Where's your silver coming from?

[OkieDigger]

I get a chuckle when I think about how hard it is for me to find silver where I live. So far this year I have found 19 silver coins. Of those, only four came from Oklahoma where I live. The rest have all been on trips out of state! Anyone else have this problem?

[Snowy]

Yeah, around here coppers are more common.
Silvers are hard to find unless you find a hot spot from the era.
Krom and I have been fortunate enough to have one spot where silvers are plentiful.
We've been detecting that area for 3 years or so and we're still finding them...
the problem comes, though, when they don't turn the ground.
When they start cutting trees in an area there and the ground is undisturbed,
we'll pull bad nickels and Indian Heads galore...
But once they cut into the ground (where they cut those trees) and turn the soil,
or even just doze the roots, the silvers seem to almost be sifted from the ground.

We're waiting for another turn... they just cut some trees and IHs, Vs and Buffs are being found at the moment. And when it rains like it has been today, all the water stays... it's boggy. Not gonna be fun there for a while so we might not get there until spring again.

[OkieDigger]

Sounds like an awesome site! Wish I had something like that here.

[Snowy]

Sounds like an awesome site! Wish I had something like that here.


It's just an old fairgrounds...
When they shut the fair down at that site it was simply abandoned.
The property changed hands over time but it was never utilized... until now....
The guy is trying to make crop fields out of it, so stirring up the ground
and pulling the metal is no issue for him.

[angellionel]

I have been hitting the parks near my location, both in CT and MA. I also try to work the grassy strips near the streets from time to time.

[Snowy]

Have you ever hit a place where you KNOW there should be silver but you pull none?

Not to change the subject, Okie... but some of these places you know were hopping at the height of the silver coin era sometimes just don't produce one... perhaps someone hit it hard already and snagged all those silver signals...? Could be just me...

[angellionel]

Have you ever hit a place where you KNOW there should be silver but you pull none?

Not to change the subject, Okie... but some of these places you know were hopping at the height of the silver coin era sometimes just don't produce one... perhaps someone hit it hard already and snagged all those silver signals...? Could be just me...


I have so far been fortunate in that, except for two or three small parks, I have managed to pull at least one piece of silver from every park I have hit this year. The silver is still out there.

[Snowy]

Have you ever hit a place where you KNOW there should be silver but you pull none?

Not to change the subject, Okie... but some of these places you know were hopping at the height of the silver coin era sometimes just don't produce one... perhaps someone hit it hard already and snagged all those silver signals...? Could be just me...


I have so far been fortunate in that, except for two or three small parks, I have managed to pull at least one piece of silver from every park I have hit this year. The silver is still out there.


That is your experience kicking in. I'd like to learn how to hear those whispers below the trash. I agree.. It's still out there. Tapping into it is a horse of a different color in such spots.

[OkieDigger]

IMHO, I believe a lot of it has to do with location. There just wasn't a whole lot of money here. We weren't even a state until 1907. We only have one park that has been hit harder than you can possibly imagine. On top of that, I'm lucky to find a coin even 7 deep in our park. That's very deep for here. I think the people back east have it made. ;)

[Epi-hunter]

KY is an old state but there just isn't silver here. I haven't been here long enough to figure out whether it's because people were just too poor to drop their money, or if it's because detectorists have already pulled it all.

But it's depressing.

[MNDigger]

I live in an area of small town's and most of the parks have been hit hard over the years. Since getting the Etrac I have found silver where I thought it wasn't but sooner or later those few left behind coins will be found too. Now I mainly try to hunt old farmsteads that seem to produce some nice finds.

[Epi-hunter]

I live in an area of small town's and most of the parks have been hit hard over the years. Since getting the Etrac I have found silver where I thought it wasn't but sooner or later those few left behind coins will be found too. Now I mainly try to hunt old farmsteads that seem to produce some nice finds.


I need to focus on old farmsteads here too. At least they are usually 'virgin' sites. Permission is tricky though.

[Lowjiber]

I live in the mountains in the south S.F. Bay Area. The bay area has hundreds of parks. However, the vast majority of them don't pre-date 1965...having been orchards before the California boom days growth expanded throughout Silicon Valley.

There are still rosies and occasional silver quarters to be found here, but you've got to hunt deeper because of the large number of detectorists in the area.

I've had much more success (Merc-wise) in tiny, old parks located many miles from here. Small towns that have supported agriculture in the central valley of the state usually have at least one small, un-detected park that dates back to the 1920's. Most of these parks have not had the additional topsoil and construction projects that plague my efforts elsewhere...they're pretty much as they were when first built.

Being retired, I have the time and resources to keep hitting those spots.

[Islandhunter]

Sounds like an awesome site! Wish I had something like that here.


It's just an old fairgrounds...
When they shut the fair down at that site it was simply abandoned.
The property changed hands over time but it was never utilized... until now....
The guy is trying to make crop fields out of it, so stirring up the ground
and pulling the metal is no issue for him.


