Just can't find silver coins?!?!

["Dr.Tones"]

I'm no expert, but I think I know my my XT 70 pretty well. I'm using my 6" HF DD in trashy areas, my stock coil in medium trash and I also the HF eliptical that I through on from time to time. I dig mostly consistent signals that hit from multi directions. I mostly hunt in 4tone with sensitivity set to max and tracking turned on. I'm hunting old businesses, houses, parks.... You name it. I can tell you if it's gonna be a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, pull tab... Ive found nuggets, rings, necklaces, pre 1900's coins... Everything under the sun! JUST NOT SILVER! WTF!!! I keep hearing people talk about digging those "whispers" but Im not sure what those are? All the places I hunt are riddled with trash... How the heck can I distinguish a whisper from trash? Please help?!

 

[Old Longhair]

The silver that I find doesn't whisper...most of it screams. You just have to have some under your coil.

This hobby isn't new. Many good sites have been hit before, and silver being as conductive as it is, was easy to find and clean out. The odd one may still be there, but big and easy along obvious high traffic area routes have largely been extracted already.

I live in the boonies, and you'd think that all the old farm houses would be good places to hunt.....but you'd be wrong more often than not. The farmers around here didn't have much money, and they certainly didn't carry it around with them....they might lose it. So you find relics that are old broken discards, trash, and very few coins.

My point is, that either the finds you seek are there or they're not. Easy to find targets might have already been found. You'll never know. All you can do is give it an honest shot. Beyond that, it's up to research, luck, and your proficiency with your machine. Judging by the finds that you have recovered so far, it sounds like you're doing it right, just not getting the coil over any....yet. Keep at it! The odds are increasing in your favor every minute that you're swinging.

 

["Dr.Tones"]

Thanks man. I've often thought the same thing about the old farm houses and the lack of currency around them. I WILL have my first silver by the end of the month! This is just getting crazy!

 

[Old Longhair]

Just relax and persist.They will come.

I haven't had a streak all year. This month I've only dug two silver coins. Mark_in_SE_IA makes me jealous regularly, but he just happens to have some good sites wired. When YOU come accross a site like that, I expect to see posts similar to his from you!

 

[mapper65]

The silver that I find doesn't whisper...most of it screams. You just have to have some under your coil.

That's exactly right, once you do find a few silvers you'll remember that sound. It's usually a very sharp distinct sound unless it's really deep.

We have a site that we've found over 500 coins at. Many of the pennies & nickels were all from the silver era. With 4 of us detecting it we've only found 1 silver dime and it was a 1964. Sometimes even an area that you think would be loaded with silver is not. But then I've had some strange instances of finding silver where I found a merc on top of the ground at a soccer field. The only way that i can rationalize that find was that someone else was detecting, found the merc and it fell out of their pocket.

 

["Dr.Tones"]

Moral of the story? It is where it is, but it ain't where it was

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

The whisper of a silver coin is a very faint sounding high tones and most times it's a good 6" or deeper. You'll know it when you hear it.

I have a feeling that your not doing something right so lets see if we can figure it out.

1. Do you wear head phones and if you do are they good ones? If you don't wear head phones you will not be able to hear the deep coins " the whisper "

2. Using the stock 7.5 coil What kind of ground balance numbers do you get for most of the areas that you hunt?

3. How many wheat pennies have you found so far this year? Finding wheat's is the key to finding Silver.

also do not give up on MDing farm yards. They are no different then doing a yard in town. ppl in town had money and ppl on the farm had money.

 

["Dr.Tones"]

Yup I wear headphones. sun ray pro gold. My GB with the stock coil is usually around 20 if I remember correctly. This year I've found 30 wheats, a v nickel two 14k womens bands, two Indians. And about $100 in clad. Just not getting over its guess?

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

with your GB numbers in the lower 20's I would say that you should use a DD coil. I like the 7.5 DD 10.5 coil. It does a great job at finding things from nickels to silver and it's faster at covering a lot more area.

since you have found 30 wheat's this year and with that many wheat's you should of found a round 6 silvers. A good rule of thumb, you should find one silver for every 5 wheat's you find. If you are not getting a 5 to 1 ratio then you are doing something wrong.

I would almost bet money that you are swinging your coil too fast. Your swing speed should be no faster then a 3 sec swing speed and some places you may need to be at a 4 sec speed. I have been to many places that if you swing at a 2 sec swing speed you will pick up the wheat's but you will NOT pick up the silver dimes and if you slow down to a 3 to 4 sec speed then you will pick up that faint whisper of a silver dime. Also, keep that coil as close to the ground as you can at all times.

Also, location, location, location, lol. Find the oldest schools in your area. The ones that were built in the 20's to 40's and are still open or has been closed and turned in to a park. Go to the far end of the place and start MDing. Slowly working your way back to the front of the place and see what you find. also when you go to a new place and when you first start out there dig most everything that is 3" and deeper to find out how your MDer is reacting to targets at that place.

Good Luck and have fun

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

One other thing I just thought of. You said that you use 4 tones. Now is that in AM or Pattern1.

I helped a guy out many years ago that was just learning how to use the X70 and he was able to find a lot of wheat's but was not finding very many silvers.
if I remember right he was using AM with 4 tones. I talked him in to using Pattern1 with 4 tones and to slow down his swing speed. At that time his silver to wheat ratio was 12 to 1 and after about 2 month of doing the changes I talked him in to doing his silver to wheat ratio dropped to around 5 to 1 and now he's kicking my butt when it comes to finding old coins.

 

["Dr.Tones"]

Hmmm... Interesting. I'm in AM with 4 tone. My swing speed is right on track, slow, but not too slow and methodical. Those high trash areas really slow me down. I just kinda figured that AM would be the better way to go?

 

[Goes4ever]

One other thing I just thought of. You said that you use 4 tones. Now is that in AM or Pattern1.

I helped a guy out many years ago that was just learning how to use the X70 and he was able to find a lot of wheat's but was not finding very many silvers.
if I remember right he was using AM with 4 tones. I talked him in to using Pattern1 with 4 tones and to slow down his swing speed. At that time his silver to wheat ratio was 12 to 1 and after about 2 month of doing the changes I talked him in to doing his silver to wheat ratio dropped to around 5 to 1 and now he's kicking my butt when it comes to finding old coins.

Hmmmm, wonder who that guy was? Lol, lol......and yes it was 5 to 1.... But now I am using the etrac and it is about 3.7 to 1
And I sure aint kicking anyones butt this year!

As far as farms not having coins, that is a big myth in my opinion, most of my oldest coins were found at farms, and fields where farm houses were tore down, trust me farmers had money to loose just like people in town, I have found MOST of my silver half dollars at old farms, and both of my gold rings were found at old farms. What I am saying is......I LOVE old farm houses more than any other spot!!