Detecting Silver Coins In Anchorage, Alaska

[sjmpainter]

Steve, I bought the F19 thinking I could hunt around Anchorage for silver coins. Did you have any luck in that area?

Interestingly, I found four rings, two necklaces, several ear rings and pendants, few hundred in clad and lots of cash.

And not one silver coin. Not sure if I should be disappointed by that?

[Steve Herschbach]

Silver is hard to come by most anyplace these days. Anchorage is not particularly old, and the coins not very deep, so most got found long ago. But I was always able to find silver still just by going to the park strip or the old park at Spenard Lake, to name a couple. Few and far between no matter how you look at it. I would rather hunt jewelry myself most of the time since that always replenishes. You really can't find coins of real value in Anchorage as the town is just too young. Coins from the 30s would be old ones and 20s exceedingly rare. That being the case one decent gold ring is going to be worth more than all the silver coins you could possibly find at this stage of the game. Silver is fun though - I just love a decent Mercury dime.

[sjmpainter]

Good to know silver exists in Anchorage. Starting to wonder.

I am sure you are spot on with the jewelry being the bigger ticket. I have been looking at the lost and found on Craigslist - amazing the amount of rings lost weekly.

Seems a lot of it is lost at shopping areas. And being we pile the snow up I have been taking notes and plan to run them in the spring. Might be interesting.

On 12/14/2015 at 7:45 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

I was adding to the Archives today. The main forum is running back over 40 pages at the moment so I have about 20 more pages of posts to categorize and move.

Some of the equipment pages, like the F19 especially, need beefing up. I put them out right when a new machine shows up sometimes, and in the case of the F19 did not get back to it later to flesh out the details that are now available. I try to get in tidbits and details you can't find anywhere else or at least not all in one place. If all you want is a product page there are a zillion of those out there.

 

40 pages back, WOW.

[Steve Herschbach]

These might be the last two silver coins I ever dug in Alaska. Fall of 2012 with my then new CTX 3030 and first outing with the 6" coil. First two coins with the coil were silver! And not all that deep. Small coils are one of my secret weapons for coin detecting. Most people use large coils which means target masking issues that small coils avoid.

I am pretty sure these both came out of the Park Strip but could have been Spenard Lake. Two of my favorite locations, pulled a lot of silver out of both over the years.

One thing I liked about Anchorage is silver coins come out of the ground clean. Something about the soil being frozen half the year and general lack of fertilizer, whatever. Most silver pops out clean like it was dropped yesterday. Newer clad does not age half so well.

[sjmpainter]

I pulled this ring from the Valley Of The Moon Park. I thought is was going to be my first silver coin. I was actually disappointed to find a ring.

 

[Monte]

On 12/14/2015 at 7:50 PM, sjmpainter said:

Steve, I bought the F19 thinking I could hunt around Anchorage for silver coins. Did you have any luck in that area?

Interestingly, I found four rings, two necklaces, several ear rings and pendants, few hundred in clad and lots of cash.

And not one silver coin. Not sure if I should be disappointed by that?

I've only been to Anchorage twice on flight lay-overs about 48 years ago, in late November, and never had an opportunity to do any detecting.  If I were to venture there today, with my modern and very efficient detectors, I might give it a shot (weather permitting), but I can assure you that even hoping for some silver coinage, I would definitely not be anticipating it.

As Steve mentioned, the location lacks a sufficient period of activity for there to be much old silver coinage lost, and as one of the early adventurers in this great sport (started in March of '65) I will assure you that there USED TO BE a lot of older coins lost, and with a smile on my face as I pause to reflect back on the "good old early days" of detecting, I know for a fact that many coins were recovered by the adventurous back then.

For the last twenty to twenty-five years I only hunt very old parks, or very old and likely untouched out-of the-way fringe areas of parks, to try and find silver and other older keepers.  Instead, I have concentrated on renovation sites, vacant lots and private property in urban environments.

The other exceptions are tot-lot playgrounds at parks and schools because they are easy and quick to work, and in larger, more populated cities I have averaged 12 gold rings per year, plus other gold and silver jewelry.  I also hit sports fields, when in the mood, because some have a better history of gold and silver jewelry loss.

The bulk of my detecting is at non-urban locations, such as ghost towns, RR depots and stage stops, old encampments. logging or mining towns, and other places more likely to have .... OLDER COINS and other forms of excitement.

Let me also add my personal opinion which also is one Steve mentioned, and that is to rely on a smaller-than-stock search coil (such as the 5" DD presuming you're using the stock 5X10 DD on the F19) because you'll have an improved opportunity to find coins and other non-ferrous targets that have been/still are masked by nearby ferrous junk.

Also, be sure to use the least amount of Discrimination you can tolerate to help curtail masking.  Also, if you are serious about looking for old silver coins, and in an area where you might search an old mining or logging camp, hunting or fishing lodge/camp, or other out-of-the-way location where folks were far from a bank, keep in mind that it is very possible to luck across a small cache or a 'poke' of hidden coins.

Sometimes they were in a small leather coin purse (yea, guys carried those in their pockets) or a small leather bag, so you might want to check your detector, coils, and settings using a similar test scenario.  I've used such 'test samples' for a few decades, especially the past dozen or so with all of the newer digital-designed (and 'programmed/preset') detectors.

My current 'evaluation sample' is short two silver half dollars I donated to a club for prizes, so it now consists of 5-Walking Liberty Half-Dollars stacked on top of a 1922 Peace Dollar.   I have used this to see how many makes and models 'pass' or 'flunk' the detection ability test.  I've thinned out quite a few detectors the past two years that I have evaluated.

