Silver Dilema

[dmitchstevens]

I would like to just find silver coin. I have hunted six months with over $50 in clad with not one silver coin. I have found about 10 1965 quarters, dimes. I have found one wheat cent. so you guys need to consider yourself lucky. I think here in east Ky people have been so poor so long that they didnt lose silver coins back thyen like they do now. Any advice send it on

 

[onemore]

n/t

 

[UtahRich]

If you've not found a silver coin yet, make sure that you have your detector set up properly, and then make sure that you put yourself on top of ground likely to contain silver coinage. Some find public parks and schools easy places to start. Perhaps an older house in town where you already know the owner. Hunt slowly and don't feel like you are in a race to find that first silver dime or quarter. Overlap your sweeps and try to GRID the area, covering back and forth, row after row.

Make sure that the locations you are hunting were in operation back in the silver era. I usually look for something to have been built in the 40's or earlier. The more years prior to 1965 the more opportunity people had to drop and lose items. Usually, the silver coins are deeper than recently lost coins. A key to remember, is that if you are finding wheat pennies regularly, you are on the right track. When I first started hunting, I found one silver coin for every 6-7 wheat pennies. You can use that as a starting guide. As you get better and hunt better places, you will begin to get a feel for the silver to wheat ratio in your area and that ratio will improve. Silver dimes are smaller and a little more difficult to find than copper pennies, but the Explorer WILL find them with no trouble.

And regardless of how poor people are, they still lose things, it's a habit of people, rich and poor. You may not find as many lost coins, but there will be lost coins and other items.

Good luck. Looking forward to hearing about your first silver coin.


Rich

 

[widebody]

[size=large]i have to disagree a little with rich. my ancestors are from critton co. ky. never had two pennies to rub together much less any dimes. at least i've never seen any family fortune. maybe that's why they moved here to the green state of washington. i was raised with a great welfare program. [/size] i've only been hunting since may 2010 and have found two small cheap but silver rings. only four wheaties and thats it for old and silver.more than some have found but less than others. they're goals. don't lose the fun. i find it's been more fun to find toy cars and trcks and one jet. still want that dime though. enjoy yourself. not to forget, i want that gold ring too.

HH

 

[raweppler]

I am in West Virginia and it is not known as a rich state as well. I have found 70 silver coins (including 2 seated dimes and 3 half dollars) this year and 27 Indian Heads and 2 gold rings plus more. These came from West Virginia, Southern Ohio, Western PA. I almost exclusively hunt yards however. I ask permission and explain what I am doing; you can read some of my posts for how I do this. Please be very careful in yards and use plastic for the dirt to place on so you can refill hole without leaving excess dirt around.

My reasoning is most yards will be virgin territory. And like Rich above I look for the older homes. I use http://historical.mytopo.com/ web site which has free topo maps which are dated early 1900's or late 1800's to find older sections of a town. I notice though they do not have Kentucky, but they have Ohio.

Be patient and do discriminate a lot; use jewelry mode at the very most. Go slow and dig those promising signals and you will find those silver coins.

 

[NebTrac]

Is there anywhere at all for old dance halls, baseball fields, race tracks, church picnic grounds, etc.??? Have you looked into finding a PLAT map from your area. The one for my county shows over 250 schools along with laid out towns that are now corn and soybean fields. Heck. My best finds have come from an area that is now a cow pasture. If possible get Andy Sabisch's Treasure book. The main thing is not to get discouraged. For me farm houses have yielded the least coinage. Some older small town houses have produced real well. We'll be looking for the day you post your first silver!!!!

NebTrac

 

[shadowman]

The first thing I would is build yourself a test garden then practice,practice practice, learn the diff. sounds and responses at diff depths.

