Very small 1662 2 pence oat tree in mass . Retired and keep busy by detecting. Each morning I get up and have my coffee looking at a google air view map. Google shows better detail when finding my next location to hunt. Plus I can see wagon tracks and more detail using Google. I can use their little man to check the road view b-4 I go. I live in a over built area. I also need to find parking. So I checked out a location before I go hunt it. This gives me a heads up so I don't find unexpected things. Like PVT sign or pucker brush. I went to one area where someone else had detected. I could tell because he didn't fill in his holes. That upset me. He can have a effect on others who want to detect this property later on. I was going slow in a deep grass area and got a good signal. When I dug it. It was a 1835 copper 1 cent Braided head. Which was in real nice shape. So I knew more stuff was around this old site somewhere. I went back to this place 4 or 5 more times. Trying different settings with My Deus detector. Anyway. I've wanted a water proof back up detector for ponds. So I bought a Equinox 600 for a back up. On my second day with this new detector. I went back to where I found this Braided head. I was walking down this old dirt road that was close to a swamp. When it rains out. There's a puddle that stays in part of these road I've detected. I get a sweet sound with my new detector. When I dug this hole. I found this tiny silver coin. I thought it was a roofing nail head at first. But I saw some small bumps on it. So I threw it in my pouch until I get home and go thru my finds. It was as small as my pinky finger nail. But I've learned to save everything. I can always can throw it away at home instead of park trash cans. Anyway when I got home. I got a phone call from my sick detecting partner. While cleaning my finds and talking to my friend about my finds. I'm telling him about this silver coin. Then as I'm talking to him. I turned the coin over and saw a tree on it. I got so excited and was telling my friend. You won't believe this. I have a pine tree shilling. It looked like a foreign coin with no date. It wasn't a pine tree shilling. It was a oat tree 2 pence made b-4 the Pine trees shilling. I researched it. It was one of the first of these coins made. When they hand made these coins. Their was a small crack in the coin dye. So it added a extra line on the coin. Later the dye crack got bigger. They also changed the small second two from small to big. So my coin is from the first batch made. The rain in the low spot of the road must have kept this coin clean for over 300 years.
By: Frank C
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