Why don't I ever find any silver dimes?

[7up2000]

Very exasperating....I've MD'd quite a few older properties--properties that are from the 1950s and were inhabited, but usually get skunked(no silver coins unearthed)...or I may find a few wheat pennies and some clad dimes. The last 20 properties are like that....all skunks. I know previous detector activity got a vast majority of the silver coins but all of it? Just to give an example, I came across a school which I know existed in the 1950s and recently someone had excavated the top layer of soil--stirred it up. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to find some silver dimes--but, no--3 hours into it and I've found 3 wheat pennies and maybe 6 clad dimes. Overall, I'm lucky if I find 1 silver dime per year. I usually go out about 2-3 times per week. I've been MD'ing 7 years. I use an AT-Pro which is on its last legs. How can I improve my results with uncovering silver coins? Any ideas? Maybe I'm doing something wrong? Poor technique? Thanks ahead of time.

 

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[erfranks]

7up, sometimes you just go through those droughts. I have been metal dectecting over 25 years. believe it gets you down. i have not found a silver coin period in 23 years, but it is not from me not looking, i was out just two weeks ago, hunting with a buddy he found a beautiful 1923 Standing liberty. i dug 2 1919 wheats pennies. I even hunt in colonial sites, where my buddies are pulling out King George Coppers, and one of my buddies pulled out William III copper. all i find is shotgun shells, but one day in Feb of this year i was hunting with two friends and they were ahead of me there was a falling tree, so they went to the top of tree, i went around the base to try the tree root and hole and nothing, but i was heading back to them, and i got this faint signal, i thought to myself another shotgun shell, i have already dug 8 by this time. and this disc fell out of the ground, when i cleaned i thought i had me a King George Copper but it had alot of detail, most are worn smooth. it was about the size of silver dollar and what was weird it was in english not latin like most coins. but took 3 hours to ID it with the help of facebook friends who hunt. but it ended up being a George I Indian Peace Medal 1714. I could not believe it and to this day still don't. to my knowledge they do not know how many were given out. we do know they were given to the 6 Tribes, this one prob to the Tuscarora of this area with the Tuscarora Indian wars 1711-1712 and the Yessemee wars of 1715. There was a settlement here 1663 Charles Towne which moved to now day Charleston, SC and 1725 another town was settled on Cape Fear River, Brunswick Town. so you never know when you going to get that piece of silver or find that one thing, but if you keep looking it will come.

 

[smokeythecat]

Part of it is the area you are in. Out east here, it isn't even easy. Most days its a bust, some times, a jackpot but that is few and far between. The neighborhood I grew up in had houses from the mid 50's. I detected most of them, no one else had ever done that. NO silver! Nothing! Just wheat cents and newer. I don't think we had any silver, at least as a kid, what I had was in the house and in a box. Even my neighbor's house (1894) only had 2 silvers, a dozen buffalos, and a bunch of wheaties, and it was a school.

 

[Megalodon]

IMHO, old house sites are the toughest to hunt. I've been hunting 40 years, not including the years with the junk jetco/relco machines advertised in the comic books of the early 1960's. There is usually a lot of trash around old homesites. I vividly remember how everyone had burn barrels in their back yards. Add roofing nails, snippets of aluminum siding and gutters - and you have the possibility of many junk items competing for your attention under the coil. Have you tried a smaller coil or hunted with a partner who uses one? My old partner and I hunted am amusement park site most active from about 1896 thru WWI. The chatter and thousands of Heinz 57 aluminum packages was irritating. I put on a 4" sniper coil and found 9 barber dimes amongst the ketchup packets in about 20 minutes.

I know your frustration. My son owns a 1832 house (at least the oldest part of it) and I have found no silver there. We know from former owners that it was hunted by others. In fact, the local Tesoro dealer lived nearly across the street and likely hunted it.

Another issue is that houses built in the 1950's only saw circulating silver for less than 15 years, so there may not have been much there.

IMO, continue to look for areas of soil disturbance - people putting in footers or gardens, etc., and try a smaller coil in trashy places.

 

[brianc053]

Hey 7up, don't lose faith. Those dimes are out there - maybe not a lot of them, but they're out there.
If you're finding wheat pennies then you're in a location that has a chance at silver dimes. Although, 1950's sites are on the borderline of being silver-producing. (Meaning that there were only a few decades where the site was in use and where silver coins were typically in circulation).
In your area can you find any sites that go back to the 1920's? I think sites like that would give you a better chance.

