I should know this but ... . .. ... .. .

[jondar]

Although I have done considerable MDing, most of it has been for military relics.When coin hunting, I don't have near the luck as with relics. I find all kinds of clad, but not the old ones. I have only found three, a 1835 dime, a 1862 silver three cent piece (while looking for military relics) and a pristine 1918 dime. Not counting Indian Heads. So either I'm not where the coins are or I'm a sloppy searcher. My two detectors in air (lying on the kitchen table with coil away from metal) will signal a dime or quarter at 6"-7". A lot of you are apparently successful in finding the old ones. Do you take small pieces of ground like three feet by three feet and cover it thoroughly or like me just walk making sweeps sometimes overlapping and sometimes not? Also how many of you use headphones?

 

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[Born2Dtect]

The first thing you need is an area were there are old coins. This might sound dumb but you can't find older coins if they are not there to find in the first place. Most people who find older coins research the areas where they go. The question I always ask myself is " Was this area used 50,70 100 years ago? How? Is it still in the same basic condition as it was then? Then learn your machine well, as all machines should find targets at 6" or less which is where you should find most finds. By the way an air test only tells you how your machine will respond (ID#, type,etc.) not how deep. A coin in the ground will act differently.

Reasearch, Learn your detector, and plenty of time hunting should do the trick for you.

Ed Donovan

 

[rvbvetter]

Very interesting question. I've never seen this asked before. Usually it's that theres coin hunters and then there's relic hunters. And never the twain shall meet.
You don't hear of many cross overs. Each seem to be die hards in their choice of search.
I would have to say that the difference is, that the relic hunter is looking for that old site, lets say, where a civil war encampment had been at one time.
Where as the coin hunter is looking for that old site that people had frequented many, many times over the years.
It doesn't necessarily take many people to lose relics.
But unless they were just throwing them away. It takes a considerable amount of populace and years of use for coins (money) to be lost. Especially considering money was meant to be held on to and even saved.
Great question HH

 

[hollowpointred]

old coin sites are scarce, and growing scarcer every day! over the years most of the obvious coin sites (and some of the not so obvious ones) have been hit hard.it seems like your problem is not in how you are hunting but in where you are hunting. Ive not been at it that long, but one thing i have noticed is that if the old coins are there, they aren't that hard to find.finding a spot where they are there though can be very hard to find. the only time i really grid of an area and hit it unmercifully is if i know there are old coins around.otherwise i hunt exactly as you described. i do use headphones mainly because they save my batteries.

 

[jondar]

I appreciate all your replies. Oddly, two of the old coins I described were found while actually relic hunting. I think it could very well be that I'm not going to places where the old ones could be located. I live in a very small town which goes back into the 1850s, and I have found two IH pennies, both 1900 date. I've heard that old church sites are a good place to look so may try to find one of those. Thanks again for your input. Jon

 

[Klaatu]

I'm sure you already know this but I'll toss it out anyway.

Be sure you have your discrimination set correctly. Discrimination is different for coins and relics.

 

[Jeffro]

RVB said it best- the best places for old coins are where people used to gather for years. You may find a few coins on a battlefield, but not nearly as much as an old fairgrounds or church revival site. That would explain your luck (or lack thereof).

Also when you find a site such as this it is important to slow down your sweeps, and definately overlap. I usually do a faster sweep, checking the more obvious areas, and then slow down when I hit my first coin and search the area well. After no coins for a while, I may speed up again until I come to a new hit, then slow down and search good again. Kinda like highgradin'.

Next visit, try the same thing, but from a different angle. Try it when the ground is wet, then try again when its dry. Different angles, different sweep speeds, different discrimination, and different GB settings. I'll try it once slightly on the hot side, and next time slightly on the other.

Good sites will continue to produce, but changing your approach each time may turn a good site into a great site! Best of luck out there.

 

[U.K. Brian]

There's been somel good suggestions but your air test figures seem to have been ignored. I use several different machines but all will air test more than double what your getting on the same coins. Ground depths,even with damp soil are not likely to be deeper than your air test results so your starting at a disadvantage.
Re sweep pattern. You really must overlap especially if you have concentric coils where I would suggest a 50% overlap as its the centre that provides the depth. Not such a problem with a double D coil but even then you should overlap to some degree.

 

[neilo]

What detector are you using? Only set your discriminator to reject only iron and dig all signals no matter how small.With practice you will soon recognise the different targets.Not knowing what machine you are using it is difficult to advise.If you were using say a minelab Sovereign or Explorer it is easy to recognise coins by the different tones and target ID. The deeper the target the weaker the signal is so dont only dig strong signals. Seeya Neilo

 

[jondar]

Quote: What detector are you using?

Right now I have a Compass Scanner XP-350. On relic hunting I use no disc at all. On coin hunting I have been setting the disc to reject foil. This lets tabs signal, and I get a lot of them. I bought the Compass about two years ago, not a real expensive machine, if I remember it was $350 new. The older coins I HAVE found were not that deep, around three inches. When I got the Compass I tried it in the back yard, got a strong signal, found a 2"X2" square of brass, part of an old clock at 10". So I don't think depth is my problem. I think it is partly I'm not finding the "good" places, and partly sloppy searching on my part.