old, very old, coins and relics

[andrew96]

Do you guys have some tips for finding really old stuff from the 17th and 18th century? Or is it too deep?

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

17th century? THAT would be super tough. Florida, Virginia coast or Southwest U.S. Somewhere under Manhattan Island in New Amsterdam (now New York City).

18th century - old cellar holes in the 13 original colonies within 20 miles of the coast or large rivers. Old trading stations and areas around forts.

It's not too deep; especially where the soil is circulated. But it's mighty old and there wasn't much to being with. Probably a population of less than 1,000,000 European type metal users in the U.S. in the 1600's. Mostly congregated around seaports.

Find an old map of the area you are interested in and look for the areas of civilization. You can save a lot of tme by eliminatination spots where folks weren't.

 

[Iron Patch]

It's simple.... you need the history and have to be able to detect on the areas they settled. I have hunted many 18th century sites but never a 17th century one, although I have finds that date to the 17th, even one from the 16th, and a friend dug a 14th century silver coin right beside me.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Depends on where you hunt. If you're hunting un-disturbed turf, then yes: the older the coins, the deeper they tend to be, since turf is usally very stratified and depth-correlated. But is that to say you can't reach coins back to the 1700s then in undisturbed park turf? Not necessarily. Because each park's turf is different. In some parks, I find that wheaties start at 3", '20s stuff at 5 or 6", IH's and barbers at an easy 7", seateds at 8", and so forth. At other park's turf, wheaties might not be any less than 6", and teens/20s stuff is reaching for whispers at the 8" and more levels. It all depends on how moist the soil is/was kept over the years, type ground composition, etc... And oddly, you might move over to hardpan next to a tree, and dig a merc or barber 1" down, since it was in hard-pan (verses lush grass) all those years.

But in most all other hunt environments, there is much less age to depth correlation. Cow pastures where old cellar holes or campgrounds were, row crop areas where constant plowing keeps things mixed up, beaches where the erosion cycles can bring oldies to right on top of the wet after a storm, etc... I've found seateds & reales, etc.... only an inch deep before (conversely, I've dug a foot deep for clad before).

In turfed parks back east, I've heard of turf hunters getting bust coins, reales, etc.... So it just depends on where you're hunting. And if the place is truly stratified, it will of course, depend on how deep you can reach, how skilled you are, etc....

 

[curbdiggercarl57]

Don't move to Denver. 1860's is as old as we're getting. Man, do I miss living in Maryland, except for the snow. We don't get much of that anymore, just enough to annoy us.
Carl

 

[andrew96]

Don't move to Denver. 1860's is as old as we're getting. Man, do I miss living in Maryland, except for the snow. We don't get much of that anymore, just enough to annoy us.
Carl

Good thing I'm in Richmond!

 

[deepskyal]

If you want to find colonials and such, you need to focus on just that. There are a few people on Tnet that hunt almost exclusively for old colonial coins...and do fairly well at it. I should add they are on the eastern half of the states and you are in a good area in Va.

These guys seem to hit the really old homesites. LOTS and LOTS of research...but seeing their finds....very well worth it. I hunt almost exclusively the areas where the latest history is mid 1800's. Don't make tons of finds...more like tons of unidentifiable trash...lol....but when I find that colonial....I'm gonna be pretty darn excited.

And I also want to say...you probably aren't gonna kick up anything like that in city parks. Those guys are usually at the back edge of someones farm or in the middle of the woods where a property vanished a long time ago.

My best advice...hone your map reading skills...learn how to do map layovers on google earth....go to the library and find the really old historical newspapers or property holdings, old census records...etc....usually on micro-filtch.
Learn to love local history.

Al

 

[Iron Patch]

If you want to find colonials and such, you need to focus on just that. There are a few people on Tnet that hunt almost exclusively for old colonial coins...and do fairly well at it. I should add they are on the eastern half of the states and you are in a good area in Va.

These guys seem to hit the really old homesites. LOTS and LOTS of research...but seeing their finds....very well worth it. I hunt almost exclusively the areas where the latest history is mid 1800's. Don't make tons of finds...more like tons of unidentifiable trash...lol....but when I find that colonial....I'm gonna be pretty darn excited.

And I also want to say...you probably aren't gonna kick up anything like that in city parks. Those guys are usually at the back edge of someones farm or in the middle of the woods where a property vanished a long time ago.

My best advice...hone your map reading skills...learn how to do map layovers on google earth....go to the library and find the really old historical newspapers or property holdings, old census records...etc....usually on micro-filtch.
Learn to love local history.

Al

Yep! I'm one that spends all my time at the earliest sites I can find. We certainly dig our share of junk too, but if you dig enough old targets the goodies will appear. If given the choice to detect in any State it would be VA!

 

[andrew96]

Well, actually, I have a bunch of sites honed, I just need to get permission. Including, Thomas Jefferson's house when he waas governor, battle sites,etc all from 1770s and 1780s.

 

[Iron Patch]

Well, actually, I have a bunch of sites honed, I just need to get permission. Including, Thomas Jefferson's house when he waas governor, battle sites,etc all from 1770s and 1780s.

Make your goal simply digging early finds no matter what the site. The same type stuff tends to turn up so most times you don't need a really historic site to make a good find. I used to dream about hunting the fort close to me, but once I realized what was in the fields, I look at the fort now as being much the same with just with a lot of added modern junk. Of course I'd still do it, but it's just different now that I know what's available at the sites I can go to.