Interesting Dilemma/ Treasure Hunt/Concrete Excavation

Hammer and a good masons chisel. Take your time and you
should be able to chip out the diy concrete, and save
most of the coins. Odds are many of the coins are in the dirt under
the concrete. So once the crack is opened up you should
be able to extract your treasure with ease.
Good luck and hope you get to the coins, and once there
they are worth the trip.

do you not think that you may find allot less coins than the $15.00 worth that they are telling you that is there because I know when I was a kid 10¢ would be $10.00 now if I were to tell a story about it (kind of like the fish that got away that gets bigger and bigger each time you tell the story). I think you will pay more for the concrete to fix the damage you cause then the coins would be worth. If they are wanting the concrete out of there anyway then by all means just bust it up and see how it goes. I really doubt very many would be stuck in the concrete as others have said because as it looks he just filled in the gaps. If you bust it up chances are all the coins will still be laying underneath it and not stuck in the concrete

Awesome input everyone! I will have a camera crew ready for the excavation so you will have all the documentation - I sure hope $15 isn't $1.50 - LOL!

What was the average pocket change back then anyways? Obviously silver, and wheats... how common were IHC's in change during the late 50's? Hopefully some Mercs, War Nicks, maybe a couple Franklins?

I'll try to do it sometime this week - if not the weekend. I will try a small strip to see what can be done with the advice given.... time to get a dull chisel...

I would think most of the coins, if not all, are actually cents.

My Parents owned Pool Hall and Snack bar when I was a kid in the early 60s. I got to sort through the change every day for the "family collection". I still have that collection and one day I may post pics of the what the average coin from any given year looked like back then.

As most have said you can expect a lot of Wheats. Could be anything. I know I have a half dozen 1909 P's in AG/G.

Indian heads, don't hold your breath. They were still around, but my collection had maybe a half dozen, and that is from a business.

Nickels, War Nickels without doubt, they were common as dirt. Buffalo's were also very common. Liberty nickels were very rare but still encountered.

Barber dimes were still around but just barely. Mercs were still fairly common, we had rolls of them.

Quarters are probably all going to be Washingtons. My collection has ONE SLQ. And no Barbers at all.

Halves would be a good mix of Franklins and Walkers, with maybe a stray Barber.

But think about this for a moment. I was a pretty typical kid back then with a pretty typical allowance. I got a buck a week. With that dollar I could buy 8 comic books; or 2 cheap models; or maybe a cheap toy. A kid back then might, might have thrown pennies away (but I wouldn't have!), but I am pretty confident that anything larger would not have been something wasted in a game.

From your description it sounds as though your Uncle threw them into a hole that he could not retrieve them from. Otherwise he would have just picked them up after he was done; if for no other reason than to "pitch" them again. If this is the case then they should be in good condition considering that they were protected from air.

I recently had a similar project where they dug up the sidewalk in front of the local school and I took my metal detector out there and found tons of dimes under the walk. And almost none in the concrete itself. Those few in the concrete were removed with some gentle tapping around them and they generally just popped loose with very little damage.

I would probably run a metal detector over the area first to see if there is any reading of coins. Then I would do as small section just to see what's there and go from there.

A metal detector isn't going to work too well along a foundation like that. I also don't see the point in undertaking such an operation. If you want to excavate for coins there are far better places to do it. Sorry...

Any Update Lonz? Still curious to see what you bring up.