Question? Has anyone here found a gold coin?

[ironsight]

Been on this here forum for a while now and don't recall anyone finding or posting a pic of dug up gold coin.
Gold jewelry yes lots of those but no gold coins. Out of all the members here, someone surely had to find a gold coin i'd think.

The only gold coins i've seen posted on the public forums are from Europe mainly the UK.

 

[amberjack]

I know someone that knows someone that found one

still looking for my 1st one one day it will pop out well I can hope right that's free

AJ

 

[BillF]

I know people personally that have found gold coins.I don't understand why more aren't found.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I've found 14 so far, not counting ones mounted in jewelry. All found in CA. Locations like stage stops, after beach storms erode, oldtown sidewalk and demolition tearouts, etc....

To answer Bill's question: They're not found more frequently is is that they were not carried like regular penny, dimes, etc.... Back in the day when $2.50 or $5 was an entire day or week's pay, go figure: That would be like you or I loosing $100 to $500 today. Hence gold coins were usually only brought out for larger purchases. Ie.: downpayments on real estate. Or to buy a horse, buggy, etc......

In the same way that .... today .... when it comes time for you to have to put a $500 outlay on a car down payment, etc...., you generally have a checkbook, or credit card, etc.... Ie.: some other way than literally "500 cash". Yet on the other hand, there will no doubt be pennies, nickels, dimes, etc... in your pocket, right ? Same logic as back then: The gold coins were brought out for when it came time for larger transactions only. That's not to say they couldn't be in people's pockets though (especially during times of travel long-distances-moving, when it's reasonable to assume you'd pack up your savings with you to take).

And oddly, they're found more often out west (CA, OR, etc...), than back east. There's various theories as to why that's true But suffice it to say, it's anecdotally true: There's hunters back east with SCORES of colonial coppers, busts, reales, large cents, etc.... yet have never found a gold coin (or only found 1, etc...). Yet here in CA, there's lots of hunters that have found 1, 2, 3, or more. I knew of a guy who got one on his first day ever detecting (storms of 1982-83 beach erosion ).

 

[Mega]

Have found 5 in just the last 2 years.

Full celtic gold stater 55BC
1/4 Celtic gold stater
George 111 Full Guinea
Viccy full Sovereign
Viccy 1/2 Sovereign

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Yes, but you're in Europe There's some British (and I suppose other European countries) hunters that have tallies up into the teens and 20's as #s of gold coins found.

 

[Mega]

Yes, but you're in Europe There's some British (and I suppose other European countries) hunters that have tallies up into the teens and 20's as #s of gold coins found.

Tom,your not wrong,but i did mention just that amount in the last few years,currently working on a hoard site,this has produced double digit celtic staters and still producing,location is kept a very low profile for obvious reason,when the crops come off we are hoping for more.

Its interesting you mentioned about finding more in one part of the US than other parts.

 

[amberjack]

10.s of millions of them minted in Australia http://www.cruzis-coins.com/sovs/Sovmintage.html

for some reason they are hard to find probably as stated above they were not carted around for the most part in peoples pockets, sure people do find them but not a lot and some mintages are higher than a lot of silver coins I have found.

sure there is one out there somewhere with my name on it

well done on the finds guys gives me some hope.

AJ

 

[mudpuppy]

Yes, a few show up every year that are posted here...Ron (CA) even has youtube vids of the live Gold Coin digs and posts on 'Todays Finds' segment, you will get a major woody if you watch them!.....Theres a guy who swings a Deus that found one, I cant remember what his name is though, and too lazy to dive deep into the posts...my apologies to this guy for His amazing find and a great backstory!....so I guess to answer your question, in the States, maybe a half dozen are found and posted here for us to drool over every year...

As mentioned, theres a lot of them out there, the signal may be masked in with a spill, or not heard to begin with, gold being such a soft tone and not a solid ping like silver......If a guy is in old dirt, thats when a fellow needs to sharpen up and think 'Gold Coin' kind of signals, and then work the odds.........I have absolutely no doubt someday I will find one, or an entire jar full, for I hunt for them and think about it all the time...

Sitting here now, I'm sure theres a few gold coins within 5 miles of my house at this very moment!...Maybe more than that, maybe a mason jar full of them? They might be buried under the street, but they are there none the less...I can assure you none of them are in my house, So what am I doing wasting time here? Gold waits for nobody!
Mud

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Actually, the odds at finding a gold coin, per the ratios/demographics of other coins, is probably no better in Europe (England, etc...) than it is in the USA. What I mean is, European hunters, just like USA hunters, consider a gold coin to be a "hole-in-one" and "holy grail" type moment, just as much as USA hunters do. And no doubt there's good European hunters that have never found a gold coin. So I don't mean to make it sound like it's "easy" there (versus the USA).

The difference is though, that since there is SO much more history over there, that it's possible to simply have better old coin tallies, to begin with there. So while the ratio might be "1 gold coin per 5,000 old coins dug", well, go figure: It's going to be easier to accumulate that "5000 old coins" in Europe, more-so than the USA. Doh!

For whatever reason, I have heard of British hunters who have exceeded 20 gold coins, for instance. Whereas in the USA, only a few have ever gotten that high (and only THEN SO specifically at a single fort site).

Also: I am assuming this means single coin fumble fingers losses, and is NOT counting gold coins found in caches. If caches are counted (where 50 or 100 can be found in a single box, jar, etc......), then .... that's a different league of statistics, IMHO. So for purposes of this thread, I'm assuming single-coin-at-a-time (and not counting jewelry) is what's being discussed.

