Lg. Cent metal detecting in Bangor

Got to meet a nice lady from Facebook. Second Facebook detecting meet up with rando strangers, but the last one was awful. Not going to get into it

Her children, around 9 and 11 or something had a children's detector from National Geographic. It was pretty cool, and worked decently enough that they had pulled up some general pocket change, tons of rusty nails, etc. The house was built in the early to mid 1800s, so I wasn't sure what we would be able to pull up!

Like I said, rusty nails, slag, and iron deposits. The usual things you have to deal with. Considering the ground was already tilled and loose, it was rather easy to dig through.

Right at about the edge of the property, I got a strong signal. Typically, 80s seems to be clad dimes or quarters in my experience, and when I pulled this out of the ground all I saw was the green color. I said "it looks like a quarter" - I guess I didn't expect what I found! It was only 2-3 inches deep, and when it came out it made a little 'plop' noise.

My first pre-1900 metal detecting find, and based on my knowledge on these large cents, I think its the earlier bust design. 1820s-1840s is my guess. Tried to get a paper rubbing, but it didn't yield anything, I gave it a water soak, and these are the photos:



Based on my agreement with the landowner, her and the kids got to keep everything. However, she was nice enough to pull out a batch of foreign coins she had kept from her lifetime, and let me take a few. I didn't know at the time but the Brazil centennial is 0.900 silver.

it was a good day, and since the owner has more properties, including farmhouses in Northern Maine and a few campsites that burned down with old foundations, she said she would be in touch with me. I guess I made a new friend and connection. I'm glad I could preserve this item!

 

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Here are the foreigns I forgot to add.

 

Nice turbulent head aka coronet 1816-1839 get that baby cleaned up!!!!!the last two digits look like 35.

 

Hey !! I knew the day would come that you found one . Now, get those Silvers ! Good Luck .

 

It is not my coin now, rather the homeowners. I told them an acetone soak would help it a bunch. Maybe then the contrast will be good enough to get the date. I feel like it is 1830s. Hopefully, I hear from them again!

 

I would take these over silvers every day. Still waiting for one!

 

@paddyman98.

 

@Evan Saltis , Nice Matron Head ( 1816 -1836) ! Should clean up nicely .

 

Nice find Evan. Now you need to negotiate better, more equitable deals for your finds. Giving the landowner 100% of the finds isn't much incentive to put the coil to the soil

 

I mean, I have pictures and got the foreigns above. I think I made out better financially, and in the end, I have a nice photo of it. Maybe in the future I can negotiate and get it back

 

The thing is, you never know what you're going to find. Relinquishing the entire haul before you search could be forgoing any claim to a major find. The next Saddle Ridge hoard of gold coins could be at the end of your detector without you having any claim to it.

This large cent you found certainly wasn't making anyone rich, but that doesn't mean the next find won't.

 

I thought about this, but at the same time creating such terms could be quite a turn off for random, typical people. So I've been torn on that.

 

That looks like a candidate for some long soaks in distilled water.
and rolling a q tip over the surface. I wouldn't use acetone.
A soak in virgin olive oil, will also loosen some of the crust.
I have used that method/it works good on old dug copper.

 

Creating what terms? We haven't discussed any terms. That's where the negotiating comes into play. Your offer needs to be fluid. By that I mean it needs to be modified for each person you're talking to. You've got to read each person's reaction to your initial approach individually. A 'one size fits all' offer won't necessarily work across the board. Little tweaks to each offer could land you an equitable agreement. You receiving nothing, the way you're doing it now, is no better than them saying no, leave my property now. Either way you get nothing.

 

Hey @Evan Saltis . You can also use olive oil and a toothpick lightly removing just the dirt build-up .
Here's one of mine treated that way .

 

Nice find and I’m sure exciting to you. Glad you had fun as the look on your face says it all.

 

Cool find!
I'm back from my vacation. Will start metal detecting tomorrow!

 

Thanks a bunch!!

Best of luck

 

Shape of the end of the bust and the plain hair cords says late 1834 to 1837.