My friends and I have always had a friendly competition as to who has found the oldest US silver coin. Last Wednesday, I received texts and a video from my longtime friend and hunting partner that he found his first capped bust Liberty dime(1835). It was the new record for oldest US silver between he, our other friend and myself. I was thrilled for him, but at the same time a tad bothered that he held the new record. I held the previous record with an 1856 seated Liberty dime. So inspired and a little jealous, I headed out to an open permission where I had found an 1820 large cent. I had been to this site 3 times and considered it hunted out, but I was determined to give it another try. I decided to grid at diagonal angles because I had already done it vertically and horizontally. Within a half hour I got a deep penny signal on the E-TRAC. It was iffy at best and only hitting from one specific angle. It didn't sound like iron falsing, and pinpoint mode had it at the precise location as my standard searching mode. I dug through roots and rocks and eventually my pin pointer sounded off in the hole at 7". I dug a little more and pulled out the loose dirt. I looked down in the dirt pile and saw a silver rim. I was ecstatic and knew I had old silver. A careful cleaning revealed an 1820 capped bust dime and the new champion with a date of 1820! So in summary, my old friend and I both found our first capped bust liberties within a few hours of one another and 50 miles apart. Incidentally, we've been detecting together since 1984 when we were both 13.
Eric - PA, USA.
