A Nothing Day Quickly Turns Into a Something Awesome Day...Draped Bust Dime!

[Silvermonkey]

Three hours of wandering around the woods hadn't produced much today...a couple of wheaties, about 63 c in clad, and the usual junk. I promised myself "just one more good signal" and I'd call it a day. A few minutes later I hit a fair sounding target with a "86" VDI on my D-2. It was about 10 feet off a seldom used hiking trail, and about 4 inches deep. After hacking through some roots, I was very surprised to see a thin silver coin at the bottom of the hole. At first glance, I couldn't ID it. Some gentle cleaning at home revealed a heavily worn 180x Draped Bust dime. The hole in the coin was punched directly through the final digit, so we'll never know the exact date. These coins were minted for a very short period of time, between 1796-1807. All of the dimes in this run had very low mintages, ranging between 22,000- 165,000.

The Draped Bust dimes were an odd size (IMHO), compared to modern coins. At 19mm in diameter, they fall between the size of a quarter (24 mm) and a dime(17.9 mm). Close to the diameter of a nickel. Here's another picture for size comparison, along with a shot of the trail where it was found:

I never even considered the possibility of ever finding a Draped Bust dime. It's encouraging to know that these types of early American silvers still are out there. Thanks for taking a look. Happy Hunting All!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[pepperj]

Three hours of wandering around the woods hadn't produced much today...a couple of wheaties, about 63 c in clad, and the usual junk. I promised myself "just one more good signal" and I'd call it a day. A few minutes later I hit a fair sounding target with a "86" VDI on my D-2. It was about 10 feet off a seldom used hiking trail, and about 4 inches deep. After hacking through some roots, I was very surprised to see a thin silver coin at the bottom of the hole. At first glance, I couldn't ID it. Some gentle cleaning at home revealed a heavily worn 180x Draped Bust dime. The hole in the coin was punched directly through the final digit, so we'll never know the exact date. These coins were minted for a very short period of time, between 1796-1807. All of the dimes in this run had very low mintages, ranging between 22,000- 165,000.

View attachment 2208621


View attachment 2208622

View attachment 2208623

The Draped Bust dimes were an odd size (IMHO), compared to modern coins. At 19mm in diameter, they fall between the size of a quarter (24 mm) and a dime(17.9 mm). Close to the diameter of a nickel. Here's another picture for size comparison, along with a shot of the trail where it was found:

View attachment 2208624

View attachment 2208626

I never even considered the possibility of ever finding a Draped Bust dime. It's encouraging to know that these types of early American silvers still are out there. Thanks for taking a look. Happy Hunting All!

Congratulations on getting the one good target, then I'll call it a day.
How many times have we all said it, but getting it is another thing.
That's my type of location right there.

 

[UnderMiner]

Big congrats! That likely circulated through the pockets of quite a number of American Revolutionary War veterans before being lost. The presidents at the time frame of your coin would have been either Thomas Jefferson (1797-1801) or James Madison (1801-1809) the third and fourth presidents of the USA.

 

[Oldrvrrat57]

Don't see these posted very often!! Congratulations on a rare one!!

 

[CoinsAndThings]

Congratulations on an excellent find!

 

[ToddsPoint]

There is one date that is distinct. In 1800, there is a variety where the “R” in Liberty looks like a “K”. I can’t see your coin good enough to tell. Maybe you can? It’s a real long shot for sure! If it had the date without the hole, that would be a $1000 coin. The rarest in that series is the 1802. Only 3,000 minted and worth $50K now! Yours is a rare find regardless. 👍🏻

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

A big congrats on a ultra rare find !

 

[Silvermonkey]

There is one date that is distinct. In 1800, there is a variety where the “R” in Liberty looks like a “K”. I can’t see your coin good enough to tell. Maybe you can? It’s a real long shot for sure! If it had the date without the hole, that would be a $1000 coin. The rarest in that series is the 1802. Only 3,000 minted and worth $50K now! Yours is a rare find regardless. 👍🏻

Thanks TP. Sadly, most of the letters on the obverse are completely gone. It's really too bad that there is no way to confirm the exact date, but I'm very happy to cross one more name off my " White Whale" list.

 

[Steve in PA]

Congrats on a great find that very few detectorists can claim to have made
I have been fortunate to have found two of them, 1797 and 1803. Unfortunately, like yours, both have condition issues. The 1797 could be dated only by the fact it has 16 stars.

