Farm Hunt - 1854 Canadian Half Cent & 1858 Flying Eagle Cent!
Merry Christmas Everybody!
Got back to the Allen Family Farm in Marlbank, Ontario for a 4 hour hunt on Thursday and made some pretty decent finds!
Even though this is my fifth hunt at this site, I've always felt that I'm missing something good here, I guess that's why I keep coming back. My friend's grandparents house was built around 1900, but there's obviously been quite a bit of previous activity here over the past 150 years. 
The current owners grandmother used to tell my friend stories when he was a kid of finding coins when she was working in the vegetable garden! Well, those stories were definitely true! As of the end of yesterdays hunt, I've now found 5 Canadian Large Pennies! The pennies I've found have all been dated between 1882 & 1907.
I decided to turn up the sensitivity as I did at the Myrtle School site last week and dig anything I couldn't I.D. at a depth below 4". This is when the broken crotal bells started turning up. I also found the 'clangers' as they were imbedded in the top portion of the body of the bell, although the base of the bell was nowhere to be found!
A couple of the Canadian LC's popped up, these were dated 1882 & 1900. What I found next was what I thought was some type of good luck token, because when it came out of the hole I noticed that it was the same size as our standard Canadian penny, only thicker! 
When I looked at it more closely all I could see was a hand giving a 'thumbs up' sign, similar to this . But, when I got home and washed it . . . was I ever surprised to see a flying eagle and the date 1858! 
'The Flying Eagle cent is a United States coin that was minted from 1856 to 1858. The coin was designed by James B. Longacre. The Flying Eagle was the first small-sized cent coin minted in the US, replacing the earlier large cent. The obverse of the coin depicts an eagle in flight, a unique subject for the obverse of American coins. The reverse of the coin has the words ONE CENT surrounded by a wreath, similar to the reverse on the later Indian Head cent and Wheat cent minted until 1958. The United States Mint in Philadelphia struck about 700 Flying Eagle cents in 1856 as pattern pieces, a way to show influential congressmen and senators what these coins would look like. In 1858, there was a "large letter" and "small letter" variety produced. An easy way to tell the difference between large-letter and small-letter varieties is to look at the word 'America'. In the large letter variety, the letters A and M are joined, whereas in the small letter they are not. The small letter variety is a low relief design. The eagle is shallower in the die and the letters are smaller than those used in 1857 and on the 1858 large letter variety. The design didn't last long due to the obverse design opposing the reverse design. The eagle's head and tail were opposite the wreath. The presses had to strike the coins harder to get the design up fully. This caused dies to fail more often. The design was replaced by the Indian Cent in 1859.’
The 1858 Flying Eagle Penny I found appears to be of the ‘small letter’ variety.
My next exciting find came from a depth of only 3" and when I came out of the soil all I could think was, "what the heck is this"?!
It had a deep brown patina that immediately started to turn a beautiful shade of green right before my eyes! It turned out to be an 1854 Bank of Upper Canada, One Half Penny Token! This is my earliest coin find todate and is definitely a keeper for me! 
‘Upper Canada was ‘The Province of Ontario’ and the Bank was centered in Toronto {then York]. Canada became a country in 1867, when these were minted; Upper Canada was a Province of Great Britain. In 1840, the Union Act was passed to reunite the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada, although the act did not become official until 1841. Under the Province of Canada, only bank tokens were issued and no merchant or private tokens were allowed. No Province of Canada tokens were issued after 1857, as the British government introduced 1, 5, 10 and 20-cent pieces in 1858.’
I do apologize for the quality of the pictures of the Flying Eagle Penny!![:-\](https://www.treasurenet.com/smilies/undecided.gif "Undecided :-\")
I must have taken at least 12 different shots of this coin in different lights and I still couldn't get it to display the date properly! 
Thanks for looking and may you all have a peaceful holiday!
Dave
Merry Christmas Everybody!
