My Pr (best) Single Day Old Coin Count, All In A Single Hour

[Dances With Doves]

On ‎5‎/‎26‎/‎2020 at 5:25 PM, GB_Amateur said:

As mentioned previously, after rereading Dick Stout's Coin Hunting... In Depth book over the holidays I took his advice and stepped away from my standard sites to find new ones.  It seems to be working (thanks, Dick).  Statistics on that later in this post.  Last week I went to one of those 'new sites', a century old park, and in the first 2 hours I found 83 cents in modern coins searching along a road and around a crushed stone parking lot that had previously produced only one old coin -- a beat up Wartime nickel ('Warnick').  I decided to move to a picnic area for the last hour, and as you can see in the picture, I was rewarded.  (Sorry for the overexposure on the Warnick.)

One of the Buffies showed up first, about 5-6 inches.  Next was the Merc at 4-5 inches.  The other two nickels followed (neither more than about 4 inches deep) and the big surprise was the Indian Head, also only about 4 inches deep.  My previous Personal Record ('PR') was only two old coins in one day's hunting.  Note that I don't count Wheat pennies in this category.  My single day PR there is 27.  Needless to say I was quite pleased.

Oh, the 22 cartridge was found next to the above mentioned parking lot on a previous hunt.  Given that it's in a muni park (and we don't have gang problems..., etc.) I assume this was dropped long ago.  It's possible it was dropped after the park opened by a hunter who was getting his gear together after getting out of the car, before exiting the park on foot into the nearby woods.  The lead bullet appears to have 3 rings, one smooth and two serrated (if that's the correct word).  Can anyone put an age on this?  It was oriented vertically about 6 inches deep and sounded as sweet as any silver dime I've ever found, with the TID centered around 27.  Except for the 'P' on the back of the Warnick, there is no mintmark on any of the other coins.  The IH is 1903 and the Buffie dates are only partially visible.  I think one is 1916 and the other 1924.  None of these is scarce, but they still get counted in my 'other old coin' category.

A little about the park.  As I mentioned it was established over a century ago.  I knew of its existence but figured so did every coin hunter within 100 miles.  Surely there was nothing left for me....  But another thing I've learned is that there is no such thing as "hunted out".  I've put 52 1/2 hours into hunting this park so far (all in 2020) and there's still more uncovered area awaiting.  Here are some numbers to mull over:  my 'other old coin' finds per hour is 0.27 for this site compared to 0.08 for all other hunted sites since beginning of 2017.  8 of the 14 finds are nickels.  Meanwhile Wheat pennies recovered per hour is 0.21, compared to 0.26/hr for all other sites starting in 2017.  And here is a sampling of my trash finds:

These are from 12 1/2 hours of hunting this park.  All but a couple of the ring-and-beavertail pulltabs had Equinox TID's in the modern USA coin regions:  12-14 (nickels) and 19 and above.  If the nickel and pseudo-nickel target ID touches 15 I don't dig.  My custom high tone is 20 and up to make sure I notice Indian Head pennies.  (Note from the photo: I count Zincolns as trash and that's what the pictured discs are.)  The 14-18 region is typically thought of as pulltabs, but those in the photo (exception of a couple r&b's) all sounded and TID'ed like nickels.  The aluminum screwcaps TID 21-23.  Crown caps can be in both nickel zone and Zincoln zone (elsewhere, too), depending upon composition.  I did dig more trash than this, mostly can slaw but also some aluminum foil and the usual few bent nails, square nails, copper wire, etc.  This park is absolutely loaded with the old pulltabs, and the broken off beavertails are the worst.  It got to where I was requiring the TID to at least flash a 13 for me to dig 'nickels', and still you see what I pull out.  Unfortunately I later dug a pure 12 and it was a nickel.  😪  I wonder how many of those I left in the ground.

