bookfisher
Bronze Member
This past Saturday morning after hitting a bad estate sale, I was driving by a large field that I last hunted over a year and a half ago. Even though it had produced two corroded large cents and a worn smooth 1797 Cartwheel Penny, along with the usual 19th century buttons and buckles I had kind of giving up on it after hitting many times. So it's 9:30 in the morning and since it's too early to open the store and I had nothing else to do, I figured I'd give the field a shot for about an hour and a half. Some quick background on this field - it was definitely farmland in the 19th century, and there are what appears to be the original farmers' dirt roads with very deep tire ruts. Also, it is a hang out for teens and young adults, since I was in there one day and these young guys were driving their SUVs on the dirt roads. So anyway, I start hunting a small clearing in the center of the field and I come up with a 19th century flat button. Then a little while later, I decided to start hunting the dirt roads. In the past I had hesitated hunting the dirt roads because there is more trash on them than in the field. Pretty much right off the bat I start hitting buttons and other bits of 19th century relics and then I got a real good quarter signal and came up a pretty corroded Large Cent. I cleaned it with hot peroxided and then abused it with a soapy brillo pad and was able to see the date of 1821. The coin right now is in the store, so I can't post a picture of it tonight. I went back late Saturday afternoon and found a 19th century bronze religious medal (also in store) and a few more buttons. So that brings us to today. I now had a renewed interest in this field, since the dirt roads were producing. I got to the field around 3:00, and immediately starting hitting a new section of dirt road. Again, I start finding buttons and old stuff real quick. So after about an hour of finding some buttons and a buckle, I get a really loud shallow quarter signal down in the rut of the dirt road. I tell you, I was lucky I dug the signal, because real close by was a flattened aluminum can, and I could of easily thought the signal was the can. But, I thought there was a quick pause in between the quarter signal and the can signal. So I kicked the can away rechecked the the quarter signal, and it was still there! Still, at this point, I'm not getting my hopes up too high (even though the large cent was shallow and other stuff in the bottom of the ruts were shallow) cause I'm thinking its going to be a modern clad quarter (a few of which I have dug in this field, along with memorial pennies). So I dig a shallow broken plug (the surface dirt in the ruts is real hard and it crumbles) and spread it out a bit, and I see a dark grayish quarter lying there that I assumed was modern clad. So as I pick it up and get a closer look at it, you can only imagine how surprised and elated I was when I realized it was an 1877 Seated Liberty! All I said in a calm and very satisfied manner was "bingo!" This is the first Seated Liberty Quarter I've found and only my third Seated Liberty coin. The other two are a dime and a half dime.
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