New Untouched Colonial Homestead

[Mark Gillespie]

speechless!

 

[NJ Art]

14 hours ago, Lodge Scent said:

WOW! I'd wear off the features of that coin because I would be fondling it so much. 

Right.😃 When I walked over and he held out the Liberty I stopped breathing it was stunning, the nicest coin coming out of the ground in my 23 years of detecting.

[relicmeister]

Beautiful- good for you finding untouched Colonial homesite. Always on my mind while scoping new areas. I have come across exactly two untouched colonial sites in my 12 years of detecting and long for the day I stumble across another. I’d fall into a tick infested pit to find my next. I’m assuming your site was in NJ?   Mine were in far North Jersey. 
   Your experience is what it’s all about.  Are you still finding relics there? 

[deathray]

As good as it gets dude!

[NJ Art]

2 hours ago, relicmeister said:

Beautiful- good for you finding untouched Colonial homesite. Always on my mind while scoping new areas. I have come across exactly two untouched colonial sites in my 12 years of detecting and long for the day I stumble across another. I’d fall into a tick infested pit to find my next. I’m assuming your site was in NJ?   Mine were in far North Jersey. 
   Your experience is what it’s all about.  Are you still finding relics there? 

This was my 5th untouched. Jumping into a tick infested pit seems very fair. Last year I went scouting about this time of the year and my clothes were covered within a few strides through the trail briers along with the slowpokes were these small little slick sprinters I'm talking tiny and fast. Yes my site is in New Jersey. The signals dried up the past few days, the ground is expanding and the moisture is leaving the building it needs a good soaking. Yesterday 3 buttons. Been throwing every machine I have at it and hitting it from every angle. This is my last day on the site untiI we get some rain. Field hunting till the farmers plant then to the beach for the summer.

[NJ Art]

5 minutes ago, deathray said:

As good as it gets dude!

Thank you, it has been one heck of an adrenaline filled ride. 

[NJ Art]

Hello all. I saved my pics of my last hunt on the farm until my buddies coins came back from PCGS. A 1782 Hibernia, silver top from a thimble and smalls. He is driving for the next few days very excited. He asked me and I couldn't tell him what his coins are worth so here they are.

[GB_Amateur]

Thanks for the followup!

Interesting that they categorized the first one as S-62 die variety but gave no die variety specification for the second (better conditioned) one.  XF and AU -- pretty amazing.  They wouldn't grade them fully because of the environmental damage.  That's unfortunate, but given their 'detail' grading and the condition rarity of 1794 large cents, these are still extremely valuable IMO.

Oh, and nice finds in your photo, too.  ☺️  Will you two continue to detect there?

[NJ Art]

16 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

    Will you two continue to detect there?

Thank you again. You were spot on with your assessment, good eye sir. He will do well when he sells them, it will be the first time he ever sold any of his finds. I think his wife already decided where the money will go.🙂  I will not be expecting much on the site we just hunted as it is being planted as a shrub and tree farm. We will be back in the winter when the ground tightens up, hopefully with allot of moister. This is the way of many of my sites that were plowed every Spring. The good news is he just purchased another 90 acres and 40 acres. The 90 acres sits behind a late 17th century home and is butted up against a deep creek fed pond. He just sent me a pick of a beautiful Indian ax head, he asked me why the arrow head was so big... I'm currently giving batting lessons to two of his children, having a blast reliving my coaching days, as my two girls have flown the coop a decade ago and are serving our country. The cut corn stalks will be plowed under any day, should be interesting. Art

[GB_Amateur]

On 4/30/2024 at 3:11 PM, NJ Art said:

He will do well when he sells them....

I'm going the extra distance here to provide some (unsolicited) advice.  Given that I'm not a numismatic professional your friend should take this with a grain of salt.  However I hope he reads it over and give it some consideration.  Let's start with the playing field.

