Cleaning a ship's hull in Galveston, I found a 1978 penny stuck in the growth

Kim Murphy · 2026-03-26T19:05:06.410056+00:00

I was working a hull cleaning job on a container ship and my scraper hit something solid in the thick barnacle layer. It turned out to be a perfectly round, green penny from the year Jimmy Carter was president, fused into the shell of a big mussel. Has anyone else pulled up weird old coins or small objects from underwater jobs?

william_harris6mo ago

Honestly that sounds like a total waste of time. You're just finding old trash, not some cool historical piece. It's a penny covered in ocean gunk, not a treasure chest.

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the_keith6mo ago

Right? Totally with @william_harris on this. I pulled up a crusty old bottle cap once and got way too excited for a second. It's just junk.

2

dakotab936mo ago

Jimmy Carter? @william_harris that penny's older than me.

2

miles_hall4mo ago

Thing is, if it IS Jimmy Carter era that penny could be worth something someday if it's a rare error coin. Gunk or not, you don't know until you check the date and mint mark.

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