Most commonly found coinage

[Midden-marauder]

I'm just curious to hear about this one. If you'd care to contribute tell us what the most common coins you find are, general date range and state you're located in.
I wanna see if there's a regional variance here.
Around here, new mexico, the most common ones I come across are pennies, 1965-present with a majority in the 70s and 80s

 

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[RGINN]

Bout the same as you find, here in Summit County CO. Lot of what you find might be determined by the areas you detect, also how you have your detector set. Example, here in town, mostly Lincolns and Zincolns. Down near Independence Pass one time, 1876 dime.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

I would think the reason you find mostly pennies is because other detectorists are cherry picking coinage leaving the pennies and taking the higher denominations. In my local area I am the only detectorist so I find all denominations of modern clad haven't found old coins in town but have found silver coins outside of town at the local fishing hole. 1946 quarter and dime.

 

[Midden-marauder]

Granted location is everything, there are exceptions but in any given spot in the urban setting I find pennies and I think I know the actual reasons why. Dimes, nickles, quarters and other "silver" coins are very easy to spot on the ground, pennies not so much especially against the brown sand. I've had to train my eye to spot small round objects that largely blend into the ground to find tarnished copper, brass and etc. folks don't see em walking along. The idea that everything is cherry picked I can shoot down by saying that a large number of the pennies found are from a location I know with 100% certainty has never been detected or searched, another location too I find them at is highly unlikely to have been searched at any point. Some places remain untapped believe it or not. Pennies dominate, once in a blue moon I'll uncover a silver colored coin but those are very rare, I can only imagine the actual old silver is even more rare.

 

[MisterHelix]

I'm just curious to hear about this one. If you'd care to contribute tell us what the most common coins you find are, general date range and state you're located in.
I wanna see if there's a regional variance here.
Around here, new mexico, the most common ones I come across are pennies, 1965-present with a majority in the 70s and 80s

Yeah, like that, followed closely by clad dimes 1980-present.

I’m in Virginia hunting my own farm, only.

 

[Midden-marauder]

Yeah, like that, followed closely by clad dimes 1980-present.

I’m in Virginia hunting my own farm, only.

Hey, you find dimes lol. I found a modern one, in the front yard of our acre property that has been continuously inhabited since the mid 40s, I found a 1955 penny among the 1970s copper explosion, that's the oldest coin I've found on the property to date, nary a silver coin to be found yet, not even under the old clothes line. I'm hoping against hope I find an old silver something on the property, Lord knows I've found meaningful 1940s relics, just no silvers, nope.

 

[Midden-marauder]

Try this: go place a penny (especially one with a patina) in a dirt patch next to the sidewalk and see how long it takes for someone to notice it or even care enough to pick it up. Try the same thing with a quarter and see if you get different results. I already know how this one goes but it's always worth an experiment just to see with ones own eyes ..

 

[Tpmetal]

All depends on where you hunt. location location location. I avoid modern areas like the plague. I hunt in spots where I find almost zero modern coinage. I have found more seated and barbers than I have both silver and clad Roosevelt's and Washington's combined. So the question is kinda flawed to begin with.

 

[MisterHelix]

To date, from my driveway and yard of a house built around 2006 over farmland, I’ve found
one quarter (2004),
one nickel (1981)
about fifteen clad dimes,
about fifteen copper (pre ‘82) Pennies, and 50 rotten Zinc Pennies.

The oldest of them is a 1950 wheat cent.

The farm has been used since 1752, but I’m a half mile from the old farmhouse.

 

[UnderMiner]

Gold coins of all denominations usually from 18th century Spain, of course I am dreaming at the time, and when I wake up they're not there anymore.

 

[Midden-marauder]

All depends on where you hunt. location location location. I avoid modern areas like the plague. I hunt in spots where I find almost zero modern coinage. I have found more seated and barbers than I have both silver and clad Roosevelt's and Washington's combined. So the question is kinda flawed to begin with.

Yeah,

All depends on where you hunt. location location location. I avoid modern areas like the plague. I hunt in spots where I find almost zero modern coinage. I have found more seated and barbers than I have both silver and clad Roosevelt's and Washington's combined. So the question is kinda flawed to begin with.

Flawed? Asking an impromptu statistical question from the masses? Of course it's about location but I think inquiring if there's any regional trends is within reason. I mean if all you get to hunt are some 1700s homesteads you still can answer the question. What's the most common coinage you find friend? I hear ya, hunting modern sites can be a bore though not always, same can be said of some older sites, they don't all yield the same way though certain trends are likely to be there. I went to one of my secret places today, a place with history going back to the late 1800s. Much of what is found there is actually mid 1900s as it turns out but it's pretty neat. Only 3 coins have come out of that place as it's quite impossible to metal detect: two pennies from the early 60s and one blessed mercury dime from the early 40s. Atypical ratio to date but I'd bet you that merc that basically any coins left in that place are all pennies, maybe one more piece of silver hiding under the first inch but if any detector could single it out from the rest of the metallic debris then the person working it deserves a prize, they really do.
It's funny, I hoard change and metal detecting helps advance that cause, I find pennies constantly just looking around on the ground. Parking lots, back alleys, folks yards, the xeriscape around my work, the xeriscape in front of the gas station across the street, large cracks in the asphalt etc. etc. what do I find the most of? Pennies. Is that just my luck? Possibly.
It only matters a little what I turn up the most of, we know that now, I wanna know what you find the most of coin wise and feel free to give as much location or history info as you like, not all of us have exactly the same access to the same sorts of stuff, that part is very regionally bound or so it would seem. What's your number one frequently found coin man? I wanna know

