been a while since I posted anything, but I had to share this one - was in the farm field where we found a nice colonial site last fall and I dug this beauty - my first
it was just a whisper of a signal when my coil passed over it, but i dug and dug and from about a foot down saw this laying at the bottom of the hole
here's a little more of the story :
went out by myself on a rainy morning here, just to get out and get some exercise. i noticed the farmers had just cut the rest of the corn down at a site that has produced 16 colonial coins and countless buttons and other artifacts, the 3 of us had been over this same area probably 25 times in the last year and the pickins were getting slim
anyway I had my new 10x14inch excelerator coil on the e-trac and the very first target into the corn was just a faint whisper that repeated at 13-40 but it was buried on the depth scale - hoping that it was something good i dug and dug and the signal kept getting better and better at the very bottom side of the hole (now almost a foot down) i saw the rim sticking out
when i pulled it out my heart was racing at first but it seemed way too heavy to be a coin - i thought for a second i had a large token or weird button 'cause all the coins we got from the site were thin colonials - as soon as i cleared the dirt away i saw the date plain as day, 1794 and i felt my stomach turn ...
i had never dug a "thicky" before but i realized what i had as paco talks about finding them all the time on our hunts i immediately went and called him ... he didn't believe me at first but when i described it and by now had rubbed the dirt away and saw all the detail he was screaming on the other end of the phone
he let me off the phone and told me to go find another and i went back and pulled two large tombac buttons about 10 feet away from almost the same depth - for a moment i thought i had a George washington button to go along with it as the one button had a very detailed front, i found a couple other smaller buttons and just about then the farmer saw me out in the rain digging and came over to see what i found - excitedly i showed him all my finds (including the coin)
now sometimes i offer some of the stuff i find back to the farmers, especially when they are into the history etc but i have to say i got a little worried when he seemed VERY interested in the coin - if he would have asked me for it, i probably would have given it to him, i mean how do you say no to someone that has let you hunt on their land for the last 3 years ??
thankfully it didn't come to that, i put the 1794 back in my pocket and immediately offered him the buttons i found including the two tombacs and then a large cent i found the week before on his farm down by the river - he seemed very happy with that !
'No good comes from thinking about how much time we waste detecting, as wasted time is good soul time' - me 25/06/08
How do you find Gold coins? Reply: 'By finding lots of Silver ones..'
A real man thinks about detecting every 6 seconds
Big Congrats, my favorite copper to find, the big thick Liberty Caps! It is in nice shape for being a field find and I gave it a good look in the book and I am fairly certain it is A Sheldon 65 variety, R-1 Very Common. Was hoping it was one of the rare varieties but does not appear so.
Attached a photo (in negative) highlighting the features I used to ID the variety, there are many for 1794, somewhat tough to do without great details and yours has all the details needed. The key diagnostic determining factor was the Short Right Ribbon, from there I checked out all the other known features to see if they matched and they did.
Don
"The mantra has always been don't clean a (copper) coin or it will lose value.
For undug coins this is true. For dug coins this is untrue.
The value will increase with judicious cleaning."
Wow, very pretty copper. It is nice that you can get so far back into history. I just backed up 8 more years with my oldest to 1842. Our county history puts people there in about 1839. If I go back much further it would have to be with a coin carried for some time before it was lost. I bet you will find a lot more interesting stuff.
That is one beautiful old copper my friend....big time congrats! That one has me envious!
Should have been an archaeologist, love anything old:CW relics, arrowheads, Pre-Columbian. Best finds: AVC cuff button, CS staff button , 4 US plates, CW fleam. Best of 2012:
Nice Liberty Cap! We got two of those thick ones at a site in May. We have been on a roll this year on coppers. We have about 53 this year and 3 Spanish silvers. Wow, it looks like your Minelab is beating the White's machines at your sites. You are proof on how to clean up on a site. Good to hear from you again, Kevin.
What else did you guys find in the field that day? Buttons? Rob find anything? John?
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Originally Posted by allen
great shape 
Actually I will vote for Banner 
You are proof on how to clean up on a site. Good to hear from you again, Kevin.
John? 
