Found A Real Piece Of American History, Literally! Plus Half Cent!!

FoxHound0985

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Feb 5, 2005
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Hello all, I finally had a chance to get out to the site that I found the 1806 Half Cent again. I had known of the site for a long time, as it is my fiances parents property, but have not had much of a chance to MD there. I remember her parents telling me of how there was an old house there before they had bought the property. The house had been torn down about 20 years ago, and the house that they live in now was built. There is also an old barn on the property. Anyways, I was detecting there back in December and found an 1806 Half Cent, I was so excited because I hardly ever find coins, and then to find a Half Cent! There was nothing else found at the site that day, but when I helped them clean out the barn, I found a very old book. I opened it up to find a hand written inscription saying "Jane Elizabeth Whitten, Was, on November 1, 180_(page is torn). When this you see, think of me when I am old and in my grave." I thought that was kinda creepy. I turned to the title page and saw the title "The History of the American Revolution". The page that had the date and author is missing, but I did some research and found out that it is a first edition published in 1789 by David Ramsay. I think I would classify that book as my best find ever. I mentioned it in a post back in December, but never got around to posting pictures or a story.

Now lets get back to "Todays Finds". I went back out to my Fiances parents property again thismorning and swung the coil for a couple of hours. Yet again, like before, I was starting to give up because I was finding only a couple of keepers (a small brass buckle and thimble). I started heading back to their house, and swept the coil under a very large oak tree and got a very strong signal. I started digging and tearing through the roots and pulled out a small round disc, hoping and praying that it was a coin. I took it back to the house and started washing it off. When I took the toothbrush to it, I saw a face come out on the front and just about fainted when I saw that it was ANOTHER Half Cent. Immediatly after I regained myself from shock, I started working at the date, and almost fainted again when I saw that it was ANOTHER 1806!!! And it is in much better shape than the other one! I think I might have gone a little overboard when I started using the wire brush. Oh well, it will stay with me until I die regardless of the value.

I have posted pics of the book as well as the half cents. The better half cent is the one I just found, and the worn one is the one I found back in December. Also, notice the pic of the text in the book. The "e" in "resided" is upside down! Very interesting. Let me know what you think. Thanks and HH!

Fox
 

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Re: Found A Real Piece Of American History, Literally!

here are some more pics. The Half Cant is the one I just found
 

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Re: Found A Real Piece Of American History, Literally!

here are the last pics
 

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Re: Found A Real Piece Of American History, Literally!

Excellent finds......I will take the book off your hands any day .....Thanks For sharing.....any way that you could scan the book pages for me ????? ;)
 

GH I thought of making copys first. I just didn't post before you. Whaa Whaa Burdie
PS I will take the old half cent since a person only needs one.
 

great finds. I really like the book... I would keep searching there. I would turn off the discrimination and dig everything... never know what is really deep... good luck
 

Bryan and Burdie....stay away from the book...I have dibs on it....and just to make certain of any future misunderstandings....I have first dibs on all books of that type that come into the forum.......LOL..... ;)
 

Fox,

outstanding artifacts.

Sure would spend a heck of a lot of time at that
location. Dig everything, section at a time.

Again, outstanding book and coins.

have a good un.......
 

lol, that pretty funny GH. I take it that you like original American History books? The book has over 450 pages, so I wouldnt be able to take pics of all of them. Is there any certain part of the Revolution that you would like to see the pages to?
 

FoxHound said:
lol, that pretty funny GH. I take it that you like original American History books? The book has over 450 pages, so I wouldnt be able to take pics of all of them. Is there any certain part of the Revolution that you would like to see the pages to?
All of it !!! ;) When can I expect it in the mail.....???....nevermind ....I know the answer to that one!
 

outstanding!! just awesome! i would do as the others said and hit it hard and slow and dig everything. who knows what else that place has to offer! really really well done!
 

I think that could be the first book find I have ever heard of....unless I was walking through a park and someone left one on a park Bench !!!! Great Finds and finding 2 Draped Bust half cents at the same place is not heard of to often... I think you might hit the tri fecta if you go back....Good luck :o
 

The Seeker said:
I think that could be the first book find I have ever heard of....unless I was walking through a park and someone left one on a park Bench !!!! Great Finds and finding 2 Draped Bust half cents at the same place is not heard of to often... I think you might hit the tri fecta if you go back....Good luck :o

Yes, the book is an unusual find, its the only good one that I have ever found. I know someone who found a 1652 dated bible in a sink hole. I know that I am the only one to hit the site with a detector, because I am the only one that her parents have let hunt there. I have never had very much luck with coins, but now it seems like I am hitting them one after one... HH!

Fox
 

Congrats on the double draped busts.Thats about 100 years older than my oldest coin founr so far.I love the book find.The upside down e is just an error done by the typesetter.Each letter to every word was put in by hand back then,somebody put one in upside down.It's not uncommon for books even nowadays to have an error or two.Have you done any further research on the book to find out how many copies were produced?Could be extremely rare.You never know.Sometimes rarity outweighs condition.
 

diggummup said:
Congrats on the double draped busts.Thats about 100 years older than my oldest coin founr so far.I love the book find.The upside down e is just an error done by the typesetter.Each letter to every word was put in by hand back then,somebody put one in upside down.It's not uncommon for books even nowadays to have an error or two.Have you done any further research on the book to find out how many copies were produced?Could be extremely rare.You never know.Sometimes rarity outweighs condition.

I have done research on the book. I found that sets with both volumes in second rate condition have sold for $2000, and sometimes more. Thats $1000 per book! I would probably never sell it, because I am a Revolutionary War and Lewis and Clark reenactor, and I also love history just as much as I love finding it. HH!

Fox
 

Oh My Gosh!

I think I would have passed out if I had found that!

Congratulations and keep 'em coming!

Nana ;)
 

Super finds. When I started to read ""Jane Elizabeth Whitten, Was, on November 1, 180_(page is torn). When this you see, think of me when I am old and in my grave" I thought for one millisecond that you had somehow gotten a pre-script script of our production "The Love Letter." LOL!

Nice going there...

M. Bad-ger
 

Nana40 said:
Oh My Gosh!

I think I would have passed out if I had found that!

Congratulations and keep 'em coming!

Nana ;)


I think I did pass out with both the coin AND the book ;)
 

Excellent find's foxhound....If it wasn't for history I would have never gone to school.I'm sure you'll have more to post about the book later.Great job and keep us posted,very interesting.HH!!
 

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