
I still remember all too clearly being out on a cold, wet, snowy late December day in 2009, desperately searching for silver coin 300 for the year. It wasn't meant to be, so that spectacular year ended with 299 silver coins. But I still feel like I fell short of the mark.
The past two weeks I've been stuck at 49 silver coins. Factoring in the limited amount of time I've spent detecting this year, that's a quite good number. Last weekend's detecting trips were frustrating as I watched my friend Dave dig four modern silver coins, and then the next day a shield nickel and an 1875 Seated dime while I couldn't seem to get my detector over an old coin of any kind.
While running errands two days this week, I stopped by two well searched old spots for brief hunts. These sites have produced for me in the past, and as good as I think I am, it's never hunted out. Yesterday I dug a wheat cent and a dateless buffalo nickel, not bad for a quick stop, but the curse of 49 held. Today I had another short window in the afternoon and stopped at a park that has been very good to me over the years. I hadn't been there detecting in at least two years.
A very slow start with a zinc Lincoln cent, a bottle cap, a key, another bottle cap, another key... and then a nice shallow high tone signal on the E-Trac. I saw a circular silver edge and immediately thought I had another bottle cap, but just as quickly realized a bottle cap would not have given me a high tone signal. I look again, flip it over and Charles Barber's head of Liberty confirmsI've found a silver half! Camera comes out for the necessary picture in the dirt before I pick it up. No longer stuck, the curse lifted for now, silver coin #50 for 2015 is a really decent 1903-S Barber half dollar.