Yeah, and some days ya gotta wade thru knee deep in wet stinky chicken poop and crawly little white things to get to that silver.... :rolleyes:

[hoser]

Most of mine have come from the national guard campsites. Thats where I found my WLH this year. Still it can be a tough row to hoe finding the right area.

[bmattioli]

I started hunting the parks in Harford last Oct and have done pretty good so far. I've found 33 Silver coins since..I've been on a drought for the past month but there's still more out there just going to have to find another hot spot..

Bruce

[OkieDigger]

I started hunting the parks in Harford last Oct and have done pretty good so far. I've found 33 Silver coins since..I've been on a drought for the past month but there's still more out there just going to have to find another hot spot..

Bruce


33 isn't bad. I just found # 20 today. It's rough here.

[bmattioli]

33 isn't bad. I just found # 20 today. It's rough here.


20 for the year is a nice tally. It seems you get on a nice little tear then hit the wall for me..

[OkieDigger]

Actually 20 isn't too bad for around here and considering I don't get out as often as I'd like. It's a lot more than I normally get, but then again several of these I couldn't have found without the E-Trac. It has made a big difference in my finds.

[bmattioli]

That's why I want one, to wake up some of the parks I frequent..

[OkieDigger]

When I first got it, I couldn't find any silver. The problem was I kept going to sites I had hit very hard with the DFX and MXT. I found some wheats, but no silver. I'm one of those dig it all kind of people, at least until I got the E-Trac. Once I started going to new sites (though they were hunted by others) I then started finding the silvers. Those parks where you live should be excellent hunting grounds.

[bmattioli]

Thanks Dale, I'll be going to all my favorite spots and see what I missed. I'm sure there will be a coin or two..

[z118]

I'm hoping to hit 50 silver coins this year... which is more than double what I have found in the first two years I spent detecting.

At least 90% of my silver finds this year have come from school yards. I've been hitting a bunch regularly since I started swinging. I weeded out most of the clad with the Tracker IV and now I go low and slow with the Sov. I was lucky to find a school that I had overlooked until this year that in 17 hunts has given up 17 silver coins and 11 pieces of silver jewelry. Most of the schools that I have luck in were built in the late 50's or early 60's, so I get mostly Rosies and Mercs. But you never know what else might pop up.

[Jason in Enid]

My silver has come from a mix of parks, schools and homesites. ALL my silver halves have come from home sites. OK, one was from an apartment complex, but thats like a home site, kinda. Man I wish they hadn't turned that into a bank already. :angry:

[CyberSage]

I would say that about 60 percent of my Silver came from parkway strips of grass between the sidewalk and curb. 30 percent came from old parks, and the remainder from private properties. I have not hunted many private properties. Most of this Silver is Dimes, followed by rings and then Quarters and miscellaneous items. The miscellaneous Silver is made up of religious medals, earings, and pendants etc. On a side note, the Silver found on private property contained some of the nicer coins.

Jack

[grinsebring]

Most of mine here in Florida comes from the old beaches. The parks and old homesites are nothing but sand. Finding a rock while digging is fairly uncommon. I would guess the sink rate of a coin
is at record pace around here. The beaches where the water receded over the last three years are more or less mucky sand.
Leaves and other decomposed organic debris sort of made it more dense. The silvers and most of the wheats have been very deep. A lot of luck involved in finding them.
I just was given permission to hunt 2 homes taken by a nearby city for taxes. Both are late 1800s early 1900s vintage. I will give them a runover as soon as I can GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE! I feel better. At some point they will be leveled and the lots graded.
Silver near the surface is not uncommon up in new england and other arctic zones. The ground frost pushes them back to the top
every so often. Most of my good finds in NH and Mass have been near the top. 6 inches in 200 years is a slow sink rate :grin: I would think some of them were down quite deep and came back up one extra cold winter..... Good subject....Gil

[Bentfork]

I mentioned to OkieDigger that I have been hammering the parks here in Oklahoma City area - that is when I can get out. Most of them that I have been hunting have been around 75 yrs+. I like OkieDigger have found very few in the parks. He's probably right about the parks in Oklahoma. They have been pounded to death. The majority I've found since I moved here have been on private property via an invitation.

[SeabeeRon]

Well of the very few I have found, one came from the old High School I attneded and the others from the beach.

[rcasio44]

I live about 40 miles southwest of Chicago and the only place for me to find silver is in private yards. Once you get 100 miles south of me it different. My wife and I go on camping trips with two detector friends. The small towns still have undetected sites and each trip usually produces silver. rob

[SE Sweeper]

I get a chuckle when I think about how hard it is for me to find silver where I live. So far this year I have found 19 silver coins. Of those, only four came from Oklahoma where I live. The rest have all been on trips out of state! Anyone else have this problem

I have my good and bad spells. Of course it depends where you are hunting most of the time. I have two friends who find 5 to 10 times more silver than I do at the same sights. They have a knack that I have not found out yet. However, I find enough silver to keep it interestingat parks,farm fields and fair grounds here in Indiana.

