Why NO Coins?

[Michigan Badger]

I've been hunting Ghost Towns (mostly lumberjack sites) for some time. I've dug loads of coin-sized brass/copper items at depths most here wouldn't believe. To date not one single old coin! I've dug small brass buttons mega deep, silver harness ornaments (coin size), tiny jewelry pieces including dime-sized lockets, more pocket knives than I can recall, etc.--BUT NO COINS!

Then I read all these posts on here where a guy goes to some lumber camp and digs 3 large cents, a Spanish reale, 20 Indian cents, a silver dollar, a bust coin, and few seated coins and maybe a $1 gold piece.

What's up? Rabbits foot or what?

Badger haha

 

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[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

MB,

are you complaining All the fun your having.

If you dug: "3 large cents, a Spanish reale, 20
Indian cents, a silver dollar, a bust coin, and few
seated coins and maybe a $1 gold piece.", it would
take all the fun out of if for you

Perhaps next year, or the year after, or the year after,
or the year after..........................

And then there is your machine. Machines are special.
Yours sees how much you enjoy digging other stuff and
it say, "hell, he don't want no coins".

Think you should sit down with it and have a talk

have a good un...............

 

[Michigan Badger]

MB,

are you complaining All the fun your having.

If you dug: "3 large cents, a Spanish reale, 20
Indian cents, a silver dollar, a bust coin, and few
seated coins and maybe a $1 gold piece.", it would
take all the fun out of if for you

Perhaps next year, or the year after, or the year after,
or the year after..........................

And then there is your machine. Machines are special.
Yours sees how much you enjoy digging other stuff and
it say, "hell, he don't want no coins".

Think you should sit down with it and have a talk

have a good un...............

LOL!

Ya, I planned on having a talk with it so I bought one of those RadioShack wireless headphone deals. But then I found out it only transmits out...not in. Geez! Ya always got ta read the fine print!

But then I realized this machine was made in America so it must know English.

Maybe the next time it finds a horseshoe I'll say: "Bad detector! Bad bad!"

Every time it finds a nice old coin I'll give it fresh batteries.

What ya think? The only thing left is to buy coins off ebay like everyone else.

 

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

 

[lumbercamp]

Don't feel bad. I've been diging lumber camps since 1972 and have only found 2 1898 pennies. Which I promptly destroyed by trying to clean by soaking them in baking soda water for a couple days. I didn't know any better.

 

[Michigan Badger]

Don't feel bad. I've been digging lumber camps since 1972 and have only found 2 1898 pennies. Which I promptly destroyed by trying to clean by soaking them in baking soda water for a couple days. I didn't know any better.

THANKS! I was beginning to think there was some sort of curse on me or something.

I think I hunted my first old house foundation back in the early 1970's. From that day to this I've traveled the country and never have hit a hot coin site at one of these Ghost Town places. I guess somebody beat me to the sites? Oh I dug the same old horseshoes, RR spikes, knives, jewelry, buttons, axe heads, harmonica reeds, locks, etc., but not one large cent, Indian cent, seated or Barber coin! I have found some Memorial and Wheat cents at these Ghost sites but don't even count them when found at a site 150 years old.

Oh, I find a good number of old coins but these come mostly from private home sites, parks, carnival grounds, etc. This last summer I pulled out some very nice oldies from trash filled sites (including two 1865 pennies).

But the Ghost Towns...Hum? I'm beginning to wonder...

Badger

 

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

depends on the type of town you're working. A company town was all scrip or done on the books and nobody had coins. A regular town with more than one business had money circulating and being lost. Back then a plant or mill gave their employees a pay envelope that contained their pay in cash down to the last penny. Company towns you got a statement deducting what you owed and telling you what your credit was at the company store. No cash. exanimo, ss

 

[EDDE]

now an idea is it may possibly be the growth
tall grass ,large bushs ,trees ,etc
may contribute to smaller areas of detecting "zones"
so less ground covered
and as SS said also he got skills

 

[Michigan Badger]

depends on the type of town you're working. A company town was all scrip or done on the books and nobody had coins. A regular town with more than one business had money circulating and being lost. Back then a plant or mill gave their employees a pay envelope that contained their pay in cash down to the last penny. Company towns you got a statement deducting what you owed and telling you what your credit was at the company store. No cash. exanimo, ss

Thanks ss and I had forgotten about the scrip thing. I heard once about a 19th century lumber company in Wisconsin that minted scrip tokens that were used as money. Well, at least I think it was Wisconsin?

