Home Metal Detecting

Nov 24, 2012: Possible last hunt of the year - 1807 Great Britain Half Penny

pcgs69pcgs69 Posts: 4,324 ✭✭✭✭
Yesterday was in the 30s, but still not too uncomfortable. Good time to get out and finish up the place that yielded the barber half. Started off kind of slow with a couple of wheats and eventually a 1946 Roosie comes out!

Later began working over the area that yielded most of the wheat cents from the first visit. Assuming there wouldn't be much, I was kind of shocked to see more wheat cents pop out. So much for assuming that area was clean after the first sweep. It seemed like I never even hit this area... kind of concerning about what I've missed at other places. Maybe it was because I was working it from a different direction? In the end, got 16 wheat cents - most from that area. Sometime in that space (the previously covered area), I got another wheat-cent-like signal. Dug down probably 6 inches or so, but saw a large copper coin appear instead of another wheat??? No idea what it was then and there, but upon getting it home, it looks to be an 1807 Great Britain Halfpenny. What an odd coin to pull out. Who knows if it was lost in the 1800s, or if it was a pocket piece in the 1940s or so, which was the rough dates of the wheat cents found. Weigh is 8.4 grams.

Was really hoping it was a U.S. coin, but it still certainly beats another wheat cent!

Hoping this wasn't the last hunt of the year, but it just might be with the colder weather approaching. Will work on a year-end total this week and post it at some point. Overall, not too bad of a year.

HH all!

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Comments

  • I'm still torn as to how often these 1806-07 british coppers came over to the U.S. Certainly a number could have been brought over by British soldiers in the War of 1812 years. As for U.S circulation we had enough large cents at this time (more or less) that these would not have been necessary in U.S commerce unlike foreign silver. Of course I'm sure some came over as souvenir pieces with sailors.
  • pcgs69pcgs69 Posts: 4,324 ✭✭✭✭
    Hey coachbedford, it would be an odd coin to have been in circulation, because, as you said, there should have been enough U.S. coppers at that time. I have found several canadian coppers from the 1820s/1830s here in the general area, so I don't know if those also circulated, or if those from Canada simply dropped them. It seems that U.S. mint coins had a bit of a harder time making it up to parts of New England. You also see quite a few of the early U.S. coins found in PA/NJ, which makes sense.

    Guess we'll never really know when this was dropped. Even though the current structure where this was found dates to the late 1800s, the land it's on has had buildings on it before that.
  • Yeah it would make sense that more of these would make it up to the northern united states given its proximity to Canada.
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