Dig Every Signal Carefully!

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Dig Every Signal Carefully!
by Rex McDaniel

(Reprinted with the permission of Western and Eastern Treasures)
Western and Eastern Treasures

"Dig every signal carefully!" Every coin hunter has heard that good advice time after time. But all of us at one time or another fail to heed that helpful suggestion. When we're hunting an area where we don't expect to find anything really good, or where trash is plentiful, we tend to get a little careless. And such carelessness can cause damage to an unexpected treasure.

For some time now I have been coin hunting along the streets in Gulfport, Mississippi. A few spots have been good, yielding some silver coins and a few buffalo and V nickles. Several months ago I decided to check a section near downtown Gulfport. I had no reason to suspect that the spot held any special attraction for a coin hunter. The buildings in the section are obviously fairly new, and I have seen nothing in the history of the town to indicate that anything of significance was there in the past. So it was one of those places where I had no reason to expect to find anything good.

My first two finds, a couple of new pennies, did not raise my hopes. Then I got a very strong signal, definitely not the kind that inspires visions of silver or other deeply buried treasures. "That's got to be a pull tab," I thought. The signal was located in the center of a small grassless area, and the soil was soft and sandy. So, instead of cutting a deep plug as I usually do, I started scraping the soil away with the blade of my knife. I had taken about 3 swipes when I heard and felt the knife hit something solid.

I froze! Looking down into the small depression I had made, I could see the shine of silver, and the outline of what I knew had to be a large coin. "Oh no," I thought, "I've scratched a Walking Liberty Half." With those warnings about digging carefully coming back to haunt me now, I gingerly removed the coin from the ground. But it was not a walking liberty. It was larger and thicker. On the coin I recognized the familiar coat of arms that indicates an old Spanish issue. It was a 4 Real coin,minted in Mexico City in 1795, the oldest coin I had ever found.

Even When Least Expected

I wondered how such an old coin had come to rest one inch under the soil of a Gulfport street. I would like to think it had been there for 150 years or more, lost by some early explorer or pioneer, or perhaps by some Indian who had gotten the coin in trade. But about two feet away I found a 1930 Belgian coin, so I feel sure the two came from someone's collection, and probably were lost fairly recently. They could have been deposited there by one of the hurricanes that hit this area frequently.

A few days later I got permission to hunt the yard of the house in front of which I had found the coins. I found an 1893 penny and a 1928 nickel, along with some newer coins, but nothing to match my Spanish coin.

Being Careless Can Cause Damage

This incident calls to mind another time when I got careless in retrieving a find, and did some damage to a good coin. I had just moved to Gulfport, and was on my first coinshooting expedition to the City Park. I felt sure the park had been hunted thoroughly by a hundred or more people, so I was not enthusiastic when I got a pull-tab-sounding signal. I started to leave it, then decided to check it out. I probed, a little too roughly, and hit a 1921 Standing Liberty quarter about one half inch deep. It was the first Standing Liberty I had ever found, and was in good condition, except for the scratch I put into it.

So I repeat the good advice, to myself and others. "Dig every signal carefully!" Even if you have no reason to expect a good find in the area, or even if you're sure it's a piece of trash, dig every signal as if you expect to find at least a 1916D dime. Maybe someday, when you least expect it, you will.

This article was published a long time ago. I no longer live in Gulfport. I now live in Knoxville, TN. Please check out some of my other websites at History's Treasure.