“Bucket List”

    I recently found a coin that you could say was a “Bucket Lister”.  It’s not extremely valuable, it's not extremely rare, it’s not the oldest thing I have ever found, but it is a coin that I never thought I would find until I did.  It’s an 1852 silver three cent piece also known as a trime. 

    I was hunting on a private permission in Mississippi with my friend, Chris.  We take metal detecting trips 1-2 times a year usually to areas that are older and richer in history then what we have locally.  That day we both found “Bucket Lister” coins and it was probably one of the best days in finds we have ever had.  Chris found a 1831 Capped Bust Dime, I personally think he willed himself to find that coin because he was tired of me gloating about my trime.  The friendly competition between us is an article in its own.  The permission we were hunting was a beautiful plantation that dated back to the early 1800’s.  It was the type of place that you assumed the answer would be “no” when you asked to detect but low and behold, they allowed us! 

   I was metal detecting near the driveway and digging any solid signal regardless of the VDI.  I got a signal that I thought was going to be nickel, if I remember right it was a 15-16 VDI on my Minelab Equinox 600.  I dug a plug, checked the hole, it was not in the hole anymore so I got down on my knees and searched the plug dirt with my pin pointer, it was dead center in the plug about 2-3 inches deep.  I at first thought that it was one of those play dimes that are about the size of a trime.  When I realized that it was the real deal I started hooting and hollering like a six-year-old kid on Christmas morning.  Finding stuff like that Trime still to this day excites me to the point where I act like a fool when it happens.  It is like my brain reverts back to being a little kid.  I sing, I yell, I dance, I run around, and do many other things that make me look like a fool.  I guess it is the pent-up excitement from the five trillion pieces of trash I dug before the one good find pops up.   

  What else is on my bucket list?  The one item that I dream of finding, the one item that I would absolutely lose it if I found is a USA revolutionary war button.  It is my number one dream find and unfortunately, I have never metal detected in an area of the US that has Rev War history.  Someday I will take a trip to an area that has the possibility to find one.  Maybe I will get Lucky? Maybe I will find a bucket lister that I never thought of?  There are other things on my bucket list of course.  I will list them below.  What are your bucket list items? 

• Civil war buckle (Union or Confederate, I am not picky) 
• Spanish silver Reale 
• US Large cent 
• Any KG Copper 
• US Gold coin 
• Civil war cannon ball or artillery shell 
• Whitworth bullet  
• Spanish Cob 
• Hammered Silver 
• Morgan Dollar 
• GW Button