Oldest English Date Coin - It Predates Western Settlers in Seattle!

washingtonian · Sep 28, 2018

Hey everyone,

Spent some time detecting a part of Seattle I've never hunted today. It was slow for the most part. After 3.5 hours I'd only found a few Wheats.

My friend (Echoplex) suggested one last place I should visit. I wasn't finding much and decided I'd just detect for a short while Ionger. Well, glad I did!

I flipped a big disk out of the dirt and thought I had a clad half. Then I saw "One Cent" and was astounded. I figured it was a large Cent. Flip it over, nope! Check it out.

ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1538194120.003458.webp

ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1538194137.031943.webp

It's an 1845 East India Company large Cent. Pretty incredible history. It predates the Denny Party (first white settlers) landing on Seattle's shores by 6 years. What a piece of history.

I'm getting out early tomorrow, hopefully more to report!

Good luck all,
-W

basque-man · Sep 28, 2018

Awesome save!!! We will at times find things down our way as well that are old as heck!! I guess the first settlers out this way didn't have a lot of "new coinage" so what they had and spent went around and around till the newer stuff could arrive. We have actually found 1790's 2 reals in the older gold / town camps in the far North / Eastern CA.....Get back to that spot and GO SLOW!!! Dig everything and of course and good luck. Can't wait to see what else ya all get!! :icon_thumright:

washingtonian · Sep 28, 2018

basque-man said:
Awesome save!!! We will at times find things down our way as well that are old as heck!! I guess the first settlers out this way didn't have a lot of "new coinage" so what they had and spent went around and around till the newer stuff could arrive. We have actually found 1790's 2 reals in the older gold / town camps in the far North / Eastern CA.....Get back to that spot and GO SLOW!!! Dig everything and of course and good luck. Can't wait to see what else ya all get!!

It's a crazy hobby. I love following your finds out of California. I'm reading a book about the gold rush right now. So incredible to read about all the folks from all over the world that came. There must be a strange and incredible variety of old coinage there in the right spots!

TomW244 · Sep 29, 2018

Wow! That is fantastic! Great work!

washingtonian jr · Sep 29, 2018

Absolutely incredible! We always joke about finding large cents here but maybe there is one out here!

Whyme · Sep 29, 2018

Wow very cool find! :icon_thumleft:

Kray Gelder · Sep 29, 2018

Really cool, unusual find! Congrats.

washingtonian · Sep 29, 2018

washingtonian jr said:
Absolutely incredible! We always joke about finding large cents here but maybe there is one out here!

They've been found here before! I bet we can find one here if we put in enough time.

washingtonian · Sep 29, 2018

Kray Gelder said:
Really cool, unusual find! Congrats.

Thank you, yeah, definitely unexpected and unusual. I've never seen one posted here.

CRUSADER · Sep 29, 2018

Unusal coin - CONGRATS.

But I guess you know it only pre-dates the settlement & is no indication of when it was lost.

washingtonian · Sep 29, 2018

CRUSADER said:
Unusal coin - CONGRATS.

But I guess you know it only pre-dates the settlement & is no indication of when it was lost.

Thanks, and totally. I found a 1700s Chinese Cash coin in the yard of a 1920s home last year. The owner told me it was a souvenir his father brought home from abroad.

This was found in an area with history dating back to the 1800s so it could've been a late 1800s drop. Pretty neat!

CRUSADER · Sep 29, 2018

washingtonian said:
Thanks, and totally. I found a 1700s Chinese Cash coin in the yard of a 1920s home last year. The owner told me it was a souvenir his father brought home from abroad.

This was found in an area with history dating back to the 1800s so it could've been a late 1800s drop. Pretty neat!

Yeah, I have no problem believing that, without a sealed context it's pretty tough to guess other than wear, & yours doesn't have too much of that.