Don in SJ
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I will start off with the Good first, I wish I could say I found it but no, my son did the honors of getting a very nice 1803 Half Cent.
We spent the afternoon hiking and exploring for new sites, and had one in mind that was a good 35 minute hike for us. Funny, on the way we ran into a guy in full cameos and we stopped and chatted and evidently he was looking for Coyotes! I know in the past 20 years their populations have greatly increased here in South Jersey, along with the increase in the Turkey population. Hmmmmmmmmm
The Half Cent was found not at the new site we spent walking to, but on our way back to the truck we stopped at my "Tallyo" site and my son got a chance to spend a few minutes there and got a old button and just as we were about to pack it in for the day he yelled to me that he had a definite coin reading.
I crashed thru the brush to watch the dig in progress and as usual, there was in fact a coin in fresh dug pile and one happy moment later, he said, Draped Bust Half Cent! That made his day, since earlier he only got two buttons at the new site we found.
Next, the Ugly: The Ugly coin was found by me on Friday, I went back to the Tallyo site and was determined to start hunting the permiter areas of the now wooded area, which was thick in scrub oak, but I knew there were iron hits there so always a good chance for more buttons and a coin or two. Immediately as I walked into the area got a beautiful copper coin reading. I dug and recovered a nice large heavily dirt encrusted copper. Not till I got home did I discover that basically there was no detail left on the copper, so judging by the size, weight, thickness, it matched up perfectly with several of my William III Halfpence, so that is what my guesstimate is on that coin, based on that and site found at.
Now the BAD I was going to name the post a M F copper found or something like that but Don be good.
At the first new site my son and I found yesterday, I found this large Copper, and I mean large, it is over 30mm in diameter and was just about worn smooth. It was not till I got it home and did the heavy Peroxide cleaning that the scratched in initials of M F on the side and the M on the other came forth. Not till it dried off and I was looking at it under magnification did I finally see most of the words ONE CENT.
So the BAD coin was a hammered out a bit Large Cent and based on how Draped Busts fit into the weight range of this one and they usually wear out with detail before any of the other types, I am fairly certain it was a Draped Bust. I'm sure only M F and a couple others only knew what the purpose of doing it to that coin were.
So, there is the Good , the Bad and the Ugly finds.
One note, I the site I got the MF coin at was very heavy in iron hits and after the first half hour of not digging anything but shotgun shells, I did as my son did, I cut in half my sensitivity and it was only then that I could distinguish other targets at the site.
The 1803 Half Cent was the first one for that year either of us have found, so that was nice also.
Don
We spent the afternoon hiking and exploring for new sites, and had one in mind that was a good 35 minute hike for us. Funny, on the way we ran into a guy in full cameos and we stopped and chatted and evidently he was looking for Coyotes! I know in the past 20 years their populations have greatly increased here in South Jersey, along with the increase in the Turkey population. Hmmmmmmmmm
The Half Cent was found not at the new site we spent walking to, but on our way back to the truck we stopped at my "Tallyo" site and my son got a chance to spend a few minutes there and got a old button and just as we were about to pack it in for the day he yelled to me that he had a definite coin reading.
I crashed thru the brush to watch the dig in progress and as usual, there was in fact a coin in fresh dug pile and one happy moment later, he said, Draped Bust Half Cent! That made his day, since earlier he only got two buttons at the new site we found.
Next, the Ugly: The Ugly coin was found by me on Friday, I went back to the Tallyo site and was determined to start hunting the permiter areas of the now wooded area, which was thick in scrub oak, but I knew there were iron hits there so always a good chance for more buttons and a coin or two. Immediately as I walked into the area got a beautiful copper coin reading. I dug and recovered a nice large heavily dirt encrusted copper. Not till I got home did I discover that basically there was no detail left on the copper, so judging by the size, weight, thickness, it matched up perfectly with several of my William III Halfpence, so that is what my guesstimate is on that coin, based on that and site found at.
Now the BAD I was going to name the post a M F copper found or something like that but Don be good.
At the first new site my son and I found yesterday, I found this large Copper, and I mean large, it is over 30mm in diameter and was just about worn smooth. It was not till I got it home and did the heavy Peroxide cleaning that the scratched in initials of M F on the side and the M on the other came forth. Not till it dried off and I was looking at it under magnification did I finally see most of the words ONE CENT.So the BAD coin was a hammered out a bit Large Cent and based on how Draped Busts fit into the weight range of this one and they usually wear out with detail before any of the other types, I am fairly certain it was a Draped Bust. I'm sure only M F and a couple others only knew what the purpose of doing it to that coin were.
So, there is the Good , the Bad and the Ugly finds.
One note, I the site I got the MF coin at was very heavy in iron hits and after the first half hour of not digging anything but shotgun shells, I did as my son did, I cut in half my sensitivity and it was only then that I could distinguish other targets at the site.
The 1803 Half Cent was the first one for that year either of us have found, so that was nice also.
Don
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Tell your son congrats. 
