A man with a metal detector has found a long-hidden, 222-year-old coin buried in soil outside a church in Maine.
Shane Houston, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was on a metal-detecting trip with a friend when he found the coin earlier this month, the Bangor Daily News reports.
The copper penny, dated 1798, was created during the first decade of American-minted money.
Houston says it was found on the grounds of a church in Embden, where he had permission to use his metal detector.
Houston used cleaning pencils to rid the coin of green corrosion to reveal its unique engraving.
One side of the coin features a profile of Lady Liberty, accompanied by the year 1798.
The other features the words 'one cent' surrounded by two olive branches.
Bangor Daily News stated that the coin was designed by Robert Scot at the Philadelphia mint, and was based on a painting by Gilbert Stuart. Stuart is best known for his portraits of George Washington.
The first American coins were produced just six years earlier, when the Coinage Act of 1792 established the United States mint.
According to legend, the first coins were actually produced with Martha Washington's silverware.
Back in 2018, a coin from that year was auctioned off for a whopping $1 million.
Houston's 1798 penny is nowhere near as valuable. Experts say it would fetch just $200, as it is not in pristine condition.
However, the budding historian believes his special find is priceless and he has no intention of selling it.
Instead, Houston will add the coin to a collection of interesting artefacts he has uncovered with the help of his metal detector.
On the same trip to Maine this month, Houston 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. It may date back to around the time of the American Revolution.
Houston told the publication that '99 percent' of what he uncovers is 'garbage', but that the special finds make all the searches worthwhile.
'It gets me out of the house, it's great exercise and I just really love finding these old relics that people have lost or thrown away,' Houston stated.
'And it's cheaper than therapy.'