I will try to make this brief. Detectorists have been asking, “What’s up with your BLOGS?” I know it has been a long time. I had an L-4 L-5 lumbar back fusion surgery, which took me out of the metal detecting game for a couple of months. As you can imagine, my back was hurting me very bad and I knew the recovery would be awhile, but I was determined to get back out there. I had great medical care with the staff at Spine Specialists of Boston: Paul A. Glazer MD and his PA John. Years ago, I had three failed back surgeries at L-5 S1 and was losing hope from being able to go back to detecting. At this time, I first was introduced to Dr. Glazer, who fixed what three other surgeons were unable to do. Things are looking good now and I am back exercising and walking while metal detecting. As long as we don’t have snow, I will be able

to keep up with my treasure hunting and blogs.

My friend Lucky Jeff found a farm field on the south shore, where he was able to find a 1785 Connecticut copper coin in excellent condition! He stated there are a lot of ferrous (Iron) targets in the soil and these targets will give the detector false signals. I decided I was going to use the Nokta Impact. Just before my surgery, I found my first silver barber half dollar, which has a range of a solid 94 on the VDI screen with the Impact metal detector. I like the VLX1 mode with a gain/sensitivity of 85.

We started detecting early in the morning. We both found several old buttons and our share of pieces of scrap copper and aluminum. I was hitting the 4 hour mark and was getting very tired. I was sore from digging a lot of holes. I finally got a faint signal with a clear tone, but jumping on the screen from 68 to 72 to 74. I knew this was going to be a good target, so when I went to pinpoint, the target indicated 10 inches deep! I dug a large plug with my Gold Digger NX-5 shovel, which is great for ground that is partially frozen. I took out my Garrett Pro Pointer II and started removing soil from the hole and the pinpointer finally started to go off. I brushed away the soil and saw old grey silver. I was very excited and let out a yell to my friend, “I got something good!” It turned out to be a Carolus the 4th one Spanish Reale dated 1799! The interested thing is, out of the hole on the surface, it had a range of 85 solid. Here is some history on the coin.

This Carolus the 4th coin was part of the early colonial coinage that circulated in the New World colonies of Spain. The colonists used Spanish silver for currency and trade. Check the mint mark that shows what country and city the coin originated from. This particular one I found is from colonial Mexico. The wording “Carolus IIII” refers to King Charles of Spain or “Carolus IIII Dei Gratia”. King Charles IIII of Spain was known to be very friendly, well-meaning. He was called, “El Cazador”, which means “The Hunter”, for his love of hunting and the outdoors.

On my coin, you can see the bust of him along with a wreath on his head. It reads Carolus IIII. To the right of the face, you can see the wording Dei Gratia, which means by the grace of God. On the reverse, you will see the words HISPAN ET IND REX M° and 1R. I. L, which means King of Spain and the Indies, Mexico City Mint or Peru. In the 18 century, most of these coins were made in bronze. The castles and the lions on the reverse represent the Spanish provinces of Castile & Leon.

I love finding unusual coins, especially very old one like this 1 reale. It feels great to be out hunting again and pulling up new stories from history. Let’s see what other treasure is waiting!

Happy Treasure Hunting!

Dennis

Sources: Wikipedia, Coinquest and Coin Community