OK guys,I need help!

[SWV Coin Hunter]

Am I doing something wrong? I bought a brand new 350 ACE last month and I have been detecting old home sites, schools and a few parks. The homes are old homes that were once part of the coal camp that used to be here in my area 50 to 75 years ago and although I am sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they have never been touched. I have yet to find one single silver coin, not one! I find old pennies ( 30's and 40's) like there is no tomorrow along with a few modern coins from time to time but no sliver. I keep the detector set in coin mode with the sensitivity two bars below max. I take my time when searching and I listen for all the right sounds. After much practice, I can tell if is a coin by the sound I hear when I pin point and even still. If I'm not sure I will dig it. Still nothing. Now I know that I am new to this and its going to take time for it all to come together but still. With the old virgin home sites I search, I would have thought that by now I would have found at least one.

So I ask this to all of you have been around for a while....just to make sure I'm not missing something. Am I doing so thing wrong?


One more question. Is there something about a penny (copper) that makes it easer for a MD to pick up?
Thanks guys and God bless you!

 

[Roscue2]

How far is the coil above the ground? Is the ground dry? There are a hundred things you could be doing wrong.... or, it might be that you haven't swung over silver yet. Or, could be that the people living there were very, very stingy and didn't like losing a nickel or above. Could be you, could be the area. Hard to say without knowing the area and knowing how the machine is operated exactly. HH and GL

 

[SWV Coin Hunter]

How far is the coil above the ground? Is the ground dry? There are a hundred things you could be doing wrong.... or, it might be that you haven't swung over silver yet. Or, could be that the people living there were very, very stingy and didn't like losing a nickel or above. Could be you, could be the area. Hard to say without knowing the area and knowing how the machine is operated exactly. HH and GL

About on inch or as close as I can keep it.
Ground has been wet for the most part. I live in the mountains of south West VA and we get rain one to two times a week if not more. Soil is a black lose type, very little hard clay and easy to dig even down past a foot or more.
Machine is set in coin mode, two bars below max sensitivity and always used with fresh batteries. I always use a grid pattern when I search, I overlap each swing to make sure that I'm not missing anything and I swing and walk slowly when I search.
Anything else I can tell you?

 

[jeffb]

Have you tried turning down the sensitivity at all? Sometimes you may miss thing if you are set to high.
Good luck and keep hunting!

 

[kregh]

SWV - I have a 350 and have the same problem - I dont think its you . I think sliver is just really hard to come by and there isnt anything magical about it other than you have to swing a coil over some.

The other issue( according to other folks) is that silver is probably being masked out by other elements - you might want to hunt in zero mode and dig every solid signal above nickel you get.

Good luck and remember - silver is pretty rare and not that easy to find. It will happen for ya - just keep at it!

 

[Dancer]

That Coal Miners got paid very little back than. On pay day a fee was taken out of their pay for rent, food clothes, tools for work, they had to pay for black power to use in the mine. And when they got busted up, their buddies had to patch em up! Many an old timer I seen with legs & arms that were not set right. After all this they got paid in Coal Mine Script, which was only to be used at the local Co store. The only silver maybe the superintendent,carried some. My brother been hunting a coal patch all this spring. 2 V nickels 1 Buffalo nic.- some Indian Heads & 1 Wheaty. Lots of relics tho.
Now SWV I would simply get a couple of Silver Coins & place them on the ground somewhere and run your detector over them Maybe even cover one up and see what happens. And don't feel bad about the pennies they seem to be the Rage this year all over.

 

[Orion42]

Remember, a silver coin was a lot of money, so care was taken with them. We have an area where we found several Indian Head pennies, but no silver, and we dig everything there.

John

 

[SWV Coin Hunter]

Oh I know that most of the miners did not have much money and I have even found one very early VIC&C CO coal script. The thing about it is. I'm not hunting just any coal house. You see. I have done my research by talking to family and long time residents who grew up here and they told me where everything used to be. So the homes I'm searching were at one time owned by the high up's of the coal mine, not just the average mine worker. That's why I think that I sould have found a least one silver coin by now. Went earlier and found a hand full of coins with two pennies dating to the early forties but no silver......but I'm starting to think it's something I'm doing.

