Large Cent found!!!!.......

millennium

As most of you were aware, LM and I went to the site he mentioned below in the Digger's Diary. I won't go into a lot of detail, the main reason being, I am no where near the writer/storyteller LM is....But we did find a few things and the site definately has possibilities. It's pretty much out in the boonies, and it's hard to imagine anyone trying to live there back at the turn of the 1800's...I did find this large cent, an 1837, not in the best shape, but still an old large cent. The site is begging for another trip...here's the pics, and LM can fill out the details...The next step I'll take is the potato cleaning method. Hopefully, some of the crud will come off and the date will be easier to see...

Riccar

Great find Steve!

We don't hear about many large cents being found out here in CA... been told it's because when people made the trek out West, they would take their savings in mostly silver and gold (wouldn't bring a huge sack of cents... and that makes sense ). I have heard of a few that were found out here but the number of silver and gold coins is definitely greater.

Was this the same site where the Artillery button was found?
What did Rob find while you guys were out there?

I know this doesn't rank up there with your high caliber finds, but congrats on getting back out there and cracking into the earlier side of the 1800's...

Rick

KeithinMD

Nice find. Can you give us a little bit of details, such as depth found and if it was near any type of structure, tree or water feature?

millennium

Ok here are some of the details....The coin was about 5" deep in soil that consists of dark brown dirt with a lot of vegatation in it. Standing and downed pine trees are abundant there and with the logging going on in that area , the detecting can be tough. I was using my Garrett GTi2500 with the standard 10.5 inch imaging coil. I have three coils, the standard coil, a 5" small coil and a big 12" coil for relic/ deep coin hunting. It was dark when I found it..Well, dusk dark. The sun had abandoned us and this was going to be my last run in this particular spot. I had found some old shotgun shells and pieces of pottery/glassware in this area. That usually indicates no one has been there....(especially the shotgun shells). There looked to be an old home stead there, and LM remarked that it looked to be a recent house somewhere in the 50's or later..I was working toward that area when I got a good solid signal. The ground here is fairly trash free, with the exception of small iron pieces, and I was running my detector with no threshhold sound and a sensitivity setting of 8.5. This detector is very sensitive and even at that setting, deep coins are easy to find. The sound and indication showed the coin to be about 5" but the sound was throwing me off..On this machine I use the Belltone sound so that if a keeper is located, I am alerted by the signal alone...a handy feature at night. The imaging was showing a quarter sized coin at 5" but not the typical belltone for a quarter sized coin...I didn't have my flashlight with me, it was still in the Jeep, but the sun had just gone done and I was finising up anyway. Well, I dug the signal because the target indicated it was something to be investigated, my heart was racing now. I poured the soil on the ground around me, I usually use a plastic mat and earphones, both of which I left at the house this time...(.I NEVER search without headphones, but this was the exception.) After combing over the dirt in the pitch black darkness, I finally located the coin by checking the dirt, cuting the total dirt in half and so on....I picked up the disk, still not knowing what it was. I could tell it was round, had no hole in the center, and was about the size of a large cent or quarter....I yelled for Rob, but he had wandered over to the Jeep about 300 yards away. I stumbled my way out of the woods and back to the dirt road, where we were parked. He was in the Jeep, and when I walked up I said "guess what?. I have something!"....I handed him the black disk and he rubbed it holding it in the dome light...There it was!...The unmistakable portrait of a large cent!...We still couldn't tell the date, the coin was so crusty, but rubbing some of the dirt did reveal the "7" at the last digit. From there we went back and looked in the same area again, finding some trash, but time finally got us..It was after 8:00 PM and we were in the middle of the woods!....The rest of the story can be better told by Rob, how we cleaned it and all, all in all it's a promising site, but the detecting is tough. We know believe that the recent house that was on that spot was no doubt built on top another site.....Goodies have to still be there.....


Rob did find some pottery and iron, but nothing old yet...It's there though. This is were the Artillery button was found, so you know there has to be some silver....old silver. It was nice to get out. I have not been able to go much, I fell off a ladder 9 months ago, and ruptured a disk in my back so bad I lost all the fluid in the disk....It has been a long road to recovery, for sure.

KeithinMD

Thanks for the details, they make the finds that much better. I also store any information I learn into my limited memory for future detecting use.

goldrush00013

Excellent find Steve! The site sounds very promising.


You suck!

SilverDreams

Wow, that's a sweet find!

loditom

Man that is a sweet find,congrat's!!HH,Tom

HKnJ

Early 1800s coins are almost impossible to find where I am. I have yet to find a large cent (and of course many other types, too). I'm so envious, Millenium. Great work.

IndianHeadMan

Neat story!

grip

Great read,and nice find.
Al

phut

Sweet!!
Like I said in Rob's thread......I'd bring floodlights and a tent.