Indian head penny stamped in lead pipe.

[ross190]

I was metal detecting in the lake at my Maine house with my 11 year old and got a signal about 3" down in the sand.

I pulled up what appeared to be an old lead pipe and threw it on the dock. About 5 minutes later my son says, "Dad, this thing has an Indian head penny imprint". I looked, and sure enough there it was.

Hard to get a good photo, but I can make out every detail except the date.

Must be a good story to this one.

 

[BugsyDiggs]

That's weird u found a negative. Cool find

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Must be a die stamp from something, or it could be a coin stamp die?

Strange, but great find!

 

[treblehunter]

I wonder if the penny was in it, were you able to check area where you found lead?

 

[Argentium]

That is a cool find for sure ! How unusual .

 

[ggossage]

Looks like 1904 from the photo?

 

[ross190]

I wonder if the penny was in it, were you able to check area where you found lead?

That was my first thought, but I thought it was junk and moved on. Couldn't find anything near it yet.

 

[dirtlooter]

pretty neat

 

[Indiana_Brandon]

That's awesome to say the least what a find but I wonder if it could of been used as an old way to forge or copy the penny? I know they used some crude ways during probation times! Idk just a thought

 

[Lord Verdigris]

A lot of people melted there own lead to make into bullets. It looks as though the penny was pressed in while the lead was hot and another object pushed the penny in. There is a bigger ring showing around the penny imprint. I could be wrong but a bigger photo of the lead would help to see if it was melted. Maybe someone did it just for the hell of it passing some time.

 

[RelicMedic]

Very cool! I see 1904 also.

 

[Plumbata]

That's a neat find! Looks like someone was messing around and hammered the imprint for amusement, I definitely did that with scraps of lead as a kid. Something similar was done in 2 different 1880s school textbooks I have, where the kids did pencil/graphite rubbings of Indian cents and seated dimes. Not quite the same as the real deal, but very interesting in the sense that your impression or the old rubbings are like personal snapshots of the coin while in circulation many years ago, and are tangible proof that a particular individual actually took the time to consciously interact with and study the coin. Wherever the coins are now, they certainly won't look the same, and indeed the impression you have may be all that's left from that particular coin. Good thing your son saw that the bit of lead was much more interesting than it first appeared.

 

[Evolution]

Thats a very interesting find. Finds like that are what keep this hobby interesting. Nice one.

 

[ross190]

That's a neat find! Looks like someone was messing around and hammered the imprint for amusement, I definitely did that with scraps of lead as a kid. Something similar was done in 2 different 1880s school textbooks I have, where the kids did pencil/graphite rubbings of Indian cents and seated dimes. Not quite the same as the real deal, but very interesting in the sense that your impression or the old rubbings are like personal snapshots of the coin while in circulation many years ago, and are tangible proof that a particular individual actually took the time to consciously interact with and study the coin. Wherever the coins are now, they certainly won't look the same, and indeed the impression you have may be all that's left from that particular coin. Good thing your son saw that the bit of lead was much more interesting than it first appeared.

I couldn't agree more. The same day we found about 10-15 wheats, a barber quarter, a merc dime and a standing liberty quarter, but somehow items like this capture a moment in time that is bigger than just the coin

 

[BuckleBoy]

There's a long history of messing with lead to pass the time. I've seen posted here, just about every denomination of coin pressed into lead. Would make a spectacular display if all the examples were gathered up into one museum. VERY cool find there!

-Buck

 

[vpnavy]

Neat! Thanks for sharing...