Our First Silver 8 Reales
We thought Doug had found a giant old token, but underneath all that dirt was a bucket-list coin none of us had ever even held before.
We had already detected the fields surrounding this 1700s farmhouse several times, and the property had given us some incredible pieces of early American history. Among the finds were a William & Mary halfpenny from the 1690s, a rare Continental Army cufflink, and several other artifacts dating back to the earliest years of the property.
So when we finally got permission to detect the yard immediately surrounding the farmhouse, our expectations were pretty high. If those things were scattered throughout the fields, we couldn’t help wondering what might be hiding closer to the house.
The day started off pretty well. We found a Barber quarter, a George Washington token from the 1930s, a roughly 100-year-old brass eagle, some costume jewelry from the 1920s, and a handful of other interesting finds.
But there was one problem.
The yard was absolutely loaded with trash.
Crushed soda cans, pieces of aluminum siding and countless other high tones kept getting our attention, only to turn out to be junk. After a while, you almost start expecting every good signal to be another piece of aluminum.
And that’s exactly what I thought when Doug called over to me from the middle of the yard.
I was filming one of the pieces of jewelry we’d just found when Doug yelled that he had a really good high tone and asked if I wanted to come over and film him digging it live. He was standing right in the middle of an area where we’d already dug several soda cans, and I was in the middle of filming something else, so I yelled back for him to just dig it.
“Call me if it’s something good.”
Less than five minutes later, he was calling me.
That’s a REALLY Big Token…
Doug told me he’d found what looked like a big token. Now, I love finding old tokens, so I grabbed the camera equipment and headed over. When I got there, Doug pointed toward a pile of freshly dug dirt next to the hole. Sitting in the dirt was a huge round disk.
And when I say huge, I mean huge.
If this was a token, it was one of the biggest tokens I’d ever seen.
I picked it up and immediately noticed the weight.
This thing was heavy.
At that point I remember thinking, I don’t think this is a token at all. I think this might actually be a coin.
The problem was that we couldn’t see much of anything.
The entire thing was covered in an incredibly thick layer of dark, clay-like dirt. Whatever was underneath it was almost completely hidden, and none of us wanted to start rubbing it and potentially scratch whatever we had just found.
So out came the spray bottles.
And that’s when the fun really started.
What Is This Thing?
We sprayed it.
And sprayed it.
And sprayed it some more.
The dirt was so thick that every spray seemed to remove almost nothing. Little pieces would slowly wash away, but we still couldn’t figure out what we were looking at.
Then we finally started seeing some details.
An eagle.
There was a giant eagle right in the middle of one side.
We flipped it over and began working on the other side. Slowly, a huge burst of rays started appearing, with what looked like a radiant cap in the center. At this point we’re all staring at each other wondering the same thing.
What in the world is this?
More water. More dirt came off. Then we noticed something in the eagle’s mouth. A snake.
Okay…now we’re really confused. As more of the dirt disappeared, letters started appearing around the outside.
First we could make out “REPUBLICA.” Then eventually “MEXICANA.”
Now we knew we had something special, but none of us had ever found anything like this before.
We just kept spraying and staring, staring and spraying.
We actually sprayed so much water that it got all over my microphone and partially ruined the audio before I finally realized what was happening and cleared it away.
But at that moment, I couldn’t have cared less about the microphone.
We needed to know what this thing was.
Then We Saw It…
A few more sprays finally exposed the marking we needed.
8R.
That’s when it hit us.
This was an 8 reales.
First Identifying Doug’s 1826 Mexican 8 Reales
A huge Mexican silver 8 reales dated 1826.
None of us had ever found one before. Actually, none of us had ever even held one before. And now we’re standing in the backyard of this old farmhouse holding one that Doug had just pulled straight out of the ground.
We completely lost it.
There was yelling, screaming and probably a few confused looks coming from anyone within earshot. Just a few minutes earlier, Doug had been standing in an area filled with crushed soda cans wondering if he should even bother calling me over.
Now he was holding our first-ever 8 reales.
And Then the Silver Came Through.
Even after we knew what it was, we kept spraying. There was still one thin layer of that stubborn clay covering much of the coin. Then finally it started washing away.
And underneath it…
Bright silver.
After staring at a dark, dirt-covered disk for what seemed like forever, seeing that silver suddenly come through was incredible. There was no question anymore.
Sitting in Doug’s hand was a beautiful 1826 Mexican silver 8 reales, freshly dug from the yard of an old farmhouse.
And somehow, after nearly two centuries, it was still there waiting for us.
That’s one of the things I love most about metal detecting. Sometimes the best finds don’t immediately come out of the ground looking amazing. Sometimes you don’t even know what you’ve found.
For several minutes, this was just a giant mystery disk covered in dirt.
Then came an eagle.
A snake.
The word Republica.
Mexicana.
And finally…
8R.
We got to watch the identity of that coin reveal itself one spray at a time, and I’ll never forget the moment we realized exactly what we were holding.
Before that day, none of us had ever found an 8 reales. We’d never even held one in our hands. They were the kind of coins we’d seen other people find and hoped that maybe, someday, we’d be lucky enough to find one ourselves.
And somehow, on a day when we were digging one piece of aluminum after another, in the middle of a yard filled with crushed soda cans and junk, there it was.
An 1826 Mexican 8 reales, sitting in the ground for who knows how long, just waiting for Doug’s coil to pass over it.
That’s why you dig the trashy signals. Because every once in a while, the signal you’re convinced is going to be another soda can…
is the find you’ll remember forever.
WATCH THE HUNT
Watch the full hunt below, or jump to 12:47 to see the giant 8 Reales come out of the ground.
