A Tale of Two Gold Coins
This is a true story of a friend of mine and his brother-in-law who did a little metal detecting back in the early 1990?s. The one fellow had done a little bit of library research and discovered that a certain school yard in I believe Rochester, Minnesota had at one time been a business area in the old days. He went and detected the area of the flag pole and found a $5 gold piece, I am sure there were other older coins found during his hunt, but the gold one was the big news. Folks converged on the site and the rush was on when word leaked out. In time things settled down and the incident was forgotten.
One year to the day latter, the fellow who found the gold coin was hunting with his brother-in-law (my friend) and had a friendly wager on who would find the first old coin. My friend (Bruce) crossed the street and proceeded to hunt the schoolyard in the area of the flagpole. He received a signal and dug a $5 gold piece. His brother-in-law could not believe it, the second gold coin was found on the exact day, only one year latter than his, and within 10 feet of the first one!
This was even more amazing considering the first wave of detectorist?s had pounded the area after the first gold coin was discovered. Needless to say another wave of optimists descended upon the site, metal detectors in hand, but nothing in the way of gold coins were ever reported having been found there since.
I believe the gold coins were dated something like 1907 and 1909 if I correctly remember the story. I do know that Bruce?s made Western and Eastern?s Silver and Gold issue, I think it was one of the early 1990?s issues.
So how is it that so many passed over the second gold coin?