Looks familiar, dwhiz. I've walked past that spot many times. There's a lot of history in Olde City downtown. Bruce
Very believable story. Old hoards get dug up or found with metal detectors and gold is often very well preserved. And of course these hoards reflect the region and time from which they spring. Metal detectors, bull dozers, and storms locate such treasures all the time even if most are smaller than this one. I seem to recall hearing something of this specific find? This storm went through only several years after I had swept through on my own hunt for "gold".
I know people that have found a lot of coins up my way. I know a guy that dug up a dozen seated half dollars in a field all in a row as they likely dropped from a farmers pocket as he was plowingwhile detecting all 1840s to 60s. I’m sure there’s tons of early coins yet to be found in my area as all of New England was settled so early
Great story by the way. I always have dreamed of digging up a box of coins in my basement my ultimate fantasy of that would contain a small eagle half and quarter a 1794 flowing hair dollar and an 1822 $5 among others
I feel like if that were true about a farmer losing all those coins, that would represent a serious hit in those days. Farmers didn't have a lot of cash and I'll bet that would buy a lot.
I don't think a farmer having or burying all those coins is implausible, but him carrying them while plowing a field, and then randomly losing them in sequence is unlikely. The way that scenario usually plays out is that an earlier hoard gets broken open, dispersed, and scattered by later plowing.
Googling the details fails me at the moment, but I vividly recall reading an article in the mid-1990s in Western & Eastern Treasures magazine about a detectorist up in New England who was hunting alongside an old stone wall in a field or apple orchard. He found a large cent. Then another, and another, until they started coming up by the handful. Eventually about 700 of them were found in a tight cluster near the base of the wall, where they had apparently been buried in the early 1800s in some kind of sack which had long since disintegrated in the ground. If I remember correctly, the "newest" coin in the hoard was dated 1820. There was a 1793 Chain cent in the hoard, but even more interestingly, an extremely rare 1784 Washington "Ugly Head" copper, as well. (The one I linked to is not necessarily the one that was found.)
Lo & behold, there is now a sequel in the works, though since the sequel is nonfiction, don't get your hopes too high about seeing a chest of Confederate gold unearthed.
who do you think will star in the original movie or the sequel? years ago I would have said Paul Newman, but now? Tom Cruise? Harrison Ford? Tommy Lee Jones?