Bell-Two
New member
Diane and I went out to a little park that at one time had an old house on it and we had a very good day. This is the second time we have been there, the first time I found a couple of wheaties, a spoon handle and part of a pocket watch case. I was hoping for better this time and man oh man it happened. The first target I dug was a clad dime and the next turned out to be my first silver since Groundhog’s day! I was silver starved and this nice 1945 Merc was a treat. I then found a Lazelle Perfumer case, sort of a compact dated 1922, I found one part of it and about 2 feet over I found the second part. Also I found an old green glass marble. Diane had not been finding much and when she called to me and I saw her give our sign for a Large Cent, followed by a hands palm up and a shake of her head. I went over and she said “I think it is a Large Cent but it doesn’t look like the other one I found.” Her previous Large Cent was a nice 1830 Large Letter variant so I wondered what it could be. I took one look and gave her a smile and said “Well it isn’t like the Matron Head you found before because this is a Draped Bust!” It turned out to be an 1805 Draped Bust with very fine detail. After cleaning it up gently and checking Sheldon’s Penny Whimsy which is a primary text on the early Large Cents it turns out it is the rarest variant of the 1805 being an S-268 variety with an R-3 rarity. It was in with a nail and some other bits of iron and you can see the tell tale marks it left on this coin. There is much detail on this coin it looks better in person than the picture. She said the signal was a bit mixed but giving her a clear 12-46 to 12-47 in her TTF program. I have to admit the girl is getting pretty good at this metal detecting game!