Treasure Beaches Report: Pt. 2. (2020 and Beyond). : 2/9/26 Report - Looking at Some Miscellaneous Finds. New Orleans Minted Morgan. Wedges, Electrolysis and a Post from the Past..

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

1887 O Morgan Dollar.

I mentioned that I got behind in cleaning finds. I had one little box of miscellaneous finds sitting around that I finally decided to investigate. There was a variety of miscellaneous coins. Everything from a few modern Canadian coins, about 16 wheaties, a few more foreign coins, and seven or eight silver Kennedy halves. For me, the most interesting was this 1887 O Morgan dollar.

It is worn, as you can easily see. I've found very few coins from the New Orleans mint. And I've never taken the time to try to learn how to grade coins, but fortunately there are some good web sites to help with grading coins. According to the guidelines provided by one site, I'd guess this one would be something like Fine, or possibly Very Fine.

Here are the guidelines.

And here is the link.

1887 Dollar Value: Mint Varieties, Rarity, And Current Prices - Coins Value

In any case, I'd guess there would be something like $66 of silver in it.

I didn't post yesterday because it was Puppy Bowl Sunday and I had a cold or something. I just decided to get out that little box of old finds to check out. I had no interest in the Super Bowl this year. That could have been due to a lot of things, but perhaps having a funeral for a relative the day before was one of them.

My last post was about the new 2026 SemiQ coins, and I mentioned Bicentennial coins. One of those was in the little box too. It was a bit of a surprise.

1776 - 1976 Eisenhower Dollar.

No silver in this one. That is a chunky coin, and I can see why people seldom carried those around in their pocket.

These two heavily encrusted coins were also in the box. I'd guess they are steel cents.

They are now in the cleaning pot, so I should soon be able to see what they are.

I'll be checking out the wheaties.

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I received these photos and the following email from Mark G.

I have cleaned up a few iron artifacts and some rusty junk using electrolysis never silver. My last project I am still working on is a giant wedge I call it that I dug out of the bank of the eroding recreational island under the same bridge I found the Reale and musket ball but west side. It’s about 12+ inches long and weighs about 5 to 10 pounds and it was completely covered in rust. I use an old computer charger puts out about 5.5 amps which is high for electrolysis but gets the job done fast. After first run the rust was flaking off the iron and I think one more run will finish it. However I never started the run again I could tell it’s modern probably used in the construction of the bridge in the early 2000s dropped and then dredged up and used for fill in creating the island.