Unbelievable! 1785 Nova Constellatio dug + Scarce variety + Live Dig!

[Scrappy]

I’m still a bit shaky. Actually in the live dig you can see my hand start shaking the minute I realize what I had dug, lol.

I’ve been clearing out a cellar hole lately and went there this morning for my second round of gut-busting stone removal. The first day had good results with a shoe buckle frag and some iron scissors, so I decided to commit my winter to a complete excavation. Here’s day 1 View attachment 1522484

Today I took a “before” picture even though I’d done some removal already. Here’s how it looked


View attachment 1522486

I spent a good 2-3 hours removing stones and grooming the dirt for detecting but hadn’t had any luck besides square nails and cauldron fragments. I was beginning to feel quite dejected after removing a ton (no kidding) of rock and finding zero non-ferrous targets when I got a pretty decent signal. That’s when things got weird...





And here it is...




It actually looks like an off-strike on top of everything else. Here’s a guide for Identification



The video says it all but I must say it was quite a wonderful surprise to dig a copper, much less a transitional piece in good condition. Here’s an “after” pic of the cellar hole from 3 hours of work

This is my second Nova and I now have two Scarce varieties!



Here they are together





I left after that find,but I’ll surely be back soon. Remember, you never know what’ll be in that next hole so always keep at it. Enjoy, and good hunts!

Steve

 

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[Scrappy]

Wow Scrap Nice condition Nova!They never come out that nice..I have found 3 and all were just about smoked..I will be putting in a banner..

~Blaze~

It seems like for the most part these Nova coppers come up rather toasty. I just got lucky on the drop location I suppose. From what I gathered, the thickness and planchet quality went down between the 1783 and 1785 (and 1786) series along with the die becoming worn, which didn’t help the case for condition.

Anyway, good to hear from you and thanks a lot for the vote. Cheers

 

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[McCDig]

Congrats Steve, and thx for taking us on the hunt with that live dig.

 

[Scrappy]

Congrats Steve, and thx for taking us on the hunt with that live dig.

Thanks. I think I’ve watched the video a dozen times myself. It was one of those once in a lifetime (or twice) finds that I somehow thought to record. I’ve shown it to my kids too, and they asked what I said when the video beeped. Hahahan