[Jason in Enid]

I was looking at my silver finds since I got my E-Trac. It turns out that I have found 6 silvers in five weeks of hunting, so I am doing better than I have ever done in the past. It still gets frustrating when it's been almost 2 weeks between some finds, but my overall rate has improved a lot.

But I have to agree with OkieDigger..... Oklahoma just doesn't seem to have the quantity of silver as other places. I think it has to do with the nature of our settelment. Most of our state was settleed through a series of free land giveaways. I think that most of the people who came to settle here, simply didn't have any amount of money to lose and tended to be much more frugal.

[coinnut]

Most of our state was settleed through a series of free land giveaways. I think that most of the people who came to settle here, simply didn't have any amount of money to lose and tended to be much more frugal.


Hey Jason, just a thought, but if you can determine when money started to be more plentiful, (say 1900's), then maybe you could concentrate on finding places in that time period, as opposed to the oldest settlements in town. That way your coin count (and silver count) may increase. Just a thought. My wife always tells me to stop thinking lol :confused:

[OkieDigger]

Hey Jason, just a thought, but if you can determine when money started to be more plentiful, (say 1900's), then maybe you could concentrate on finding places in that time period, as opposed to the oldest settlements in town. That way your coin count (and silver count) may increase. Just a thought. My wife always tells me to stop thinking lol :confused:


Coinnut, Oklahoma wasn't a state until 1907. Everything here is of that time period. lol

[coinnut]

Coinnut, Oklahoma wasn't a state until 1907. Everything here is of that time period. lol


A state in 1907, but it must have been settled much sooner than 1907:huh: Or are all those coyboy films I watched as a kid lying?? lol

[BHNugget]

A state in 1907, but it must have been settled much sooner than 1907:huh: Or are all those coyboy films I watched as a kid lying?? lol


Yep, OK has quite a bit of history that predates statehood.The Spanish were known to frequent the area which is a history era in itself, not to mention the James gang,the Dalton Gang,Army Calvary Forts,and at least one Confederacy fort and numerous ghost towns.

[OkieDigger]

Yep, OK has quite a bit of history that predates statehood.The Spanish were known to frequent the area which is a history era in itself, not to mention the James gang,the Dalton Gang,Army Calvary Forts,and at least one Confederacy fort and numerous ghost towns.


Technically there were SOME white people in the state before 1907, but not very many at all and in places long since gone or on private property. Most towns here were settled around the 1890's or later. Most didn't have many people until well after 1900 and even then, a lot of those people didn't have a lot of money. As for the Spanish in Oklahoma, yeah, they were here, but what can you really find of them? Not much. As for the outlaws, even they weren't around these parts until the 1890's or later. Doolin and the Daltons visted the area I'm in numerous times, but that was only 100 years ago and there weren't a lot of people here then. It's just not a great place for detecting. crying01

[TimC]

Silver around here is probably as tough as it is for Epi in Kentucky. Everyone around here was probably far to poor, having to farm cotton and pick it all day only earning pennies per day for this extremely hard life. They spent all they had on making ends meet. In short no one had money to lose.

[Stang1968]

I've gotten a grand total of one silver coin this year- a barely recognizable mercury dime from the mouth of an alley way. The gravel obliterated any and all detail on the coin. you can only faintly see the shape of winged liberty on the obverse.

[del]

Arizona wasn't a state until 1912 (thats where i'm originally from) but there were alot of places to research and detect that are alot older with activity , the spanish were there since the 1500's through the 1700's there were many old spanish missions and villiages that are now gone.then in the mid 1800's the U.S calvary forts came ( which were very active and steady supplies of currency made their way there) plenty of gold rushers , bandits , bankrobbers , old mining towns that are now empty . you dig hard enough with the research you'll be amazed at how much history is in your area .

[coinnut]

Technically there were SOME white people in the state before 1907, but not very many at all and in places long since gone or on private property. Most towns here were settled around the 1890's or later. Most didn't have many people until well after 1900 and even then, a lot of those people didn't have a lot of money. As for the Spanish in Oklahoma, yeah, they were here, but what can you really find of them? Not much. As for the outlaws, even they weren't around these parts until the 1890's or later. Doolin and the Daltons visted the area I'm in numerous times, but that was only 100 years ago and there weren't a lot of people here then. It's just not a great place for detecting. crying01



Wow, it's time to move lol lol lol We were trying to THINK POSITIVE for ya, but it's hopeless ;) :tongue: It must drive you nuts to see all those old coins posted here. Come on...let's dig deep into that area's history and find some old stuff. thumbsup01

[OkieDigger]

It must drive you nuts to see all those old coins posted here.

More than you know...