 

[D&P-OR]

Tom-----Good gold coin finds---congrats on that.------What detector/coil combo do you feel is the best set up for this situation?

I've found 14 so far, not counting ones mounted in jewelry. All found in CA. Locations like stage stops, after beach storms erode, oldtown sidewalk and demolition tearouts, etc....

To answer Bill's question: They're not found more frequently is is that they were not carried like regular penny, dimes, etc.... Back in the day when $2.50 or $5 was an entire day or week's pay, go figure: That would be like you or I loosing $100 to $500 today. Hence gold coins were usually only brought out for larger purchases. Ie.: downpayments on real estate. Or to buy a horse, buggy, etc......

In the same way that .... today .... when it comes time for you to have to put a $500 outlay on a car down payment, etc...., you generally have a checkbook, or credit card, etc.... Ie.: some other way than literally "500 cash". Yet on the other hand, there will no doubt be pennies, nickels, dimes, etc... in your pocket, right ? Same logic as back then: The gold coins were brought out for when it came time for larger transactions only. That's not to say they couldn't be in people's pockets though (especially during times of travel long-distances-moving, when it's reasonable to assume you'd pack up your savings with you to take).

And oddly, they're found more often out west (CA, OR, etc...), than back east. There's various theories as to why that's true But suffice it to say, it's anecdotally true: There's hunters back east with SCORES of colonial coppers, busts, reales, large cents, etc.... yet have never found a gold coin (or only found 1, etc...). Yet here in CA, there's lots of hunters that have found 1, 2, 3, or more. I knew of a guy who got one on his first day ever detecting (storms of 1982-83 beach erosion ).

 

[Larry (IL)]

I have found one in the 30 years I've been detecting.

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?66,939068,1031744#msg-1031744

 

[Tom_in_CA]

---What detector/coil combo do you feel is the best set up for this situation?....

D&P - OR, it's not so much a question of which machine is best for gold coins. It's more a question of WHAT TYPE SITES you can find gold coins at

Because gold coins are actually an easy loud signal. Well, from $2.50 and up anyhow. Perhaps the smaller $1 gold pieces are going to be down at something less than nickel (ie.: around beaver tail off the tabs). But the $2.50 is a loud banging tab signal (hence any machine that is "good at tabs"). And the $5 gold is a solid signal that's up around the beefy-sturdy square tabs, or at the corroded zinc TID. And so on, and so forth up the Scale of TIDs.

Thus any machine that can find tabs, corroded zinc, pennies, etc.... will find gold coins. They're not flimsy or difficult signals. So the tactic of how to find them then, comes down to *WHERE* you hunt

 

[ironsight]

I have found one in the 30 years I've been detecting.

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?66,939068,1031744#msg-1031744

I'd say that gold coin is a find of a lifetime for most of us. Great find!

 

[ironsight]

...I've found 14 so far, not counting ones mounted in jewelry...

Wow!

Any pics of them!
Thanks for all the interesting info you posted.

As to your point of more gold coins are found out West, in addition could it be that the major gold fields were out West with most gold coins minted locally to minimize gold transports across the Country? Thinking of the Denver and SanFran mints.

Also, could the U.S. going off the gold standard in 1933 also be a reason old gold coins are rare to find? Apparently a lot were turned in according to this:

...On April 5, 1933, Roosevelt ordered all gold coins and gold certificates in denominations of more than $100 turned in for other money. It required all persons to deliver all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve by May 1 for the set price of $20.67 per ounce. By May 10, the government had taken in $300 million of gold coin and $470 million of gold certificates.....

 

[Southwind]

I've found 2 in my 40 years of detecting. A 1945 Mexican 2 peso gold coin and a 1984 South African Krugerrand in a 14k bezel.

 

[BillF]

I've found 14 so far, not counting ones mounted in jewelry. All found in CA.

Wow doesn't adequately convey my feelings at this moment.

 

[oneguy]

Also, could the U.S. going off the gold standard in 1933 also be a reason old gold coins are rare to find? Apparently a lot were turned in according to this:

...On April 5, 1933, Roosevelt ordered all gold coins and gold certificates in denominations of more than $100 turned in for other money. It required all persons to deliver all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve by May 1 for the set price of $20.67 per ounce. By May 10, the government had taken in $300 million of gold coin and $470 million of gold certificates.....

I read somewhere (so take with a grain) that when the Gov. recalled the gold coins in '33-'34 that they "guesstimate" only about 20% actually turned in their coins? They "think" this is the reason so many good quality high grade OLD gold coins are still out there in the numismatic world today. My guess is that even back then the people loved their gold as much as we do today and when the Gov. announced the "turn in your gold BS" that most likely brought out the hoarders and speculators to grab as much coinage as they could afford before the law became effective? I have NO trouble finding slabbed common Liberty Head double eagles in semi-high grade ms for little over spot. Seems to be no shortage what-so-ever on higher quality OLD gold.......jmo

 

[amberjack]

was this the end of the gold standard as in money backed by gold?

AJ

 

[mudpuppy]

Yeah Tom!

You should probably do a write up about some of your gold coin finds...for educational and entertainment purposes! Truly this is the "Holy Grail" for most detectorists, and you have been blessed far beyond most..so you probably should write something up about it...
please!
Mud.