1882H Large Canadian Cent from the torn out park sidewalk

mpostma · May 13, 2009

Saturday Morning 7am temps in the high 30's with misty rain. A picture perfect spring morning in Northern Michigan!
A friend had called to tell me that the sidewalks had just been dug out of the oldest park in a nearby town, so Michigan Butcher and I wanted to hit it before the new fill and sidewalks went in early the next week.

I was there a few minutes and swinging away before MB got there. Plenty of scattered old trash and hard packed gravel/clay were making the going slow.
So, MB shows up, and within a few minutes finds his first Trade Token! A local token too!

I found some clad here and there in some of the loose soil dug up along the edges of the excavation. We both had plenty of "mystery hits". Lots of some kind of mineralized rock and dirt that gave returns pretty much like deepies, but turned out to be crappe.

I got a shallow, loud, unmistakable coin signal in some of the dirt piled up along the excavation. I thought it was more clad. At less than an inch out comes a coin a little bigger than a quarter! 1 inch diameter as it turned out. I saw "One Cent" on one side, and I was grinning already.
When I turned it over I saw that it was Canadian. An 1882 H Large Canadian Cent, and in very nice shape!

The first survey of the area was in 1850, so it was pretty early in the area's history when the coin was dropped.

Soon after finding the coil a City Worker showed up and told us we had to leave. I don't think there is an ordinance against hunting there, and certainly no damage was being done digging in the chewed up ground, but we decided to take our goodies and retreat to somewhere and have a warm breakfast, which I might note that MB paid for.

I'll let him post the token, but it was sweet too.

Thanks for reading the post.

Good Luck,
Mark

Bob S · May 13, 2009

Nice Find WTG

Mackaydon · May 14, 2009

Great find!!
Prior to 1908, there was no mint in Canada, and all of Canada's coins were struck in England. Those coins that do not have a mint mark were struck at the Royal Mint at London. Those with the "H" mint mark were struck at the Heaton Mint at Birmingham.

BandB1 · May 14, 2009

Nice looking penny, Congrats!

I would suggest calling city hall and asking for permission to hunt there, tell them you won't do so

when you might interfere with the work going on, I'd be suprised if they didn't say ok.

Good luck,
HH.

dfx willy · May 14, 2009

i think the look of those canadian large cents are cool. ive never found one. willy.

Michiganne · May 14, 2009

Wow, what a beautiful coin, Mark! :thumbsup:

WTG

Keep digging!

Goes4ever · May 14, 2009

I'd go back after normal working hours and keep hunting them tearouts! sweet coin

briankb70 · May 14, 2009

a beauty of a coin !!!!

allen · May 14, 2009

congrats on that beautiful large cent !!! :thumbsup:

mpostma · May 14, 2009

Nick Pappagiorgio said:
1882 was a good year ...

Congratulations Mark !!!

~ Nick ~

Thank you Nick! Wishing you the very best, Sir Nick!

BandB1 said:
Nice looking penny, Congrats!

I would suggest calling city hall and asking for permission to hunt there, tell them you won't do so

when you might interfere with the work going on, I'd be suprised if they didn't say ok.

Good luck,
HH.

I don't push it too much inside any of the Northern Michigan cities. Since I serve as mayor in my town............ I choose to err on the side of caution when it comes to our other cities. The last thing any of us needs is to make mding more of a political hassle than it is now. I quietly lobby my fellow mayors and council members for fair treatment for our hobby.

Mackaydon said:
Great find!!
Prior to 1908, there was no mint in Canada, and all of Canada's coins were struck in England. Those coins that do not have a mint mark were struck at the Royal Mint at London. Those with the "H" mint mark were struck at the Heaton Mint at Birmingham.

Thank you for the info! I really have never looked much at the history of coins in Canada. We aren't very far away, so we find plenty of newer Canadian coins.

plehbah said:
Of course you had to leave. You were having fun, minding your own business, and not hurting anyone.

That is worse than making sense.

The rest of us will just shove our copies of 'Walden' where the sun never shines, and the proud city employee that ordered you to leave can eat his mac n' cheese tonight in contentment as he remains the master of his mudhole.

That penny is pretty!

Yeah, but I don't own a copy of Walden! Can I read any of the WEB Griffin novels instead?