A California firearms instructor's search for a lucky coin missing at Anchorage's airport has left him grieving the loss.

It also made him - at least briefly - internet famous.

Gary Peters carried the Eisenhower dollar in his pocket every day for 34 years - ever since his daughter gave it to him when she was 5.

Worn smooth over the years and stamped with "84" for the year he got it, the coin accompanied Peters on more than 350 skydives.

He rubbed it before greeting customers when hard times forced him to take a job at a car dealership. It went along for a deep dive off Italy in1991, on a search for the wreckage of a reconnaissance plane that became part of World War II legend.

And now it's gone.

Peters thinks he lost the coin at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on July 21.

"It feels almost like losing a family member or close friend," Peters said Thursday by phone. "I'm actually mourning. I know itsounds silly. ... It's just like a piece of me."

A plea for information posted by his son-in-law on Reddit surged into viral status overnight Wednesday into Thursday.

At one point, the lost-coin post topped the popular discussion site's front page. It had been seen at least 607,000 times before anadministrator took the post down.

He's offering a $500 reward, "no questions asked," to anyone who gets his beloved coin back to him.

To read the complete article, see:
Man'ssearch for cherished coin lost at Anchorage airport goes viral(https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2018/08/02/reddit-to-the-rescue-mans-search-for-coin-lost-at-anchorage-airport-goes-viral/)