The 1000 Silver Coin Club

[Dances With Doves]

I am going to try to take a silver  tally by year to find out my  grand total    .In   2020  I found 119 silver coins all with the Nox with both the 6 and 11 inch coils.About 18 in the water. I found 40 indians too for a 3/1 ratio.Clad hopper had a 2/ 1 ratio.I will do 2019 next and used    mostly the Nox.If you want you can guess.In 2020 i found 12 Barber coins.

[Dances With Doves]

In 2019  I found 96 silver coins all with the Nox.I only had 1 by april 15,I switched to 50 tones and the wm08 module plus the Tony E. headphones and this combo  clicked for me and I went on a tear. In 2018  I found only 60 silver with the explorer 2 on turf and the At gold got the ones in the water.I also  found 2 of those 60 with my buddies CTX  the  3    times I used it.One in the turf and 1 in the water.On April 15th when i had 1 silver clad hopper had 10 with his  Explorer 2.At that time he was not impressed with the Nox on silver because of my measly results.He was  impressed that my 6''coil got a very deep wheatie that he called me over to check though.I had 92 Indians in 2019.I had 23 Indians in 2018. In 2018 i had 4 Barber coins.In 2019 i had 15 Barber coins

[Dances With Doves]

In 2017  I found only 53  silver coins.The  explorer 2 in the turf and the At gold    in  the water found most of them with the x-terra 70 with the 7.5 kz concentric getting  only 2 of those.The x-terra 70 in my area did not do well with that stock  coil in most situations.My 10.5'' 7.5 kz coil broke the year before on that machine and that coil  on that  machine  improved it's performance more  then any combo that I ever used for coins. This is a instance where a coil made all the difference. This was the least amount of time that  I  ever  hunted by far.At least  50% less then year before. I only had 8  Indians in 2017. In 2017 i found 2 barber coins and they were found on the same day. 

[Dances With Doves]

 I dug out my records and went back to the beginning.The first hunt of my career was  on  June 20 1999 with a bandito 2 umax I bought from Wilson metal detectors.I did not get my  first     silver for almost 20  hunts and that was with parks still loaded     with them.I did not know how to hunt for them plus picked the   wrong spots at first. I also was hunting the beach a lot so that did not help.I was able to get a feel for hunting coins with  that machine and picked spots  where    the coins  were shallower. I ended up with  19 silver for that  half year of hunting which  I  did often.I did get 2 Standing Liberty quarters though. I found 6 indians in 1999 including 1 15 minutes after it got dark on dec.31 to end the   century.I found 4 barber coins this year.

[Dances With Doves]

I started out the year 2000 with almost 10  hunts in  January with a few wheaties in this overgrown hill old camp that was between a pond and a creek.I found a  Canadian Large cent and a few wheaties     here with the Bandito and then the snow came in heavy and shut it down.At this time I got an early run Explorer before the ran out  of them because of demand and this lasted a few month  for that machine. I can say that having this type of machine at this time made a newbie like me look   good.The first time at  this camp  I found a Barber dime and Merc. and I was just going for solid signals.I did not know what a good iffy signal was yet.I had 6  silver in my first        4 hunts which including my first Barber Quarter too.  I had in that year  190 silver coins and got my first beach and turf gold .The turf gold was a about 6  gram 24k medallion. I had    many    old silvers that were older>Barbers,seated or old Canadian.I had a total of 57 Barber coins with a 1895 and  1897-o Barber  dime found within the first month of me using the Explorer  with a 1895-s coming  at the end of the year.Thank you minelab for offering this machine at  that time. All my old coins  show what those other machines  missed and made a  newbie look good.I hunted a lot that year and was not a water hunting yet.I did hunt the    dry sand about 20 times and spent time   at a school because  it was  very close and they tore up the back.Barbers were very scarce at this school.In 2000 I found a 160 indians

[Dances With Doves]

In 2001 winter was tough here in  Rochester and  I did not get my first silver until march 9.That year I found my first 3 cent  piece(2 in  1 hole  ) my first   Spanish silver and my only Morgan dollar plus first seated half dime.I ended up with 211  silver coins that year.My Barber count went down to  30  but  I did find a 1901-s dime.I also found my first  Carson city dime that year.I was happy hitting 200 but  other explorer hunters started around here and they were good and they would take a good chunk of silver.I  would become friends with most of them.In 2001  I had 222 indians which should be  my  record for a year.

[Dances With Doves]

In 2002  I  would have my record year for silver at 244 coins.  I would get 168  Indians and 1073 wheat   penny's. I would get a  Civil war   belt plate and many 3  ringed bullets in this Northern town.I would also get my first draped bust large cent which was dated  1800.I ended up with 38 Barber coins and got my first bust dime that was  to  worn to get a  date. I also got a mint 50 cent silver from  a country  in   South America with a 1917 date.I had about 10  seated dimes that year. At this point in time clad hopper was still using his Garrett 2500 and I only hunted a couple of times with him at club hunts at this point(main hunting   partner now).He would get his explorer 2 in  May 2003 and would clobber silver the next 17 years  with this machine.I would guess at this point he is under 100 silver for his career .  

[Dances With Doves]

My silver count would drop to 142   in 2003   but I would get 216 Indians.I would get 32 Barber coins and we  met up with the Minelab explorer Guru Mike  Moutray   and we took him to a spot since he was not from around here.That day i found 2 $2.5 dollar gold coins in 1 hole with both 1909 dates.He found the most coins though including his first 3 cent silver.The week before I scored a 1895-o key date barber dime and for the icing on the cake a Seated half in December. One of my favorite years ever.

[Dances With Doves]

On 1/28/2021 at 7:35 AM, Tom_in_CA said:

I've been at it since I was in 8th grade, which was about 1976.   I wish I'd kept track of all the silver coins I'd found, so I could chime in on your question 🤪

I would not count caches (yes, even spilled ones) into the total.  If you're talking of singular fumble-finger-losses, then a cache or broke-open-cache is not in the same category.   Jamflicker & Dan ("Raphis") are finding them one-fumble-finger loss at a time.   I too, decades ago, got into  a location where jars of silver coins had apparently broken open by a farm plow.  And spread out into a field and barn area.   Such that sometimes you'd get 5 or 10 silver coins all fused together.   That's different than the 1-at-a-time that Dan and Jam do, as you know.

Also, there's different niches.   Ie.: While that might be the most merc's from turfed So. CA parks (or ANY USA parks in-a-given-year), yet there's other niches.   Like notice they find few, if any, seateds.   And there's guys that have no desire to knock themselves silly for  roosies and mercs in junky turf cherry-picking.  And might only end the year with 10 or 12 silver coins.  Yet every one of them will be a seated.   So as you can see :  Different niche categories of skill. 

Hi Tom. What was  your total from your spilled cache on silver about?

[Dances With Doves]

In 2004  I found 106 silver coins and this would be the last full year that I did not water hunt.I would buy a Garrett Infinium early in 2005.My Barber coin total would drop to 19.I would get 133 indians in 2004.