You see. The guy I bought the detector from ( He knew His stuff, His room was full of stuff He had found) told me not to dig anything unless I could get a strong repeatable bell tone by swinging back and forth over the target. (Meaning, Swing to the right, get a tone. Swing to the left, get a tone) . He said that if the tone did not repeat then move on. But...A few of the things I found today only sounded in one direction not the other but I dug anyway and found a few coins. So I'm thinking that I should start digging any bell tone I get, whether it repeats or not. What do folks you think?

If I got the wrong advice and all this time I should have been digging every questionable bell tone I heard then I know that I have passed over a BUNCH of coins!

 

[SWV Coin Hunter]

Oh and thanks for all your help. LOL, I think I need all I can get!

 

[NM5K]

If you are finding coins, but they are not silver, that just means there were not silver
coins where you were hunting. I doubt you are doing anythng wrong.
People didn't lose too much silver around the yard in the old days. It was too valuable.
If a bell tone repeats with the same ID, I would dig it. Doesn't mean it's a coin, but it's
worth a check. Most coins will ID the same every swing. And I dig one way hits if they
repeat in that direction, and ID the same every time. They can be coins on end, or at
weird angles.
Heck, I've dug hundreds of coins just from the back and front yard of this house.
Few were silver. Mostly clad and pennies.

 

[SWV Coin Hunter]

And I dig one way hits if they
repeat in that direction, and ID the same every time. They can be coins on end, or at
weird angles.

That's exactly what I'm going to start doing. Thanks again guys and God bless you!

 

[slingshot]

The FIRST thing I'd do is get outta coins mode and go to Relics mode, at least. Your results may be the same, but at least target masking will be less. I guarantee you must be masking some kinda target in Coins mode.

 

[SWV Coin Hunter]

The FIRST thing I'd do is get outta coins mode and go to Relics mode, at least. Your results may be the same, but at least target masking will be less. I guarantee you must be masking some kinda target in Coins mode.

I did start that yesterday when I went to a local High School (site of the original HS that burned down in 1913) that is being remodeled and ended up finding quite a few older coins ( none Silver) including one 1910 wheat penny. I'll get that silver!!

 

[markf]

Definetly not the user.There is a chance not much silver around the coal mines.I would go back there and hit it hard.Just go slow and then slow down and try digging all your signals.If your just looking for coins,keep it on coins.I once found a half dime that was standing on edge and only got one chime while swinging left to right only.go slow !!!!!

 

[metalhead]

Awesome answers all around. Nobody carrying or having any silver at the time back then. The miners only being paid to use the company store. (No tokens?)
Another thing to consider, over the years, heck decades now, guys have pulled (nit picked) the silver out of a lot of good old hunting grounds.
As you have mentioned, you have carefully gridded the area. You may want to dig in All Metal mode or Zero mode (whatever your machine says) and dig everything. Dig every single piece of iron and everything that may be masking deeper good targets (silver? perhaps?). Hey, you might just wind up with some pretty cool old relics.
Best of luck to ya! Happy Hunting!

 

[SWV Coin Hunter]

Guess what? I finally got my silver! This past Saturday, at the High school here in town. I was checking close to what was once the walk way to the 2nd oldest school that was built on that site. The first school burnt down in 1913, the second in the late 70's. About 10 feet from the steeps, at the base of a pine tree. I got a good hit and about one to two inches below the surface, I puled out a nice 1951 dime. I found quite a bit more that day than I had in the past and I think it was because I had the ACE set on zero rather than coin mode. I'm looking forward to more good finds because they have started tearing down the old gym that has been on that site for at least 70 years and I'm sure there are some older coins there. A few weeks ago I puled out a 1910 wheat penny from a spot they had dug up to bury some new lines.


By the way...LOL, I'm paying for that silver dime. I was so focused on what I was doing that I never paid any attention to what was around me or what I was digging into. So now I have poison oak on both arms from my hands to my elbows!

Oh well
Thanks for the help guys!