Saturday hunt leaves me feeling sick

[wisconsin digger]

I'll preface this post with a hunt I had several years back. I was at an old park that was producing clad quarters in amazing numbers. For some reason among the 50+ quarters I got a similar signal 1' under the ground same as all the other quarters, the only problem was it was a '24 SLQ in great shape. Amazingly no digger marks. Moving ahead to Saturday I was having a decent hunt with 3 silver dimes when I decided to look for some gas money. 30 clad quarters later I get another quarter maybe clad half signal an inch or 2 under. After hacking away at the hard ground I see a Walking Half and this time I was not lucky on missing it. Worse yet it was a gorgeous 1918. I hunted this area many times and the signal was plenty strong, no idea how I missed that signal. Hopefully lesson learned as it was a costly one. Makes you sick when you ruin a beautiful old coin like that one. Wisconsin Digger

[Tony Two-Cent]

I think most of us know that sick feeling. (I know I do!) It's one of the hazards of the hobby, unfortunately. Sometimes it is unavoidable, especially when the ground is hard or the digging is difficult because of tree roots.

It's a cool find! Hey, it's still a Half Dollar that's over 100 years old! Don't beat yourself up over it.

[Bucknut]

Still a great hunt and coin. I whacked that capped bust dime I posted the other day. It is a sick feeling for sure.

[OxShoeDrew]

Wow, you dig a lot of quarters!
The left merc looks weird, I wonder what happened.
I've scuffed coins just by moving them...they hit a rock or something. Unavoidable. Congrats!

[wisconsin digger]

I think the Merc was in a fire as it was pretty rough. There also was charred remnants in the hole. Found a 1909 wheatie about a foot away but it was not burned.

[Noah]

Did the same with a barber half so I know how sick you feel!!

[Lodge Scent]

What I want to know, why is it just the nice coins we ding? It's never the toasted featureless coins. Dinged or not, still a great find.