Im very confused, am i doimg something wrong?

[SCDigginWithAK]

Ok so I went to a house built in 1911 today. A few weeks ago I went to an old home site. Before that old schools 1904-1950 only. I can't seem to find any silver coins, old nickels, or wheats. I went to one site and found like 10 Wheaties but no silver. I'm going to all the right places! Today my oldest coin was 1990. Is there anything I can do to improve this? I would really like another silver coin. So far my total is 2. But they were in CW camps. I have the Ace 350 if that helps.

 

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[Tnmountains]

Sometimes the silver is just not there. Or it may have been hunted hard and very few lost. I know old homesites will sometimes produce little because they had little.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Yep, there is no guarantee of silver coins, or any old coins. I have hunted a lot of old house yards where a single wheat cent was my only reward. Just keep trying new places, eventually you will find a great one!

 

[SCDigginWithAK]

It thought so. One problem is my town was a big textile town. So I assume they had very little. Oh well. I hope I get something soon. Thanks guys.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I've detected the yard at my farm for over 30 years - been in my family for well over 200 years - as much as 270. My ancestors were the original settlers. I was hitting the yard again on Friday.

To date, I've found 3 wheats, a clad quarter - and 30 years ago a Merc at the clothesline.

My ancestors were dirt poor. Mom (87 years old) told me that when she spent a Summer there in the late 30's, she lost a nickel in the yard. She got a letter from her grandmother - she'd found the nickel after a week of searching.......

A NICKEL WAS THAT VALUABLE TO THEM BACK THEN.

Keep the faith and keep searching. But remember - they had very little in those times.

Yet, seek and you shall find. You won't find if you don't keep seeking

Good luck!

 

[Helix]

The two silver coins you found at a old C.W. camp, thats a good start! Were they of that time period?

 

[SCDigginWithAK]

The two silver coins you found at a old C.W. camp, thats a good start! Were they of that time period?

One was. 1832 capped bust half dime. The other was 1943 P war nickel.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

One was. 1832 capped bust half dime. The other was 1943 P war nickel.

Capped Bust Half Dime

I'd say that the overwhelming majority of members here have not been as fortunate as you !!!

 

[SCDigginWithAK]

Capped Bust Half Dime

I'd say that the overwhelming majority of members here have not been as fortunate as you !!!

Hahaha I know. I always say that that makes up for it. It's just good to see silver haha. That was a year ago but still my favorite find. Best part about it is its the second lowest mintage and its under a million

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I have such great sympathy for you now....

However, keep digging.

 

[Backbacon]

Mark of and grid a area that you believe may hold some goodies, dig every target and there may be something waiting for you under all of the junk targets. It has worked for me in the past, takes time though. I hope this helps in your future hunts there. hey, it could be time well spent eh?

 

[SCDigginWithAK]

I have such great sympathy for you now....

However, keep digging.

I honestly can't tell if that was sarcasm haha

 

[SCDigginWithAK]

Mark of and grid a area that you believe may hold some goodies, dig every target and there may be something waiting for you under all of the junk targets. It has worked for me in the past, takes time though. I hope this helps in your future hunts there. hey, it could be time well spent eh?

Thanks ill try. How do you grid it off? Rope?

 

[SCDigginWithAK]

But the good news is, I always enjoy detecting. Love the hobby and just being out in the fresh air! That's all that matters. Thanks guys. I thought I might have to go very slow or something hahaha.

 

[CoilyGirl]

Just keep digging and I'll bet you will hit some silver soon( and I will too,lol!)

 

[SCDigginWithAK]

Just keep digging and I'll bet you will hit some silver soon( and I will too,lol!)

I hope you do too! Good luck!

 

[TerryC]

Many old salts pass on the penny targets and just dig the silver. Keep at it. Once you find an area with silver, they will start showing up in bunches! Keep at it. TTC

 

[BC1969]

Research is your best friend, when I was a kid, drive-in theaters were everywhere, today there are very few left, and most saddly are under parking lots, subdivisions and strip malls, but! some are just empty fields now...FIND THEM!, then find where the concession stand was, odds are you wont ever stand up, after you hit the ground for that first target.

Speaking of research, retirement homes! old folks, alot of them do not get many visitors, and they love to talk of their youth, what they did, where they did it, many a virgin ponds out there yet, that everybody went swimming at, them old swimming holes = detecting bliss.
put in a week or month, or all winter if you live where you would need a jackhammer to go detecting of hard research, and it will pay off in the end, you only get out of something, what you put into it, the harder you work, the greater the rewards.

Mike

 

[Jeremy S]

I think there are several reason why you are getting skunked while looking for old silver coins.

1) I find less silver out in the country and around small older houses where poorer people would have lived. As others have said, when someone dropped silver coin back in the day the whole family probably spent the afternoon scouring the area looking for the coin. Silver has a bight reflective color and would be easier to spot on the ground. Pennies can be dull and brown, much harder to spot thus probably the reason why we find more of them.

2) Metal detecting isn't exactly a new hobby, it had been around for a long time. Years ago detectors were more primitive but those easy-to-find silver coins were shallow and made for easy cherry picking. I detected my grandparents house (late 1800s) last year and only found one 1933 wheat penny. My uncle later mentioned that many years ago a guy was walking from house to house asking to detect yards and was given permission to detect my grandparent's yard. There is a good chance that this guy already picked out all of the silver targets and moved on to the neighbors house decades ago.

3) Silver coins haven't been minted for nearly 50 years. That means that those coins out there may be very deep in the ground due to frequent freeze/thaw cycles, moles, landscaping. A silver coin at 8+ inches isn't going to give you a good solid ID on most detectors. On My AT Pro, a deep coin will bounce around a bit and can sometime be much lower on the VDI # scale. Last week I found a 1918 penny in my back yard that was easily 8" deep. I could never get a solid repeatable signal on it, just a signal that bounced around like a piece of smashed aluminum can or hunk of tin roof would (60s - low 70s).

I gridded off a 20 x 20 area at a local baseball park where people sit directly behind the dugouts and dug every signal. This place was built in the early 60s. Sure, I dug many pull tabs, can tabs, clad change, and bottle caps. After a few trips to my area that I was cleaning out, in an area that I had previously dug several trash targets I got an iffy high tone (much like the 1918 penny in my back yard). A little over 6 inches down I found two 1940s wheat pennies. I had detected right over these several times before buy never saw them because 60 years of garbage was masking them out.

Once baseball season clams down and I can get back out there, perhaps I will find that deep silver that has been hiding under half a century of aluminum trash.

 

[TrpnBils]

six years in and I have yet to find silver. Up until this year I was running an Ace 250 in similar places as you and had only found 2 wheats.

I upgraded my detector to a Fisher F5 about a month ago and while I'm still waiting on my first silver, I have been finding wheats recently in places I had hit hard before. Some of it is location, some of it is experience (i.e. How to "read" what your detector is saying), some of it is the machine, and some of it is luck....no guarantees on anything.