Coin Magnet
Member
A new detecting friend invited me to hunt a home site permission he has not too far from my house in central Illinois where he found some really cool old coins in the last few weeks. An 1818 large cent and another dateless Matron large cent. Also an awesome 1795 Washington Token!
Unfortunately it was cold and windy and the weeds where the homesite was were knee high and thick. It was tough to swing a 6” coil in the weeds and corn stalks.
We hunted for a couple hours and found several pieces of trash and we each found one coin. His was a bronze Indian cent and mine was a coin about the size of a quarter or two cent piece but was made out of a low grade copper. It only rang up 21 on the equinox.
I wore out quick and cut the hunt short and went home. When I got home I ran the coin under water and rinsed off the dirt and I could start to see a bust outline.
It appeared to be a British Half Penny. It was the right diameter and thickness for one.
Yesterday morning I went a little further and soaked it in boiling peroxide and chipped away the dirt that was stuck to the surface. Now I could start seeing some detail!
After I removed all of the dirt i dried it off and applied a little olive oil to each surface and let it sit a while.
Even more detail started coming out. When I shined a light across the surface the letters stood out even more.
The reverse has a seated figure holding a flag with a shield at her feet just like the British coins.
However I could read INDE to the left of the seated figure and ET LIB on the right side so I looked it up online.
Amazingly it turns out that it is a RARE 1788 Vermont Colonial Copper! The first coin authorized to be made in America.
I thought I would NEVER find a colonial copper.
Thanks again to my new friend for inviting me along. I can’t wait to go back!
I’ll post this on the What’s It forum as well. It could be a variety that is scare. Maybe someone will know. I’ll add more pics as well.
Unfortunately it was cold and windy and the weeds where the homesite was were knee high and thick. It was tough to swing a 6” coil in the weeds and corn stalks.
We hunted for a couple hours and found several pieces of trash and we each found one coin. His was a bronze Indian cent and mine was a coin about the size of a quarter or two cent piece but was made out of a low grade copper. It only rang up 21 on the equinox.
I wore out quick and cut the hunt short and went home. When I got home I ran the coin under water and rinsed off the dirt and I could start to see a bust outline.
It appeared to be a British Half Penny. It was the right diameter and thickness for one.
Yesterday morning I went a little further and soaked it in boiling peroxide and chipped away the dirt that was stuck to the surface. Now I could start seeing some detail!
After I removed all of the dirt i dried it off and applied a little olive oil to each surface and let it sit a while.
Even more detail started coming out. When I shined a light across the surface the letters stood out even more.
The reverse has a seated figure holding a flag with a shield at her feet just like the British coins.
However I could read INDE to the left of the seated figure and ET LIB on the right side so I looked it up online.
Amazingly it turns out that it is a RARE 1788 Vermont Colonial Copper! The first coin authorized to be made in America.
I thought I would NEVER find a colonial copper.
Thanks again to my new friend for inviting me along. I can’t wait to go back!
I’ll post this on the What’s It forum as well. It could be a variety that is scare. Maybe someone will know. I’ll add more pics as well.
