CLAD FEVER

[treasure 06]

Just curious how many people out there hunt specifically for clad coins. I didn't always hunt for clad, but now that all the older sites have been hunted out in my area, I have been looking mainly for clad the last few years. There is a never ending supply of clad at parks, schoolyards, and athletic fields. Also, I don't have to drive very far to find alot of coins, considering the high gasoline prices. I seem to average about $5.00-$6.00 in clad for every hour of detecting, occasionally I do better than that. Would like to hear from anyone else that has CLAD FEVER!

 

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[wmas1960]

I don't set out just to find Clad but hey.... It all adds up. I know that every time I go out that is what I will always find. I plan out my searches around areas that I know will likely contain such items. like the paths from the beach to the parking lots. The play lots where kids might loose pocket change etc. I don't go out looking for anything specific though. Just whatever I can find. Whether it is something of value, coins, jewelry... or something that tells about the way the area was used at one time. Boat parts by the sailing beach or toys, zipper pulls at local playgrounds. Maybe a garden nozzle from the back yard or the metal tag from some roses in what I understand was once a rose garden in our yard. The pencils and paper clips at the local schools... or whatever. The only thing common of everywhere I go is the clad and other modern coins. I haven't found any place that has yielded any consistant old or rare coins though. The oldest I did find is a badly worn Buffalo Nickel that I happened to find by chance in a sandbox at a local elementry school. The school only dates to the late 50s or early 60s maybe. I have also found a few wheaties. The oldest quarter was 1965 that I found in my back yard.

I keep looking though and if I find ANYTHING, it will still be a nice day.

 

[jeff of pa]

Years ago I used to Hunt for Clad,
I always wanted the old coins also, but the Clad added up,
so it meant something.


Then I got into Relc Hunting, and was Disapointed every time I found Clad.

Lately with the price of gas, I have been Considering hitting the
"After Carnival" Circuit this year and try and clean up on everyones losses.

I guess it all Depends on how my " Fires on the Burner " pan out.
With Research looking Good.
If Permissions Come through I may be too Busy.

 

[Southcacalaky]

Clad makes me glad, always...Art...

 

[LadyDigger]

Ok.....I am new at this metal detecting and learning something new everyday. This forum, itself, has taught me alot..Thanks everyone.

But I have a question...what is CLAD? Are you talking just normal coins we have in circulation today? I will get use to all the terms in time...thanks

 

[Mighty AP]

Yes, clad is the term for modern coins, zinc pennies, non-silver. Clean it up & spend it! You'll learn all aspects, techniques & jargon hangin around here Ron(and Ann) Lots of helpful, freindly people, any questions just ask! Get a camera & post pics of all your finds too!

 

[wmas1960]

If you look up the term Clad in the dictionary, technically, that is what clad is. The layering or sandwiching of one metal on another. Looking at the side of a quarter, dime or half, you will clearly see what that means.

However, as AP suggests, on a more generic sense, the term is often used to encompass all modern coins. Including pennies and nickels while they are, as I understand, not made up of a clad structure.

 

[LadyDigger]

Thank MightyAP and wmas1960,....for the explanation. I suspected that is what was meant, but needed clarification.

Yea, today's money isn't worth collecting....these pennies, I can't tell you how many I have picked up from the beach, poorly coroded!!!! You can even wash them with water, they fall apart.

Someone told me once, that you have damaged coins, you can take them to the bank and they will give you replacements. Wonder if I should see if that really works

I just got done taking pics of what we have found so far. In quarters...$17.25 cents worth, dimes...$10.90 and nickels...$3.05...pennies I haven't counted yet We have detected our local beach (Va Beach and Croatain on the Atlantic / Norfolk and Chics Beach on the Chesapeake Bay). I want to go back to Chics Beach though...under the bridge ...also our front, back and side yard. We have only been detecting since April 2006.

In the dimes, I found last night, while washing off the dirt...a 1962 and a 1959 silver dime. So, I put them in little coin card holders and labeled them. Only thing, I can't remember where we found those ....duh me. It had to be one of the beaches....

My mother was a coin collector and my father, a stamp collector. Even today, stamp collecting is boring LOL...but I learned a bit from my Mom on her collection. She use to belong to the Cape Fear Coin Club and the Bie Guild back in the late 60's / early 70's. Her interest was more in pennies though.

