My First Gold & 19th Century Coin!

FelixtheCat

A Moderating Knight of the Round Coil
Super Mod
Forum Supporter
Joined
Apr 14, 2006
Messages
13,392
Location
Miami
Part 1: Let me start off with that this find was totally and completely unexpected. I went to hunt at popular upscale park located in the City <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on">Miami</st1:City>. This park gets a lot of people traffic, especially on the weekends. I had done it last year and collected a nice amount of clad. I went to do what I usually do which is the sanded areas. This park has a large sanded volleyball court and a fitness track that has very small sanded exercise areas with different apparatus in them as you go along the track. I started on the volleyball court with not too much clad but I did find the silver bangle bracelet. :D I then decided to head for the exercise areas which I knew would be better for the clad. Towards the end of my hunt, I picked up a gold colored coin with a bunch of Arabic script on it. I didn’t think much of it and I put it away in the pouch thinking that it was a modern gold colored coin and nothing more. I then finished my 2 hours of hunting with a respectable $3.52 in clad and the silver bracelet that I was excited about. :yes: <O:p</O:p
<O:p</O:p

Part 2: After going home and spending some time looking at the internet for “modern Arab and Israeli coins, I could not find anything that it was even close to. I figured it was time to get professional help so I posted pics of the gold colored coin on the "Help To Id My Finds” section of this forum. :?: I was doubtful too many people would get to see it as we were just coming back from the notorious hack. Then some of the fine folks on this forum shed some light on my mystery find. One posted what the coin said "In the name of Allah the most merciful and the most compassionate" in addition to a date of 1293 which a couple of other members said was really 1876 after the coin was converted from its Arabic date. Finally, member FXDiz was first to correctly identify the coin as an Ottoman Turkey 100 Kurus Gold Coin! Wow! :wow: An honest to God real gold coin. I was amazed and speechless. :shock: In order to make sure that the coin was authentic, I took it to school to weigh it on a digital scale and it weighed in at what it should have 7.20 grams. I still have a friend that’s a rare coin dealer who is going to look at it, but at this point I am almost 100% sure that it’s real.

<O:p</O:p
Part 3: Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have believed to have found a gold coin, much less one from the 19<SUP>th</SUP> century, and especially in a sanded exercise area of a relatively modern park. I thank those members that looked at the post and helped to identify it. So I now I have found my first gold coin and my first 19th century one also (But still no Merc as of yet!). The moral of this story is that you never really know what is going to come out of the ground – EVER! <O:p</O:p
 

Attachments

  • 4-12-08.web.JPG
    4-12-08.web.JPG
    18.3 KB · Views: 4,093
  • 4-12-08 Foreign 1.web.JPG
    4-12-08 Foreign 1.web.JPG
    20.5 KB · Views: 4,093
  • 4-12-08 Foreign 2.web.JPG
    4-12-08 Foreign 2.web.JPG
    23.3 KB · Views: 4,090
  • Comparison 2.JPG
    Comparison 2.JPG
    13.6 KB · Views: 4,049
That is awesome Felix! With it being Arabic and unfamiliar, I would have probably written it off as just a cool foreign coin and thrown it in my cool coin jar. Congrats on the milestone - both of them!

At 29.52 per gram the gold alone is worth more than 212 bucks!
 
Great telling of the story Felix!! An amazing find for sure!! Gives us all hope that you just never know what will turn up!
 
Was the signal on your detector a strange signal, like broken, solid? Comeon Felix tell us all about it. :yes:

You said you "picked it up" toward the end of your hunt. Was it on top of the ground?
 
Carol - I honestly don't remember what the signal was. I remember there wasn't much trash so I was scooping everything I could. I would guess it wasn't any deeper than 2-4 inches in the sand. I really thought it was some type of gold-colored coin. The thought of it actually being made of gold NEVER entered my head until the members here began identifying it. I will run my detector over it when I get home today and edit this post and let you guys know my VDI and tones on it.

OK, VDI on my BHD3300 is 55 which puts it between a pull tab and a zinc penny. Very nice and loud tone in the pinpoint mode.
 
Cool Felix.

The small gold coin I found was a broken signal on my XLT, and I wouldn't have found it if I wasn't scooping everything. I actually thought it was a piece of gold foil like on the inside of a cap off a bottle.
 
Congratulations!! Bounty Hunter strikes again. That is the thing that keeps most of us in the hobby, not ever knowing what might show up when hunting. I have yet to find my first gold coin, but have no intentions of quitting. I am glad for you.:yes:
 
Back
Top Bottom