mapper65
Member
Hi guys, we've been detecting at an old house that the owner was pretty sure was from the turn of the century. We've probably been there a dozen times over the last year and wheats were about the oldest coins that we found. About a week ago my Mom turned up a 1900 Indian with her 5x10 coil and a few days later a 1937D quarter with a 6" HF coil. I had yet to find silver or anything older than a wheat but we've been on this kick of using 6' coils during the last few trips to this property being that we think we've tapped the place out with the larger coils.
Last night I was using my 6' MF coil, which I have to say, is probably my least favorite coil. After about 15 minutes of detecting I got a pretty strong 38-40 and about 3' under the surface I pulled up what appeared to be a fairly smooth penny. I started rubbing it and one side looked almost like it could be the back of an Indian. There was some water close by and I was able to wash it off and see the back to confirm that it was in fact an Indian but could not make out the front to see the date.
When I got home I used the brass brush on it and after about 3 minutes of scrubbing it with the brush and Dawn I discovered it was an 1877. A few hours later I did a Google search for "1877 Indian Head" and was surprised to find out it was a key date. I searched eBay's completed auctions to see what they have sold for and the least one has sold for was $200 and it appears to be in about the same condition mine was in after cleaning. I was shocked!
Here are a few pictures before I had it completely clean. The first two were of it right out of the ground after rinsing it with water and the 3rd picture is after I had it just about as clean as it's going to get. Just realized as I was posting this that I hadn't taken a picture of the back after I cleaned it up. The back cleaned up much better than the front.
Here is what I found on a few sites about the 1877 Indian:
1877 Indian Head Cent
Think of the most popular rarity among Indian Head cents, and it
Last night I was using my 6' MF coil, which I have to say, is probably my least favorite coil. After about 15 minutes of detecting I got a pretty strong 38-40 and about 3' under the surface I pulled up what appeared to be a fairly smooth penny. I started rubbing it and one side looked almost like it could be the back of an Indian. There was some water close by and I was able to wash it off and see the back to confirm that it was in fact an Indian but could not make out the front to see the date.
When I got home I used the brass brush on it and after about 3 minutes of scrubbing it with the brush and Dawn I discovered it was an 1877. A few hours later I did a Google search for "1877 Indian Head" and was surprised to find out it was a key date. I searched eBay's completed auctions to see what they have sold for and the least one has sold for was $200 and it appears to be in about the same condition mine was in after cleaning. I was shocked!
Here are a few pictures before I had it completely clean. The first two were of it right out of the ground after rinsing it with water and the 3rd picture is after I had it just about as clean as it's going to get. Just realized as I was posting this that I hadn't taken a picture of the back after I cleaned it up. The back cleaned up much better than the front.
Here is what I found on a few sites about the 1877 Indian:
1877 Indian Head Cent
Think of the most popular rarity among Indian Head cents, and it