 

[Chilli]

Where I am in OZ our history money wise is limited. Early for us is mid 1800s English coins up until 1900s. Coins from then on a number are from here but some 1800s tokens that were made here due to coinage shortages.
I hunt on the goldfields so its anything from that era, mid 1800s to early 1900s. Never found anything outside that date wise other than once a tiny french wax seal that may have been from earlier, but not by much.
I just watch in amazement at the early finds made here on this site from the US and UK.

 

[Fentonian]

For me and my style of hunting, large cents is the most likely coin to dig up, have about 5:1 ratio of large cents to IHPs….location location location…

 

[blauer]

I keep a database of all my finds (been detecting since the 80s) and here are my stats:

CLAD PERCENTAGE​	​	57.93%​
Silver/Wheat/Bronze PERCENTAGE​	​	42.07%​

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Pennies and clad dimes are my most common finds when I'm detecting schools, parks and ballfields. Most of the pennies I find are 1940's to 1970's. I do find zinc pennies, but probably fewer than 25% are those types. Clad quarters are fairly common, but I don't find many nickels, since I usually ignore signals under 75 at public places.

I do find a few silver coins and IHC's as well, but not on a regular basis. I find around 10 IHC's a year and probably a dozen or so silver coins a year. But I spend most of my time in the woods looking for pre-1900 coins, so that limits my silver finds. I also find around 10 to 15 big coppers a year (large cents and KG coppers). And every couple of years, I'll find a 1700's Spanish half reale to keep me coming back for more!

 

[Tpmetal]

Yeah,

Flawed? Asking an impromptu statistical question from the masses? Of course it's about location but I think inquiring if there's any regional trends is within reason. I mean if all you get to hunt are some 1700s homesteads you still can answer the question. What's the most common coinage you find friend? I hear ya, hunting modern sites can be a bore though not always, same can be said of some older sites, they don't all yield the same way though certain trends are likely to be there. I went to one of my secret places today, a place with history going back to the late 1800s. Much of what is found there is actually mid 1900s as it turns out but it's pretty neat. Only 3 coins have come out of that place as it's quite impossible to metal detect: two pennies from the early 60s and one blessed mercury dime from the early 40s. Atypical ratio to date but I'd bet you that merc that basically any coins left in that place are all pennies, maybe one more piece of silver hiding under the first inch but if any detector could single it out from the rest of the metallic debris then the person working it deserves a prize, they really do.
It's funny, I hoard change and metal detecting helps advance that cause, I find pennies constantly just looking around on the ground. Parking lots, back alleys, folks yards, the xeriscape around my work, the xeriscape in front of the gas station across the street, large cracks in the asphalt etc. etc. what do I find the most of? Pennies. Is that just my luck? Possibly.
It only matters a little what I turn up the most of, we know that now, I wanna know what you find the most of coin wise and feel free to give as much location or history info as you like, not all of us have exactly the same access to the same sorts of stuff, that part is very regionally bound or so it would seem. What's your number one frequently found coin man? I wanna know

So I say its flawed because there is so much variation in where one chooses to hunt. Someone in my same town could go hunt the parks and the vast majority of coins from the 1900s and on. But in my sites, probably similar to any sites that had modern activity as well, the most common coin is the penny. Mine are Indians(area was settled in the 1790s) but there are more pennies than other coins to begin with so naturally thats what we find more of. I am in western NY and we have an interesting history that left many large areas empty past the very late 1800s and very early 1900s, past 1915 or so they saw very few people minus some hunters. So I'll use an example of a horse track and fairgrounds grounds I hunt that will give you a pretty good spread of what would be found for the type of areas I hunt. I have found at this one site over 150 Indians, and somewhere around 60 silver coins, mostly seated dimes with a few barbers sprinkled in. But there were half dimes, trimes, quarters, Canadian half dimes, and even a seated half. Add to that 5 or 6 two cent coins, 25 or so shield and v nicks, couple of large cents, and a single random merc dime. Hope that answers your question.

 

[sprailroad]

For me and my style of hunting, large cents is the most likely coin to dig up, have about 5:1 ratio of large cents to IHPs….location location location…

Yes,...LOCATION, LOCATION, and LOCATION...

 

[blackheart]

My neighborhood was built around the 30s/40s, with my own house built in the early 50s. My yard has given up more wheat pennies from the teens/20s than all my other coins combined. I don't mind hunting 50s era properties though. Its not uncommon for me to have a quarter in my pocket that's over 50 years old. I expect it would've been similar back then.