Technique - 505 - did I leave the silver behind?

[dowster]

Hello all -
I'm a new to the 'sport' and took my 505 out today to an old school grounds (the school building was probably built in the 60s, but it has a collection of historical markers from previous schools dating back to the early 1900s). The property is pretty large, probably about 4 acres, and it is hard to tell where the older school buildings and playgrounds used to be. Regardless, I was pretty excited about going there, because I really doubt anyone had every been here with a MD.
I used the 8" coil in disc mode and found a bunch of pennies, about 10 dimes, and 4 quarters (all clad). It was pretty easy to find the coins (high beep) and they were pretty much all over the place on the property. The oldest coin was dated 1967. Found some trash too - a couple of pull tabs and some aluminum can remnants, a couple of junk rings. Many low/iron tones that I didn't dig.
I was surprised/disappointed that I didn't find any older coins. Wondering if (a) there just weren't any there (maybe the old old schools were elsewhere and they just transported the historical markers? Guess I need to do some research... how?) or (b) the older coins are there but they're on average deeper than the ones I found and I couldn't detect them. Should I be using some other technique (all metal and then switch)?

Thoughts from ye oh wise sages of MD appreciated!

 

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[chukers]

I hunted and still hunt an area at my local high school... and in the beginning I only found clad and lots of trash... but as time went one I started finding the older stuff and it was considerably deeper compared tot he clad and trash... 1 to 2 inches compared to 4 to 7 inches... so keep at it... you are just cleaning off the newer stuff and the garbage.



I always hunt sites multiple times... just for this reason.


Chukers

 

[George (MN)]

If the coins you found were about as deep as the detector will go, the older coins may be too deep. It is possible that they bulldozed the entire area and may have sent the old dirt elsewhere & brought in new fill dirt.

Also possible somebody cleaned out the old coins years ago & you're just finding what was lost since then.

There may be some small area that wasn't bulldozed too much, meaning a tiny part of the yard may have old coins. Does the schoolyard have any big trees that look like they may be older than the current building? If so, if the tree type should have roots that grow out away from the treee & you don't see them, then fill dirt is likely present.

If the yard has a fence, can you tell if the fence looks older than the current building? 30+ years ago, my dad & I ran into such a schoolyard. Present building built in '70s, but the fence had wooden posts painted green with some wiring in between that wasn't modern style, either. Part of the yard had huge numbers of old coins & other areas nothing.

Depending on what other places you have to hunt, you might want to keep trying to make sure you've searched the whole area. Even if you don't find any old coins, it sounds like there's probably more clad. Best wishes, George (MN)

 

[black651]

I would suggest using the "Auto Notch" setting for trashy areas as it will filter out many of the pull tab signals but still give you the highs and lows you are searching. It may cover some rings on the downside but this setting will show silver very easily if it's there to be found. I've found 8 silver targets in two outings using this technique. If the site is an older one you may have to cleat out many of the junk targets to finally get to the better, older ones. Have patience.

 

[Coinstriking Michigan]

Chukers is right, I've done areas 50 times and can still pull a coin or two. If you ever upgrade detectors you have a chance at the really deep goodies too. Best of luck and Happy Hunting.