My detecting buddy Tim found some really neat stuff

Soil conditions can make all the difference in the world.

I too might have been skeptical, had I not had Tim visit down here and seen him find that 1799 half-real before my very eyes, on a hard-hunted site which had been pounded by me, my extremely-skilled local buddy Billy (another world-class detectorist who's primarily a relic hunter), and several other people.

Speaking of my local pal Billy, and exceptionally-preserved dug coins:





(For copper to be so well-preserved after centuries of burial is really something, but it does occasionally happen under certain conditions down here, in sandy, well-drained soils here in coastal GA.)

 

Several high grade 1798 S-166 coins have been dug around here, leading me theorize that a keg must have been shipped into one of the nearby coastal GA ports (Brunswick, Darien, or St. Mary's), sometime around the turn of the 18th century.

My local friend Billy also dug a very nice 1798/7 cent out of the same hole with a contemporary counterfeit 1775 British halfpenny.

For some reason, all of the sharp Draped Bust cents I've seen found around here by my friends are 1798s. I've not seen any other dates, personally, though I've heard rumors of a sharp 1794 Liberty Cap cent being found on one of the islands.

(The only DB cent I've personally dug was not so lucky in the preservation department, and was too corroded to ID except by type.)

I have seen a 1794 half cent found by another digger, who was my first detecting tutor.

Only two pieces of Draped silver have come up that I'm aware of. One was an 1807 dime and the other was an 1806 quarter or half (I forget now). I've heard rumors of a second DB dime.

 

(Sorry for the belated reply- was on hiatus again.)

I live in the rural outskirts of Brunswick. Work on St. Simons Island. Have dug all over Glynn and McIntosh counties, and a little in Camden and Liberty Counties as well.

I used to live in Fernandina, FL, in the late 1970s, when I was a kid doing my first detecting. So your neck of the woods is somewhat familiar to me.