Jump to content

My 2018 Coin, Relic, Jewelry Summary


Recommended Posts


Great post GB_ Thanks!

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, phrunt said:

Good post, thanks, your numbers on coins seem quite low compared to around here, 263 hours detecting and only $78 in modern coins?

I just went detecting yesterday hoping to gather up new years revelers losses on the beach where the fireworks is held on the lake, unfortunately when I arrived at 6am there was an army of cleaners cleaning up all the crap the locals and tourists left all over the lakefront so I didn't want to go detect there and went further along the lake to a spot I'd hit hard earlier in the year and found $32 in new coin drops since last time a few months ago and I was only there just over an hour, a few of them admittedly were coins I'd missed last time because of their depth and corrosion levels.  That same beach last time I got around $120 in coins over a couple of day period detecting it for a few hours each day.   I was hoping to get a ring but lucked out this time.

Maybe people around here have lots of holes in their pockets, although I think it's tourists mostly as they still seem to use a lot more cash than their foreign credit cards for the fees attached and so on, not to mention the area is packed with tourists and the odd local appears occasionally.  You always see them queued up at the foreign exchange areas.  I wish gold nuggets were so plentiful ?

I should start keeping a bit more track of my finds, I haven't really done that yet at all.

If the $78 was only quarters, that alone would be 312 coins.

If the $78 was half quarters, half dimes that would be 546 coins.

If the $78 dollars was 75% pennies which is a more typical ratio, well that would be over 6000 coins. About 22 coins per hour, or a coin every 2.72 minutes.

Folks in Canada think it will be easy too when they hit a modern relatively untouched site with a lot of large denomination coins. That can however dry up real quick. It will take another 30 years for these modern coins to replenish themselves if dropped at the same rate. People don't use as many coins now, plus new coins are steel so guess what lol.

$78 in sub- one dollar coins is very respectable IMO.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You did good. The wife has first right of refusal over here as well. I love finding those old pocket watches. Is it fully intact? You also got a lot of Buffs and those are particularly hard to find as are the Indians. I'm surprised you dug less pull tabs then the previous year even though you got out more. Keeping records a good thing I wish I had the drive to do it. I have a buddy who has keep a record of every duck he has shot for the past 20 years!

strick 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, phrunt said:

ahhhh I see, oddly I find mostly gold coins here which are $1 and $2 coins so I was thinking along those lines, I forgot they still even have 1c pieces in America....

Yes, quite different in the US compared to many other countries (even our close neighbor Canada).  For almost 50 years the US government has stubbornly tried to get its citizens to use $1 coins:  Eisenhowers, Susan B Anthonys, Sacagaweas, presidentials.  None have stuck.  The $1 note continues to be printed in massive quantities.  When many of us were kids and silver coins still in circulation the half dollar was common to see.  Once they went to clad that rapidly faded.  I don't recall receiving more than 1 or 2 halves in change over the last 30 years!

Meanwhile the penny (now even more worthless being made of copper coated zinc which begins to eat itself almost immediately when in the wet ground) has no respect amongst the public yet continues to get distributed in change.  Most coin hunters get the feeling that they are intentionally thrown down, being so worthless.  I don't know what the lowest price item you can buy today but it's way more than a penny AFAIK.

1399 US coins (5.3 per hour of searching) found in 2018, including the ones I care about -- Wheaties and other old coins -- with only 1 half dollar and 1 dollar.

I could do better if I were concentrating on modern coins, which I'm not.  There are posters here who do much better, particularly those who hunt the popular beaches.  But those from Europe, for example (some who post their results here) actually have a chance to supplement their incomes with modern coins.  Not really the case here from what I've seen.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the great 2018 Year in Review post GBA!!  I will work on my summary this weekend.  I too track all my finds, but not quite as detailed as you.  I am definitely going to add the "pull tabs" column in my sheet for 2019.  and  +1 on the war nicks comment.  I am amazed how many I found this year with the EQX!  Great Year GBA!  May 2019 be even better for you!  Tim.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, phrunt said:

Thanks for clearing that up, it's always confusing when involving other currencies...

Yup, that's the most recent iteration of the Zincoln.. Been minting the shield reverse since 2010.. Penny got switched to clad mid-1982, so there's both copper and clad cents that year..

Swamp

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/1/2019 at 9:49 PM, strick said:

I love finding those old pocket watches. Is it fully intact? You also got a lot of Buffs and those are particularly hard to find as are the Indians. I'm surprised you dug less pull tabs then the previous year even though you got out more.

Thanks, Strick.  (I'm still envious of your recent double "once in a lifetime" finds.  ?

The pocket watch looks to be all there, but the corrosion is so bad I think it will take some serious cleaning/soaking to even get it open.  I do like the scroll work on the outer case -- makes me think it's not the cheapest pocket watch sold at the time it was made.  Do you have some ideas on how to clean it up without irreversible damage?  I typically soak my finds in water thinking that won't hurt them, but obviously there are exeptions and I'm pretty sure this is one!

I also was wondering about the pulltabs but I'm pretty sure I know the answer -- discrimination.  I was much more likely to ignore the zone between US nickels and US zinc pennies ('Zincolns') this year than last.  However for 2019 I'm going to loosen that requirement.  My feeling now (which actually repeats/copies things that others here have said, including Steve H.) is that often I spend more time trying to figure out if a target is worth digging than if I just dig it!  One obvious exception is in dry conditions where digging holes is more likely to damage the sod.

As evidence for my above theory, at the end of the year (after reading some posts here about Tesoro) I picked up a used Vaquero and took it out in one of my parks to a spot I had never hunted before. Since there is only a slngle discrimination threshold and I love nickels ? I set it below nickels.  I ended up digging about 10 ring & beavertail (R&B) pulltabs in a couple hours -- among the highest R&B totals and for sure the highest rate of those for the year.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...