As you probably can tell, I am a new member of the forum. To begin, I am a 20 year old college student. This forum has been a great benefit to me as many of my questions regarding my coin collection have usually already been articulately answered by one of the many experts on this forum. So greeting and a passed due thank you to many of you! With that said, I am getting into metal detecting a bit, and after doing some research on old maps, I metal detected an area that was a well known travel area during colonial times. About 30 minutes into my hunt, which to that point consisted of of nails and junk iron, I hit a really nice silver single on my detector. As I dug, there she was, a 1800 draped bust large cent, I was overjoyed as you could imagine..... but the story gets better. Upon further investigating the hole I had another really sweet silver signal..... and low-and-behold, there was ANOTHER draped bust cent, this one from 1798, in the SAME hole. (pictures provided below) ..which leads me to my question/questions.. . I did quite a bit of research on the areas and these coins have a very personal/historical attachment to me. I wanted to send these coins into PCGS or NGC to get them graded and authenticated and put into these slab holders; however, I understand that these are metal detected coins, but I have not cleaned them and the amount of detail on the coins are remarkable (at least for being in the ground for 200+ years ). My questions: Would they slab these coins or is the environmental damage to much on these coins, also, does anyone have experience with there restoration services, good or bad? I would like to think I know a decent amount regarding united states coinage; however, once I started reading into the many varieties of the 1800 and 1798 draped bust large cents and the Sheldon series I became a bit overwhelmed and was humbled by the amount of expertise involved in identifying the Sheldon series sets. I am not really sure what I have here (regrading grading, rarity, series, hair type, potential errors? etc.). I tried to do some research on the Sheldon series but I really do not have the best of eyes and some of the differences between them are above my level of detecting (no pun intended, ) Any information that you might have would be highly appreciated. I look foward to meeting you all! -coinmedic
Coinmedic, great finds!!! I may have to get a detector someday. It must be a rush to dig these up. If these coins were my finds I would would start by soaking them in distilled water for a few days /weeks to see what would lift off. Also an acetone soak may be in order. After soaking in distilled water only pat dry, do not wipe anything across the coin! There is a fine line between conservation and cleaning. I do not think I would send these coins in for grading unless I found that they were a rare variety.
Probably a $75-$100 find and I am VERY impressed! There's no point in slabbing them or sending them to a restoration service IMO. You can use Verdi-care and acetone, etc. and do it yourself for $15 instead of sinking $60-$100 in them to have someone else handle them. I don't know the Sheldon, but they aren't overdates like 1798/7 or 1800/79. Still, they have lots of detail and I'm jealous!
The 1798 is a S-187 with the diagnostic falling berry at the top left of O(N). The 1800 is a difficult year to begin with and there is just too much dirt in the way at this point. I can eliminate about half the varieties, but narrowing it down any further will take a little time to remove the loose and encrusted dirt. I can't even say that it is definitely not an overdate at this point. I can say it is not a type one hairstyle which only eliminates one obverse. The short fraction bar with both numerator and denominator distant from the fraction bar is intriguing, but not quite enough for identification just yet. But some intriguing possibilities are still in the running.
Thanks Marshall I was having problems with the 1798. The 1800 is S-208. Neither of these varieties are rarities.
Rim cud at TY extending a little clockwise fits the mid to later state 208 but before the even later state where the second small cud forms opposite the chin. Late stage of S-195 has a similar cud but the date spacing is very differen't.
Thank you for all the help guys! I followed the advice on the acetone and will post pics when they are done. Conder101 and Marshall, I thank you for identifying the Sheldon's. I can't believe you guys could attribute with the given condition of them. Nice work! -coinmedic
