Health & Fitness
On the Lighter Side: Coin Found With a Metal Detector Sells for $430,000
Amazing story of luck.
So are you one those people like I am that watches those metal detector people and wonder, "Don't they have a life?"
Usually on hot sunny days they prowl the beach dressed in winter-wear in search of the old watch, coins or can opener. But it seems a Lillian King, of East Hampton, New York, found a rare Massachusetts 1652 silver "sixpence" in a Massachusetts farm field 32 years ago and sold it in 1992 for a reported $35,200.
Now reports from the Associated Press have the very same coin being sold for $430,000. They report that to anyone's best knowledge only six to eight of these coins still exist. The sale was reportedly completed at the Colonial Coin Collectors Club in Baltimore. Of course Ms. King was reported to have said when informed of the sale something along the lines of, "I wish I had held on to it."
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In fact, in September 2009 in a rural English field a metal detector enthusiast found an Anglo-Saxon gold hoard. It was reported, "The hoard included 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of gold and 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of silver. That is more than three times the amount of gold found at Sutton Hoo, one of Britain's most important Anglo-Saxon sites." This was said by the local council in Staffordshire where the haul was found.
The hoard was discovered by Englishman Terry Herbert, who was using a metal detector he bought more than a decade earlier in a jumble sale for only a few British pounds. He belonged to a local metal detecting club in Staffordshire and was just out enjoying his hobby when he made the find.
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While doing research for this blog, I stumbled across many ads for "Black Friday" sales of metal detectors, including Radio Shack!
One website pitching the "enjoyment" of metal detectors said this": "Treasure hunting finds like old coins, civil war relics, jewelry, are but some examples of metal detector finds that are being found today. Treasure hunting can be a fun for young and old alike but, WARNING it can be very addictive. The first time you find an old coin with your metal detector or hold a piece of long lost civil war history in your hand, you'll be hooked." But it also said, " You will most likely never become rich from the hobby. But, if you consider the hours of enjoyment, fresh air, healthy exercise and small treasures you find with your metal detector find as payment, you'll be compensated well for your time and your new metal detector will most likely pay for its self the first year you own it with the finds you make. Now, what other hobbies can say that!"
As a boy I use to go into the local woods off a golf course to find a treasure; what I usually found were old golf balls. However, the excitement of finding an old belt buckle or ring might be exciting, yet I must confess it's not for me. But since I turn 60 years old in December maybe a metal detecting hobby is in my future. LOL, then I can wear ski clothes on the beach in the summer while I hover all over the local beaches with my metal detector.