Found my oldest silver coin in Ohio trip! (202 years old!!!)

[DiggerAl]

So, as I said in another post the other day, me and my dad went on a little Ohio trip for a day, and I did a bit of research to find some old parks and towns in general. I managed to find a town with a reaaaaallllly old park, the town was founded in the 1820s i beleive, and this town square was the public square since the beginning of the town. On our way to Ohio, I told my dad i had a feeling it was gonna be a good day for at least one of us, and i also said i was hoping to find my new oldest silver coin. We hit a park that i found, and found NOTHING, so we moved on to a town about 2 miles north. I made the decision that at these old parks i was going to dig every signal i got. We pull up to the park, and they're starting to set up for a farmer's market, so we knew we couldn't be there toooooo long. After about 5 or 10 minutes tops, i get a solid 12-18 signal down about 5 inches. I dig the hole, and pull out a small dirty coin, and after a bit of rubbing it looks a little silver, but my dad and I weren't too sure if it was even a coin, but i had a feeling it was something kind of old. After a bit of cleaning and a bit of research, I find out it is an 1815 25 Centime from Haiti! My previous oldest silver was probably 1870s i believe, and I topped that by quite a bit! Here are some pictures of the coin before and after cleaning, and what it looks like undug.
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Sorry if these images look bad, i'm not too sure how to attach the images like I see people do on the forum lol, they just end up like this, i will try to see if i can figure this out lol! It was AMAZING digging this and figuring out what it is. 202 Year old silver coin. From Haiti. Wow.:shocked03:

This isn't even everything from the trip! I just wanted to make a separate post for this, because of the little bit of story to go with it haha. My dad will be posting the rest of the trip tomorrow!

[Digger_O'Dell]

That's a very cool find! But I was wondering why it rang up so low? Did some checking and apparently there were a some counterfeits around made of copper or brass, and sometimes silver washed.
https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/haiti-25-centimes-km-12.2-an-12-1815-an-xi-1814-cuid-1168094-duid-1415070

[DiggerAl]

That's a very cool find! But I was wondering why it rang up so low? Did some checking and apparently there were a some counterfeits around made of copper or brass, and sometimes silver washed.
https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/haiti-25-centimes-km-12.2-an-12-1815-an-xi-1814-cuid-1168094-duid-1415070

Yeah i saw that as well, but it is pretty shiny, and that shine stayed through some lemon juice and baking soda, and got even shinier. Those pictures dont show how THIN that coin is, it is honestly thin enough that if i put some pressure i could probably snap it in half, it is VERY thin. If you look at the top of the picture of the undug example, that little flag at the top, then look at mine, you can see the coin was probably a good 1 or 2mm bigger than it is now lol. Could do a test to see if it is silver and not CF

[aloldstuff]

WOW....you beat your oldest silver by quite a bit.

[OxShoeDrew]

Holy Cow!! :shocked04: That's great Al!! Wonderful find!! You need to get back on a day the place is free of famers markets. That's a very special find!!

[DiggerAl]

Holy Cow!! :shocked04: That's great Al!! Wonderful find!! You need to get back on a day the place is free of famers markets. That's a very special find!!

Yeah! It's a 6 hour drive, but i'm thinking our next new england trip, we take a litttttle detour either there or on the way back hehe. I'm thinking a lot of the easy stuff is gone, but there is probably HEAPS of indians and old nickels, and other old oddball stuff, because this park is around 1820s or older.


WOW....you beat your oldest silver by quite a bit.

Oh yeah i did, and I'm suuuuuuuper happy about it.

[Joe Dirt]

Congratulations on a great find.

[Tony Two-Cent]

That is an incredible find, Alec! Such an unusual coin, I have never seen one before. Talk about old silver! :wow:

Digging every signal sure did pay off for you! :yes:

:congrats:

[BTV Digger]

Very nice old silver and congrats! Another weird and wonderful find for the forum here. Makes you wonder how it got there. That question comes up often in this hobby!

John

[DiggerAl]

Very nice old silver and congrats! Another weird and wonderful find for the forum here. Makes you wonder how it got there. That question comes up often in this hobby!

John

Yeah, it's crazy! I love to make up little stories in my head about how the coin got there haha. It's amazing how in 1815 that coin was made in haiti, and it ended up in an ohio town with a population less than 1000. It's truly amazing in this hobby, one of the reasons i love it so much!.


That is an incredible find, Alec! Such an unusual coin, I have never seen one before. Talk about old silver! :wow:

Digging every signal sure did pay off for you! :yes:

:congrats:

Oooooooh yeah it did. I also found what we think is an old bridle rosette with some fancy on it, which rang up as a 12-24. I love doin those old parks because people leave behind the cool stuff haha. I absolutely love this coin, gonna be hard to beat that oldest silver over here in Illinois!

[ducktrapper]

Yeah, it's crazy! I love to make up little stories in my head about how the coin got there haha. It's amazing how in 1815 that coin was made in haiti, and it ended up in an ohio town with a population less than 1000. It's truly amazing in this hobby, one of the reasons i love it so much!.



Oooooooh yeah it did. I also found what we think is an old bridle rosette with some fancy on it, which rang up as a 12-24. I love doin those old parks because people leave behind the cool stuff haha. I absolutely love this coin, gonna be hard to beat that oldest silver over here in Illinois!

One might surmise the coin came to America somehow connected with slave trading. How it got to Ohio is another matter. Great find.

[DiggerAl]

One might surmise the coin came to America somehow connected with slave trading. How it got to Ohio is another matter. Great find.

Wow. That isn't one of the stories my head came up with, that is a true possibility. This hobby is awesome lol.

[Bucknut]

Wow what a great find! It looks very small and thin...no wonder it rang up so low on your machine. It almost looks hammered?

[Digger Don]

I'm happy for you Al. The look on your face when you realized what it was was priceless.
It's definitely silver, as thin as it is, any wash or plating would have worn off long ago.
I don't think I'll ever dig a silver as old as yours.
:congrats: Buddy!!

[DiggerAl]

Wow what a great find! It looks very small and thin...no wonder it rang up so low on your machine. It almost looks hammered?

Thanks! Yeah it is honestly like 2 sheets of paper it is so thin. I saw from different pictures online they all look a little different in some spots, so i do think it is a hammered coin, just not from the Roman area :lolsign:


I'm happy for you Al. The look on your face when you realized what it was was priceless.
It's definitely silver, as thin as it is, any wash or plating would have worn off long ago.
I don't think I'll ever dig a silver as old as yours.
:congrats: Buddy!!


Thanks daaaaad. And I agree, if it was plated or washed it likely would have worn off ages ago, it is a very worn coin. I read somewhere that spanish reales were legal tender until sometime in the 1850s I believe, it's possible that applied for any foreign coin of a precious metal? Maybe that's why it seems so circulated. That or it was circulated in Haiti for a while and brought over? Who knows.

[wisconsin digger]

It is strange with how few foreign coins I find how many are old. My oldest silver is a British 6 Pence from the 1850's. On a side note it took me 6 years to find what you guys seem to find every year. I hit my 50th Indian Head penny. Congrats on the old silver. WD

[DiggerAl]

It is strange with how few foreign coins I find how many are old. My oldest silver is a British 6 Pence from the 1850's. On a side note it took me 6 years to find what you guys seem to find every year. I hit my 50th Indian Head penny. Congrats on the old silver. WD


Yeah most of the foreign coins I find are also a bit older, for the few I find. We hit our record for indians in a year this year :) We also (my dad more than me) get out a looooooooooot lol. GL&HH