Also, let's talk about detectors. Having owned a Whites MXT and then an Equinox 800 (bought in 2019) I can tell you that the Equinox is just about the king of finding silver dimes. The Vanquish does an OK job too but I think the Equniox (600 or 800) is worth the extra money.
I'm not saying that you have to buy a new detector in order to find silver dimes - and economically that doesn't make sense anyway. But using an Equinox would increase your chances of pulling those deep (8"+) silver dimes that your AT is probably missing (and that other detectorists have missed).

In summary: Location is most important (you can't find silver if it's not in the ground), and a different detector would increase your chances of finding silver if it's there.

One final note: dig midtones. I think a lot of detectorists skip the tones that sound like pull tabs. If you dig all the pull tabs you just might also dig a gold ring that they missed. (This happened to me back in May. I detected an area I know my friend detected with his Equinox, but he skips pull tabs. I dug all the pull tabs and also a 14k class ring from 1983).
Good luck!

- Brian

 

[Tpmetal]

IMHO, old house sites are the toughest to hunt. I've been hunting 40 years, not including the years with the junk jetco/relco machines advertised in the comic books of the early 1960's. There is usually a lot of trash around old homesites. I vividly remember how everyone had burn barrels in their back yards. Add roofing nails, snippets of aluminum siding and gutters - and you have the possibility of many junk items competing for your attention under the coil. Have you tried a smaller coil or hunted with a partner who uses one? My old partner and I hunted am amusement park site most active from about 1896 thru WWI. The chatter and thousands of Heinz 57 aluminum packages was irritating. I put on a 4" sniper coil and found 9 barber dimes amongst the ketchup packets in about 20 minutes.

I know your frustration. My son owns a 1832 house (at least the oldest part of it) and I have found no silver there. We know from former owners that it was hunted by others. In fact, the local Tesoro dealer lived nearly across the street and likely hunted it.

Another issue is that houses built in the 1950's only saw circulating silver for less than 15 years, so there may not have been much there.

IMO, continue to look for areas of soil disturbance - people putting in footers or gardens, etc., and try a smaller coil in trashy places.

I have been hunting for 6 or 7 years now, mostly old home sites. Just this spring is the first time I have found a silver coin at a old cellar hole, and I found 2 in the same day. I agree on a smaller coil, but also old home sites often just don't have much silver.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

When I got my Minelab Musketeer the first coin I found - in my own yard - was a 1953 silver dime. It was years until I found the next one.

 

[bigscoop]

Location! Location! Location! Problem is, this same mantra has been highly touted since the day the first metal detectors made their way into the mainstream, so say the 60's or there about. So my point is this, if you can find a place then it's very likely already been pounded to death. HOWEVER, in our water hunting we routinely recover silver coins along with a lot of silver and gold jewelry and other old pieces of costume jewelry, and I'm in Indiana, which isn't exactly a state with a long history. On the other hand, the old local park near my home, maybe a half dozen silver coins this year, all pf them dimes including 2 mercs, all of them 9" inches or deeper and all of them plucked from the trashy areas, also 2 old silver broaches, a couple of silver earrings, and a couple of silver rings. Small coil, go slow, apply a slow recovery speed for maximum depth and sensitivity because speed and depth with sensitivity don't go hand in hand. And last, but not least, know your machine and where those potential returns are likely to appear, and then notch everything else out. At this point you are strictly silver shooting......

 

[bigscoop]

Here's a picture of some of the silver items I've recovered from the old city park near my home this spring before I could get into the water, all of them sharing one distinct location feature, and this being those steep slopes that nobody want's to hunt because of the difficulty in doing so. You can't parallel them unless you cut one of your legs off at the knees and you can't hunt them up and down because nobody wants to keep changing the coil angle and/or shaft length in order to accommodate the angle of the slope depending on whether you're moving up or down the slope. And yet, this is exactly where all of these items were recovered, usually on or near the top of the slope or somewhere along the crest of the bottom of the slope. The rest of this old park has been picked to death but on these slopes you'll often find an abundance of wheat pennies and other old coins along with some remaining silver jewelry.

 

[releventchair]

You're expecting silver dimes too much.
Are you finding silver dollars? Halves? Quarters? Half dimes? See my point?

