HELP

[Coin Stalker]

Ok so i have been metal detecting for about 3 months and all I have been finding is newer clad. I have been seeing all these post on this site about people find all this cool silver and old old stuff... So my question is how do I get in on finding this kind of stuff? I know it cant be easy and also probably takes a lot of time and experience.. If any of you have any pointers I will greatly appreciate the help..

 

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[UncleVinnys]

You're probably not doing anything wrong, except perhaps in the locations you choose to hunt.
You want to select the oldest areas in your town.

Check out Google.com and enter your town name and the words
old maps, or vintage maps (e.g., "Mytown vintage maps") and check out
the areas that existed before 1965. Try Willow.com too, a real-estate
site that will list when the houses were built.

If you are using a stock coil, consider going to a larger DD type search coil.
Work slowly and pay attention to the deeper, fainter signals.

Then give up on all those changes and realize it's just a matter
of DUMB LUCK!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Re: HELP - reply

What city in "Northern CA" are you in?

Your best bet, IMHO, to start to find the old coins you read about, is #1: stay away from hard-hit parks and school yards, that have been pounded to death over the past few decades. Oh sure, there's maybe deeper stuff there, but if you're just starting out, and with an Ace 250, you're not going to "one-up" those that went before you, at this point, in those conditions.

So the best way to start to get the feel for how those oldies sound, is to start at areas with easier pickens. And THEN progress to harder-to-work sites, once you have the sounds and feels down. And the best place to find easy virgin pickens, is to hit the yards of houses. Start with the 1940s/50's type post-WWII era yards. Silver and wheaties should be forthcoming from some of them (as long as there's no yard-fill, or new turf, or whatever). Sure this will mean knocking on doors. Or another way to do it, is ...... in this day & age of foreclosed homes-for-sale, often you can find them sitting vacant nowadays. 8)

Another way to start to find oldies, is to hook up with someone in your area, who is proficient at bringing in the oldies. Ie.: not just a sandbox hunter, but someone who routinely finds silver. So if there's a club in your area, attend, and see who's bringing in what, to the show-&-tell portion of the meetings. Oftentime hard-core hunters like that, love hunting so much, they might not turn up the chance to get out and hunt with others, even if you're a beginner. See what type sites they choose. And if they get a signal they say "this sounds like a deep old coin", have them flag it, so you can swing over it, and hear what they're trying to isolate amongst the sea of signals.

For the really old coins in CA, it's usually not going to be turf, parks, schools, etc.... Those findings seateds and such here, are usually going to get them out of old-town-urban demolition sites, and relicky ghost-town ruins type sites. That can be very punishing, and very hit-&-miss. But once you get an appreciation for the age-indicator woulda-couldas (pistol balls, lantern parts, harmonica reeds, etc....) you start to love the challenge of waiting for that seated that should be "just around the corner"

 

[crazyjarhead]

On the Ace I only use the 12 inch coil. Research is the key to finding old sites. Sometimes you just get lucky too. You just never know what will come out of the ground next. If I am detecting a new place that is old I sometimes have to clean out the clad and shallow stuff to get to the 4-6 inch depth of the older coins. I hate digging new clad but that's what it's all about .However if I am hunting an old place I just dig everything anyways. I stumbled across a LC last year that was only 3 inches down. Just never know. Good luck and a lot of practice will make you proficient with the Ace. Don't expect to find the good stuff unless you get into an old place and master your machine. HH Ron

 

[nova]

It took me two years to find a 1957 Roosevelt dime. It will come at the least expected.

 

[Iron Patch]

You should only judge yourself by what others find in your area, and not on the T-net, because the site/location is what counts the most. Here just about anyone can turn on a detector, walk around, and find a coin from the 1800s.

 

[Coin Stalker]

Wow thanks for all the useful info guys.....

 

[Woodland Detectors]

You have to realize, activity didn't get moving out west until the 1800's. I lived in Colorado for years, and all I could ever dig was modern stuff too. As soon as I moved East, I could uncover at least one real old relic from each site it seemed. It's not you. Just the sites your hunting.

 

[White Feather]

Old is relative! To us here in the Colonies 200, 300, 400, 500 years old is OLD. In the Old World it is 3,000, 4,000 or even more years. Keep plugging away and it will come. Just go out to have fun and you will never be disappointed. The finds are icing on the hobby! I sometimes go with very long dry spells in my underwater hunting. It's the thrill of the chase so to speak. If you don't enjoy being out there with the anticipation of what could be rather than having to find something to be happy you will soon sell your detector or it will sit in a small dark closet while you do something else. Just go out and have fun! That's what it's all about! Suppose the Hokey-Pokey is what it is all about? Boy have we wasted a lot of time on nothing.

 

[Ronfrommichigan]

Silver coins are deeper and harder to find.It takes skill and good equipment to be consistent finding silver.Good Luck.

 

[N.J.THer]

practice, patience and research will get you there.

It took me a while to find a silver coin then even longer to find a coin from the 1800's. Now I do mostly 45 minute lunchtime hunts in old parks that have been pounded and find silver and old 1800 coins on almost every hunt.

I hunt with a White's DFX and I just kept at it then one day it literally clicked. I became so connected to the machine I just know what I'm going to dig before it dig it. That only came with practice and digging every signal for almost two years. By the way I still dig every signal to clear the trash for the older coins below and that is one reason I'm successful in old parks that have been pounded to death.

Good luck and happy hunting.
NJ

P.S. My avatar was found in a park that the old timers claimed to clean out 20 years ago. In the right outfield of a baseball field. Not too far from an 1837 Hard Times Token and a 1847 Large Cent.

 

[CWnut]

the newer clad is probably blowing your headphones off. To find the older coins you must first find a site that contains older coins. Then you must sort through the junk. And finally slow down and lisen for the soft whispers. Remember, if you are using a concentric coil the detection pattern is shaped similar or an ice cream cone, the deeper it goes the less it 'sees', hence you must slow down and overlap much more. Your technique will improve as you gain experience, hang in there.