95% of my Ghost Town hunts are in small early lumbering (shanty) towns. I guess you could say history means more to me than just digging old coins. I know of lots of sites where I can dig a few Indians, Mercs, Wheats, but there's no real history so they bore me. I have a drawer full of old coins dug over the last 40 years and I rarely even look at them.

What had me wondering is why I dig so few coins and it seems like most others on here just kill them everytime they hunt a backwoods site. I dig lots of old coin-sized items at 5-15 inches deep so if the coins were there I'd get them. It just seems odd to me.

Thanks again,

Badger

 

[Michigan Badger]

now an idea is it may possibly be the growth
tall grass ,large bushs ,trees ,etc
may contribute to smaller areas of detecting "zones"
so less ground covered
and as SS said also he got skills

You're right too deacon. The grass is very tall and I use a 10-inch coil so this could account for missing some coins. Those little Indian cents on edge can be hard to hit on.

I usually can't get my coil right to the ground level. But even with the 10-coil coil 6 inches above the ground level the Nautilus IIB can still hit hard on coins laying flat at depths up to 8 inches deep. Most coins in our area are less than 6 inches deep so again, if they were here I'd get some of them.

Thanks deacon.

Badger

 

[Gypsy Heart]

You are in the same boat as I am. I have hunted some of the oldest,most remote sites where I find everything else but coins. You would think that I would be finding more than I do,but I have got some things figured out.
For the most part,people here in the Northwoods hung on tight to their money. You are not going to find the casually lost coin,even on the streets of where you know you would normally find things.I have spent alot of hours interviewing some of the older people and they all tell the same story...they didnt get any coins,they had no coins to lose.
But as with My Money Tree story, I know its out there.
What you will find tho ,is hidden caches....and with the right research you can find the spots where they should be. I have been redirecting my research to finding out where these old loggers and trapper cabins were located and also where old homesteads were that I know for a fact the person died and didnt have relatives. These are the places where the money will be found. I now have pinpointed several sites where I know the person buried their money and it was never recovered. Now just have to find it. My goal this winter is to purchase a MineLab and hit these sites hard this spring.

 

[Jeffro]

I see SS already posted about the scrip, which was my first thought too. For backwoods places, I seem to do best at swimming holes and hot springs. I read once about a guy who used a small piece of plywood to lay down the grass with, and detected through it.....

Could also be that you're not worthy , but I doubt that!

 

[Michigan Badger]

I see SS already posted about the scrip, which was my first thought too. For backwoods places, I seem to do best at swimming holes and hot springs. I read once about a guy who used a small piece of plywood to lay down the grass with, and detected through it.....

Could also be that you're not worthy , but I doubt that!

I think the unworthy thing has great potential.

That plywood thing really does have potential!

Thanks,

Badger

 

[texan connection]

Another guess that has occured to me is that pioneer towns likley traded more in goods than coins, untill they became more established (or folded up). This would vary greatly and could only be considered in your particular Ghost town that you hunt.

 

[jopher]

Badger: I feel your pain. Ive hunted several northern Mi lumber camps to death and coinage is just about nill.From what Ive read , most of the camps were very short lived.Move in, clear cut, move along.Very few survived long enough to produce trade so the meager wages of the lumberman were either cached away or spent recklessly at the nearest town on saturday night.As far as old coinage goes, it seems most of the Mi camps were in operation in the late 1800s to early 1900s so Capped Busts and Large cents arent very likely finds.....I would love to dig Large cents and I keep trying but simply put, the bulk of Mi hasnt been inhabited that long. On the plus side.How many Tnetters can say they've found three Deward trade tokens?
H.H......Joe

 

[TreasureTales]

Badger, I don't find many coins at ghost towns either. I wish I did, but I gotta say that the relics are what really get my heart a-pounding. I always figured they didn't lose their coins because they didn't have many to lose in the first place. And, too, lots of these camps (mining and lumber) were populated by men, not many kids to lose money and not much money to lose. At least that's the rationale I use.

