Just wondering

[Sandancer]

I have been metal detecting for about ten years now and have gone out an estimated 400 times. In all those times I have never failed to find at least one coin during each outing, no matter if it was at the beach, in a park, or deep in the middle of the woods. I am not bragging, but just wondering if this is a reasonably normal thing or are there just that many lost coins everywhere?

 

[eman1000]

I've been skunked plenty of times and its a horrible feeling! two in a row and I'm ready to throw in the towel and sell all my stuff. I'm usually good at a park or playground I always find at least a penny even at the park I hunt weekly, but there have been plenty of old sites and field locations I thought would produce a coin or two that I didn't find anything. I hunt at least once a week if not two or three times from April to October generally usually for about 1 hour at a time.

- Now some of those same sites have produced great relics and even coins if I hit them again on a better day or from a different direction or machine.

My wife says "can I quit my job yet" but now she knows the look on my face and she doesn't even ask - There are a ton of lost coins but I think it is getting less and less each year as fewer people carry change around. Just counted my clad for this year and I was at $111.05 not including pennies which I don't count. I would think you beach hunters could pull that at a tourist site in a week or two.

10 years is one heck of a streak though!

 

[Sandancer]

Your right eman, the beach is always good for many coins, but what gets me is that coins can be found anywhere, even in the most unlikely of places. The strangest place I ever found a coin was deep in the woods, far from any identifiable path or apparent past human habitation.

 

[alaskaseeker]

Thats what makes detecting interesting for me, you can hunt in the mist unusual places, maybe get skunked but maybe NOT.....

 

[cudamark]

I've only been skunked on coins once, and that was a beach in a foreign country. I came close here once when I hunted for 4 hours and found one zinc cent.

 

[smokeythecat]

I've been skunked more than once. This one Civil War camp I have hunted for several YEARS had only produced one coin - a wrecked 1865 cent. On the other hand, I"m looking for bullets, buttons and plates there. When I go coin shooting, which is very infrequent, I don't think I've ever come back empty handed. I mainly dig Civil War and earlier sites.

 

[Sandancer]

I've been skunked more than once. This one Civil War camp I have hunted for several YEARS had only produced one coin - a wrecked 1865 cent. On the other hand, I"m looking for bullets, buttons and plates there. When I go coin shooting, which is very infrequent, I don't think I've ever come back empty handed. I mainly dig Civil War and earlier sites.

Good point about coin shooting or relic hunting. I guess I am not that focused. When I go detecting it is almost always for anything I can find. I suppose if I were going after a specific type of find, I would have my detector set up differently and would miss some coins.

 

[Billieg]

You know research is the key. If you just drive around and hunt empty lots and parks you won't find much. Research where people met a long time ago. You will have a much better chance of finding old coins. I found out where the old fair grounds were in a town near by and found all kinds of silver. The place looks like a field where nothing has been. You would never stop there and hunt. good luck.