Once upon a time there was a treasure hunter who was very fond of setting goals for himself. He knew his latest goal if only that damned weatherman would cooperate. While he referred to himself as a treasure hunter, others would call him a coin shooter, and some of his pals frequently reminded him that clad coins were not treasure. That didn't phase him. He enjoyed digging clad coins and he was fairly proficient at it. Setting out early in his beat up old Ford pick-up, he hoped the weather would allow him an hour or two in the field. The site today would be one that has produced a few silver coins and many modern coins in the past few weeks. His trusted GTI 2500 was equipped with it's larger and deeper seeking 12.5 inch imaging coil and he wondered if that would allow him to dig the 155 coins he was after. After all, digging a lot of deep coins would be both time consuming and he would tire more quickly from swinging the heavier coil. Deciding that he could forgo the goal if it meant adding a silver coin or two to his small pile, he began to hunt in the drizzle that often approached a light rain. He hoped that he hadn't made the 30 mile trek in vain, and, as quickly as he could, he recovered 15 or 20 modern coins. As he approached the edge of the field, he got a nice strong, two way, signal that was steady between quarter and half dollar. Carefully pinpointing the signal his 2500 indicated a size B object at 7 inches. Nine times out of ten this signal is a hunk of rusty iron but that other one time it could be something spectacular. He cut a flap and removed a few handfuls of dirt from the hole. He unsheathed his Garrett Pro-Pointer and scanned the hole. No signal. He thought about his friend at Findmall.com who had posted a great tip about extending the reach of a Pro-Pointer by using a coin held on the side of the unit. While he didn't know why, or how, this worked, it did work and he rescanned the small hole. There was metal, off to the side, under a flat rock. He pulled out the rock and checked the hole once again. The Pro-Pointer screamed out that whatever was in the ground was close. He swept away some dirt and his eye caught a glimpse of silver. Larger than a dime and larger than a quarter by the look of it! In his mind he hoped for a Walking Liberty Half or if he was lucky a Barber. He removed the item and knew it was a coin and that it was silver but it was thin and looked odd. He lightly brushed a little dirt from one side and saw pillars and he knew that he had found something special. Spanish silver and old. He returned to his truck and carefully wrapped his prize in a paper towel. This coin was not going to get cleaned in the field. He poked around for another two hours and fell about 40 coins short of his goal but this was still a very good day. The goal would wait until next time, besides he was tired and hot. He returned to his stylish bachelor apartment, located on the unfashionable side of town, and gave the coin a gentle rinse under the tap. He spotted the date, 1793! He had found his oldest silver coin ever and also noticed that it had a hole (and even the start of a second hole) drilled in it which was not uncommon for old coins in the US. Sadly, his treasure had received a slight scratch on the obverse that was not from his Lesche digging tool, but most likely from removing the big rock that had covered it for at least a century. Now our treasure hunter knew that Spanish coins were legal tender in the US until just before the Civil War but he had never owned nor had he ever held one in his hand. He fired up his computer and began to research his treasure. Turns out he had found a Milled Bust, Spanish 2 reale coin, minted in Nuevo Guatemala (NG on Reverse), by and assayer who's initial was M. After reading a few articles he determined that the NG Reales were fairly scarce and that his coin might be worth several hundred dollars. He looked hard to find one for sale with no luck. There were plenty from other mints dated 1793 but none from NG. He finally stumbled to a later dated 2 Reale Coin from Guatemala that was being auctioned and had been bid up to over $150.00. Maybe his friends at Findmall could help him as they often did in the past. It HAD been a good day. And he lived happily ever after.
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We hope some of you get the intent of this post. It is an uncommon style of prose for this forum and it might be hard to read and digest it all. Just something different. If you know anything about my coin, or if you know of a good Spanish silver resource on the WWW, we would like to hear about it.
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We hope some of you get the intent of this post. It is an uncommon style of prose for this forum and it might be hard to read and digest it all. Just something different. If you know anything about my coin, or if you know of a good Spanish silver resource on the WWW, we would like to hear about it.
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