Ok... is my MD broken or what!!!???

[partenr]

I've been hunting about a year total time and I have never found silver. Best coins I've found are a few wheat backs. Don't get me wrong - I've found LOTS of really, REALLY cool stuff (i.e. wedding bands, WWII Medal), but I can't believe I've never found any silver. By the volume of silver in some of the "Today's Finds" posts it seems like some get their machine out of the trunk, walk 20 feet, trip over their shoelace, and stumble into a hole with silver in it! I see people finding 1-5 silver coins in a day and I can't get even one in a year?

I do a great deal of research, hunt really old schools and parks, dig some sloppy signals, run with DISC in a low setting.... what gives? Is my White's Classic II just not a good silver machine? Like today I was noticing that I am pulling 2006 pennies from a depth of 2-3 inches. If you extrapolate that depth over time, wouldn't a 1912 coin in the same area be around....75 inches deep? LOL

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I think this is about the coolest hobby in the world, and I am mostly into the historic element of it, so I'm getting a little discouraged. Ideas?

 

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[scrubber]

I'm also in Washington State (western) and have never found a silver coin. The Northwest just doesn't seem to be generally good for silver coinage. There will be exceptions I'm sure.

 

[Chug And Red]

I'm in Vancouver WA, Only have found one silver coin!!!! And a lot of silver jewelry for Reds Fingers!!!! I found one yesterday that I have not posted Yet!!!! Really cute with a Heart shaped stone!!! Hope the the Silver comes your Way soon!!!! Chug and Red

 

[Chug And Red]

Oops forgot It depends on your detector and What Conditions you are hunting!!! Grass, sandy shore, Tot lot!!! I have Learned My whites Classic ID5 and still need to Adjust for Dry or Wet conditions I Dig almost every signal except Iron And i Dig them once in awhile to verify the Signal!!! HH Chug

 

[partenr]

Well that makes me feel a little better - does make me wonder "why" though, there seems to be a lack of silver coinage in the Pacific Northwest. Or a lack of ground conditions that permit the recovery anyway. Guess I should change my focus to jewelry and farming relics.

 

[Chug And Red]

I have lost count!!!! I belive that I have found 20 or more silver rings this year Most of them From Vancouver lake park!!!!! Never a gold ITEM FROM THERE though!!! but it DOES NOT STOP ME FROM LOOKING FOR ONE!!!!!


Look for other areas to hunt!!! Looks at old maps of your area and MOST IMPORTANT HAVE FUN!!! Chug and Red

 

[mfdunlevy]

Hey Partenr -

You and I must have gone to different schools together. I can't
find any silver either, but, I did find a shrunken head with a gold
tooth in front near Bremerton.

Mike

 

[TerryC]

It's location, location, location, not the machine. Actually, it sounds like you're doing very well! Keep at it. TTC

 

[partenr]

It's location, location, location, not the machine. Actually, it sounds like you're doing very well! Keep at it. TTC

I'm receptive to any advice: Where? Where? Where? LOL

 

[barber]

I'm having the same problem around Yakima

 

[TerryC]

It's location, location, location, not the machine. Actually, it sounds like you're doing very well! Keep at it. TTC

I'm receptive to any advice: Where? Where? Where? LOL

Partenr,
My (two) typing fingers would be blistered before I could list the many places to try. I must direct you to the plethora of books on locations to look. Some of my favorites (over the last 30 years) would be beaches. See my reply to your other post about md's. Also watch for when they scrape the topsoil off of a lot. That gives you a 4 or 5 inch headstart into the "old" dirt. Last, try "where-ever people gather". If that is oversimplifying, I mean under large trees, church grass, grass parking lots for those outdoor events, etc. The spots will start to "show up" after you've been at it for awhile. GL TTC

 

[UncleVinnys]

Do the math.
While Seattle may have millions of residents stretching back to the 1800s,
Eastern Washington had what? a population of 300?

I have exactly the same problem in the middle of California.
Most of the history was in Sacramento and San Francisco.
There were VERY few residents in my neck of the woods until just the
past 20 years.

The people in my club who find silver almost always find it in the oldest parts
of the oldest large cities.

Here's to your luck changing!

 

[Saddletramp]

I find a lot of silver in the rear of old houses where the clothesline would have been. Not many folks had dryers back then LOL... Also in areas where the population was low look to the rivers and creeks to find old homesites.

 

[olepossum]

go to the library and get into old news papers and look for church tent revivals, communitty gatherings, political picnics , town dances , old old parks, look for old residential places and hit the empty lots where a old mansion may have sat ,and yes keep a eye out when they tear up streets go in after work crew leaves ,or when they tear up brick and cobblestone roads and sidewalks,and around very old church yards alsoi have a whites dfx 300 w/12 inch coil some days i dont have enough pockets and some days a match box is to big we fellow whites dont become good with our machines untill we have had at least 2 or 3 years with her and then we know every little sound she makes and to dig or not to dig as for me i am on the back side of that curve i am on year 3 and still learning that girl

 

[George (MN)]

Most detectorists do not find silver coins in parks & schoolyards anymore. Those that do have the deepest detectors and understand what it is telling them, or dig when not sure. Most city parks and public schoolyards have been detected repeatedly since the '70s, at least. Maybe thousands of times each.

