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How Many Unsearched Coin & Relic Sites Are Still Out There?


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Great topic GB, I think for the most part there are millions of good coins still buried. Just do the math, Just look at the minting number for each year of every desirable coin and times that by the number coins. For instance lets pick Mercury dimes, 1916 to 1945. the total of merc's minted were 2,676,916,280 That's almost 2 3/4 billion merc dimes.  Now you add the rest up and use a 3% loss ratio and you will see just how many coins are still left for us to find. Not that I keep track HaHa but I (average) two silver coins an acre today. The problem is permissions, A lot of folks just are not friendly anymore. They move from the cities for the rural life, but don't like the rural neighborly way. I try to get new permissions through networking. Oh you might want to tally the ZINCOLN'S 

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4 hours ago, phrunt said:

Nearby to where I live they created a Large hydro dam, in doing so they flooded a town to do it, this town started as a gold mining town in 1862 and turned into quite a big town by the 1980's when this all started taking place.  They moved a few of the buildings up to higher ground to make a heritage precinct to remember the old town and then let the water in to form a lake.  

A little bit of info on it

https://thecuriouskiwi.co.nz/blog/2013/the-town-that-drowned/

This guy made a bit of a youtube documentary out of it, prior to the town being flooded he made it his mission to go and photograph every building in the town center so he'd have a memory of the old town

And these guys do a video diving in the lake and show the towns two old bridges underwater, there is still a car on one of the bridges.  As the town was flooding people were standing on these bridges watching the water flood the area, some got up to their knees before deciding it was time to leave, they're now deep under water.  I don't know why someone left their car on the bridge, maybe they couldn't get it out in time.

I can just imagine the metal detector finds you could get in a scenario like that, you can guarantee it was never once detected before it was flooded and I highly doubt it's been detected ever.  I guess it just can't be done, there would now be a layer of silt over everything and it'd just be too hard to do.  There would be silver coins everywhere, and no doubt some gold sovereigns too, and who knows what else.

And for anyone interested this area was quite heavily dredged in the 1800's and right up into the 1990's.   This is a little bit of a documentary about it.  They did get a lot of gold from this area and it's still where I go beeping today.

There is just so many untouched places to use in a detector in NZ, I hear you guys in the US saying everywhere has had a detector over it and it just seems unimaginable here.  Tiny little 5 to 20" coils and so much ground to cover, especially when it comes to gold prospecting.  But even coin hunting, I doubt I'd be able to cover all the spots where coins could be lost in my lifetime.  I guess it helps with a smaller population and far less people swinging beepers.  For me it feels like when I go coin hunting, I'm stepping back in time to the USA in the 1960's as not a day would go by where I couldn't go out and find a old silver coin, often many.

Ever check out the underwater rov's, they have some with grabber claws and run around $3600. Was trying to figure out a way to hook up some sort of detector to one and a way of scooping finds. Many go just over 300' down.

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I live in a town where there are numerous private homes that are I know are littered with old coins. In my front yard alone, I found 2 silver dimes (a Merc from 1916, a Rosie from 1950s) and an IHC/IHP from 1889, if I recall correctly. These 3 finds were in a front yard with a sidewalk and road frontage that's not more than 80 feet long. There is grid after grid after grid of these type of houses with front yards and sidewalks or walkways that have been traversed for 70+ years. 

If I could hunt any piece of grass covered property within a 1/2 mile radius of my house, and you gave me 48 hours (excluding travel time) to hunt the properties (I'd be using a Vanquish 340 and AT Max), I am confident I could find about 40 silver coins. I think there'd be maybe a half-a-dozen or so barbers and/or walkers, too. Is it b/c I'm good? No, it's just that there are so many homes that are 80+ years old with sidewalks that were laid down many decades ago

There are 3 properties in particular where I can almost see the silver in the ground. So why haven't I hunted them yet? One, I haven't had the time since COVID hit. Two, I already asked one for permission, but it's a rental and they said to ask the realtor. I'm debating on what approach to take next with that property. Three, another property is being renovated and has passed through multiple owners the past few years. There's rarely anyone on the property and if there is, I'm not sure if they own it or are a tenant...or are a contractor hired to fix up the house.

