Flying eagle cent and a few other misc colonial finds from today

[Bill D. (VA)]

I recently secured permission to hunt a yard where an extensive archaeological dig took place almost 25 years ago, and they were there for almost 10 years. I've seen aerial views of the dig area, and was told by the owner there was a small backhoe on site for 9 years. So they apparently dug the heck out of the place. The location was the site of a late 1600s to early 1700s home, and a tremendous number of artifacts were recovered, some of which are in the local museum. The owner had been given many boxes of artifacts that included bag upon bag of broken, rusty nails, small pottery shards, etc. I figured the area of the dig would be nothing but clean, sifted dirt so I initially opted to hunt the surrounding areas. But I didn't find much until I actually started approaching the dig area. But that area had a tremendous amount of iron and a number of targets started showing up which didn't make any sense. Maybe these were items that somehow slipped through the sifter although some were obviously too big. I didn't make any outstanding finds, but the potential was certainly there. I dug mostly a few small buttons, buckle parts, melted lead and pewter, and a couple of thimbles, but the best find was an 1857 flying eagle cent. I've dug a few of these over the years, and they're usually almost always unrecognizable. But this one had pretty nice detail and a clear date - 1857. I still have a little more area to cover, and I'm not too excited about my prospects, but you just never know what might pop out next.

 

[kingskid1611]

I absolutely love those eagle cents

 

[Scrappy]

That is an awesome eagle cent. Congrats on the rare find, and even rarer good condition!

Steve

 

[TokenMan]

Ahh, the eagle cent...I'm still searching. Looks awesome!!

 

[Ahab8]

Very cool coin bud. Seems as though there's always a lot left by the archies. I guess when you're throwing that much soul around it's likely they don't get every bit into the sifter. Hope you find something great there. Now that would be an accomplishment

 

[metalev4]

That site deffinitely isnt hunted out thats for sure. Nice finds Bill, a cut piece is waiting for you in there.

 

[CASPER-2]

 

[terpfan]

That is one sharp Flying Eagle, Bill. Maybe its not be a huge thrill when you were aiming for earlier finds, but still is nice as those FEs don't turn up often. I'm just curious about one thing: When such extensive searching was previously done by others, what prompted you to try your turn there? Did you have a sense that they had missed something?

 

[texjim]

Nice job. Maybe that was one of the things that fell out of the scope when they were moving the dirt around.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Very nice Eagle cent! Congratulations on all of your finds!

 

[Argentium]

The Flying Eagle Cent is one of the toughest U.S. type coins to dig up - It's definitely on my bucket list ! Congratulations !

 

[cjon455]

Great finds again bill, that FLE is awesome

congrats!

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

That is one sharp Flying Eagle, Bill. Maybe its not be a huge thrill when you were aiming for earlier finds, but still is nice as those FEs don't turn up often. I'm just curious about one thing: When such extensive searching was previously done by others, what prompted you to try your turn there? Did you have a sense that they had missed something?

Steve - the ground was only disturbed (to the best of my knowledge) over about 1/3 of the owner's large back yard. So there could easily be some finds to be made outside that area since the archaeologists generally do not use detectors around a dig site (not sure why?). Plus, that whole area was a cultivated field until about 1980 so artifacts have not had the time to sink beyond detection range which is a fairly common phenomena in yards around here, especially with the sandy soil. Some of the finds I made in the previously undisturbed soil were only 2-3" deep so there was definitely the possibility a nice find would be within reach of my F75, particularly when using the boost process. I have one more area to go over, and hopefully I can get lucky with a piece of early silver or a nice ornate buckle. Or maybe another trash pit.

 

[Man o' War]

Can I buy half intrest of a powerball ticket with you?