When I got into the hobby in 1976, it was easy to find many silver coins as the detectors that rejected trash hadn't been around long. By the early 1980s, I only found old coins when right next to trash. I was still using a non-motion detector, when motion discriminators were going deeper, but not as good at making close separations.

By 1985, I was almost never finding old coins in parks or schoolyards. I guess the motion detectors had become good enough to find coins close to trash. So I mostly gave up for awhile, then decided I would still detect parks & schoolyards for new coins.

I recently got a couple deeper detectors but still trying to learn them. Part of the problem with parks besides being heavily hunted, is if it is a big city they've had almost unlimited budgets for frequent renovations, sometimes adding fill dirt with the new sod. You can often tell if an area has fill dirt as the roots that go out from a tree will be buried.

Even many private properties have been detected before & may have fill dirt, but still some are much better than parks. Ghost towns where nothing is left may be good, but permission will generally be needed. Some semi-ghost towns have many vacant lots. In many cases the vacant lots are owned by the town so they might give you permission to detect all the vacant lots they own.

All county seat towns in Central & Eastern WA were established by 1910.

For parks that are fairly cleaned out, the most success may come from areas that don't seem like they'd be used much. Or else the trashiest areas, where a small coil would be a big advantage. HH, George (MN)

 

[FLauthor]

When you least expect it, is when you'll find your silver coin. Here is a tip, go to the County Courthouse, Tax Collector office, ask for the Old Government Survey Plats for your county usually dating from 1840's to 1850's. If they don't have them then ask for the oldest map they have on file that depicts pioneer homes and settlements. You might get lucky and find a virgin picnic grove that no one has ever hunted.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Find a virgin campsite (like, old boyscout or girl-scout type camps). Or a virgin country picnic grounds. And just because a current owner, neighbor, resident, etc... says "no one's ever md'd here/there before", doesn't mean anything. Perhaps they just don't know. I've had owners of property tell me things like that, but I have to chuckle, because I know it's been hunted to a frazzle. Like maybe, someone else in the family opened the gate, maybe a friend of one of the ranch-hands, who felt he didn't need to "go to the top", once he had the utility man's permission (or shrugged shoulder, etc...). Or quite frankly, maybe someone just "helped themselves" (in the case of large acreage of boondocks type places).

But if you can find a virgin picnic site or campground of heavy usage, those are going to be your best silver bets.

 

[XL-PRO PRO]

All of the suggestions above are good advice,but although I'm a faithful Whites user I am not a fan of their lower end machines(I've bought & sold a few).Most don't have external ground balance or autotrac.This alone can make a detector useless in bad ground.The old adage "you get what you pay for"holds true to a point,but you don't have to buy it new.Detectors that sold for $900 in the 90's can be had for $100-$200 today!As near as I can tell Whites technology peaked about that time.I've owned a new DFX when they first came out and though it had more bells and whistles,I went back to my XL-PRO and currently use an Eagle II sl that I purchased at a yard sale for $80(1990 price $800+) because it has tone id.I regularly find silver coins,gold rings,civil war relics,etc.Watch the members classifieds on this forum and ask members for ratings on various detectors.The ideal is for this to be an enjoyable hobby and if all your finding is clad it kind of takes the fun out of it.Best of luck-DBULL

 

[Coin Digger]

I consider finding silver anything predating 1964 and I only find a handful a year. I think the people that find a lot probable don't have any competition in their area. Most all my silver was found within a few inches of dirt and off the beaten path.

As far as coins sinking in the ground I once read an article about that very subject. The long and short of it was, a coin will sink into the ground until it reaches soil with the same density. IE soil compaction.
In northern climates the ground freezes pushing everything upwards like ice cubes in a tray.

I don't think your detector is broken either. From the sounds of it you have found way too many cool things. What makes a good detector is not the price you pay for it but the person using it.

 

[XL-PRO PRO]

My apologies if I sound like I'm giving any particular detector a bad rap but you can only "learn" your detector to the extent of it's capabilities.If they were all the same, the manufacturers would only make one model.I've gone back over sites with my Eagle that I have searched in the past with my Xl-pro and found missed goodies at all of them(found a 10k ring yesterday on a previously searched ballfield).And I'm definitely not saying it has to be expensive.Detectors,like cars,depreciate pretty quick.Simply buy the best you can afford used.For a pretty fair guide as to how a detector performs check out metaldetectorreviews.com.I'm reasonably sure someone could go behind me with a different brand detector(there are plenty of good ones out there)and find even more goodies.DBULL