If COVID doesn't get so bad and school remains in session, I should have time, maybe next week, to pack up my metal detector gear and just walk up and down my neighborhood going door to door, asking for permission to hunt.

Oh, and I forgot. There's an old family property about 20 minutes away that my wife's grandfather used to own. He had a workshop there where he kept one or more glass jugs (of loose change that my wife said he collected since probably the 1920s or 30s). The workshop apparently burned down or blew up a few decades ago and the coins from those jugs were never recovered.

Why haven't I hunted that property yet? B/c if I do and get skunked, I'll be disappointed. And if it holds all the valuable coins I think it does, it might create some family turmoil since the property is currently owned by my brother-in-law. I honestly don't know how to approach a family permission where there's a reasonable chance (albeit small), that I could find coins worth hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

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1 hour ago, mh9162013 said:

Why haven't I hunted that property yet? B/c if I do and get skunked, I'll be disappointed. And if it holds all the valuable coins I think it does, it might create some family turmoil since the property is currently owned by my brother-in-law. I honestly don't know how to approach a family permission where there's a reasonable chance (albeit small), that I could find coins worth hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

 The trouble with burnt down building are the nails, lead flashing and article left inside when it burnt. It took heaps of nail to build them, but one thing in your favour is that the coins would be in a tight bunch if they were kept in  jars. There is many ways to spilt up finds. One is to set an effort amount (time & equipment) then a share percentage that both are happy with. The dividing equal method can be done on value or taken turns of select each piece one at a time. As a detectorist you have a good advantage of selecting good finds.

Remember nothing ventured nothing gain for both parties.

 

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7 hours ago, geof_junk said:

The trouble with burnt down building are the nails, lead flashing and article left inside when it burnt. It took heaps of nail to build them, but one thing in your favour is that the coins would be in a tight bunch if they were kept in  jars. There is many ways to spilt up finds. One is to set an effort amount (time & equipment) then a share percentage that both are happy with. The dividing equal method can be done on value or taken turns of select each piece one at a time. As a detectorist you have a good advantage of selecting good finds.

Remember nothing ventured nothing gain for both parties.

The problem is that this person is family. So even if whatever I propose is reasonable or strongly in their favor, if they get even an inkling that I'm taking advantage of them (even if they're 100% wrong), it could create eggshell-walking scenarios for a very long time. Then, there's chance that we have these discussions, and all I find is a few bucks in clad including a few wheat pennies. Then I walked on those toes for nothing.

Am I over thinking this? Probably. But it's hard to get motivated to hunt any property knowing there's a distinct possibility that I may get to keep only a small percentage of what I find.

Right now, the plan is to get more familiar with my AT Max and set up a camera system with it to document hunts. Then, I ask for permission with the expectation that I keep nothing except a token find (maybe a coin or two) and the pictures/video I take of the process. And if he ends up letting me keep more of what I find (50%, 100%, etc.) that's just gravy.

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31 minutes ago, mh9162013 said:

The problem is that this person is family. So even if whatever I propose is reasonable or strongly in their favor, if they get even an inkling that I'm taking advantage of them (even if they're 100% wrong), it could create eggshell-walking scenarios for a very long time. Then, there's chance that we have these discussions, and all I find is a few bucks in clad including a few wheat pennies. Then I walked on those toes for nothing.

Am I over thinking this? Probably. But it's hard to get motivated to hunt any property knowing there's a distinct possibility that I may get to keep only a small percentage of what I find.

Right now, the plan is to get more familiar with my AT Max and set up a camera system with it to document hunts. Then, I ask for permission with the expectation that I keep nothing except a token find (maybe a coin or two) and the pictures/video I take of the process. And if he ends up letting me keep more of what I find (50%, 100%, etc.) that's just gravy.

My wife always says "no one will screw you over faster than family". I understand your reluctance to get involved. Since the place burned you may just find a large mass of melted silver. 😵

I have a relative who owns a very old house in a very old city. Turned up a completely whole 1800s medicine bottle in two minutes walking in the woods behind the house. The house used to be a boys' school about 100 years ago. I have mentioned bringing my detectors there and there is interest, but I am also concerned about the outcome. The place has never been hunted to my knowledge.

