1776 King George III Counterfeit... A wicked good find!

Scrappy

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It’s good to be back!

After a hike-turned-hunt with my boy yesterday, I cleaned the one and only copper coin recovered. Turned out to be a 1776 KGiii.

Now for those of you out there scratching their heads...yes, there are no regal Half pennies made that year or for quite a few years surrounding that date. I knew it was a counterfeit right away but couldn’t find a match with any Machin Mills varieties.

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So I reached out to the experts. With the help of Iron Patch and a few others on FB group “Colonial and Early US coins and Artifacts” the variety was found.

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76003CVS1776 GEO-III8.1gmVF, CHOICE, DARK BRN. CLEAR 6. VERY NICE REVERSE. 4 TINY DIGSOBV NEAR MOUTH. GEORGIVS TRIUMPHO FAMILY. $520

(Thanks for the ID, IP)

The Georgius Triumpho family is a group of coins I’m still reading about. There may be a loose tie with this 1776 counterfeit, Washington Tokens, and Nova Constellatio’s but there doesn’t appear to be any conclusive evidence.

https://coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/WASHTriumpho.intro.html

Again I’m still early in on my reading, but I believe this Counterfeit was likely manufactured in Birmingham or Greenwich England, perhaps by the same mint that manufactured Nova Constellatios.

Rare? Sure is!

Try to Google 1776 King George half penny and a very short list of ANY variety will appear. I’m over the moon about this coin - certainly my rarest and best counterfeit and a killer way to start 2018. And it all started by finding a scattering of foundation rocks while hiking with my 4- year old. Good thing I bring a detector everywhere in my truck!

Here’s the rest of the finds.

ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1517881400.248860.jpg ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1517881410.300897.jpg ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1517881422.702558.jpg ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1517881432.502675.jpg ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1517881443.638038.jpg ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1517881462.056194.jpg ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1517881487.477664.jpg

Enjoy and good hunts,

Steve
 

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Blak bart

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Good on ya steve !! Congrats, thats bad A$$ !! Killer find man !!
 

pa-dirt_nc-sand

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Great coin and historically significant find! Huge congrats!!
 

BigWaveDave

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Great story, and yea, I’d be psyched to hold some history like that too..... congrats!
 

Aureus

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Great find.That's one rare counterfeit halfpenny!
 

Carolina Tom

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Congrats on the sweet coin Scratchy! It’s in such nice conditions too, wow man.

Best of luck to you brother.
 

Ahab8

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Look at you pulling a nice ctft while I’m stuck in the snow and freezing cold. Killer copper buddy and great job with the assists from others to get a proper id. 11” of snow tomorrow!!!! This winter absolutely sucks! But I’m going to hunt a certain shoreline next Friday
 

relic nut

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Great find Scrappy! Your hunts always amaze me. Congratulations!
 

pepperj

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Congrats on the great looking copper scrappy, it's one for the album. Cool looking headless rider as well, a very nice hunt for the mid winter.
 

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Congratulations on the nice hunt! :occasion14:
 

smokeythecat

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That is a very nice find. When we hunt "coin beach" in Delaware, about half the coins are counterfeit. Even dirt digging around here about 1/3 are counterfeit also. The counterfeits are also worth a little more than the real ones.
 

Tpmetal

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nice hunt, love the coin.
 

Loco-Digger

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Awesome score Steve, bet your glad to be back hunting on your home turf. What machine were you using? I was hoping to see another quick video of you digging that counterfeit coin with some play by play from the others. Looks like you had a great day.
 

jerseyben

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Excellent find and congrats. Just a note, you may be overstating its rarity. Still considered a better date/variety for the KGIII counterfeit series. I do have a few examples in my collection along with 2 MM examples of the same date.
 

DownNDirty

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Congratulations Steve and I'm glad you solved the mystery. That's a nice trigger guard too-any idea of what type of gun it came from?
 

OP
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Scrappy

Scrappy

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Great find.That's one rare counterfeit halfpenny!

A mutual acquaintance used the word “rare” and “good find” which are two words he doesn’t use often. Either way, it’s a good start
 

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