Man, Shane Houston, found with his metal detector the 222-year-old penny under a few inches of soil outside a church earlier this month.
Written content by Troy R. Bennett via Bangor Daily News
The copper penny, dated 1798, comes from the first decade of American-minted money in North America.
“I found all kinds of interesting stuff while I was up there,” said Shane Houston, from his home in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Houston was on a metal-detecting trip with a friend from New Hampshire when he found the coin. On the same trip, he also found an 1818 penny, a full wagon wheel and a musket ball. The ammunition measured-out at .75 caliber, making it British in origin.
Houston located the older penny outside a church, where he had permission to look. He thinks other metal-detecting folks who were there before would have missed it.
When looking for valuables, most hunters set their devices to ignore iron but Houston leaves his switched on because he enjoys finding hand-forged nails.The penny was right beside one of those nails, which was masking it — and Houston’s metal detector was giving him the tone for iron.
As Houston dug it up from under a few inches of dirt, he immediately saw the 1798 mark on it and knew it was something special. It’s the oldest American coin Houston has found in ten years of serious metal detecting.
“Honestly, 99 percent of the things I dig up are garbage,” he said.
Houston later removed layers of green corrosion from the penny with special cleaning pencils, revealing its full design.
The “heads” side shows the draped bust of Lady Liberty in profile. Above her is “liberty” and below is the year. It was designed by engraver Robert Scot at the Philadelphia mint, after a painting by New Englander Gilbert Stuart. Read more from BDN News
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