Silver tips?

[Deleted member 70749]

I've been detecting for two years now and I can't seem to find the silver. The best I've done was 1914 wheatie, 1931 token, 1940 nickel, and many more wheaties yet I can't seem to get lucky. What are your strategies and what has been most successful?

 

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[fella]

1) Passing the coil over silver.
2) Repeat step one.

 

[Ism]

A lot of us have had silver dry spells. I searched an area full of trash (deconstruction debris, foil, pull tabs...etc), every year I remove a little bit more trash from the area.
In the process I've removed more than 25 silver dimes. I have also found silver where I least expected. Search where you haven't been searching.
For example; Sometimes people get stuck searching one area of a park because they found a couple old coins in that location.
Try the extremities or areas you would least expect to find silver. Sometimes those are the areas overlooked or not hunted hard by others in the hobby.
Good luck!

 

[RobRieman]

My silver finds come when I least expect them. I have researched and hunted many sites where the silver should have been and didn't find squat, or someone else already had. Lol it shows up in the damnest places and catches me off guard many times. It's a great surprise though when you flip the plug and the coin looks like the day it hit the ground.

 

[Deleted member 70749]

Thanks you guys, this will really help. I'll try and go out this weekend and search a spot that I think hasn't been hunted before. Somewhere off in the boonies and isolated, hopefully this will result in at least one old coin and possibly silver!

 

[Sapper724]

It's a combination of many things. Research, finding spots that haven't been searched before, will greatly improve your odds. I'm no expert, I have only been detecting about 4-5 months, and it took me a while to find the shiny stuff.

My best advice if you want to find a silver coin sooner. If you can make nice clean plugs, and the soil is nice and damp, take a drive this weekend. Look for older houses having garage sales. When you find one, look around for a minute, then speak to the owner. Tell them you do metal detecting, and they have a very nice house-property. Ask them if they have ever had someone detect it, and that if it's old, there's probably some interesting stuff under the grass. Sometimes they think its the coolest thing ever, and sometimes they just say no. Don't get discouraged. It's between you and them what happens to what you find though.

Old city houses have old coins. Concentrate along sidewalks, front and back doors, driveways, etc.

I hope this works for you. I can't imagine what it'd be like not finding a single silver for 2 years. Even if you're not too sociable like I am most of the time (anxiety), garage sales are a great ice breaker, especially if the house is owned by a sweet old lady...

Good luck, now go find some silver!

-Ron

 

[dirtscratcher]

Sapper give some good advice above. So what you've been doing ain't working so you need a whole new plan. When you drive down the rode and see spots that look good they looked good to many before you also. Any relatives with old houses or coworkers. Sapper is right with yard sales because people are already outside and easier to approach if they are already outside and you don't knock on there door, I will but I'd rather catch them outside .

 

[mercury1]

Great advice Sapper. I started detecting this summer and no silver yet. I've come to think asking permission is what's going to lead me to silver. Haven't done it yet but I'm going to. It's not that big a deal to me because I find lots of silver CRH but I am looking forward to popping out a nice shinny coin from the ground some day. Hopefully a barber.

 

[Jason in Enid]

In order to dig silver, you have to be where silver was lost. The coins disappeared from circulation VERY quickly after they stopped minting them in 1965. So you have to be in some place older. But people aren't losing hundreds of coins a year, it's probably closer to losing a few a year, and most of those would have been pennies. So..... You have to be someplace much older than 1964, I prefer sites from the 1940s or older. Next, like I said before, people don't lose much so you need a place with as many people as possible. Parks, fairgrounds, picnic sites, public celebrations are the types of sites you need to find. The problem NOW is that every other hunter can see the same parks you see. EVERYONE hits the obvious spots, over and over and over.

Go camp out in a library for a while. Read your local history books, memorize every early map, read the old newpapers. Find the old spots that aren't obvious today, or the not-so-obvious areas of the obvious sites.

Oh, and hunt every construction site you can!!!

 

[NCcoinDigger]

My first silver was in the least expected place to find it and it was a 1945 merc! It was right beside the driveway of a newly built home and a few inches down. Just goes to show you that you never know when to expect silver. I've been to old home sites and only pulled out current coins

 

[Sapper724]

My first silver was in the least expected place to find it and it was a 1945 merc! It was right beside the driveway of a newly built home and a few inches down. Just goes to show you that you never know when to expect silver. I've been to old home sites and only pulled out current coins

That makes sense though! One of my first honey holes was a newer built area that nobody goes to anymore. It's just a city lot that's empty. I never imagined id find anything good, but then I hit wheats, and then a silver. You really never know, you can find stuff in the craziest places.

Happy Hunting!

 

[Sapper724]

Hunting "in the isolated boonies" will not guarantee you any better luck. What you have to do is identify an area that has seen heavy traffic and is very old. I use my county's GIS website where I can find an area suitable for metal detecting, then overlay aerial shots from 1940s. Some parks I thought would be great because of heavy traffic turned out to be nothing but woods in the 40s-60s ... needless to say chances of silver there are much lower.

Where are you located? If your county has a GIS website I could spend some time looking for spots for you.

FYI, I have had my AT Pro for almost two months now and I have 17 silver coins and 3 silver jewelry pieces.

Excellent advice, and gotta love the AT Pro!

 

[Keppy]

Don't feel bad about not finding Silver ..... They have not made silver coins since 1964 .... And with so many out there swinging detectors now a days .... There is not much silver left out there to be found..........

 

[donjwolfe@yahoo.com]

Stue, go to a park, home, or areas older than 1964. Hunt around and under all the bushes. Hunt around the large trees where people rested in the shade after a picnic. Look up where the fair was before 1964. Look for old school houses and churches. Look for old abandoned houses. These places I have found lots of silver coins. If you do this I guarantee you will find old silver. Good luck and Good Hunting, Don

 

[rainyday101]

If you go to an older park that has more than likely been detected before, look for the trashiest area with pulltabs. The silver coins are there and masked by the trash. Plan one- get a detector that has amazing target separation and super fast recovery speed. Opinions on which detector that may be vary greatly. My silver comes from trashy areas. Slow way down, overlap all passes and pick the coins from the trash. Patience is the key. Plan two- Again find a trashy area with pulltabs and remove all trash until coins are unmasked.

I rely on plan one. Will be trying plan two in small 4 x 4 areas at select locations where I have pulled a silver or two out the trash.

 

[Deleted member 70749]

Hunting "in the isolated boonies" will not guarantee you any better luck. What you have to do is identify an area that has seen heavy traffic and is very old. I use my county's GIS website where I can find an area suitable for metal detecting, then overlay aerial shots from 1940s. Some parks I thought would be great because of heavy traffic turned out to be nothing but woods in the 40s-60s ... needless to say chances of silver there are much lower.

Where are you located? If your county has a GIS website I could spend some time looking for spots for you.

FYI, I have had my AT Pro for almost two months now and I have 17 silver coins and 3 silver jewelry pieces.

I live in Orange,CA and I can't seem to find the old parks that I need. Irvine park has been my most successful with a 1914 wheatie, no date buffalo nickel, and a 1940 Jefferson all within the same general area.

 

[Deleted member 70749]

Your county does have a GIS but it doesn't work, seems to be screwed up for whatever reason:
Orange Historic Aerial Viewer

Hey thanks for the tips anyway!