This image was scanned as I can't afford a camera just yet. AJ, who I believe is in the Syracuse area came pretty close as did Dave~ although I liked VT Dave's story. There may be more coins inside but I haven't had it x-rayed.
One day in 1990 I was beating a soccer park with 8 fields. This park gave me over $450.00 in clad that summer and my only ever flying eagle cent, an 1856. Today was hot and hunting was like work. I needed to cool off.
My spirits lifted as I left Santa Rosa behind me and headed toward Bodega where Hitchcock filmed his classic, "The Birds". A few miles further and I was headed north through Bodega Bay.
I intended to 'prospect' the pocket beaches which are isolated from each other by outcrops of rock and cliffs. At low tide you can hunt the bedrock for pockets and cracks. I had, on earlier trips, found V-nickels, mercs and standing liberty quarters. If they were tossed around they would often be worn smooth, but, if they were dropped in a crack they were protected from abrasion and often in very nice condition.
I began to hunt and before long I had several clads and a 100 yen coin. The hoped for silver coin was being elusive. About an hour into the hunt I found a large iron signal and scraped the shallow sand off with the side of my boot. Handsful of rusty nails from people burning scrap lumber in their beach fires came out and went into my 'beach debris' bucket. Then near the bottom I spied some coins mixed in with the nails. Hmmm. Could there maybe be a ring ?
Alas, it tweren't to be <img src="/metal/html/sad.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":sad"> . I pulled 3 dimes and 4 pennies out, all recent, but I was still getting a good signal even though I had cleaned the hole to the bottom.
The gold miner in me took over and I began to chisel the stone with a beach cobble and my screwdriver. As pieces broke off I ran them over the coil until this one came out. The nails in the bottom of the hole had rusted away so completely that they cemented the gravel in the bottom of the crack into what you see. It is very solid and not flaking at all.
There are 2 clad dimes exposed, thus this is my 'twenty cent piece' but it is also, in a way, 'fossil money'. I left them embedded in the rock because they are more interesting that way. If I broke them out they would only be 2 more clad dimes and they wouldn't interest anyone at all.
Now, which of you has the next oddity ? <img src="/metal/html/confused.gif" border=0 width=15 height=22 alt=":?">
