Glenn
Liming of Florida barely had to look any further than his own yard to unearth
the find of a lifetime. While detecting with his CZ-5 in nearby Orlando, a
rare historic object begged for recovery.
Glenn
had maxed his detector's sensitivity out at 5 and left the Ground Balance
control at the factory pre-set position of 5. He explained that "with
virtually no mineralization in the Florida soil to begin with, ground balancing
was hardly necessary." Within moments, his CZ-5 sounded off.
The
detector's target I.D. meter told him it was a zinc penny. But it was a strong
signal and Glenn's instinct told him it was something larger than a penny. After
only a little digging, he held an 1878 token in his hand. Since he was not a
collector, Glenn had no clue as to what he had found, only that he had found it
in a quiet Florida neighborhood.
Inscribed
on both sides were the words, "W.S. FANSHAWE & CO. POST TRADERS, FORT
MEAD, D.T. GOOD FOR 15 IN MERCHANDISE."
He
went on-line to the World Wide Web and posted a picture of the object on
Treasure Depot's Photo Forum. Almost immediately, a reply came from Texas that
the token was originally from Ft. Mead, South Dakota and that it was worth
$1,200! Glenn later put it up for sale for $1,000 and parted with his treasure
to a dealer in Nebraska.
And
the moral of this story? Dig those zinc pennies!