1807 over 6 Draped Bust Cent found

kuletule

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Nov 28, 2004
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I have been up here in Virginia working, in my second career as an insurance adjuster. I was out hunting after I finished my last claim for the day. Sometimes to unwind, I try and get in a little hunting. I got permission to hunt an old house. I was really excite about hunting this area, as it was really old, and potential was good to great in my mind. After finding 3 recent coins, I got a signal that just sounded a bit bigger and had a different quality of sound on my ETRAC. I dug a plug with my shovel, and uncovered what I thought was a mid-`800's large cent. I couldn't make it out too well, but then, I saw the figure wasn't right. What is this, some foreign coin, I thought......then I turned it over and saw "ONE CENT" on the Reverse. What??? I turned it back over, and licked the front.....mmmmmmm Virginia dirt! LOL I still couldn't see what I wanted, so I walked back to my truck, and got my magnifying glass....OMG A Draped Bust!!!!

I looked lower for the date....the coin was minted 31 years after our country was founded.......an 1807 Draped Bust Cent!!!!!! Happy Dancing started in my mind as my body, if I ever started, might jiggle apart at my age!!!!!!! I was exstatic as you can imagine. I called my hunting buddy back home, Robert, to Brag....just a bit...we tease each other, but if truth be known, he is a better detectorist than I......Anyway, he called back later after he got my message and told me that one of them was really rare.....an 1807 over 6 stamp. I told him that was not what I had....darn the luck!

When I got back to my RV for the night, I went across to my neighbor, who is really interested in metal detecting, after having talked with me about our wonderful hobby. I told him to get a flashlight, that I wanted to show him why I metal detect. He brought one out, and shone the light on the coin. Time for surprise number 2........I am pretty certain I see the 6 beneath the 7 on the Obverse of the coin. He asked why I was so excited. I explained to him that the coin was a rarity. There is another, more rare, but this just topped the cake with icing for me.

She shattered my previous record on age, by some 40+ years. After all my hard work here in Virginia helping folks with their floods from Hurricane Irene, and just before I leave, the good Lord has blessed me with such a great part of our history.......that is her meaning to me. Most of our Founding Fathers were alive when she was made......it is an awesome save from the ground. I will remember the hunt for many years to come.....she may not be in the most pristine condition, but, OMG, how awesome that she has graced my collection....

HH

Dennis, who woke up with a beautiful lady this morning
 

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Excellent comparison on those two varieties! Quite easy to tell them apart. :thumbsup:
 

Thanks for the comparison photos, Don.

In comparing your photos to the original, I think you missed something.

The original photos of this coin posted by kuletule show a different font 7 than your examples for Sheldon varieties 272 and 273. Kuletule's 7 is unornamented. Both photos of the Sheldon varieties both show axe-head 7's, with large serifs above and below the upper arm of the 7. These appear to be missing from kuletule's coin.

Just pulled the closeups of my 1806/7, which I emailed Hogge earlier. My coin also appears different than either the photos of Sheldon 272 or 273, based only on the 7; plus somewhat different from kuletule's. I am attaching photos of my coin.
 

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Tuberale said:
Thanks for the comparison photos, Don.

In comparing your photos to the original, I think you missed something.

The original photos of this coin posted by kuletule show a different font 7 than your examples for Sheldon varieties 272 and 273. Kuletule's 7 is unornamented. Both photos of the Sheldon varieties both show axe-head 7's, with large serifs above and below the upper arm of the 7. These appear to be missing from kuletule's coin.

Just pulled the closeups of my 1806/7, which I emailed Hogge earlier. My coin also appears different than either the photos of Sheldon 272 or 273, based only on the 7; plus somewhat different from kuletule's. I am attaching photos of my coin.

Both his and yours are S-273s..............................................................................
 

The photos you provided of Sheldon varieties 272 and 273 have obvious serifs on the 7 in the date. I see no serifs on the 7 of kuletule's coin.

BTW, did you notice the typographical error in Sheldon's description? Apparently a lot of people didn't, including his editor. Visibile is not English. Since the rest of the description is in English, it should read: "...6 is more visible."
 

Tuberale said:
The photos you provided of Sheldon varieties 272 and 273 have obvious serifs on the 7 in the date. I see no serifs on the 7 of kuletule's coin.

BTW, did you notice the typographical error in Sheldon's description? Apparently a lot of people didn't, including his editor. Visibile is not English. Since the rest of the description is in English, it should read: "...6 is more visible."
Could have been the product of a worn die, the strike, or from being in the ground. They are both 273s and extremely easy to ID. There were only 2 obverse dies,(and 1 rev. die), for this particular variety. *******Just looked at his again, seriffs are there. :thumbsup: Look Close.
 

hogge said:
Tuberale said:
The photos you provided of Sheldon varieties 272 and 273 have obvious serifs on the 7 in the date. I see no serifs on the 7 of kuletule's coin.

BTW, did you notice the typographical error in Sheldon's description? Apparently a lot of people didn't, including his editor. Visibile is not English. Since the rest of the description is in English, it should read: "...6 is more visible."
Could have been the product of a worn die, the strike, or from being in the ground. They are both 273s and extremely easy to ID. There were only 2 obverse dies,(and 1 rev. die), for this particular variety. *******Just looked at his again, seriffs are there. :thumbsup: Look Close.
I just looked again. On kuletule's coin photos, I see no serifs. The upper horizontal line of the 7 extends nearly to the end with almost no variation. Yet in the photos provided by Don, there should be wedge-shaped serifs both above and below this line. To me, the serifs give the 7 a look similar to an old-style English axe. I see corrosion or some cemented object above this horizontal line on kuletule's photo, but nothing underneath it.
 

Here is another example of a S-273 I found

Bubba65
 

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The very informative reference photos provided, appear to attribute kuletule's recent recovery as a definitive match for the Sheldon 273 variety of 1807/6 Draped Bust Large Cent.

In the closeup of the original posted find, we may note there is clear evidence of both the upper protrusion (serif) as well as lower protrusion (serif) on the horizontal plane of the top portion of the numeral 7. Granted, in the very first photo, the numeral 7 does in fact appear to be a plain "undecorated" line on the top. However, this is likely due to camera angle, lighting, corrosion, etc.. The following closeup clearly shows the numeral 7 to match the style and shape design as seen in the Sheldon 273 variety. The red lines represent the horizontal edge line of the top bar on the 7. The yellow lines denote the upper and lower serif points. 8)

CC Hunter
 

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