I do have a nice collection going in my wheat pennies, just from change over the years. My oldest is only a 1917, which I won't get rid of...that was the year my grandfather entered the Army in WWI

I will post some pics here soon...I need to crop the pics and all and make sure they came out clear enough to see.

Oh, I don't know where I got this, or where it came from...but I put change in cups, bowls, whatever is in my china cabinet and forget about them. Since I started to see what I have, due to our metal detecting, I was putting my wheats in holders, etc. I ran across, what I thought was just a silver slug. I nearly threw it away, but set it aside and later looked at it through my magnifer. I saw QUARTER DOLLAR on it....it is very very worn, so worn, you can not see that date ....but after looking in my latest 2006 coin book....it was a Barber Quarter. I think the two numbers of the date are 19....but can not read the rest...and that is straining to see it. And to think ... I thought it was a slug and was going to trash it...!!!!!

But, even though we haven't found anything of real value...it's not the value, but the joy and pleasure of finding items. Wish there was a way, when you held an item you found, it would transport you to the time when it was lost and you were able to see who owned it ....someday..huh? LOL

Thanks for all the input...glad I signed up for this forum!!!
Ron and Ann

 

[wmas1960]

"Even today, stamp collecting is boring LOL"

yeah, because you can't find stamps with a metal detector.

 

[LadyDigger]

"Even today, stamp collecting is boring LOL"

yeah, because you can't find stamps with a metal detector.

I knew it!!!! They need to start making silver stamps now

 

[BuckleBoy]

When I first started out, everything I found was cool. I think I found nothing old except a few wheats during my first 6-7 months of detecting. All the rest was clad. I don't ever worry about the gasoline money. It is always about the fun. If I do enough research and spend dawn till dusk in the field I know I'll have a great time even if I don't "reimburse" myself for the petrol. I mean, when we go to the movie theatre and spend 7 bucks to see a film we don't think of how we are going to make our money back! So in my book it should be worth it for the fun. Of course, it is great if we happen to pay for our trip with a really nice find!

What I do now rather than spend the clad is save it in large blue glass canning jars that I found while out coinshooting. I figure 14 years is a long time to go without any major repairs to my machine, and I like the idea of paying for any repairs at least in part with all that clad. That way I won't be in trouble if I'm in a tight spot when the time comes to repair or replace my trusty 1266-X. Besides, I think it will be more meaningful to use all that found clad (essentially "junk" coins that people don't even bother to pick up half of the time) for something that keeps me detectin'.

I don't go out hunting specifically for clad. It just happens. Kinda like pulltabs. Every once and a while though I get done at a site and see a park with a volleyball court or large soft gravel parking lot beckoning (where the digging is easy). Since my goal is to use that clad for repairs, I feel I should probably salt the change jar a little every once and a while--maybe once or twice during each set of batteries. I usually use high discrimination to hunt target-rich areas (which keeps the zinc pennies from sounding so good). This boosts my numbers of dimes and quarters vs. pennies because I don't have to dig all those silly copper washed bad boys; only dimes/quarters/copper cents. Perhaps with a meter this would be easier. Of course, if I find ANYTHING old or silver, I cut back the discrimination and do things the right way. And I always dig the interesting or unusual signals. I've got about $80 right now (which is A LOT of clad!!!) but I wish I had started when I first got the machine...I would have already had 200 bucks waiting to be rolled up. (By the way, if you choose to do this you should probably discipline yourself to clean all that clad up or tumble it before you put it in a jar. It would suck to have to coin tumble or clean 200 bucks in clad at once!) Hope this gives you some ideas, and Happy Hunting!

 

[Yaquina]

Clad just bought a new DFX....

Mike

 

[bazinga]

Somedays when I have no more old sites left to hunt and nothing better to do I'll go to a local park and just hunt for quarters. I just take a quarter with me and when I get there I program the quarter into my machine and only dig those signals for about an hour or so. It usually leads to 15-25 quarters in the few times I have tried this out.

 

[treasurekidd]

I like clad, but, of course, prefer the older stuff. I've almost paid for my ACE250 in clad alone after a yeatr and a half. Like I tell my wife, my hobby is finding colonial coins, pirate treasure, and diamond rings, and in between finds, I find money!