November 2007

3 Cents Worth

I am a Treasure Hunter. Ok, so I am just a guy with a metal detector. I love getting out into the great outdoors in search of older relics and coins that were lost long ago. I was out with some buddies detecting an area that was an 1800’s era picnic grove. The area was really over grown with dense brush. I had had high hopes for this area producing a few 1800’s coins but we had not gotten too many signals from our detectors. I then got a signal from about 8 inches down in a briar patch area. I dug with my trusty trowel, but alas I could not get past the roots.



Oh well, I thought, this was one coin I am not going to recover. I then was trying to get up when my Leatherman case got snagged by some of the wire like bushes. I then realized I was trying to recover a coin with a trowel when what I really needed was a saw. I then pulled out my Leatherman Wave, and with the saw blade I proceeded to cut around the roots with the precision of a tree surgeon. I removed what was left of the roots out of the small hole and commenced to sift through the debris. I then glimpsed the slight glean of silver. The coin was small; I wondered what it was as it was smaller than a dime. As I pushed off the caked on dirt I saw a date of 1857. Wow, could it be my first 3 cent piece?



Yes, it was! I shouted to my friends, “Yo, take a look at this coin.” They ran over to check out the newly retrieved item with all the anticipation of a child opening a present. We all marveled at the coin as this one is small and not too many are found. Pat then said, "hey Jess, how did you get through those roots?” I said one word. Leatherman. He said like a trooper, “Nuff Said!”


Jessie T.

Stamford, CT