 

[xr7ator]

Talk about fan DIME tastic......well dug coin and thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[cudamark]

13 star reverse, so, probably 1800-1804. 1804 would be the rarest with only 8,265 minted of both 13 and 14 star varieties.

 

[CoilFisher]

Three hours of wandering around the woods hadn't produced much today...a couple of wheaties, about 63 c in clad, and the usual junk. I promised myself "just one more good signal" and I'd call it a day. A few minutes later I hit a fair sounding target with a "86" VDI on my D-2. It was about 10 feet off a seldom used hiking trail, and about 4 inches deep. After hacking through some roots, I was very surprised to see a thin silver coin at the bottom of the hole. At first glance, I couldn't ID it. Some gentle cleaning at home revealed a heavily worn 180x Draped Bust dime. The hole in the coin was punched directly through the final digit, so we'll never know the exact date. These coins were minted for a very short period of time, between 1796-1807. All of the dimes in this run had very low mintages, ranging between 22,000- 165,000.

View attachment 2208621


View attachment 2208622

View attachment 2208623

The Draped Bust dimes were an odd size (IMHO), compared to modern coins. At 19mm in diameter, they fall between the size of a quarter (24 mm) and a dime(17.9 mm). Close to the diameter of a nickel. Here's another picture for size comparison, along with a shot of the trail where it was found:

View attachment 2208624

View attachment 2208626

I never even considered the possibility of ever finding a Draped Bust dime. It's encouraging to know that these types of early American silvers still are out there. Thanks for taking a look. Happy Hunting All!

Congratulations! That is a great find; and honestly I would expect a hole in alot of early ones - just my opinion.

 

[CoilFisher]

Congratulations on getting the one good target, then I'll call it a day.
How many times have we all said it, but getting it is another thing.
That's my type of location right there.

You said it! ( And, in the premise of not jinxing/hexing myself I am going to zip my mouth! )

 

[Silvermonkey]

13 star reverse, so, probably 1800-1804. 1804 would be the rarest with only 8,265 minted of both 13 and 14 star varieties.

Thanks so much for helping to narrow down the date range cudamark. Much appreciated !!!!

 

[Silvermonkey]

Congrats on a great find that very few detectorists can claim to have made
I have been fortunate to have found two of them, 1797 and 1803. Unfortunately, like yours, both have condition issues. The 1797 could be dated only by the fact it has 16 stars.

Thanks for sharing your two examples Steve. Given that they were both in the ground for 200+ years, I think they look damn good!

 

[cannonball]

Three hours of wandering around the woods hadn't produced much today...a couple of wheaties, about 63 c in clad, and the usual junk. I promised myself "just one more good signal" and I'd call it a day. A few minutes later I hit a fair sounding target with a "86" VDI on my D-2. It was about 10 feet off a seldom used hiking trail, and about 4 inches deep. After hacking through some roots, I was very surprised to see a thin silver coin at the bottom of the hole. At first glance, I couldn't ID it. Some gentle cleaning at home revealed a heavily worn 180x Draped Bust dime. The hole in the coin was punched directly through the final digit, so we'll never know the exact date. These coins were minted for a very short period of time, between 1796-1807. All of the dimes in this run had very low mintages, ranging between 22,000- 165,000.

View attachment 2208621


View attachment 2208622

View attachment 2208623

The Draped Bust dimes were an odd size (IMHO), compared to modern coins. At 19mm in diameter, they fall between the size of a quarter (24 mm) and a dime(17.9 mm). Close to the diameter of a nickel. Here's another picture for size comparison, along with a shot of the trail where it was found:

View attachment 2208624

View attachment 2208626

I never even considered the possibility of ever finding a Draped Bust dime. It's encouraging to know that these types of early American silvers still are out there. Thanks for taking a look. Happy Hunting All!

Outstanding fine! They hardly ever come up. Congratulations you earned it

 

[Silvermonkey]

Thanks to everyone for your comments. Finding this coin has been the highlight of my 2025 detecting season. You never know what is going to come out of the ground next!

 

[Trezurehunter]

Congrats on a nice old coin.

 

[lenmac65]

What an awesome coin and a rare find indeed. Too bad the guy didn’t have the courtesy to drill the hole on the top of the obverse, but at least he was nice enough to lose it for you 😁. Congrats!