My Best Friend's Mercury Dime Spill

I went to visit my 95 year old mother in Eau Claire, WI, about 230 miles from where I live. While there I went metal detecting with my best friend, Rick. He has a detector, but has only used is once in his mother's yard.

We hunted a wooded hillside in a local park. For the first two hours I picked up a few coins, including two 1940s Wheaties, but Rick didn't find anything but trash and was getting frustrated.

Finally, he called over to me that he'd found a coin. I went to check it out, looked at the coin and told him it was a Wheat cent. He was so excited and said he'd never found a Wheatie. Then he rechecked his hole and said he had another signal. Out came another Wheatie, followed by more signals.

Within a few minutes he had also found a 1923, 1944 and a 1919 Mercury dime. Needless to say, he was thrilled.

I have been detecting six years and have never found three silvers in one hunt, much less three in one hole.

The Wheaties turned out to be a high grade 1940 and a 1944, so the coins were most likely dropped in the mid-to-late 1940s.

I hope my former best friend enjoys his finds. I'm not jealous.