This is the only 1700s US federal issue coin I’ve found with readable date (I’ve found 3 dateless liberty cap large cents), and it is my first and only draped bust large cent.

Its abused, and takes a bit of trick photography to get it readable at all (it looks much worse, if you can believe it, in real life), but coins this old are still fun to find.

This was only an inch deep, in the tailings from the excavations at a construction site.  It sounded like a clad quarter, and when I dug it, it  was so beat I wasn’t sure what it was.  I sorta saw the bust, and I said — hey, that could be an old copper, but at the time I thought it was some sort of token.

Found: 11-Jan-2012; Location: construction site; Machine: E-Trac