Silver dollars?

[RGINN]

There wasn't a whole lot of coinage in circulation when this part of the country started to boom. This part of the county was bigger in silver production than gold, but there wasn't much preference over the coinage type as long as it could be spent. Another thing is that in those days a nickel damn well was a nickel. I'm convinced if those old time miners had a penny in their pockets after pay day, and it came up missing, they organized a search party to look for it. I've found a lot of interesting things in the mining areas, but only one coin, 1876 CC seated liberty dime.

 

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[UnderMiner]

Best place to find larger denomination silver coins would be on the grounds of 19th century mansions. The Victorians were prosperous and often threw lavish garden parties. Often attendees would loose their coins while dancing or horsing around (literally - they road horses alot and coins would fall from their pockets and get lost in the grass). Do some research and get permission to hunt some of these old houses.

 

[dirtscratcher]

Silver dollars did circulate widely through out the Western states - My parents have told me how in the 1950's (just after
they were married ) when they were living in Libby , Montana - they ran into them constantly , tried to get rid of them as fast as
they could because of size and weight . These would have been Peace and Morgans certainly . I would think it would be pretty
hard to lose one of these without noticing it , but If I was specifically going out looking for one , I would head for any of a
number of Western states , and I would target areas where there was a lot of activity during the winter months . Every
small mining or logging town in the West had like 17 saloons - drunken behavior was a constant - The challenge is getting
permission for an area that hasn't been worked over pretty well by now .

It's funny you mention Libby. A friend's father from Libby told me,how all the gas station across highway 2 used to purposely keep silver dollars for change for tourist when he was kid. I've found 3 and one friend has,found 13. Also got to watch Frost digger dig one of his.

 

[Argentium]

Yeah , Out West they were viewed as a pretty big nuisance by folks who were inundated with them, these same people had no reason
to think there would be anything special about silver dollars, their only relationship with U.S. coinage was that every denomination
from the dime to the dollar was silver, and always would be -so they couldn't get rid of the silver dollars fast enough .

 

[packerbacker]

I would think your odds of finding a silver dollar would be increased if you hunted a construction site in the Vegas area. Silver dollars were everywhere and drunks dropping them were everywhere as well.

 

[Argentium]

I think a good place to check would be any of the older campgrounds in Montana , Wyoming , Colorado - (The Rocky Mountain West )
They would be trashy - but campers tend to do a bit of drinking . We cannot forget the fact that decent metal detectors have been
available for nearly half a century now, so if I can easily come up with a place or two that might be good - I'm likely very late to the
party !

 

[lastleg]

My cartwheel story is short and sad. I was detecting behind an old bar and a friend came by and
I let him use my White's to get him interested in MDing. Yep he walked a few paces and brought
back a silver dollar. His first coin was a Peace dollar. And me with thousands of hours detecting
without one.

 

[T.C.]

Kinda like....never invite someone to sit down and play poker. Especially if ya have to teach 'em.....they'll take all of your money!!

 

[fistfulladirt]

I also have dug two in a year's time. 1887 Morgan and 1924 Peace.

Old church picnic spot, and older baseball diamond.

 

[sproatz]

I hear that t.c.

 

[Jason in Enid]

I think that if you polled everyone who found a silver dollar about the location they found it, there would be no consensus. They aren't often found but their locations are about equal to finding any other coins from the period.

 

[packerbacker]

I was practicing in my back yard with my MXT. At one point the display registered "Dollar". I thought, right, a dollar right here in my own yard. Sure enough, I dug an Ike dollar. It had to be mine originally because the date was after I bought the house and was down about 2 inches.

 

[ryaan21]

Before this past season I had never found anything bigger than a silver quarter. I moved to a new city in the spring and was excited to get some detecting in. For the better part of the season I had only found an Indian Head and 7 silver. One thing I did find was what I thought was a Morgan, 8 inches deep in the oldest part of town in a park. Turned out to be a counterfeit. I was sad. The only "dollar coin" I was ever gonna dig turned out to be a crappy old counterfeit.

My Uncle and I were looking for a place to fish this past fall. We drove out to this river about 20 miles from town. In the woods and in the park next to this river we have pulled 25+ silver coins, 60+ wheaties, 4 IH, 3 Canadian large cents, a crotal bell, flat button.

Anyways my best day at this site was a 1943 Walking Liberty Half, dateless standing liberty quarter and a 40's mercury dime.

2 days later I walked into the woods about 5 feet and got a signal I was sure was a crushed up beer can. Turned out to be a 1923 Peace Dollar. And I put a scratch right down the front of it. Blah. I never really expected to dig a real silver dollar after using up my luck on the counterfeit. They are out there though.