If you're still here I hope you don't mind one more statistic:  for common coins of denomination 25 cents and less (so not counting Wheaties or other old coins, but including Zincolns), the fraction of nickels among common coins since beginning of 2017 (but not counting this site) is 15%.  At this site (again, not counting the eight old nickels) is 26%.

In summary, I'm finding a lot of old coins compared to my other sites, but not more Wheaties.  I'm finding a lot more nickels (relative to other coins) than my other sites.  I'm finding tons of pulltabs in the nickel zone.  How does all this tie together?  Simple:  the site has been hunted by detectorists cherry picking the high conductors and ignoring the nickels because they don't want to dig pulltabs.  Of course they missed some Indian Heads (probably didn't want to be bothered with Zincolns either) and a few silver dimes.  Hopefully I'll find a higher denomination silver coin, but even if I don't I'm happy with the oldies that have been showing up.

 That is a great hunt.We changed it up years back by going to a park  about 35 miles away.I think Vince P. did a book on it on  hard hunted parks for whites.The park is in Batavia N.  Y. and all the  explorer users did really  good.   The one time I hunted with my nox I only got 1 wheatie and a 40's nickel. My worse hunt ever there.My friend snuck out a indian with his new nox. The challenge of metal detecting has   it's ups and downs.

[Tom_in_CA]

7 hours ago, Dances With Doves said:

Tom, It is nice to see you  on this forum .Why don't you give the  Nox a shot again since it has already made you money.Bring it to your  relic spot and you can use your explorer as a pinpointer since  your so   attached to it   .  A  good  hunter like you with a good machine like the nox will bring good results if you give it time.

Nah, I'm too stubborn.  Besides, if I made the switch, then Brian ("cal cobra") wouldn't have anything to rib me about.  And then he'd be saying "I told you so".  I can't let him do that.   Haha

 

But seriously now :  I hunted recently a few times , at an  iron-ridden gold rush site here in the sierra foothills of CA.  They had Nox 800s, and I was using the Exp. II "tank".   Their target counts were higher.  So on a few occasions, I had them flag signals , of iffies,  so I could compare.   And I HAD to admit that on some of them, I would not have heard them or dug them.   And they would turn out, sometimes, to be deep camp lead, or some little doohickey that I *SHOULD* have heard.     Other times it would be iron that fooled them .  But, that was to be expected, since we were all "grasping for straws" and chasing any hints.

 

Thus yes, for  a ghost-townsy iron-ridden spot, the Nox is superior to the exp. II.   It's never been a secret (long been admitted) that there are better machines for iron-see-through.   That's why I've always packed a Silver Sabre or Bandido for when I encounter such locations. 

 

But I'm still of the opinion that for other venues, the Exp. II would win various duels, for various types hunting and locations.  

[Guest calabash digger]

Very nice!

[GB_Amateur]

21 hours ago, Joe D. said:

The blogmaster at "Thetreasurebeachesreport.blogspot." is a Big Fan of these kind of statistics! Post it there too!

Joe, I'm content just participating in this one comprehensive forum (detectorprospector.com).  No question there are good posts on other sites and I go there when linked to from here, but in reality I probably spend too much of my time participating here (but I'm not stopping!).  Why don't you see if the blogmaster will come join us here, at least as a reader?

 

[GB_Amateur]

11 hours ago, UtahRich said:

Congrats on the Personal best of Old coins in a day.  I like that you've included the crusty nasty corroding Zincoln's in the garbage group.  I finally moved to that point this year. They've also been removed from my a record keeping.

I've even come to appreciate turning up the copper memorial cents, ('59-'82) which I used to think a nuisance.  Now I see them as an indicator than an area hasn't been hunted or at least not hunted well.

I used to try and clean up the Stinkin' Zincolns but they just wouldn't.  Biggest mistake USA mint ever made, IMO, and they stubbornly continue 38 years later even as 1 cent is insignificant.  I keep count of them (and pulltabs as well) as they can contribute to my site understanding.  (And I see you do similarly with the copper Memorials.)  I also weigh them just to make sure I'm not missing something good (like a crusty Indian Head!).