Got back to the Allen Family Farm in Marlbank, Ontario for a 4 hour hunt on Thursday and made some pretty decent finds!
Even though this is my fifth hunt at this site, I've always felt that I'm missing something good here, I guess that's why I keep coming back. My friend's grandparents house was built around 1900, but there's obviously been quite a bit of previous activity here over the past 150 years. The current owners grandmother used to tell my friend stories when he was a kid of finding coins when she was working in the vegetable garden! Well, those stories were definitely true! As of the end of yesterdays hunt, I've now found 5 Canadian Large Pennies! The pennies I've found have all been dated between 1882 & 1907.I decided to turn up the sensitivity as I did at the Myrtle School site last week and dig anything I couldn't I.D. at a depth below 4". This is when the broken crotal bells started turning up. I also found the 'clangers' as they were imbedded in the top portion of the body of the bell, although the base of the bell was nowhere to be found!
A couple of the Canadian LC's popped up, these were dated 1882 & 1900. What I found next was what I thought was some type of good luck token, because when it came out of the hole I noticed that it was the same size as our standard Canadian penny, only thicker! When I looked at it more closely all I could see was a hand giving a 'thumbs up' sign, similar to this . But, when I got home and washed it . . . was I ever surprised to see a flying eagle and the date 1858! 'The Flying Eagle cent is a United States coin that was minted from 1856 to 1858. The coin was designed by James B. Longacre. The Flying Eagle was the first small-sized cent coin minted in the US, replacing the earlier large cent. The obverse of the coin depicts an eagle in flight, a unique subject for the obverse of American coins. The reverse of the coin has the words ONE CENT surrounded by a wreath, similar to the reverse on the later Indian Head cent and Wheat cent minted until 1958. The United States Mint in Philadelphia struck about 700 Flying Eagle cents in 1856 as pattern pieces, a way to show influential congressmen and senators what these coins would look like. In 1858, there was a "large letter" and "small letter" variety produced. An easy way to tell the difference between large-letter and small-letter varieties is to look at the word 'America'. In the large letter variety, the letters A and M are joined, whereas in the small letter they are not. The small letter variety is a low relief design. The eagle is shallower in the die and the letters are smaller than those used in 1857 and on the 1858 large letter variety. The design didn't last long due to the obverse design opposing the reverse design. The eagle's head and tail were opposite the wreath. The presses had to strike the coins harder to get the design up fully. This caused dies to fail more often. The design was replaced by the Indian Cent in 1859.’
The 1858 Flying Eagle Penny I found appears to be of the ‘small letter’ variety.
My next exciting find came from a depth of only 3" and when I came out of the soil all I could think was, "what the heck is this"?!
It had a deep brown patina that immediately started to turn a beautiful shade of green right before my eyes! It turned out to be an 1854 Bank of Upper Canada, One Half Penny Token! This is my earliest coin find todate and is definitely a keeper for me! ‘Upper Canada was ‘The Province of Ontario’ and the Bank was centered in Toronto {then York]. Canada became a country in 1867, when these were minted; Upper Canada was a Province of Great Britain. In 1840, the Union Act was passed to reunite the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada, although the act did not become official until 1841. Under the Province of Canada, only bank tokens were issued and no merchant or private tokens were allowed. No Province of Canada tokens were issued after 1857, as the British government introduced 1, 5, 10 and 20-cent pieces in 1858.’
I do apologize for the quality of the pictures of the Flying Eagle Penny!
I must have taken at least 12 different shots of this coin in different lights and I still couldn't get it to display the date properly! Thanks for looking and may you all have a peaceful holiday!
Dave
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I just dug my first about a week ago and it was toast. Yours looks mint compared to mine. 
Well Done and Merry Christmas to you and Yours 
dawg
I still find it hard to believe this coin made it up here, considering it was only made for three years! But, at least it's been found and saved . . . and will be sold eventually too! 
