix! It's a beautiful coin - certainly a lot nicer that it's American counterpart during the same timeframe. BTW where are you located?
 
I'm in Fredonia, NY. Just a few miles from Lake Erie. I find some Canadian coins here, mainly cents
from the 1940's and later. I get better luck adding Canadian coins to my collection by checking the
change machines in supermarkets. I just found a handful of change with several Canadian nickels from
1940-68, a Nicaraguan 50 Centavos (1994), a 1958-D Roosevelt dime, and a Netherlands 1 cent from
1948. I haven't had time to go detecting in the last few weeks, but a good change machine find is almost
as fun.

Mark
 
Hey! Congrats, Erik! Nice coins, bud. Always good to find silver no matter that what the date. Nice IH as well.

Must be some great sites you have up that way. Wish I could get out with you like you'd mentioned!

Keep at 'em, bud.

Richard
 
Hi Richard, Thanks - yeah it wasn't that old, but seeing that fat silver edge poking out of the ground certainly was a thrill! The beautiful condition plus the rariity of finding a Canadian silver dollar made up for the age. Well your wonderful book has inspired me to do more research and seek out older sites. Hopefully we can get together for some hunting some time.

BTW, for those reading this post - check out Richard's book "Relics & Reminiscing: Diary of a Lowcountry Digger" - its a wonderful book re metal detecting with many, many amazing finds by the author.
 
Appreciate it, Erik. I'll say it again, that was one motive for writing the book -- to inspire others to get out and dig even one more relic. At this rate, you'll have enough for your own book in a few years.

Excellent finds lately, Erik, here and on the relic forum. If you get down this way look me up and we'll go swing a detector over some old sites.

Congrats again, bud. Already looking forward to your next finds. :)

Richard
 
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