A challenging Draped Bust Large Cent

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! :tongue3:

Here are the 4 finds as found
dirty finds.webp
The buckle or pin cleaned (actual size photo)
bucklefrntbck.webp
The Tombac cleaned up
Tombacbutton.webp
1798/7 Draped Bust Large Cent
1798S-151.webp
Group shot of the cleaned finds
Site253finds.webp

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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Nate in Ohio said:
You spent three hours on that? That's quite a chunk of time. Anyway congrats on the great finds...enjoy the rest of the season that's left.

Another aspect of the hobby is knowing exactly what you found, some people spend years till they get a proper ID, and on coins, when you have something that is over 200 years old and you know you can possibly get an exact date and variety, you go for it, I do have the time, (retired). But it is an enjoyable part of the hobby, just finding and cleaning is only 2/3 of the job, final ID is the last part.

On many die varieties the differences are subtle and you just don't give a quick glance at each photo and you must also on all the ones that are close read the descriptions of the details that distinguish the differences. Guess that is one reason they charge so much at those companies for verifying a coin.

Don
 
Don in SJ said:
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.


Don

You think that maybe the new detector has something to do with it?
 
Good to see you making finds still Don.
We are frozen solid here already which is rare, hope we can get a warm up soon.
We went from a dry summer to a frozen fall...what gives? :-\
 
Neil in West Jersey said:
Don in SJ said:
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.


Don

You think that maybe the new detector has something to do with it?

Neil, not sure, I really have not noticed any difference in depth, (I think) I sort of remember the first finds at the site with my old detector were also rather deep, but I did not write that information down, so not positive. It is the same coil, and the capabilities on depth are said to be the same. The new one has a much better pinpoint, but otherwise not much noticeable difference to me, except I have something 10 years newer to swing. :D

Don
 
Nice Large Cent .... congrats! :thumbsup:
 
I'd do the same, if it was my interest I'd take the time to find out what I had! :thumbsup: I have a button that I probably put 20 hours into cleaning because I wanted the best possible result. Many would have stopped after the first hour because it was 99% done. Plus it's good keeping your mind sharp and the more you look at varieties the better it gets stuck in your head. Back when I started detecting I was completely puzzled how anyone could tell a Machin's Mills copper from a George III because to me they all looked the same. Now 11 or so years later it's very obvious.
 
Nice finds Don! HH, Mike
 
Great finds Don like always u come up with amazing stuff. Good luck and HH Mark
 
Another great hunt sounds like it. You always amaze me with great items. And that drywall hammer excellent idea. If anyone has one they would like to sale i need one of those. email me. Thanks HH Mark
 
so much for hunting in n.j for awhile . pray for hot rain........lol
 
Great post Don ! I have learned a great deal from your posts since I started poking around on this site 3 years ago ! I like the cut copper and the button and the b uckle as well !! Keep searching and keep us posted !! MaineRelic
 

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