The popularity of metal dectectors has increased this year as people look for activities they can do while social distancing. That led to the discovery of a rare coin by a man in Maine. The long-hidden, 222-year-old coin was under a just few inches of soil outside a church.
Shane Houston, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was on a metal-detecting trip with a friend from New Hampshire when he found the coin earlier this month, the Bangor Daily News reported.
The copper penny, dated 1798, comes from the first decade of American-minted money in North America.
He said it was found on the grounds of a church in Embden, Maine where he had permission to use his metal detector.
The penny is not in pristine condition. Houston said the coin might fetch $200 but he has no intentions of selling it.
On the same trip, he also found an 1818 penny, a full wagon wheel and a musket ball. The ammunition was measured at 0.75 caliber, making it British in origin and most likely from the Revolutionary War.
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–Wire services