It seems to me that the best place to find coins at ghost towns might be in the dumps, but that would take some sifting because the trash would be too prevalent to make detecting feasible. I shifted in Tonopah, NV last year and didn't find any coins but I did find a couple of circular items that might have been tokens but which had been worn too smooth to tell. So finding those rounds somewhat confirmed my belief that sifting would lead to more coins being found in ghost towns, in the dumps particularly. Besides, by sifting you can find some non-metalic items that are pretty cool...old dolls, bone buttons, tortoise shell combs, glass beads, stuff like that. If I can get a sifter made between now and May, I'll be sifting a dump site in a small town I visited this past September. I found a buffalo nickel and a token in it already just by scraping around with a rake, so I'm really looking forward to going there next year with the sifter.

 

[DiggingFl]

How I finely found coins at the turpentine camp.

The coins were three sites away form the ghost town I Originally was looking for. Turns out that the original site is on private land and he's not letting any one hunt. And it was probably hunted out years ago anyway from what I hear. After a little more research I find out the owner of that lumber operatins brother had a turpentine still. Its near a lake about two miles away. Its just open land where people ride four wheelers and stuff. Hunted it about a dozen times last winter. Some artifacts but no coins. I knew it wasn't just hunted out because there were plenty of targets. Just not coins. And to many things come in close to nickels to not dig them. Anyway this fall I decide that there no sense to keep doing whats not working so I leave the detector in the truck and start walking the woods going back towards the lumber mill. I got about half a mile away and was getting ready to go back to the truck and I come across just piles of modern junk. I hate it when people dump in the woods but in this case it slowed me down to look at the crap. In one spot I see about 20 bricks half buried in the dirt. Just more dumping I think. And then on a berm where the four wheelers have been turning its just covered with bits of broken colored glass. I mean thousands of small pieces. So finely the light bulb goes on. Maybe I should hunt this spot. I hike it back to the truck and drive back as close as I can get . By now its almost dark . Started hunting and found my first Barber dime just s few feet from the red bricks. The rest of the story is on the photo forum. I know now that just finding the area or land mark is only half the battle. I have to find the spots that people gathered for work or events like Saturday night dances etc. And that spot might not be at the landmark the towns said to be at. Also the eye detector is still the best tool. I just wanted to share how after six years in this great hobby I finely had some success finding some older coins. Still a lot to learn. Next time I go there I will get some photos of the bricks and glass just to show what I'm talking about. I enjoy digging the relics but its sure nice to snag a old coin here and there. HH

 

[Born2Dtect]

When I look for help on finding coins, I get the following: Slow down, reduce discrimination, dig faint signals, they will come. Funny thing is when I do these things I do find more? I also know of a gentleman who swings his coil like a golf club, fast and in an arc, he always enters good old finds in our clubs contest. This said not only try going slower but also try faster, do anything different unitil you are confident then keep doing that.

Ed D.

 

[TheDetectorist]

I also know of a gentleman who swings his coil like a golf club, fast and in an arc, he always enters good old finds in our clubs contest.

Ed D.

I would be VERY suspicious of anyone "always" entering good finds at club contests, especially someone with no clue how to swing a coil. Anyone who "arcs" thier coil, is really only detecting about a 1 foot swath. The rest of the time, thier coil is nowhere near the ground or even pointed at it. Detectors also have an optimum swing speed. Too fast, or too slow and you start losing depth and target ID.

Now back to the topic... The coins are there. You may just be in the wrong spot, or they may be in amongst a lot of trash. Try digging everything in the most likely areas.

TD

 

[Born2Dtect]

TD,

You kind of missed my point. Each detector has a speed / speeds that it works best. You can miss targets by not working at this speed. I am lucky enough to see other detecorist while detecting with my club. The guy with the wildest swing has the most points of anyone in the club and always makes good finds. I/you can,t argue with success. I think the path he swings would be better described as a flatter swing in the middle with an upswing at the ends. The detector naturally wants to swing back the other way when the end of the swing is done. Anyway it works for him.

Sites that have few coins especially no silver may have been cherry picked by an older detector. That would explain it. I have seen this before. My thoughts.

Ed D.