A dime in 65 could buy a loaf of bread. And folks were more reluctant to lose a dime. We're talking a full belly from spending a single dime!

Are you expecting silver dimes because someone else found one , or some? Then duplicate to perfection exactly what they did in/on the same site , with the same people hunting it prior with the same duplicated history.....Not realistic? Then so is comparing someone else's site ,ability, or recoveries.

Being in AZ. my change of pace suggestion would be to research past events and locations where lots of people spent a lot of time , and where they spent a lot of money of the era you seek coins from. Then locate unhunted (far as you know) sites within those parameters.

Outside of known event (or just stubborn returned to over and over sites folks frequented) I would seek out old roads and trails in between formerly popular destinations. Even pre railroad (though don't ignore long gone depots and whistle stops) routes.

Then I would regard every potential shade areas from that era , and water sources. Existing , or merely ghosts of former shade or water. Then scour them slowly ,patiently , and methodically. Not cherry picking. But getting into the era desired by removing the signals above it.

My silvers (no , no wheelbarrow full , yet.) have mostly came with mixed signals. Often iron. Junk on top or near them that others passed by due to , junk signals.
While I sniffing patently with headphones heard that tiny sweet chirp of silver. Nope . Yep. Oh it's just a peep when the coil is moved just so... But it's iron. And something else too , but there's that tiny peep again. Guess I better dig after frogging around a minute on the same targets.

Do you watch other folks detect?
I've watched "speed racers" in a default park I hunt hitting untold numbers of signals and not digging any.
I don't object to cherry picking , hey I do it sometimes.
But that same park I've been cruising along at glacier speed (that is very slow) and again got that faint peep trying to be heard through iron.
That silver dime was below not one , but two old nails. More than a few detectors passed it up prior.

No , I don't have an expensive detector, Nor am I a genius with it.
What has made silver dimes recoverable was first silver dimes. Then , my coil being over them. Then , recognizing they were there.
A dime on edge near max depth of my ability? I better be on my game just right. (Meaning such dimes are often fairly safe from me..)

Please , (Please!) ; no one tell me how many silver dimes I've missed...Not that I've been on un-hunted grounds known to contain many , but knowing I've likely missed as many or more than I've recovered.

 

[Barrydang]

Gotta be there to swing over and it could
Be it’s beside something else and isn’t giving a clear cut signal. I just dug a 1835 half dime that was with a nail near it and it was a bad jumpy signal. My grandparents place built in the 50’s on the whole place it has only given me 2 silvers on the entire 1.5 acres. Keep swinging dig those signals you may not always dig and maybe eventually something will come out. My half dime I dug I searched the property over 2 years before I found it

 

[cougar14]

I started MD 6 years ago, 2 years w/Garrett Ace 400 and last 4 with Nox 800. Found over 2500 quarters, 2000 dimes, maybe 300 nickels, a few others, and exactly 2 silver quarters and 2 silver dimes. Just enjoy them when you find them.

 

[Megalodon]

If the homesites have been hunted by others, try the bushes where the lazier ones like me might have skipped. I hunted with a friend at a place where I made a conscious decision to not go into the stickerbushes and briars. He did - and was rewarded with an 1877 Indian cent in EF condition. I was happy for him because he deserved it more - and because it was his permission.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Very exasperating....I've MD'd quite a few older properties--properties that are from the 1950s and were inhabited, but usually get skunked(no silver coins unearthed)...or I may find a few wheat pennies and some clad dimes. The last 20 properties are like that....all skunks. I know previous detector activity got a vast majority of the silver coins but all of it? Just to give an example, I came across a school which I know existed in the 1950s and recently someone had excavated the top layer of soil--stirred it up. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to find some silver dimes--but, no--3 hours into it and I've found 3 wheat pennies and maybe 6 clad dimes. Overall, I'm lucky if I find 1 silver dime per year. I usually go out about 2-3 times per week. I've been MD'ing 7 years. I use an AT-Pro which is on its last legs. How can I improve my results with uncovering silver coins? Any ideas? Maybe I'm doing something wrong? Poor technique? Thanks ahead of time.

First hurdle; You are in Tucson, Arizona. That means there isn't a lot of silver coins there - compared to here on the East coast. You are going to have to work harder. Possible way around the hurdle; RESEARCH. You need to find out where celebrations were held in the past, i.e. harvest fairs; rodeos; livestock auctions; church picnic sites; silver miners, prospectors hangouts. The next thing you do is set your discrimination on the Garrett to reject EVERYTHING but clad and silver, and set your sensitivity to 60-percent. Get out there and get you some!

