Don in SJ
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Since yesterday was a Sunday and the day before deer season here, I wanted to get in another hunt before the end of the year in the woods and took the opportunity to visit a site that on two previous hunts, has yielded about 10 or so Tombac type buttons, a couple pieces of shoe buckle but no coins.
The site is a very hard one to swing at and dig, had to use hand pruners to move thru the brush and briar and use the pruners also to get through the roots on the 4 measly diggable readings I got. But, finally I got my first coin from the site and it fit right in with the time frame of the occupation. which I am fairly certain is from the 1790s to the early 1800s.
The only trouble with the coin is that it is a cut in half Draped Bust Large Cent and the half with the date is not the half I found.
I knew that later in the day I would be spending some time trying to get a date.
I also got another tombac, and nice rusty nail/spike and a buckle or pin of an unknown use. The interesting thing about the 4 finds yesterday was that all were 8-10 inches down, which is unusual for a undisturbed homestead in the woods, usually more in the 4-8 inch range in general.
OK, so the challenge was to get a date and how do you get a date with that part of the coin missing? Well, I got out my Breen's book on Early year large cents and started looking at every variety to see if certain details matched exactly on the reverse side of my cut Draped Bust. The problem beiing I had to start with 1796 and go all the way thru to 1807, which involved 219 or more possibilities.................
After 3 hours of eye straining I narrowed the variety down to 2 or 3 possibliities and finally after doing photo comparisons felt 100% comfortable with saying the Draped Bust Large Cent I found is a 1798 over 7 Sheldon 151 variety. I have quite a few 1798 Large Cents and that variety was not amongst my previous finds, so that is a plus. (Just had the attribution verified by an expert on Large Cents, so feel good I got it correct.)
Not sure if this was my last hunt for 2010, only Mother Nature knows for sure, since I usually get out at least once or twice after Christmas and hoping to do so this year. Beach hunting is my fallback, but the temps this week along with the wind have me wimping out on that idea!
Here are the 4 finds as found
The buckle or pin cleaned (actual size photo)
The Tombac cleaned up
1798/7 Draped Bust Large Cent
Group shot of the cleaned finds
Here is a link to a website showing what the coin would look like if whole.
http://www.largecents.net/collection/coinpics/s151.jpg
Don
The site is a very hard one to swing at and dig, had to use hand pruners to move thru the brush and briar and use the pruners also to get through the roots on the 4 measly diggable readings I got. But, finally I got my first coin from the site and it fit right in with the time frame of the occupation. which I am fairly certain is from the 1790s to the early 1800s.
The only trouble with the coin is that it is a cut in half Draped Bust Large Cent and the half with the date is not the half I found.
I knew that later in the day I would be spending some time trying to get a date.I also got another tombac, and nice rusty nail/spike and a buckle or pin of an unknown use. The interesting thing about the 4 finds yesterday was that all were 8-10 inches down, which is unusual for a undisturbed homestead in the woods, usually more in the 4-8 inch range in general.
OK, so the challenge was to get a date and how do you get a date with that part of the coin missing? Well, I got out my Breen's book on Early year large cents and started looking at every variety to see if certain details matched exactly on the reverse side of my cut Draped Bust. The problem beiing I had to start with 1796 and go all the way thru to 1807, which involved 219 or more possibilities.................
After 3 hours of eye straining I narrowed the variety down to 2 or 3 possibliities and finally after doing photo comparisons felt 100% comfortable with saying the Draped Bust Large Cent I found is a 1798 over 7 Sheldon 151 variety. I have quite a few 1798 Large Cents and that variety was not amongst my previous finds, so that is a plus. (Just had the attribution verified by an expert on Large Cents, so feel good I got it correct.)
Not sure if this was my last hunt for 2010, only Mother Nature knows for sure, since I usually get out at least once or twice after Christmas and hoping to do so this year. Beach hunting is my fallback, but the temps this week along with the wind have me wimping out on that idea!
Here are the 4 finds as found
The buckle or pin cleaned (actual size photo)
The Tombac cleaned up
1798/7 Draped Bust Large Cent
Group shot of the cleaned finds
Here is a link to a website showing what the coin would look like if whole.
http://www.largecents.net/collection/coinpics/s151.jpg
Don
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I always enjoy digging up 'ole tombac buttons. You know you are in the right Colonial zone when they are popping out. Keep getting out and finding the goods. I am living through you now....
glad ya narrowed it down.i wish i could drive into a few sites here with a brush hog mower 
Wouldn't it awesome if after we found sites like that, someone could come and bush hog it for us? 
I bet it works quite well.
