Bell-Two
Active member
My neighbor wanted to learn about detecting so today I took him out to a park and lent him one of my detectors, he caught on very quickly and dug a few pennies….and junk! I dug a few pennies, two nickels….and junk! We decided to go to another place and on the way he said he had a friend that owned an old house that we might be able to detect. He called and got permission and we drove up to the house. An old house he said….try 1803! That is the year Ohio became a State! After chatting a bit with the nice lady there we started. My second target was a round brass object it was giving me a 12-25 12-27 type signal, it looked like it had writing on it and I told Bob “I think this might be something good”. It was too dirty and crusted up to look at it then and we did not have more than a couple of hours that we could hunt due to Bob having a work appointment. Bob got a few zincolns and an older key and some interesting stuff or as Diane puts it “choice junk”! I was butterflying around a bit when under a big tree in back I got a scratchy penny signal saying an inch deep. Well as a practice at such sites I dig virtually all repeatable targets. Imagine my surprise when at barely an inch out pops the most beautiful Two Cent Piece I have ever dug! It is an 1869 in beautiful condition with a lovely patina on it. I also got a key, seven older wheats and choice junk. When we returned home we came in and I gently washed off the mystery item…my eyes popped when I saw the words Abraham Lincoln the center was rusted badly and I knew immediately what it was, the 1860 Presidential Election token/medallion. The reverse had his running mate Hannibal Hamlin and his portrait. I had to admit I was doing a mental happy dance in my kitchen. From what I can ascertain this is rather scarce and ones with the pictures intact are quite valuable. Unfortunately virtually all dug ones the tin type portraits are gone due to rust.
How they originally appeared with photo intact.
How they originally appeared with photo intact.