I can only imagine what it was like ~30 years ago when many sites were still loaded and detector manufacturers were making breakthroughs.  Obviously some of you here were fortunate enough to live those days.  Must have been quite exciting.  I spend much of my detecting time thinking about what went on, etc. so I can hopefully concentrate on the more productive parts of a site.  I'd rather go slowly and carefully over the remaining hotspots than race over all the ground like the parks' ground mowing contractors do....  I wish I could be pulling old coins out like a professional bass fisherman landing the lunkers, and maybe there is a day or two left for me like that when I find the right site.  But in the meantime there's still fun to be had, IMO, just in the anticipation that the next target is going to produce the "find of a lifetime".

 

 

[kac]

Out of the kindness of my heart I have been leaving the Stinkin" Zincolns for the next generation of detectorists. They woun't have much as we do more digital transactions and cash becomes less scarce.

[Dances With Doves]

8 hours ago, Tom_in_CA said:

Nah, I'm too stubborn.  Besides, if I made the switch, then Brian ("cal cobra") wouldn't have anything to rib me about.  And then he'd be saying "I told you so".  I can't let him do that.   Haha

 

But seriously now :  I hunted recently a few times , at an  iron-ridden gold rush site here in the sierra foothills of CA.  They had Nox 800s, and I was using the Exp. II "tank".   Their target counts were higher.  So on a few occasions, I had them flag signals , of iffies,  so I could compare.   And I HAD to admit that on some of them, I would not have heard them or dug them.   And they would turn out, sometimes, to be deep camp lead, or some little doohickey that I *SHOULD* have heard.     Other times it would be iron that fooled them .  But, that was to be expected, since we were all "grasping for straws" and chasing any hints.

 

Thus yes, for  a ghost-townsy iron-ridden spot, the Nox is superior to the exp. II.   It's never been a secret (long been admitted) that there are better machines for iron-see-through.   That's why I've always packed a Silver Sabre or Bandido for when I encounter such locations. 

 

But I'm still of the opinion that for other venues, the Exp. II would win various duels, for various types hunting and locations.  

In a pulltab infested spot the explorer probably has an edge.  I    hunted   a nail infested fairground where I got my record of 17 silvers in a day with my explorer and got 8 this year in 1 hunt plus over 15 Wheaties (  where explorer was     struggling to find a coin) with nox.I am in the gold coin club too.Found it  in a hunt where Mike Moutray   joined us on his road trips he took.2 1909  quarter eagles in 1 hole.He was in the first explorer   ads.in   the magazines.    

[Dances With Doves]

5 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

I used to try and clean up the Stinkin' Zincolns but they just wouldn't.  Biggest mistake USA mint ever made, IMO, and they stubbornly continue 38 years later even as 1 cent is insignificant.  I keep count of them (and pulltabs as well) as they can contribute to my site understanding.  (And I see you do similarly with the copper Memorials.)  I also weigh them just to make sure I'm not missing something good (like a crusty Indian Head!).

I can only imagine what it was like ~30 years ago when many sites were still loaded and detector manufacturers were making breakthroughs.  Obviously some of you here were fortunate enough to live those days.  Must have been quite exciting.  I spend much of my detecting time thinking about what went on, etc. so I can hopefully concentrate on the more productive parts of a site.  I'd rather go slowly and carefully over the remaining hotspots than race over all the ground like the parks' ground mowing contractors do....  I wish I could be pulling old coins out like a professional bass fisherman landing the lunkers, and maybe there is a day or two left for me like that when I find the right site.  But in the meantime there's still fun to be had, IMO, just in the anticipation that the next target is going to produce the "find of a lifetime".

 

 

I  wish we could take them  to the scrap yard and scrap them for zinc. That      would help.