 

[dmitchstevens]

I think I am fair at using the explorer. I took it out today the first time and my first find was a wheat cent. Can't read the date. I also found $3.52 clad. Man this machine is much better that my safari so much deeper. I can't wait to get some time under my bet with it. Thanks for all the post. I'm not giving up I will find some silver. I'm going on a hunt Saturday to two different cabins that have been there since lat 1800's. So cross your fingers this could be my day to score silver

 

[widebody747]

[size=large]Neb Trac,
been tracking some of your u tube postings. found one about using google and your county assays office. worked for my county but can't get other counties to work. they aren't as user friendly. would like to know how can one get a platt of ones areas? also tried the topo idea. no old maps available for my area. not even close.
i do feel that we in the west are at a disadvantage in time. we're two hundred years behind the east coast. you're gunna have much more targets just because of more people over more time. and more events. i think ya have'ta take a honest look at your area and determine what has taken place around there. my area is alomost dead in history compared to portland or. just 50 miles south. nothing happened in this part of the woods.so there's going to be less of everything. all the wars took place on the east side of the cascades or further south in oregon. just facts that can't be changed. so ya gotta travel or door to door hunts.
feel like i may be preaching to the choir. if you're back east you're in a target rich enviorment. your silver is out there. happy hunting.[/size]

 

[NebTrac]

[size=large]Neb Trac,
been tracking some of your u tube postings. found one about using google and your county assays office. worked for my county but can't get other counties to work. they aren't as user friendly. would like to know how can one get a platt of ones areas? also tried the topo idea. no old maps available for my area. not even close.
i do feel that we in the west are at a disadvantage in time. we're two hundred years behind the east coast. you're gunna have much more targets just because of more people over more time. and more events. i think ya have'ta take a honest look at your area and determine what has taken place around there. my area is alomost dead in history compared to portland or. just 50 miles south. nothing happened in this part of the woods.so there's going to be less of everything. all the wars took place on the east side of the cascades or further south in oregon. just facts that can't be changed. so ya gotta travel or door to door hunts.
feel like i may be preaching to the choir. if you're back east you're in a target rich enviorment. your silver is out there. happy hunting.[/size]

I did a little looking and came up with this map of Cowlitz county Washington. This is the type of stuff I look for - at least for showing the early settlement and proposed settlement. Also if someone wrote about the town's early beginnings, maybe the local library would have it.

For my area - my formula is

Early Founded Town + Water = Picnic, baseball games, gatherings, etc.

Those are the types of areas I look for.

I realize Longview wasn't really incorporated until 1920's....but you still have a chance of seated coins being in circulation - hence being lost - during that time frame.

http://kaga.wsulibs.wsu.edu/cdm-maps/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fmaps&CISOPTR=305&DMSCALE=100&DMWIDTH=600&DMHEIGHT=600&DMMODE=viewer&DMFULL=1&DMX=72&DMY=0&DMTEXT=%2520Real&DMTHUMB=0&REC=19&DMROTATE=0&x=1340&y=1753

I don't think I ever mentioned anything on youtube. I know "daddydigger" did just this last week or two. He's from Illinois and showed how he found that park. Great information. I may have mentioned it, but I do use that type of information. There was a very good book written by Solomon D. Butcher. He was famous (though posthumously) for getting pictures of central nebraska (specifically Custer County) during it "settling" days. He's buried not 4 miles from where I sit and has given me a wealth of information. The book is "Pioneer History of Custer County".

NebTrac

 

[Junkdigger]

Hello, My ancestors are from east kentucky, bell county. Yes it was poor, but even my grandpa who was born in 1873 and was a coal miner all his life had a few gold coins, My dad told me. He made and sold moonshine for the sheriff of whitley county. He delivered it to the Judge and others, also to illegal bars in kentucky and Tennessee. If you know any old timers in your area take the time to talk to them. Try to find out if there was any moonshiners in your area. There is a lot of history in your area. Going way back. Civil war history and earlier. As far as the silver, dont give up, after you get the first few they start coming easier.

 

[widebody]

[size=large]one thing i noticed was this map was from wsu. they have a ariel photo collection i have yet to be able to access. must be a student or some qualification i don't meet. would love to get access. will be working on that for a winter project.meanwhile i have the assors website and a very good map of the county as of 2003 at least. and 40 yrs. of memory living in portland and working for the transit agency there. have memories of the very early 60's as a 10 yr. old.must plan alot of day trips.

HH[/size]