What Wheathead Pennies Can Tell You

[bigscoop]

What Wheathead Pennies Can Tell You:

Even in my old local park I can still recover countless wheathead pennies whenever I choose to do so, which I seldom do. I've been detecting this park off on and on for over 20 years because it's close to home and it still turns up the occasional silver or large cent, etc. So why are there so many wheatheads and so little silver?

Is the silver deeper? Not very likely, most of the silver that remains being masked in that thick layer of junk that nobody wants to sort through, this being where I still recover some silver from time to time whenever I'm in the mood to go slowly and pick through all of that trash.

The simple truth is that the vast majority of silver has already been recovered as metal detecting has been around for a very long time now. Back in the 70's my dad, my uncle, and even several of my neighbors belonged to metal detecting clubs, and even back then some of those older analog machines were fully capable of hunting deep, many of those users also being fully capable of picking the ground apart and, “leaving those wheaties behind.”

And this same thing holds true on just about any property we hunt, if there's plenty of wheaties and an apparent lack of silver than it's probably already been hunting to death. Not even the latest and greatest machine can locate silver when that silver simply isn't there. Metal detecting and capable machines have been around for a very long time and those users also had the capability to leave those wheaties behind, which is why there can still be heavily hunted out grounds that still contain a lot of wheaties. Just like today, those wheaties weren't missed, they just weren't desired.

So far this year, in a small area of my local park that I have gridded off, I have recovered 59 quarters and 101 dimes, most of these being in the late 60's through to today, with many of them being 6-8 inches deep. Once I get all of this clad plucked out I'm going to grit my teeth and begin to sort through all of that trash in search of some gold, a process that I'm sure is going to be maddening given all of the foil, pull-tabs, and other non-ferrous items piled on top of each other. And I'm sure that I'll encounter a few pieces of masked silver along the way as this continues to happen each and every year. Might even find some more large cents as well. But like I said before, this old park is close to home and I have the time to kill an hour or two whenever the mood strikes me.

So keep this wheathead condition in mind whenever and wherever you encounter it because the presence of a lot of wheaties should in no way be considered as positive clue of the presence of silver, not even deeper silver. More than likely it's just an indicator that the place has already been picked apart and that whatever might remain is going to be masked in all of that trash.

Hope this little tid-bit helps.

 

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[cudamark]

There are probably many other factors involved in the copper cent/silver ratio. I'm sure some areas were cherry picked for silver, but, there can be other reasons for no silver too. In most areas, it's easier to spot and pick up shiny silver coin vs a brown cent. I suspect that the average person carried more cents than silver to lose too....especially children. They would tend to search a bit longer if they dropped silver also. If anything, masking would effect the copper coins more than the silver ones as silver signals are a bit stronger, especially the higher denominations. The ground mineralization could effect them differently however. Under certain conditions, copper can dissolve a bit more and that large halo effect can make that signal stronger than a similar sized silver coin.

 

[bigscoop]

Cuda, you sort of touched on my point when you referenced the strong return of silver coins. Silver coins are easy to setup for and I can remember my dad and uncle sitting in the garage talking about those pesky pennies and how they passed them by. This would have been in the 70's. I started detecting in the mid-80's and did the same thing and usually still do because I don't want them. Silver coins, on the other hand, are easy to target and they are far more desirable. My old local park is still full of them for no other reason than they have been avoided by most detectorist.

As per the masked silver, most of the silver i still get from time to time in this park comes from super trashy areas and seldom do I get an initial hard return on them because it's that difficult to isolate them within all of that trash.

 

[ARC]

Whadi.... perhaps its a case of YOUR metal detector is geared towards them and discriminating the silver... And occasionally your detector hits on it due to some weird factor.
OR... you have your sound signals crossed / backwards......
I think my theory should be tested though..... by another detectorist with a different detector giving it a whirl........... So i am willing to check it for you.....
So..... Um......... what park is this ? .................

:P