Finding Gold Coins HELP!

[Copper]

I have made up my mind that there are gold coins out there to be found. The US $1 gold piece is very small and easy to drop. I'm sure these were lost and I'm going to find one (some place other than ebay).

Speaking of ebay, I just purchased a type III 1857 $1 gold piece I plan to use for detecting practice and a ring setting. I am going to plant that coin every which way until I know what to expect in the field.

Question: Does anybody out there have any suggestions on how I may increase my chances of finding this prize which has escaped me now for some 35 years? Any techniques or suggestions on the types of places to hunt? HELP!

 

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[lonewolfe]

This should fall under techniques but if you just want to see where $5 gold falls on meter, 3 nickles taped together will give you good idea on meter. But why search for just gold coin, an ef 16d dime or 1909SVDB, or any # of coins have more value . If you do happen to dig a gold coin then you've accomplished more than alot of others after 20+ years.

I agree with stoney here,

why look for $5 gold coins worth like an avg. of $150 or so when you could be looking for say like a 1927-s st. lib quarter in EF cond. worth like 1300.00 or more depending on if it's a FH or not and if it's in better cond. the price doubles, and keeps going!?

That's my #1 coin I've been looking for and seek to find one of these days!

 

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[Carl in CO]

Gold coins are deep due to their relative weight. They will settle just as gold does in nature. As one manual for a detector read, if for instance you pick up something in the foil range at 10 inches, you better dig it. It's very unlikely foil, and probably a heavy metal.

 

[Copper]

Gold coins are deep due to their relative weight.? They will settle just as gold does in nature.? As one manual for a detector read, if for instance you pick up something in the foil range at 10 inches, you better dig it.? It's very unlikely foil, and probably a heavy metal.

You know, I got this very strange feeling when you wrote "pick up something in the foil range at 10 inches." I've had that happen and I just ignored the signal.

I had something really weird happen once. I got a "gold signal" while using one of the "Coincomputer" metal detectors (I think that was it was called), and when I dug the hole I only found this very thin shred of fine gold colored metal. It was very thin and about 2 inches long. I dug that hole out and deeper and couldn't find anything more. The detector really sounded off originally. Like I had a large target. It could barely detect the hair thin piece I retrieved. I was using one of the coin digging towels. Anyway, this is really off the subject but I just remembered this. Oh well, I probably shouldn't have even mentioned this but it was strange.

 

[cachenut]

Wow everyone seems to know the answer to this one.

There are two kinds of answers. How to find a gold coin with your detector if one is there? Where to look for a gold coin? Few people even consider the second question.

How? Well gold coins give a varied reposnse depending on the size of coin, depth and a few other factors. Some gold dollars, the small ones, may come out in the pull tab range. Others will be way at the top along with silver. So you need to dig it all especially the pull tabs.

Where? Most people depend on dropped coins. Go to any old place where coins were exchanged and there will be a few dropped coins. Gold coins did not circulate at all times in our history so you need to find places that were used in those time periods. What was it 1830s to 1900s or so. No thats not right. You can look it up in the red book for coins. Gold coins were made only in Philadelphia up to about 1831. Then mints were open in the south around 1831 but closed near the civil war.

If you can find places where gold coins were used this would be best. An article appeared not too long ago in lostreasure magazine on this very issue. Where to find gold coins. Places where deliveries of gold coins in bulk were made would be good to check. If coins were produced only in Philadelphia prior to 1830 then east coast is best. Near Phily. Also I would think rich people tend to have more gold than poor soa wealthy estate is a better bet.

If you work on the where question a lot it will improve your chances. A lot. Working on the how question is not so important. If a gold coin is under your coil most poeple would find it.

The only gold coin I've tried came in at 12 on my XLT and went up to about 18 when I got close. gold dollar.

Joe.

 

[bakergeol]

Well Cooper
Perhaps after trying for 35 years to find a gold coin without success perhaps it's time to change tactics. If your life long goal is to find a gold coin there is only one place to go. Book yourself on one of those 2 week metal detecting vacations in the UK(These vacations are usually timed in conjunction with farmers and their plowing schedules). A lot of Americans have come back with gold coins(some Celtic gold- 2000yrs old).

The real issue is how long the site we are detecting had been occupied or was in use.? We all know that gold coins are rare and are rarely lost. Once in a "blue" moon will a gold coin be lost. How often have you lost your month's pay out of your pocket? Some of the older sites we are detecting in this country may have only been occupied for 25 to 75 years. That really is a short time span for a gold coin to be lost.? In those fields in the UK,? some of those sites have been occupied for 2000 years. Yep- folks have been losing coins for 2000? years at some sites. That's 2000 years- NOT 50 YEARS! That's why your odds of finding a gold coin there is 100X better than in? the US. It is a bit amusing when US detectorists find a 250yr old King George copper in this country. They are proudly posted on the forums. In the UK they are considered modern trash coins.

Just face the fact that we live in a young country and the sites we detect do not have a history of 500 or a 1000 years? of coin droppage which would be best to find that "blue moon"gold coin. If you have found a gold coin in the US you have probably achieved what 99.99% of all other detectorists have not. It still is a once in a lifetime find .

By the way it is not really an issue of discrimination. Remember in the old days we hunted those incredible virgin sites without discrimination- dig it all. Only one $10 gold piece for my efforts(in 40 years).

Life is tough
George

 

[Copper]

Well, we've generated some good discussion with this posting.

We seem to have one extreme to the other. Some say it's basically a "pipe dream" and others a very real possibility. In all the comments so far (I loved all of them), I've learned a little something. This has been great!

