<p><strong>About a year ago my wife Diane got interested in metal detecting with me and so I got her an X-TERRA 705 and she took to it like a duck to water.</strong> She was doing so well I decided to upgrade her to her own E-TRAC. She has made some good finds with it including a beautiful Standing Liberty Quarter and a Franklin Half but this hunt topped them all. </p> [split] <p>Diane and I went out to a little park that at one time had an old house on it this is the second time we have been there, the first time I found a couple of wheaties, a spoon handle and part of a pocket watch case. I was hoping for better this time and man oh man it happened. The first target I dug was a clad dime and the next turned out to be my first silver since Groundhogs day! I was silver starved and this nice 1945 Merc was a treat.</p> <p>I then found a Lazelle Perfumer case, sort of a compact dated 1922, I found one part of it and about 2 feet over I found the second part. Also I found an old green glass marble. Diane had not been finding much and when she called to me and I saw her give our sign for a Large Cent, followed by a hands palm up and a shake of her head. I went over and she said I think it is a Large Cent but it doesn’t look like the other one I found. Her previous Large Cent was a nice 1830 Large Letter variant so I wondered what it could be.</p> <p>I took one look and gave her a smile and said “Well it isn’t like the Matron Head you found before because this is a Draped Bust!” It turned out to be an 1805 Draped Bust with very fine detail. After cleaning it up gently and checking Sheldon’s Penny Whimsy which is a primary text on the early Large Cents it turns out it is the rarest variant of the 1805 being an S-268 variety with an R-3 rarity. It was in with a nail and some other bits of iron and you can see the tell tale marks it left on this coin. She said the signal was a bit mixed but giving her a clear 12-46 to 12-47 in her TTF program. I have to admit the girl is getting pretty good at this metal detecting game!</p>