A Treasure Hunt
~ by Paul Sackmann
Earlier in the summer, we were invited to see an old house that was being restored. The grounds were being cleaned up and a new addition was being added to the south side of the house. As bits of old glass and other objects were seen at the site of the new addition we decided to check the area with a good metal detector.
It took just a few passes to see that the dirt was very old and not disturbed. It was probably the original yard from when the house was built in the 1870s. The first coin we found was an older silver Roosevelt dime dated 1946, about four inches deep. The yard was littered with buried aluminum pop-tops and junk, and almost an hour passed before it was clear of all the metal detector signals and modern things lost. We had found only thirty-nine cents in face value.
In the yard, by a walkway that led to the side of the house, was the first old coin. It was a 1915 Lincoln cent that was in like new condition except that it had a nice shade of green patina to it, from being in the ground for so long.
The metal detector signaled a faint signal this time, meaning the object was deeper in the soil. It was another coin. At first you could not tell what it was as it had a cyst of dirt around it. Careful cleaning showed it to be an 1872 Indian cent— a key date to the Indian cent series.
That was the beginning of finding a total of fifteen early Indian cents. Most were dated in the 1880s and 1890s. Other coins were found as well, including an 1899 liberty head nickel that was very dark from being in the ground a long time and a nice example of an 1912 Barber dime. The rest were dated from the 1960s and newer vintage. A matchbox size car from the 1940s and brass hose nozzle were unearthed along with other small metal items on the hunt.
A week after the coin hunt, the new foundation was poured for the addition. All the yard dirt was moved and graded elsewhere on the property. We checked the places where the dirt was spread around and found a few more coins, none of them as good as the week before though.
Old copper and coins made with nickel in them, meaning all the modern coins made from 1965 to present day coinage, when lost in the ground for not too long a time, can turn dark. The Indian cents we found had a pleasing discoloration of green to them. I cleaned the years of dirt off of them with a toothbrush and warm water.
The photo shows how dark the copper and nickel coins can get being lost in the ground.
Indian cents were first minted in 1859. The 1859 thru 1864 Indian cents were made of copper and nickel and were extra thick. 1864 until 1909 Indian cents were made with bronze and copper alloy. The hard to find dates are 1869,1877, and 1909S. Other years are scarce to find as well. Only two years, 1908 and 1909, can have a mint mark on the backside. Indian cents, as with all coins, are valued as to the condition of wear and eye appeal the object can have— the better preserved, the more value.
Silver and gold coins do not corrode and tarnish much, if at all. The silver coins that were found on our hunt looked as good as the day they were lost. All the
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62 Our Brown County • Sept./ Oct. 2015