1807 Draped Bust LC, 2 Buffs and a 1935 Merc! Dig Those Shotgun Shells!

[FreeBirdTim]

Finally found a decent spot in the woods today. It's a popular spot for hunters, so it's full of shotgun shells and spent shell casings. But it's an old spot, so there's a few good coins hiding in there as well.

After digging up a dozen shell casings, my first good finds were 2 Buffs about a foot apart. A toasted 1923 and a toasted 1925. Then I found a really nice 1935 Merc about ten feet away from the Buffs. Good day so far!

Moved to another spot with fewer shells and I pulled out an 1807 draped bust large cent! Talk about a surprise! Rang up as a quarter, so I was hoping for a Barber. Not going to complain, though! It's really toasted, but I'm pretty sure it's from 1807.

Here's some pics of the coins and a sample of the endless shell casings that I found:

 

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[digging440yrs]

Nice hunt !

 

[danjsargent]

Man that inspires me to keep up with digging it all! Gets tiring but clearly pays off. Congrats!!

 

[Bass]

Great find on that early LC. Congratulations

 

[trapperart]

Congrats on some nice finds

 

[Jyverb64]

Looks like a good site you have their, congrats

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Thanks guys! I forgot to post the Merc pics after I cleaned it up. Looks to be in really nice condition.

 

[mirage83]

Good coin finds, though I'm not sure how all those blank cartridges ended up there.

 

[WildWildBill]

Some olive oil will do that LC some good! Let that beauty come out!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Very productive hunt! Congratualtions!

 

[Loco-Digger]

Looks like you bagged some good finds from hunting a site that was favored for hunting in the past (bang-bang).

 

[nsdq]

Some of those shell are blanks

 

[toasted]

Nice hunt. My seated field has yielded over 100 coins from the 19th century. Probably dug twice as many shotgun casings in search of them

 

[Gridwalker306]

Great hunt man! Those are some really nice coins.

I can relate about the shotgun heads. My best spot is littered with them, and other shell casings. Check it out haha

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Good coin finds, though I'm not sure how all those blank cartridges ended up there

I was waiting for someone to spot that! They're stamped LC 90, LC93 and so on. Looks like they're from the 1990's and made by the Lake City Army Ammo Plant. My guess would be the hunters were training their dogs in the woods? Can't think of any other reason to be shooting blanks in the middle of nowhere!

 

[FreeBirdTim]

I can relate about the shotgun heads. My best spot is littered with them, and other shell casings. Check it out haha

Wow, and I thought my spot had a lot of shells! LOL!

 

[FreeBirdTim]

The annoying thing about the shotgun shells is that I'm 95% sure they're shells before I dig them. They just sound a little different than coins. But I HAVE to dig them anyway because maybe I'm wrong and it's a coin! I think that's what's known as compulsive behavior...

 

[Gridwalker306]

The annoying thing about the shotgun shells is that I'm 95% sure they're shells before I dig them. They just sound a little different than coins. But I HAVE to dig them anyway because maybe I'm wrong and it's a coin! I think that's what's known as compulsive behavior...

I understand completely, hence my endless piles of shells. Years ago I was detecting this very spot, and after a bunch of shells, I dug an 1893 2 ore coin from Norway. It sounded exactly like a shotgun shell. Ever since then I always dig them. Once in a while something else pops up and I'm always surprised. They just have such a great upper mid tone to them, gotta dig them!

 

[MrBlueSkyNM]

Nice finds! It's really a pain when you're out where there has been a lot of shooting. Pull tabs and bottle caps, or spent brass...pick your poison! LOL! HH!

 

[CASPER-2]