1798 U.S. Large Cent - Thoughts?

[ColonialDude]

Well I didn't get in much detecting last year at all and was pretty disappointed by that. Hopefully this year will be different, although it's certainly not starting that way. We have had beautiful weather for the last couple of weeks and I have been too busy to get out much. I found an 1802 large cent (my oldest) a couple of weeks ago while visiting family. I finally got out here at home and hit a site I discovered last year where I found several Conneticut Coppers and a Vermont Copper. Unfortunately it has not been plowed and was hit pretty hard, but I figured I would try my luck. Detected for about an hour and a half and came up with this sucker out of the iron. It's not in bad shape and now my oldest large cent I have found. I was praying it was a flowing hair but looks like I missed it by a couple of years.

Can anyone give me an idea of the variety? I have no clue and it may be tough to tell due to some wear. Based on the _ under the "1" and above the "100" I can tell it's not the normal variety.

Thanks for looking.

 

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[gmanlight]

Still a nice find

 

[metaldetectingtaylor]

She's a beauty! I dont have much info on the variety but was actually wondering if you cleaned it in any way because it looks amazing. I pulled a matron large cent last night and it was completely toasted except for the one cent on the back. Do you use olive oil?
-MDT

 

[sean_carb]

Nice Find!

 

[ColonialDude]

She's a beauty! I dont have much info on the variety but was actually wondering if you cleaned it in any way because it looks amazing. I pulled a matron large cent last night and it was completely toasted except for the one cent on the back. Do you use olive oil?
-MDT

Thanks very much. I used peroxide and some blue ribbon coin conditioner.

 

[ColonialDude]

I sent some photo's off to a guy who is an expert in terms of large cents. Turns out mine is an S-179. "Very common". Ah well, still fun to find and not too common in Canada. It's my oldest U.S. large cent thus far and am happy to have found it. No for a flowing hair!

 

[Joe88]

Really nice!!

Joe

 

[Don in SJ]

I am glad you contacted a Large Cent guy, I just spent about two hours going through my Breen Encyclopedia book and the closest I could find was a S-165, it matched except the date just did not match up. The reverse was the closest I could find, since hardly any of the Reverses have the Outer pair of leaves overlap the stem below NT in CENT. Only the S-165 showed that in the photos, but like I said the date was just not right, I came back on and saw you got the S-179 attribution, so went right back to my book and the photo is in my opinion the wrong reverse photo, since all of the stem shows at that pair of leaves, however the narrative is correct. So rather unhappy the book photo appears to be wrong. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Eye strain. Anyway, she is a nice conditioned large cent, glad you recovered a beauty like that one.

Don

 

[lost hunter]

sweet

 

[The Patriot]

Great to see you found a new old one...got a feeling older ones are coming your way

 

[ColonialDude]

I am glad you contacted a Large Cent guy, I just spent about two hours going through my Breen Encyclopedia book and the closest I could find was a S-165, it matched except the date just did not match up. The reverse was the closest I could find, since hardly any of the Reverses have the Outer pair of leaves overlap the stem below NT in CENT. Only the S-165 showed that in the photos, but like I said the date was just not right, I came back on and saw you got the S-179 attribution, so went right back to my book and the photo is in my opinion the wrong reverse photo, since all of the stem shows at that pair of leaves, however the narrative is correct. So rather unhappy the book photo appears to be wrong. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Eye strain. Anyway, she is a nice conditioned large cent, glad you recovered a beauty like that one.

Don

I was figuring and hoping you would have some advice or input on this piece Don. You're a wealth of knowledge on the old coins and always helpful. I appreciate you taking the time to look into it as usual. I sent off the images to the large cent guy right when I posted it here so he got back to me quite quickly.

I always attempt to check online first to try and attribute it myself, but I find it very difficult and sometimes can't even see the minor differences. Takes a keen eye I guess.

Thanks again

 

[ColonialDude]

Great to see you found a new old one...got a feeling older ones are coming your way

Thanks man...and I have high hopes with my upcoming move to New Brunswick. My first day on the job there is 16 Jul which means I will likely be moved and settled around the end of June. I have been doing some research and have come across some VERY promising spots we can check out! Look forward to doing some hunting with you.

 

[Don in SJ]

1798 is a very tough year, first thing I always look for is if it has a die crack, that makes it much easier, your coin was a stumper for me, but only becuase my literature was in error, would have never thought there could be a wrong photo in Breen's book but sure looks that way. Noyes has the best Large Cent books for identifications, but they are very hard to come by and if you do find them for sale, they are almost always sold as a pair (two books, book one is 1793-1814 and book two covers 1816-1839, I have the second book and the photos and descriptions in that book are way better than the Breen book, but I could not get that earlier year book so Breen's book it is for me..........
My last large cent I found back in February I thought might be a 1799, but don't you know, the area where the date should be was the worst part for corrosion. After a couple weeks of playing around with photos of it and also sending the photos to one of the previous top collectors of Large Cents, I never heard back from him and I just about gave up and marked it as a 1798, which is more common to find than the very elusive 1799 LC. Well, he just emailed me this week, saying he finally got around to looking at the photos closely and that he could not see any detail that did not match a 1799 Sheldon 189 variety! But, he thinks it is that but cannot be 100% certain without seeing it in person. Well, I took that as good news and now changed my record to say I finally got a 1799, but I will continue looking for other years that might match the same details as the S189 for 1799..... Then I get to think "wish that coin would have been in better shape", without a doubt a desired year for Large Cent collectors..........

Don

 

[ColonialDude]

Then I get to think "wish that coin would have been in better shape", without a doubt a desired year for Large Cent collectors..........

Don

Well at least you can say you found one! Actually I quickly glanced at the price guidde for large cents before I knew the date on this one...and 1799 stood out for sure based on the value. I had high hopes haha I can't complain. I have found maybe 8 American coins dating to the 1700's...not bad for this area...and one was a beautiful Fugio, this one, and the rest are the Conneticut coppers and a Vermont.

 

[DirtDodger]

Well I didn't get in much detecting last year at all and was pretty disappointed by that. Hopefully this year will be different, although it's certainly not starting that way. We have had beautiful weather for the last couple of weeks and I have been too busy to get out much. I found an 1802 large cent (my oldest) a couple of weeks ago while visiting family. I finally got out here at home and hit a site I discovered last year where I found several Conneticut Coppers and a Vermont Copper. Unfortunately it has not been plowed and was hit pretty hard, but I figured I would try my luck. Detected for about an hour and a half and came up with this sucker out of the iron. It's not in bad shape and now my oldest large cent I have found. I was praying it was a flowing hair but looks like I missed it by a couple of years.

Can anyone give me an idea of the variety? I have no clue and it may be tough to tell due to some wear. Based on the _ under the "1" and above the "100" I can tell it's not the normal variety.

Thanks for looking.

Nice coin, there are over 45 Sheldon varieties of this date.

Sure looks like a Sheldon 179, a common variety.

Great find.

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Nice find.
Nice to break your oldest record, and extra nice that it is not toasted.