I had a couple of hours to kill on Friday so decided to take my detector for a walk. I found a couple of wheats in the first half an hour, and then about an hour into the hunt I got a 5" signal that was sounding pretty much like a quarter. I dug down to 5 inches and nothing, put my sunray probe in the hole and still got a coin signal, but a few inches deeper. Dug another few inches out and still nothing, but the probe kept sounding good. Dug another bit deeper and stuck my hand in the hole. I felt something hard and dumped it out onto my detecting towel. To my surprise I saw 6 coins fall out of my hand!! I quickly put my probe back in the hole and it was screaming. Grabbed another handful of dirt from the bottom of the hole and got another handful of coins! I could not believe it, so another handful into the hole and got a third handful of coins!!
One last trip into the hole with the probe and got the last two coins out of the dirt. They were all pretty much stacked together with a few of them corroded together. Total take for the hole was 22 coins in an area about two cube inches. This is my very first cache and I am super excited! I figure that this is way too many coins to be a coin spill. I read online that these coins were often kept on a string or tether in an even amount of 50, 100, etc...I didn't find any kind of sting holding them together, but it looks like they had been in the ground quite a while. There was quite a Chinese population in this area in the late 1800's working on the railroads and mines. Don't know if someone buried these or lost them, but am sure glad that they did. The first pic of of the coins when I got them home and a look at dirty one. The others are pics of the fronts and backs of them after cleaning. The last pic of the coin in probably the best condition. I was able to find a site to compare the characters on the coin and the last pic is of a coin from the Ch'ing Dynasty. The emperor was Kao Tsung, and these coins were cast from 1736-1795.
I never thought that I would find a coin in the 1700's, especially a bunch of them at once! Needless to say I am on cloud nine about it. Happy hunting and you never know what will be in the next hole!!
One last trip into the hole with the probe and got the last two coins out of the dirt. They were all pretty much stacked together with a few of them corroded together. Total take for the hole was 22 coins in an area about two cube inches. This is my very first cache and I am super excited! I figure that this is way too many coins to be a coin spill. I read online that these coins were often kept on a string or tether in an even amount of 50, 100, etc...I didn't find any kind of sting holding them together, but it looks like they had been in the ground quite a while. There was quite a Chinese population in this area in the late 1800's working on the railroads and mines. Don't know if someone buried these or lost them, but am sure glad that they did. The first pic of of the coins when I got them home and a look at dirty one. The others are pics of the fronts and backs of them after cleaning. The last pic of the coin in probably the best condition. I was able to find a site to compare the characters on the coin and the last pic is of a coin from the Ch'ing Dynasty. The emperor was Kao Tsung, and these coins were cast from 1736-1795. I never thought that I would find a coin in the 1700's, especially a bunch of them at once! Needless to say I am on cloud nine about it. Happy hunting and you never know what will be in the next hole!!