Help me appraise this dug 1798 cent, please. It's been consigned to me.

Note that the coin I am asking for an appraisal on here is the second one shown, not the one in the first two pictures.

Please post your most REALISTIC appraisal.

I decided to just copy and paste my USCF thread here, with all the blahblahblah and everything, so bear with me.

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Remember that awesome stuff my dig buddies found back in October?

Including this incredibly preserved 1798 S-166 cent?






That coin was found by Frank Ridenour. I don't know Frank too well but his brother Billy is my best local dig pal. Billy once dug that amazing 1798/7 cent which made Coin World in an article by Eric Von Klinger, entitled "Georgia Forest Yields 1798/7 Draped Bust cent". Mr. Von Klinger gained his intelligence by lurking these forums and contacted me about the story, as I recall- it's been several years back.

I actually knew Billy and Frank's father, Bill Ridenour Senior, before I met either of the boys. Bill Sr. showed up on my doorstep this morning with another high grade dug 1798 cent, this one found recently on the Old Post Road near where I live.

This has got to be the seventh or eighth really sharp 1798 I've seen dug by my local friends. I'm insanely jealous. I have only dug a single Draped Bust cent, personally, and mine was accidentally ruined when I "burnt it up" while attempting to clean it with electrolysis.

Bill Senior's Old Post Road cent is not the equal to last October's example found by Frank, but look. You can tell it was new when it hit the dirt two centuries ago. Here it is, pretty much as it was found. Bill said he did do an oil soak but that's the extent of the conservation that's been done on this piece, and in my opinion, it wouldn't benefit from any further tinkering, unless the EAC people have some tricks up their sleeve I'm unfamiliar with. It has the look of some of my Roman coins.


Picture 1 is a scan, with no enhancements besides cropping. Here it is on the scanner bed, dust and warts and all.




Bill didn't like the look of those scans.

I agree- they make the coin appear far more granular than it actually seems in hand- but they do bring out the detail best.


Picture 2 is also a scan- the same images- but with something approximating the actual die rotation.




Picture 3 is a bigger 800x800 scan of the obverse.

Picture 4 is a bigger 800x800 scan of the reverse.

Picture 5 is a set of photographs I did with ladymarcovan's digital camera. (As usual, I beg forgiveness for my substandard photography skills.)




None of these images is ideal, but taken together, they should give you some inkling of what this piece looks like. Yeah, it's not as great as the last one, but I'm sure you'll agree that it's an amazing find. Bill said there were buttons found, too, but didn't go into much detail over what else had been dug. (Or if he did, it went right past me, because I was so intent on examining the coin.)

Bill made sounds like he wanted to consign the coin to me. I had sold Frank's earlier example on eBay. I made these pictures and handed the coin back to him but he left it on my desk. I asked if he was cool with that- me hanging onto it for him- and he said yeah, so apparently it's a green light for me to sell it for him. I guess I'll go the eBay route again when the time comes, but told him I wanted to post it here and get some feedback on it first, and maybe some ballpark appraisals, too.

So here it is. I suppose I might post a grading or appraisal poll later, with the indulgence of the forum.

Looks like another S-166, yes? There's that same monster die crack across the reverse.

Hope you enjoyed looking at it. It makes me wanna throw my on my dig overalls and get out there before that cleared site grows back up, or the snakes and skeeters come out of hiding, or the humidity gets too unbearable. We've had perfect dig weather lately and I was actually tempted to go today since I was off, but the moment Bill and I started discussing how perfect the weather has been, it began to rain. He said I should get out there before the other relic hunters pick the place clean.

~RWS/"LM"