In the 1700's club! 1795 Flowing Hair Half Dime! and my first GS Button!

[Stef45]

I was planning on posting the rest of the finds from the last couple weeks today anyway and yesterday I go out and dig one of my best finds yet! Went back to the honey hole colonial site with VMI and after he scored that awesome silver Trade Pin, I got a whisper of a signal. Came in at 17 on the Safari which to me sounded like a small button like some of the buttons we have dug recently in the same area. It is nearly impossible to pinpoint due to all the iron in the ground. Pinpointer was going nuts in the hole and then i looked in the dirt from the bottom of the hole and saw something round! It looked like silver and i could barely make out a bust, so i poured some water on it and saw a bust facing right and i ran over to VMI thinking it was French, British, or Spanish. VMI noticed with some more water the stars at the top. Turns out it was a 1795 (we think 95, but could be 94) Flowing Hair Half Dime! Rare old American Silver! Its a heartbreaker however because of the chunk missing. Looks like i might have done it but we couldn't find the chuck that is missing, so who knows could have been like that before. We will continue to look for it. Pretty pumped either way.



The rest of the finds include; My first General Service button! Looks like its in pretty good shape too. A bunch of flat buttons. One of them has some interesting writing around the shank that i haven't been able to make out yet but it looks different than they usual "superior, gilt, etc", Another piece of shell edge, Another cartridge that we think might be a Sharps, 3 Buckles, I think the handle of a pewter spoon, An unusual reed from maybe a harmonica but it was dug close to quite a bit of the CW relics that we have dug in the past, Bunch of sheathes, and Whatzits. Thanks for looking! Hope you enjoyed my most rare find so far in my just over a year's worth of digging. Good luck out there!

 

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[Stef45]

Whoa! That is seriously cool...

Thank you! Would have been cooler in better shape! lol

 

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[BigWaveDave]

I wouldn't even mess with it...that needs to be professionally graded, or at least looked at by a Pro. Incredible find no doubt.

 

[Stef45]

I wouldn't even mess with it...that needs to be professionally graded, or at least looked at by a Pro. Incredible find no doubt.

thanks...wouldnt even know where to start with all of that. But might be a good idea

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Fantastic dime find!

I would not clean it, test it or for that matter leave it alone and have it graded. The grade may be low, damaged...etc, but you will know definitively if it's real.

I have been thinking about the low 17 ID. You stated that the ground has a lot of iron; that would certainly explain the low number IMHO.

 

[bonepicker]

Id be very happy with that one.
Most people will never dig one of those.
Congrats...

 

[DownNDirty]

Wow! Congrats on finding a very rare coin and your first 1700s coin. Are you sure that you broke it? In the pictures it looks like old patina along the break.

 

[Stef45]

Fantastic dime find!

I would not clean it, test it or for that matter leave it alone and have it graded. The grade may be low, damaged...etc, but you will know definitively if it's real.

I have been thinking about the low 17 ID. You stated that the ground has a lot of iron; that would certainly explain the low number IMHO.

yeah along with it being pretty deep and tiny. Ive dug silvers with the Safari that have been pretty low. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Stef45]

Id be very happy with that one.
Most people will never dig one of those.
Congrats...

Thank you. Im very happy with it. not many made let alone still exist.

 

[Stef45]

Holy moley. Flowing hair is a great find. But a HALF dime!!! Banner!!

Thank you Skippy! VMI and i were in aw when we realized what it was. My rarest find thus far for sure.

 

[Stef45]

ow! Congrats on finding a very rare coin and your first 1700s coin. Are you sure that you broke it? In the pictures it looks like old patina along the break.

Well I don't know for sure. the fact that vmi and i couldn't pinpoint the piece that broke off was pretty baffling so there is a chance that it was broke before. Thanks. Just glad we didn't sift it cuz figuring out who got it between me and VMI would SUCK! lol

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Great find, a heart stopper, but I am afraid Scrappy is most likely right.
Not only do you have a low detector reading, which is about proof enough. There are other things too. Silver is pretty soft, a coin rarely breaks, it could but rare. They roll up coins to make love tokens out of them, spoons bent into pretzels, and straighten right back out.
And even though the 1, and 7 look OK you can't tell if it is a 4 or a 5, is classic of a cast coin. I'm pretty sure this did not come from the a US mint.

Pretty sure this won't be liked, but it is how I see it. It definitely looks to have been in the ground a long time.

 

[JackalopeZL1]

Dream find right there. if real Awesome, If counterfeit Awesome! not sure what is better I am voting real though. It just had a hard life at 221 years old Congrats!!

 

[Stef45]

Dream find right there. if real Awesome, If counterfeit Awesome! not sure what is better I am voting real though. It just had a hard life at 221 years old Congrats!!

Thanks! Yea I'm happy about it either way! Long time in the ground and who knows what kind of life it had prior.

 

[Stef45]

Great find, a heart stopper, but I am afraid Scrappy is most likely right.
Not only do you have a low detector reading, which is about proof enough. There are other things too. Silver is pretty soft, a coin rarely breaks, it could but rare. They roll up coins to make love tokens out of them, spoons bent into pretzels, and straighten right back out.
And even though the 1, and 7 look OK you can't tell if it is a 4 or a 5, is classic of a cast coin. I'm pretty sure this did not come from the a US mint.

Pretty sure this won't be liked, but it is how I see it. It definitely looks to have been in the ground a long time.

Its all good. The reading to me means nothing due to the depth and size of the coin. Who knows what happens in the ground sometimes...soil composition, fertilizers, all kinds of things could have affected the coin. But who knows could be a counterfeit. Those are sometimes more valuable if they are old. Thanks for the input

 

[Palmetto Pony]

Awesome finds Stef. Braving that weather paid off for you and Jon both!

 

[Stef45]

Awesome finds Stef. Braving that weather paid off for you and Jon both!

Thanks! Yeah by the time I left I couldn't see the road it was raining so hard! Got lucky.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Wow! Absolutely insane. That's one heck of a first 1700's coin. Huge congratulations man. I'd leave it alone until I could figure out where to send it to get authenticated.... Even if counterfeit, that could be even better. Absolutely incredible find. Perhaps filling a couple 5 gallon buckets with the dirt around the plug, to the same depth and bringing it home might be worth a shot. You could run the dirt through some window screen with a garden hose to see if the missing piece is in there. With all the iron, that tiny missing piece might be hard to find with the pinpointer.

 

[Stef45]

Wow! Absolutely insane. That's one heck of a first 1700's coin. Huge congratulations man. I'd leave it alone until I could figure out where to send it to get authenticated.... Even if counterfeit, that could be even better. Absolutely incredible find. Perhaps filling a couple 5 gallon buckets with the dirt around the plug, to the same depth and bringing it home might be worth a shot. You could run the dirt through some window screen with a garden hose to see if the missing piece is in there. With all the iron, that tiny missing piece might be hard to find with the pinpointer.

Thanks OutdoorAv! We plan on sifting that area for sure. plus it rained quite a bit yesterday and today so that will help I'm hoping. And I'm not going to clean it any. Got it in a button case right now until i figure out where to send it. Great way to start the year...setting the bar real high for me!

 

[against the wind]

Man,, that is one heck of a way to break into the 1700's. Good for you. Congrats on all your finds and some really excellent results.

 

[Stef45]

Man,, that is one heck of a way to break into the 1700's. Good for you. Congrats on all your finds some really excellent results.

Haha i was mad about my 1803 KG3 B/c i was so close...but it was worth the wait! Thanks for the kind words!