Coin worth $300,000 Found in Dirt Pile

2005-12-12 Posted at 08:19:08 PM

One of my son's best friends, George Williams, a contractor
in Upstate New York had an amazing discovery.  While raking a
load of fill dirt he had ordered for some backfill he heard a
clink.  The clink turned out to be an 1817 half dollar.  
George's 14-year old coin-collecting son, Cullinan did some
research on the Internet to find that it was a very rare
Overton-102a variety of the 1817/4 Capped Bust half
dollar.   
 
George Williams has subsequently taken it to dealers and
experts at   ANACS   to have it authenticated and
encapsulated.  It was appraised as the second best coin of
the eight now known.  One speciman was sold recently for
$193,359 at an auction in San Francisco.  The finest known
example sold last year for $333,500.

The coin goes on sale at Heritage Numistic Auctions at
its January 3-7   Florida Numismatists Signature Auction .  
Heritage  President Greg Rohan said  “... Bust Half Dollar
specialists will be out in force in Orlando to pursue this
extraordinary find. We can imagine that numismatists across
America will be thinking about their gardening chores in an
entirely different light after this coin sells.”

A few weeks after George's great find I found a Platinum
wedding ring in a load of landscape gravel that was
delivered to my house.  It would have seemed like a great
find, worth a few hundred dollars but it pales in comparison.
I gave it to my son for his October wedding.

Wally McRae

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