This is comparable to a small 'poke' of silver coins that could have been lost or hidden. and I can't tell you how many modern detectors struggle to give a decent response (audio as well as a lock-on TID) to this test scenario.  That's why I like to have a small but functional set of detectors in my carry arsenal that complement each other.  It's also a great example of why I do not rely on only a visual display or audio response from a direct-sweep of an encountered target in such sites.

Today, my four primary-use detectors are a Nokta FORS CoRe and FORS Gold +, and a Tesoro Bandido II µMAX and Silver Sabre µMAX, each equipped with the main-use search coil I like on them, but I do carry accessory coils for each of my FORS units.

Anyway, I am sure Steve left a few silvers hidden here or there and I wish you the best of success in your searches ... as long as huntable weather holds out.

Monte

[Steve Herschbach]

Great stuff Monte, thank you!

Anchorage was founded on 1915 as a railroad town. It really did not grow a lot outside the core before WW2, and most of that core downtown area is now paved over.

The little park at Spenard Lake was way out of town then, and was the location of a small beachfront "resort" owned by Joe Spenard. He was an early Anchorage character, credited with bringing the first automobile to Anchorage. Joe Spenard Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Spenard Story about Spenard Lake swimming hole http://seniorvoicealaska.com/story/2014/08/01/Columns/Joe%2DSpenard%27s%2Dmiracle%2Dmile%2Dstill%2Dgrows/530.html

I pulled a lot of silver out of the swimming area of the park years ago, and there is no doubt more to be had in the water there, but it is closed even to wading now due to float plane activity in the lake. That park area is still one of the best shots at finding old coins in Anchorage.

The little swimming beach at Goose Lake is another one that dates back and I found a lot of old coins there. It is still one of the best places to go for jewelry although it gets hunted regularly.

The downtown park strip was the first airstrip in Anchorage, later converted to a large open city park. At the time it was on the outer edge of Anchorage. It gave me a lot of silver, as did the small park overlooking the inlet nearby, Elderberry Park. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaney_Park_Strip

Anchorage experienced its first boom in WW2 and most of the silver around town dates from the 40's, 50's, and 60's. I was told the location of the old base housing overlooking Ship Creek produced a lot of silver, but I missed out on that one. As I said before coinage from the 30's is good finds in Anchorage, and 20's very hard to get. I only ever found a couple Buffalo nickels in Anchorage. Teens and earlier is theoretically possible but I never saw them.

The real key to Anchorage and silver is get some maps or aerial photos showing the town as it existed in the earlier days. Growth exploded during the pipeline years and after and the vast majority of Anchorage is quite new.

[sjmpainter]

Excellent post Monte!

Although I would be happy with any silver looking in older parks and what not make a lot of sense for the old rare coins/relics. I have been doing some research for old places to hunt and have a place in mind for this coming summer. http://www.alsap.org/ArcticValley/ArcticValley.htm It is the old military ski area and lodge at Artic Valley.

Also found this site on local parks that I found helpful. Gives a lot of history and park improvement dates. http://anchorageparkfoundation.org/directory/.

Interesting both you and Steve recommend the small coil. I was actually looking for coil info and what is compatible with the F19.

I have been looking at the NEL Snake coil 3x6 dd. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Steve, Thanks for the history on Spenard Park and the Park Strip lived here all my life and just did not relies they are that old. Guess I need to pay more attention to my surroundings. I suppose that is what winter time is for.

[Monte]

On 12/15/2015 at 0:13 AM, sjmpainter said:

Interesting both you and Steve recommend the small coil. I was actually looking for coil info and what is compatible with the F19.

I have been looking at the NEL Snake coil 3x6 dd. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

I have, years ago, owned some after-market search coils.  I have friends who have tried them, and in my seminars I often get to work with those participants have.  Personally, I am not a big fan of most after-market search coils, preferring to use those made by the detector manufacturer that fit the task at hand.

I have my 5" DD coil from an early version Teknetics Omega 8000 that I keep around, and I used it on the two Fisher F19's I had a year ago.  My suggestion would be to get one of those and, as with any detector and coil change, put in ample time to learn it to benefit from it.

I know some people question smaller coils as it seems a very popular trend the past decade or two for people to want a bigger coil to go deeper.  The thought of any smaller-size seems scary to those who haven't worked a good dinky coil on a good detector.   I keep this particular 5" DD coil on-hand partly for memory sake of how it performed for me.

On June 22nd of 2010 I fell off a ladder.  Fractured skull, two cracked vertebrae in my neck, severe concussion, ruptured right ear drum, broke ribs 5, 6, 7 and 8 on the right side.  I spent two months on-the-mend only able to tinker with some air tests, clean coins and targets, and do some research.  The last of August I was determined to get out detecting to start to move around as the healing improved and pain decreased, but I couldn't deal with much weight, so I grabbed the Omega 8000 and switched to the 5" DD to set out on September 1st.

I have mobility issues anyway that slow me down, and I still had to stay on more even ground so working my preferred old sites was out.  I just hit parks and schools, but I ended that September with 895 coins, 2 gold rings and several sterling silver jewelry items ... all using that little 5" DD coil.

I have 6" Concentric coils on my Tesoro's, the 4.7X5.2 'OOR' coils on the FORS CoRe and Racer, and the 5" DD for the Gold +.  So, based on my personal preferences and past successful experiences, I think you ought to take a look at the 5" DD from FTP.

Monte

[~LARGO~]

Hi Monte,

Great posts!  Happy to have you aboard!

Keep it up! 

Best wishes, 

Gary/Largo