Fugio, Fugio, wherefore art thou, Fugio? (4 LCs: 20 min., 3 holes)

BlackX

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Oct 7, 2006
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Right under my coil! ;D

There's one site I've been hunting on and off for a couple of years. I've never hit anything particular fantastic at it--though some nice stuff--but something about it kept me coming back. The location shows up on 1700s maps, though never with anything located on it. Just the blank spot between roads and houses. But, a week or so ago, I hit an Indian Head on it and my oldest Merc, a '23, so I knew there were still goodies there. A couple days later, I hit it again and found another Indian. Then 2 nights ago I hit it and didn't find anything but an old, or semi-old, button and a 1919-S wheat. Now I've never seen anyone else on that site but dog-poopers but I talked with a woman at work about it after I'd found the Indian and Merc and she said she'd hit it with her club years ago. So, when I was there last night--and not finding much--I glanced across the road and thought, "hmmmm..., I never thought abut that spot before. I wonder if there's anything interesting there." "Maybe no one else has hit it much." (Which I suspect turns out to be the case.) After leaving work tongiht I was going to hit another spot but when I drove past I decided to hit it anyway, so parked nearby and walked around the corner to see what I thought. There was actually a part of that park I'd never even noticed before, and I've driven by it hundreds of times! Okay, I figured, if I hadn't noticed that, the odds are good that it hasn't been hit too hard. So I went back to the Jeep and geared up.

Walked to the unknown part and hit nothing but trash and then a modern spill wi/ two cents, two quarters, and then a dime, all right on the surface. Worked my way along further and dug a signal that turned out to be #$*#$% and then kept going to the part of the park that I'd at least seen before, when I used to live out along that road. Hunted along the edge, and then towards the middle for about an hour with nothing to show for it but a couple of clad dimes and memorials. It was staring to get dark by now. About then, I got a signal that was bouncing around between the top left of the screen but seemed to be stuck a bit on the 24 conductive level, though i t was bouncing a lot on the ferrous (horizontal) axis. But it seemd to be doing that pretty consistently. Was reading about halfway down on the depth meter. After some failed iffy readings earlier--including some disappearing signals that were probably hot rocks--I wasn't too confident but I was thinking "Indian" at that point since the VFO seemed to be locking on to it pretty well. Cut the plug, dug down, and was VERY pleasantly surprised. I was so surprised, I didn't think to take a pic. Cleaned it up slightly with some spit and a toothbrush and thought I had a early 1800s Classic Head large cent. Didn't find out until I got home that it wasn't. King George II (27.8mm 8,0g):

080618_Coin-1_obverse_8149_sm.jpg


080618_Coin-1_reverse_8150_sm.jpg


I was quite excited by now and, after checking the hole, poured the dirt back in, flipped the plug back, I started spiralling slowly and carefully out from that spot. After a few minutes, about 18 inches away, I got a similar signal. Oh yeah! Cut the plug, pulled out some dirt, and again about 6" down, found me a wonderful piece of copper. Did the ol' spit and toothbrush bit and saw something I couldn't quite believe. "That really can't be a ****ing Fugio, can it?" Whether it was or wasn't, I was already feeling "detecting can't get much better than this." 1787 Fugio, no idea what variety yet (28.1mm 9.2g):

080618-2112_4x_2nd_hand_8128.JPG


080618_Coin-2-Fugio_obverse_8152_sm.jpg


080618_Coin-2_Fugio_reverse_8170_sm.jpg


Now I was really getting excited! And still muttering to myself, "That really can't be a ****ing Fugio, can it?" I tucked the 2nd large copper away between the cotton and, amazingly enough, remembered to run the probe back in the hole. SING! Off to the upper right and deeper. Another one in the same hole? A colonial pocket spill? Dig, dig, dig. As I got carefully got closer the readings were starting to look like possibly silver but, after a brief bit of extra excitement, large copper #3 was in the loose dirt in the bottom of the hole. I haven't been able to find what coin this one is yet. (And I think I went through everything nd.edu has up in their colonial section as well as a few other spots.) It looks like it would be distinctive with that extra large left-facing bus and the circular decoration on the back. The Washington Success medal shows some similar design elements but it's definitely not that. Can anyone ID this coin?
Unknown (28.9mm 12.6g):

