What happens when all the coins have been found?

[SaginawIan]

It could happen, most are already gone after the first 40-50 years of metal detecting. . .

Another 50 years and we are done for.


Will our grand kids be saying - WOW!, check it out, I found a 1999 lincoln penny!


In all seriousness, I want to hear some old time stories of finding handfulls of silver at a time - that would give me some inspiration to detect as I'm getting bored finding no good coins,

Ian

 

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[eagle77]

Well, I seriously doubt all the coins as we know or desire will be ever gone.

There are caches hidden that will continue to be found by chance. Think how much clad
we find today, now imaging that in the early years; not as many people, but still lost pocket change.
Today the multiude of people and still loosing pocket change. So by that viewpoint, there should be
more money there after we are gone.

The silver will still be there, just not in abundance when MD'ing first started.

The way Z-Lincolns corrode, our grandkids won't be finding any.

 

[HotTexas]

JMO I don't think theres any chance of all the coins being found, We hunted a park that we hit 4 years ago about 8 times, Yesterday we found more coins in 3 hours there than all 8 times we hunted before.

#2 Don't ever let any one tell you it's hunted out, I ask about an old ballpark they told me you won't find much because so &so has hunted there all the time, we walk away with 14 silvers & 22 wheats.

#3 Another park I have seen many people with detectors there and two people with detectors the day we hunted, and came home with two silver QTS and 5 silver dimes.

I also think (no I know) todays newer detectors are much better in finding the good stuff now more than ever, Just think what tomorrows detector are going to be like for the grandkids.

HH
Johnny

 

[BioProfessor]

It's hard to look very far in the future but one thing is for sure, electronic devices are getting smaller, more powerful, and cheaper. The technology is changing so fast that many things are out of date before they make production. Look at computers in the last 30 years. Remember 8" floppy drives? Punch cards? Magnetic tape? Terminal programs? C:/DOS?

If metal detecting technology progresses at a similar pace, in 20 or so years you will have a small machine that sees under the ground. It shows you what is there in 3-D color. Don't like the stones in the ring, just hunt a little longer until you find the stones you like. See that dime by the pull tab? Ah, it just a 1960 I think I will leave it but that $5 gold piece 3" underneath I think I'll dig. Impossible, no way. Will it happen? Don't know. But if it happens, metal detecting as we know it is dead and you CAN go to an old park and clean out every coin and leave everything else.

Don't get discouraged now by not finding good coins. Like they say - coins is coins. Take the clad when you can get it. If you don't like the coins you are finding, I would suggest three things. One is to make sure you and your metal detector are operating at their peak level of performance - know your signals, know how to discriminate, use your test bed. Just make sure you know your machine and it is working at max. Two is to research the area you can search and locate some spots that have a better chance at having better coins. Try to get on some land that has not been hunted like farms and private residences. Three try out a different metal detector and see if that may be part of the problem. Your detector can be a quality detector but your ears and brain don't work well with what it has to offer. It happens. Hearing and interpreting sounds is different for different people. You could just be a mismatch for your detector.

Hopefully you will start to find better coins. For me, I still like finding the clad The thrill of getting a good signal and an unknown target to dig does it for me. That's all I need.

Daryl

 

[Ant]

They say in the metal detecting community that there’re more coins in the ground than there is in circulation. I think that’s true.

I think that if they stop using coins as money they would eventually get too deep to detect with modern day metal detectors. But who know what the capabilities of future metal detecting machines will be.

 

[SaginawIan]

Interesting ............................... Good point about electronic money and high technology detectors.


they say that debit cards and credit cards will be taking the place of cash someday and that cash is becoming a thing of the past. If that's true, and metal detectors are getting better, and more people are detecting ------ it's conceivable that coins will be found by detectorists at a greater rate than they are lost . . . then what . . .

On the other hand, as places are being built over with pavement, there are always coins sealed away for years and years only to be found when you come across a tearup. Maybe the spots of the future will be street tearups and construction.

Love finding clad, just once want to see a draped bust silver dime in the hole . . . I had an old timer tell me one time that 20 years ago he found two large cents in nearly the same place that I had just recovered a clad penny, that got me to thinking abstractly about the whole thing.

Ian

 

[Dman]

Ian,
You wanted an old time story of finding silver. Back in 1974 I hunted around a house built before 1900 in my hometown. I came out with 1 Franklin half dollar, 2 barber quarters, 2 slq quarters, 11 Washington quarters, 6 mercury dimes, 8 Roosevelt dimes, 14 IH pennies and 36 wheat pennies. I still go back there from time to time and still find coins. So don't get discouraged.
Dman

 

[bazinga]

I'm young at this game, but a couple of the old timers had a lady that they used to detect with. She went to a 1940s era school back in the 1980s and had a 100 silver dime day. All Mercs and rosies, but the amount of silver they used to find just make me sick.

