1945 D half dollar.

I would judge it to be a terrific find. Congratulations! Popping big silver out of the ground is a thrill, isn't it?

As to cleaning... well... sometime's that's just a "necessary evil" with dug coins. I don't think your half looks bad. Give it a few years in your finds album and it'll retone.

 

I judge detector finds to a whole different set of standards than mainstream "store-bought" collector coins. It's all about the story.

You don't get to choose what condition something's in when it comes out of the ground after being buried for decades or centuries. You take what Lady Luck and your own skills and persistence offer you.

And then the finds often require some cleaning (though hopefully that gets done carefully enough).

I focus more on how uncommon it is to find something. Silver halves are not common detector finds, and rank high as nice finds, even if the same coin would not be as interesting to a traditional collector.

There is stuff I wouldn't look twice at in a dealer's case that I would nonetheless be very happy to dig. In one of my videos (just after the 5:00 mark here) you can hear me get way too excited over finding a Barber dime which I knew all too well was worth barely over a dollar at the time. Ditto the Indian cent later on in that video. Neither were valuable, but both were old and very fun finds.

I found only five silver halves in all my years detecting: an 1894-O Barber, a 1926-S Oregon trail commem (that was freaky and exciting, let me tell you!), 1937 and 1944 Walkers, and a 1952 Franklin. And one 1971 clad Kennedy. Not too many halves hit the dirt without being subsequently rediscovered and picked back up.

Treasure that half, @Chip Kirkpatrick. If you're the one who found it, it was your destiny.

I wouldn't take $100 or even $500 for some of my finds which most folks wouldn't pay ten bucks for. I'm quite sentimental about the adventure they represent. I've never sold my dug coins.

Here's another example of what I mean. I spent over $3,000 for this medieval Edward I penny, if you count the airfare and expenses it cost me to travel to England and go dig it up out of a farm field.

Mind you, I have bought equal or better Edward I medieval pennies for $35-40.

Was it worth spending 100x as much to go and dig my own, and be the first person in almost 700 years to touch it? You bet it was! It was an adventure I'll remember for the rest of my days.

 

That is AMAZING. Looks 18th century or very early 19th century? Where on the FL/GA line, if I may ask? You need not reveal site specifics. I'm merely wondering county/city/general whereabouts. I live in SE GA near the FL line, you see. But that was already apparent in the stuff I posted. Im just very curious about that incredible find. In any event, I'm 99% retired as a detectorist, for physical reasons.

The way that "dagger" is engraved, it looks like a metal detector.