080618-2117_4x_3rd_hole_8131_crop.jpg


080618-2117_4x_3rd_hand_8132_sm.JPG


080618_Coin-3_obverse_8156_sm.jpg


080618_Coin-3_reverse_8158_sm.jpg


Stashed that baby away and checked the hole again. Nothing this time. :( Finished up, stood up and continued detecting. A short distance away--between the excitement, the darkness, and spiraling around I was getting a bit confused at this point--but probably about two feet opposite on the other side of the first hole I started getting a nice tone with similar cursor bouncings as the first three. Cut another plug and, a bit deeper than the others, I think, up popped large copper #4. (A bit of brushing away with fingertips for the photo.) King George I, I believe (28.0mm 9.2g):

080618-2124_4x_4th_hole_8134_sm.JPG


080618_Coin-4_obverse_8159_sm.jpg


080618_Coin-4_reverse_8169_sm.jpg


With #4 safely stashed away, I started detecting again. But I was really getting confused at this point as to where I'd detected and dug the previous ones. I had the general area but as to specifics, I was lost. After those hits I was digging anything that sounded close but came up with nothing interesting for the next 10m or so and wrapped it up for the evening. I drove home on Cloud Nine wondering if those four large coppers were all from a colonial pocket spill, some sort of meeting or business location (but not finding much iron yet), part of a stash, or something else entirely.

I also stopped and picked up some celebratory fluid. :) (Man, Lagavulin has gotten WAY too expensive.)

Any suggestions for cleaning/not cleaning/professional cleaning gladly taken. Etc.

I WILL hit this site hard. (Probably starting tomorrow night.)

_Rich_
 

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cntrydncr1

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Feb 23, 2007
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wow, what a fantastic hunt!!! Most of us will only dream of this. congrats.
 

Iron Patch

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Don in SJ said:
Rich, if they were my coins, all of them would be getting cleaned by me, peroxide, distilled water, wax or Blue Ribbon at the end. The French coin should clean up nicely, I am not sure about the Fugio. I believe none of the coins are at the point where you have to worry about ruining value. Fugio's are not uncommon and grounders have to be in decent shape for value, I believe a very nice one was found in Canada over a year ago by a TNet member, that was sent in and slabbed, and that one was in great shape.

For Charter Members, if you do a SEARCH of Fugios, you will see several have been posted here and the person who found the nice one is Wess Thompson, here is his post. http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,88533.0.html

As far as your French coin ID goes, mine was ID'd as a French 1 Sol from the World Book, but we did that in the Library in the 90's, and since my Reverse is blank, who knows for sure what it is, unless I can ID by diameter and weight. Mine is 28mm in diameter and 10.1 grams. :)

Yours does seem way too light to be a 12 denier, despite matching in design, perhaps there is a 6 denier??. I have a few good French coin sites but one is for much older coins and the other, dang if I can find it at this moment.

Here is an Obverse photo of the one I found back in the mid 90's.

Don

All looks right to me. Your Sol is probably a bit earlier, circa. 1770s/1780s. The 12 Deniers is listed under First Republic coinage, why I assume the change between Sols and Deniers. 1 Sol = 12 Deniers.
 

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BlackX

BlackX

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Oct 7, 2006
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I appreciate the kind words, everyone.

Headed out from work now to see if I can find some more! :)

_Rich_
 

knfmn

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Feb 13, 2008
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Great finds, Rich! Those are some beautiful coins. Congratulations.

Kristopher
 

Colonial Copper Zeus

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Jan 6, 2007
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Great job Rich. Maybe there is a silver piece somewhere in there. Oh well if there isn't. You found a nice selection of coins that anyone on this forum would clean toilets for a month just to hold in their hands.
Chris
 

Admiral de Salee

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If I found something that wild, I'd pay a professional conservator to clean it safely and appropriately--if that's not a contradiction in terms with respect to avoiding a loss of value.

In my neck of the woods, there's a guy named John Abbott over in Birmingham, MI who's both a certified Coin Guy and Gemologist (rare to be a cognoscento of both). I'd take the coin to him after just a soap-and-water and see what he thought should be done.
 

