1st and only LC-Possible 1804?

[TokenMan]

Man-o-man...why couldn't it all look like the "L". VA farm ate this lil puppy up! Too too bad Well, I have tilted this thing every possible angle while doing a headstand and shinned light from every side and just don't know if my eyes are playing mean tricks on me. But I wanted to see what fresh eyes see. I see (or think I see or want to see 1804, with the 1 taken by mother nature.) The 1 in the fraction seems to be off center too...I think, again those mean tricks. Would love to hear the coin guys and gals thoughts. Anyway, no matter, my 1st LC and she is beautiful!!! Pretty awesome feeling digging and holding this piece of history! Thanks for looking and have a great day.
PS-If I did get lucky with 1804 Draped Bust, there are only 96,499 left out there

 

[david680]

Congrats! Nice find. Can't help you on the date, I see nothing that suggests any date to me.

 

[Old Dude]

Congrats on a decent Draped Bust. Sorry but I can't make a date either. At least you know the date range.

 

[testing123]

Draped bust woot woot! Maybe 1800?

 

[digndeep]

great find there! I'd be happy with that much detail,most of mine have been wiped out..congrats!

 

[park pirate]

Nice..

 

[pepperj]

Nice going on the copper, maybe a little soaking will bring out the date from under the crust.

 

[RelicDude]

nice draped bust i cant make a year out on it though. i wouldnt give it a peroxide bath i think you would lose all the detail you do have.

 

[I-DIG-IT]

Nice digs.

 

[terpfan]

TokenMan, congrats on finding the draped bust. I don't believe that you'll be able to physically confirm a date on that coin. Don't give up yet. You may be able to confirm a date without actually seeing one. Remember that with large cents, there were many varieties within each mint year. Using the details that remain on your coin, you can start eliminating varieties that don't match. The internet is full of variety photos you can use as a reference. I've had great success with this, and have confirmed the dates of three LCs that had no date numbers showing at all. Good luck!

 

[doninbrewster]

Not sure if you can get a date out of this one. I did find an 1804 earlier in the year that although corroded, did have the date.

 

[Carolina Tom]

Congrats on a nice find. No help with the date...

 

[WheatWaffle]

Nice find!

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Can't read a date either. If that were my coin, I would chip off the crud that's covering the date area with a wooden skewer. Then I would rub some nose oil on that spot and see if a date showed up. I think that's you're only shot of getting a date off of it.

 

[coinman123]

Well, finding any large cent is good. Believe it or not, it's in OK shape for a large cent, at least you can see what it is, the colonial copper I found this weekend was a toasted dirt cake.

Here is my best large cent that I found this year (I have only been detecting since 2013, and did not start detecting old places until this year, making anything old that I found found this year, before I just went to tot-lots):


Congrats on the large cent, it is truly exciting to see that copper disk in or on the side of the hole.

 

[sutphin]

I bought a microscope for this type of problem , it does not work all the time but it can help. A little cleaning should give you an idea. nice find. Vanzutphen

 

[46Wheat]

Thank you for sharing your hunt and those pictures with us

 

[Dave2000]

Great find! On my Draped Bust LC finds last week, three dates were clearly legible and one looked pretty toasted. On the toasted LC, I used a $3.00 pocket coin microscope from Amazon (with bright oblique lighting) and I was shocked that I could pretty much make out the illegible 4th digit (same issue you're having).

First picture is no magnification, standard lighting (can really only see a "9"). Second picture is the microscope shot with oblique lighting of the 3rd and 4th digits ("98"). Pictures were taken about a minute apart with nothing done to the coin between shots. Try something like this.