I’ve been metal detecting almost 7 years now and have never dug an 1800’s coin in Arkansas. As a matter of fact, I was starting to wonder if I ever would since a 1910 Wheat penny was the oldest coin I had ever found in my area.

Likewise, I’ve not seen anyone else dig a coin that old around here.  I detect with a few guys, so I have a pretty good idea of what type of finds are normally found around here.  That is why If you had told me before my hunt this past Sunday that I would find a Large Cent I would have literally laughed at that statement!

Sunday I didn’t have any real plans other than to “grow a pair” and ask permission somewhere in hopes of changing things up a bit.  I haven’t had much luck lately with detecting other than a couple silver dimes here and there and I was determined to change that!

I decided to drive a couple towns over in hopes of catching someone outside to ask permission to detect their yard.  After a couple of door knocks with no answers, I was getting discouraged when I saw a sports team flag hanging from the porch of an early 1900’s house and figured that they might be approachable and let me detect their yard.

After a few minutes of talking with the property owners I showed them a short video of How I dig a plug when metal detecting and they were fine with me scanning their yard, with one stipulation… “How about One Hour?”  I said “You got it, I’ll set an alarm on my phone!”

With no time to waste, I got geared up and started detecting the front yard. It didn’t take long to realize that someone had probably beaten me to the punch because I wasn’t finding much more than modern pennies.  That’s when I noticed the side door and told myself “Maybe I should slow down in this area, maybe they used the side door more often than the front door.”  So, I did slow down a bit in that area.

I noticed a round depression in the ground which is an indicator I look for that tells me a tree used to be there. I noticed the depression and thought that maybe people used to sit under that tree at one time.  It didn’t take long after and I heard a penny tone and decided to dig it.  A 1910 Wheat Penny! Whoa, a penny over 100 years old!  I love finding wheaties so I was happy with that.  That area gave up a few more wheaties …

And then, I got an 88-89 number read out from my AT PRO metal detector, and I thought that I might have a silver quarter! I was excited but decided to dig carefully just in case it was silver.

I dug a 5 inch deep plug and folded it back, and that’s when I saw something round in the bottom of the hole.  I quickly grabbed it and thought “What in the world?”

That’s when I noticed the odd face on the coin.  I was like “HOLY …” I couldn’t believe it! I wasn’t sure if it was a half cent or a large cent as I had only seen them in pictures.  I could hardly contain my excitement, but, I did my best to remain calm as I put the coin in the side pocket of my pouch.

Prior to finding this large cent, I had found a 1910 wheat penny, a 1956 wheat penny and some clad coins.  I figured there was silver around there somewhere, but this 1853 Large Cent is WAYYYYY more cool in my opinion!  My first Braided Hair Large Cent!  Yesss!

The funny part is, I was in chat the other day telling the guys that I will never find a large cent in my area.  I believed that, but this find proves, Ya Just Never Know what your next find will be!

Sure beats a silver dime or quarter, any day in my opinion!  Thanks for checking it out, I hope your next plug reveals something amazing.

Til then, Happy Hunting My friends!

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