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BlackX

BlackX

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I put them through the H2O2 and q-tips process last night last night. I was very careful with the Fugio. Interesting that the dirt/corrision on the reverse cleared off that much more than the obverse. Though I always liked the reverse better anyhow. At this point, I may leave that one as it is unless I get it professionally done or someone has some good ideas about how to work on just the obverse of the coin. Here are the results.

Coin 1 - KGII:

080618_1_KGII_obverse_cleaned_8174.JPG


080618_1_KGII_reverse_cleaned_8175.JPG


Coin 2 - Fugio:

080618_2_Fugio_obverse_cleaned_8176.JPG


080618_2_Fugio_reverse_cleaned_8177.JPG


Coin 3 - Louis XVI:

080618_3_KLXVI_obverse_cleaned_8178.JPG


080618_3_KLXVI_reverse_cleaned_8179.JPG


Coin 4 - KGI:

080618_4_KGI_obverse_cleaned_8180.JPG


080618_4_KGI_reverse_cleaned_8181.JPG


I thought it was interesting that the Louis XVI came out looking like silver. I'll have to look up the metal content on those. And, as worn as that is, given it was minted in 1791 or 1792 (I think), that should give a good indication of when these were dropped. If they were all dropped at the same time. I hit the site again last night--post coming shortly--and kept thinking about how they came to be there in that one spot. My latest hypothesis is a tryst where the gentleman(?) laid down his coat for the lady(?). :)

_Rich_
 

Iron Patch

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BlackX said:
I put them through the H2O2 and q-tips process last night last night. I was very careful with the Fugio. Interesting that the dirt/corrision on the reverse cleared off that much more than the obverse. Though I always liked the reverse better anyhow. At this point, I may leave that one as it is unless I get it professionally done or someone has some good ideas about how to work on just the obverse of the coin. Here are the results.

Coin 1 - KGII:

0obverse_cleaned_8174.JPG


618_1_KGII_reverse_cleaned_8175.JPG


Coin 2 - Fugio:

080618_2_Fugio_obverse_cleaned_8176.JPG


080618_2_Fugio_reverse_cleaned_8177.JPG


Coin 3 - Louis XVI:

080618_3_KLXVI_obverse_cleaned_8178.JPG


080618_3_KLXVI_reverse_cleaned_8179.JPG


Coin 4 - KGI:

080618_4_KGI_obverse_cleaned_8180.JPG


080618_4_KGI_reverse_cleaned_8181.JPG


I thought it was interesting that the Louis XVI came out looking like silver. I'll have to look up the metal content on those. And, as worn as that is, given it was minted in 1791 or 1792 (I think), that should give a good indication of when these were dropped. If they were all dropped at the same time. I hit the site again last night--post coming shortly--and kept thinking about how they came to be there in that one spot. My latest hypothesis is a tryst where the gentleman(?) laid down his coat for the lady(?). :)

_Rich_


Yes some of those French coins can really fool you. My friend dug a bigger 2 Sol from about the same period as your's and his heart skipped a beat upon first glance, as did mine too. There was not a bit of corrosion.

Looks like your Geo. I is 1723.
 

Detectingfreak

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Apr 26, 2006
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Do I smell a banner post!? This definatly deserves a BANNER!!!! That was an awesome story along with awesome finds! :thumbsup: You have really set the bar! I would have those coins graded by your local coin shop. But even if they are only in G-4 condition. You will still get a fair amount of money for them. :thumbsup: Very nice work! Now you have made me more motivated then ever! I still can't believe it only took you 20 minutes to get 4 large cents!
 

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BlackX

BlackX

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Oct 7, 2006
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Iron Patch, there's no detail at all on the back that I can find. Except for corrosion, smooth as a baby's butt. (Well, smoother.) I took it out into the bright sun under a 10x loupe and couldn't see any details at all.
 

Iron Patch

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BlackX said:
Iron Patch, there's no detail at all on the back that I can find. Except for corrosion, smooth as a baby's butt. (Well, smoother.) I took it out into the bright sun under a 10x loupe and couldn't see any details at all.


That's makes it tough if not impossible to date more accurately but hell it's still 1600s. Sites with that kind of variety are a lot of fun to hunt, I think you would agree. :wink:
 

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