My Oldest US Coin Find And A Two Silver Day

My friend Tony and I spent a frigid 28 degree day hunting a Bible Camp on a lake in south-central Wisconsin. It was a great day even with the cold temperatures and some snow on the ground.

The camp was built in the 1940s and I was surprised and thrilled when my second signal of the day turned out to be an 1873 Indian Head cent. It was only about four inches down and cleaned up very nicely. I'm not sure if the reverse rim nick was my doing or the way the coin came out.

It's the oldest U.S. coin I've found detecting, beating out the 1888 Indian Head I found last fall.

I also found a 1963 Roosevelt dime and what I thought was a junk ring with a flexible band. However, when my daughter cleaned the ring after I got home she found a STERLING hallmark.

I was on cloud nine for part of the morning thinking I had found a gold ring. It looked great coming out of the ground, was heavy and I could see some writing on the inside of the band. But upon examination with a magnifying glass at home I saw that it said "Park Lane" and is not real gold. It had me going for a while.