0) Most of what I'm going to relate is from Q. David Bowers's A Guide Book of Half Cents and Large Cents.  I suggest your friend get a copy and read the relevant pages to get an idea of the richness of the collecting market for early dates, particularly his 1794.  There are 37 pages on that dated coin alone.

1) Professional grading ('Certification') has a huge amount of clout, especially when done by either NGC or PCGS.  Unfortunately coins found in the ground, particularly those with high copper content, fall into a category of "environmental damage".  That's a broad brush stroke and although it is a strike against a coin (and its value, generally) with this designation, it's not as bad as many perceive IF the coin is rare.  And the good news is your friend's coins are rare due to their condition.  (More on this below.)

2) The accepted mintage for this year is 918,521 -- by itself not impressive.  However, in general and particularly true then, coins were minted for one reason and that is to be circulated for commerce.  As such the survival population is much less.  According to Bowers's listing of 65 (my count) known 1794 die varieties, somewhere in the 25,000 to 35,000 range (my count) survive.  Even that number isn't particularly impressive.  Keep in mind the vast majority of those are in much lower grade than your friend's, though.  Quoting Bowers:  The appeal that 1794 Cents possess has prompted hours of discussion among collectors of the series and has motivated otherwise busy individuals to travel tens of thousands of miles, write innumerable letters, and spend tens of thousands of dollars in their quest for needed varieties.  ...There seems to be a special aura surrounding the pieces, a quality which has aroused a fierce desire on the part of those who lack certain varieties and a pride of possession for those who own them.  (emphasis mine)

3) Regarding rarity, this quote from Bowers drives home the point:  Most 1794 cents show extensive wear, with typical grades ranging from Good to Fine.  In proportion to demand, VF examples are scarce, EF coins are rare, and AU coins are rarer yet.  (Emphasis mine.  Note:  EF and XF are used interchangeably, standing for the "Extremely Fine" grade.)

OK, now to the specifics of your friend's two specimens.  Let's start with line 1 in the report -- S-62 (Sheldon variety 62) in XF condition.  Bowers estimates only 75 to 125 of this variety still exists in all grades.  Further, I quote:  This variety is known from EF to Mint State, but is a rarity at any high level.  In other words, the number of survivors in the highest grades (EF and above) is far less than the 75 to 125 estimate.  Yep, we're talking rarified air.

On to line 2 of the report.  This one is more vague but that translates 'more intriguing'.  There is no die specification, but the grade is even higher:  "AU details".  That alone is pushing this coin further upwards into the atmosphere.  But why no die designation?  I can only speculate.  It could be they just didn't want to take the time to figure it out.  (The other specimen was easy -- even I was able to recognize it back when you first showed a photo.)  But another possibility is that it's not one of the more common varieties (for example, Bowers lists four with estimates of 'thousands').  They may have even been afraid to specify if it appeared to fall into one of the most rare die variety categories.  Possibly the dirt (did they do any cleaning?) obscured some details that would otherwise have allowed them to make a confident ID.  Could it even be an undiscovered die variety?  (That would be crazy exciting but I don't think a new variety has surfaced for a few decades so very unlikely, although not impossible.)  According to Bowers's book (written in 2014):  New discoveries are constantly being made.

In terms of value, this is tough because of the 'environmental damage' label.  However, as I've been emphasizing, rarity can be forgiving of that 'scarlet letter'.  IMO, your friend should not even consider selling this second coin before getting its variety determined by an expert (a greater expert than the person who graded the coin at the certification service).  So how do you find such an expert?  First off, the local coin shop is unlikely to be able to help.  The topic of die varieties is not the typical concern -- far from it.  Sometimes they'll even denigrate a coin rather than to admit they aren't knowledgeable enough to provide the information needed.

The right person is very likely a member of the (somewhat) exclusive Professional Numismatics Guild (PNG).  You can search their site for a member near you who specializes in US coins.  Even if s/he isn't a specialist in early large cents s/he should be able to advise on how to find such a person, possibly even recommending one.