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23 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

My wife always says "no one will screw you over faster than family". I understand your reluctance to get involved. Since the place burned you may just find a large mass of melted silver. 😵

I have a relative who owns a very old house in a very old city. Turned up a completely whole 1800s medicine bottle in two minutes walking in the woods behind the house. The house used to be a boys' school about 100 years ago. I have mentioned bringing my detectors there and there is interest, but I am also concerned about the outcome. The place has never been hunted to my knowledge.

If "all" I found was a large mass a silver, that would still be quite the find! I mean, how many people can say they found a silver nugget the size of a football made out of coins? 😛

Your relative's property sounds very promising, too. Do you think you will ever hunt it? At least you've laid the ground work of mentioning hunting it and your relative hasn't rejected the idea.

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If you go asking permissions .. go with the idea that anything you find belongs to the landowner .. after all they do own it, even if they don't know what it is .. then with all your finds, show them .. most will not take anything .. some will take it all .. but either way offer it up to them .. if you go with this in mind and they don't take it, then it's real cool that you get to keep it .. if they do keep it, then it's real cool you found something of theirs for them .. either way, what ever you do will be passed along at the coffee shop .. this mindset leads to more permissions .. and really, unless you have a contract, the landowner has legal rights to what is on their property and if you came up to me asking permission, then wanted me to sign a contract you would be denied .. where as, if you just asked, permission would be granted and I wouldn't take anything you found .. but if I later heard at the coffee shop you found thousands of dollars and didn't show me .. I would probably do some legal stuff .. and everyone at the coffee shop would become aware of your actions .. probably be hard to get permission from anyone then.

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29 minutes ago, ScoTTT2 said:

If you go asking permissions .. go with the idea that anything you find belongs to the landowner .. after all they do own it, even if they don't know what it is .. then with all your finds, show them .. most will not take anything .. some will take it all .. but either way offer it up to them .. if you go with this in mind and they don't take it, then it's real cool that you get to keep it .. if they do keep it, then it's real cool you found something of theirs for them .. either way, what ever you do will be passed along at the coffee shop .. this mindset leads to more permissions .. and really, unless you have a contract, the landowner has legal rights to what is on their property and if you came up to me asking permission, then wanted me to sign a contract you would be denied .. where as, if you just asked, permission would be granted and I wouldn't take anything you found .. but if I later heard at the coffee shop you found thousands of dollars and didn't show me .. I would probably do some legal stuff .. and everyone at the coffee shop would become aware of your actions .. probably be hard to get permission from anyone then.

Good post.  

 

I always tell them :  "You're welcome to anything that's found" .  And I've never had anyone actually truly scoop up everything.   I'll usually have a token, or a key-date-seated, or rare button that I'll push off to the side of the pile.  And will say "... Here's one I don't have in my collection.  Is it alright if this one is for me ?".   And I've never had anyone say "no".

 

Besides :  99% of our hobby is just show & tell anyhow (eg.: bragging rights, fun, etc....).   So you can always take pix of the stuff, and always have pix to showcase for your collection.   Good enough.

 

And as far as "contracts" :  The LAST thing you want to do, is to show up on someone's doorstep with contracts for them to sign, and talking about "splits" and so forth.  That just conjurs up images of legal hassles.  And is the FASTEST way to get a "no".   A smile & a handshake is all it needs.

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43 minutes ago, mh9162013 said:

If "all" I found was a large mass a silver, that would still be quite the find! I mean, how many people can say they found a silver nugget the size of a football made out of coins? 😛

Your relative's property sounds very promising, too. Do you think you will ever hunt it? At least you've laid the ground work of mentioning hunting it and your relative hasn't rejected the idea.

I probably will. It's always been nice visiting them and I did give their son the bottle. It really doesn't matter to me what we find there. It'll probably cause some tension with the wives when the "hour or so" hunt turns into 3 or 4 😀 

It's kinda like fishing. When you're fishing it's easy to leave but not when you're "catching" 😈

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  • The title was changed to How Many Unsearched Coin & Relic Sites Are Still Out There?

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