 

[xr7ator]

Don't pass up those mid tones! Especially if in older area that has been worked! I worked an area not long ago, with My AT Pro, and got a iffy spread out mid tone. I had recently recovered a brass/copper pocket watch chain that sounded similar, so I dug. First coin out was a silver quarter. Then, three nickels that were shielding the high tone. The whole area was really clean and not hardly anything went beep. One other mid tone on the same hunt, that was deep, turned out to be a war nickel with a merc sandwiched to it. A three silver day in a worked out area close to an old school. No wheats! That's how worked out the area was.
My clad is way down because I go strictly to try and find older coins. I ALWAYS dig mid tones. Yes, I dig a ton of trash but I don't pass up the gold! I can imagine how much gold I did pass up when I was a younger, cherry pickin' kinda guy.

 

[Trezurehunter]

Droughts happen. I have been hunting for around 33 years now, and just last year I went the entire season without finding a silver dime. I did manage my first 3 Cent silver, so that sort of made up for my lack of dimes last year. Search the heavily used areas from years ago. Try wooded areas where people use to picnic and walk around before tv, the internet, and computer games took over. Private yards can also produce silvers. Many an older home has given me Barber dimes. Good luck.

 

[pulltabfelix]

Very exasperating....I've MD'd quite a few older properties--properties that are from the 1950s and were inhabited, but usually get skunked(no silver coins unearthed)...or I may find a few wheat pennies and some clad dimes. The last 20 properties are like that....all skunks. I know previous detector activity got a vast majority of the silver coins but all of it? Just to give an example, I came across a school which I know existed in the 1950s and recently someone had excavated the top layer of soil--stirred it up. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to find some silver dimes--but, no--3 hours into it and I've found 3 wheat pennies and maybe 6 clad dimes. Overall, I'm lucky if I find 1 silver dime per year. I usually go out about 2-3 times per week. I've been MD'ing 7 years. I use an AT-Pro which is on its last legs. How can I improve my results with uncovering silver coins? Any ideas? Maybe I'm doing something wrong? Poor technique? Thanks ahead of time.

I had a similar problem. I hunt this local park that is super trashy with pop tops, pull tabs and screw caps and bottle caps. It is the only park in the county along the Chattahoochee river so it is slammed every weekend and holidays. Park dates back to the early 1900's. I had an AT pro and could not hunt the areas around the picnic tables close to the river because of all the junk. Later got my Equinox 800 and much later really learned how to use it.

Now I am in park1 or 2, in multi, sensitivity around 18, discrim out everything below 18, turn on the threshold so I can hear the threshold tone, set the recovery speed to 7, use the Coiltek 10 x 5 Nox coil and FE2 to zero. Now the threshold will tell me how many targets I am swinging over. If it sounds like machinegun I know I have to use the fast recover speed. If the threshold indicates fewer targets, I drop the recovery speed down to 4 and increase my sensitivity up to around 21 or as high as I can go.

This has resulted in me finding lots of old coins that I had missed with the AT Pro and the Equinox 800 until I finally learned how to use the 800.

The unmasking ability of the 800 with a fast recovery speed and smaller coil is amazing. I would use the same settings/method hunting trashy home sites. The threshold in my opinion is the key to telling you when to change your recovery speed and sensitivity.

 

[Mackaydon]

I found most of them 40 years ago.
Don.......

 

[pulltabfelix]

I found most of them 40 years ago.
Don.......

but did you have to leave all the pull tabs, pop tops and bottle caps and screw caps?

 

[eman1000]

Funny timing on this topic I was just looking at my Dad's collection of Silver coins from the early 1980's he hunted with a Fisher 551 on his hip and he was telling me he used to pull 10-12 silvers on many days. I'm lucky to find 2 the whole year. I'm not one to door knock in old neighborhoods but I do the research and hit a site when I can. Silver is just getting harder to find. I wouldn't blame the machine. I had a 3 silver day with an F22 when I first got started and they were not more than a few inches deep. (At school from the 1800's - lucky no one had hit before) but hit many home sites since and left with only a wheatie or empty handed. Glad to hear I'm not the only one who has long draughts.