They would tell me about having $5-10 face value in silver by lunch time in the 1970s.

Eventually most all of the old coins will be gone, but there will always be newer coins to get and jewelry.

 

[bucketofguts]

hummm! not before i get a crack at the 1715 fleet after a big blow! Ben

 

[Dimeman]

The detectors of 30 years ago, as good as they were, actually only detected 3 to 5 inches at the max.
The detectors of 20 years ago detected about 6 to 9inches max.
Since then the electronics are much better and the coils are much larger for greater depth. Coins that are under the grass layer, tend to get deeper as years progress, due to grass regrowing over old grass, leaves and grass trimmings settling on the present grass layer, which builds up over the years.Ground contracts in the cold and expands in the heat ..thus the coins..heavier than the dirt sink a little bit.
The present detectors are at the greatest depth readings ever, and future detectors will only get better.

Today found a silver dime in a park that I have been hunting for over 30 years and was hunted with lots of detectors even before I started hunting it. There is no chance that this dime was just dropped or dropped recently as it was 4 inches deep.


There are plenty of coins to be found.. and will be plenty, for years to come.

 

[John D.]

I found 156 misc. silver coins, 1 button, 2 Federal Civil war buttons, 3 gold rings, 12 or more junk rings, about a dozen Minnie balls, 1 round musket ball. All this and much more in a two year period, in two parks that have been heavily hunted for the past 25 years. I think there is still much to be found that will keep us buying batteries and new detectors as our old ones wear out. So relax, have fun and as Mr. Fisher use to say;
"Today is the day."
Your Friend,
John D.

 

[SaginawIan]

Love the encouragement. I can only imagine finding more than 5 silver dimes in one trip to the park! I do have a park that is 100 years old near me that is absolutely massive. I'm sure that there are thousands of coins out there buried under pull tabs. My solution is to start digging the pull tabs to get to the good coins under them.

Ian

 

[Bodyguard]

For me, I still like finding the clad The thrill of getting a good signal and an unknown target to dig does it for me. That's all I need.

Daryl, I totally agree with you. While I hope to find gobs and gobs of silver and jewelry and treasure (I think tomorrow I'll find it) Just the buzz, beep or ping coming from the machine is enough to set my heart racing. Doesn't matter what the target, (tho I admit crushed aluminum cans are starting to get to me) I have fun.
As for the original thread, even if all the coins did run out, there are still plenty of modern relics, cell phones, lighters, and the like, available. JR

 

[piggman1]

There are more coins and cash hidden or in the ground than in circulation today. People today hide large amounts of money for different reasons. Some don't trust banks, and other is illeagle monies where the owner is killed or incarcinated for life. Just like in the old days, only now there are more people. They say that 1 in every 10 houses has a hidden cache somewhere, and that's todays times. I have been lucky to find 2 caches in the last 35 years or so. My first was a snuff jar full of Indian head pennies hidden under a loose board of the floor of an old house. My 2nd ,and best, was 3000 silver dimes in fruit jars in an old barn. The dimes were Mercuries and Rosevelts. The barn was being torn down for a shopping center. Both of those finds were over 20 years ago. Yes, there will always be something for someone to find, there is just too much out there.

 

[diggerfororo]

Hi Ian:

I think it was Charlie Garrett that said "you can't find coins where they ain't" which is as true as it gets. A lot of the old parks have very little top soil so the coins were shallow even after 50 to a 100 years. These coins were found in the 50's and 60's . You need to know your area and find the sites with deep top soil (good ole black dirt) I look for the trashest area in the park and hunt very slow. I hunted a small park last year and over several trips found 74 silver- 52 barbers 22 merks and 40 some Indians. This park had not been used for 60 years but had been hunted in the past. (no big coins) It's still out there so do your research. (You can't find coins with your detector in the garage) I am 63 and I think there will be enough coins to last the rest of my life.

Les

 

[BioProfessor]

When all the coins have been found, we won't know it. We just find more pull tabs, caps, crushed beer cans, etc. On some days, I think all the coins HAVE already been found anyway.

 

[erikk]

How is this for encouragement?

 

[SaginawIan]

wow - that glowing pile of silver gives me new hope!

Ian

 

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

When all the coins are found,
we die.

 

[Rob66]

Will never happen not in the world anyway, there are some places in Europe that still have duds from world war II. I think there are a lot more coins in the ocean still too.

If all the coins collected by metal detectionists were donated to the needy,

"That sounds like a good idea."