Basically, the facts do seem to indicate that finding a single lost gold coin is indeed a very remote possibility. This is the same story I've heard for the last 35+ years. The best chance for gold here in the U.S. would be to find a fruit jar filled with coins. Or, in other words, loot that was buried on purpose.

On the other hand, some have actually found gold coins. So, some were lost. The question is, how many? The truth is, probably very few.

Personally, I never figured on finding a gold coin that was lost shortly after being minted. Gold coins were held in banks for a good part of the 20th century. I know for a fact that many people had gold coins in a drawer at home or they maybe carried one as a sort of "good luck piece." I remember when the price of gold & silver went sky high. People flocked downtown to turn in their gold and silver coins for cash. In fact, I did this myself. I remember the big lineups of folks with rolls of silver quarters, jewelry, and even gold coins. One fellow who was buying in our neighborhood had these large 50 gallon drums filled with loot he bought for the metal.?

Little Johnny goes into mom & dad's room when they're gone and gets into their coins. He takes them outside to play in the dirt with them. Next thing you know, he can't find most of them. He's afraid to tell mom and dad so he says nothing. It's a year or two before mom and dad notice the coins are missing. They look all over but still can't find all of them. Too bad, Johnny forgot that he threw one of the coins at a squirrel. Think this is ridiculous? you don't know kids.

My point: I believe most gold coins lost were lost during more affluent times. Some were "good luck" pieces, others may have been wheels for a toy sand car out in the back yard.

What leads me to this assumption?...my years of detecting and knowledge of human nature. I have personally found two pocket watches buried deep in city parks. How did they get there? Most likely a child or adult purposely put them there. Why would they do this? Who knows, maybe they buried it there because dear departed grandpa loved that park. I once found a Rolex watch buried at the base of a WWI monument. I didn't think about it at the time but I'll bet some family member purposely buried it there in memory of someone.

Here's something for those of you who like to do research. Did you know it was common in the 1800's and early 1900's to place all the coins one owned upon ones grave? In fact, there's a graveyard not far from where I live now that has one grave that's covered with silver dollars and all kinds of coins. It's a very small graveyard in a good community and no one has (to this day) desecrated it.

So what am I saying? Just this, there are lots of old graveyards that today are unmarked and unknown. None of us would mess with an area if we knew it was a grave site. But many of these very early sites have been lost. We had a hospital built in a certain area a few years ago and we found a whole lost cemetery where the parking lot was to go.

Well, I think you see what I'm saying. There are gold coins out there, maybe not dropped from the pockets of poor folks of the 19th century...but they're there.

Copper

 

[stoney56]

Copper, another thing that used to be common was people buried a coin for good luck at one corner of their house when it was built-the coin date coincided with the year it was built. I'm not saying the gold coins are rare just that back then a $5 gold piece represented about a weeks wage and if lost a lot of time was spent searching for it.

 

[Copper]

Thanks for that tip. I had forgotten about that one. Very good.

Oh, you are 100% correct. Those who lost anything that valuable would spend a great deal of time looking so it.

And the truth is, very few of those living in the 19th century would of had many (if any) gold coins.

But there's also something about a lost coin that's almost unbelievable. Have you ever purposely buried a coin and then returned to that general area a month later and try to find it again? I did this several years ago in my own back yard, I buried a US large cent. Even with a metal detector I never did find it again.

 

[Lowbatts]

One week befroe Roosevelt ordered gold coinage out of circulation there was a run on the banks. Over 6000 folded nationwide and per mint stats 15% of ALL known gold coinage incirculation simply disappeared. It was 1933 and the depression, wearing on went into full tilt. Your mission, should you decide to accept it is, find some of it.
Issue: Large amount of gold goes missing, spread widely among Americans from all over. It was still worth it's weight in gold even if not in US currency.
Factor: Bootlegging operations especially those near border towns. American prohibition also happened to be involved. Look for foreign caches you Cannucks, probably got Fort Knox spread over "He!! and half of Canada".

Factor: Cars were now fast AND unsafe. Heard the term "Breakneck speed" before? Families in that period were relocating to form large, extended family groups in homes across hte country. My Grandparents took in a lot of famly, putting some up in chicken coops at hte time and as needs dictated. This consolidation was economically necessary where it could be done. But read the papers of the day, horrible traffic accidents that wiped out entire famiies at what is today fender-bender speed. If that family could afford a car, they had money. If they had a car and were out of work, they had more money! Lookup family tragedies from the era and do a profile on the patriarch. Especially those where the patriarch died and shortly after the family went to the "poorhouse". A little bit of work but then it's winter for some of us. check especially summer '33 to spring '34.

Probably not gonna find a lot of gold on the road America knows best, those folks were going "anywhere but here." Nope, it's in the garden tins, the dirt garage floors and other places where "Pops" could get at it as necessary until his untimely demise. Most of these in familiar places that you still haven't gotten around to hunting.

 

[Darren in NC]

True story and lead for you - my hunting partner's uncle owns a piece of land with an old barn that used to be a post office. It was raised with pillars and had an open crawlspace. Best as I remember, he threw some lumber underneath it out from the weather, scraping lightly the ground underneath. Later he went back and pulled some lumber. When he did, the grass had died underneath the boards and he saw two gold coins. He picked them up and showed them to my partner's family. We plan to go there one day (it's a few hours away) and check the rest of the crawlspace.

So ask and you shall receive. Check out your area for "raised" buildings that used to be a general store or post office back in the old days. You never know...

 

[Ocean7]

well all of the reasons this "coin" is so difficult to find have been basically covered. I believe gold will sink deeper than any other coin of same size. And most will not ever find one MD'ing.

Next best thing is to save up your clad and/OR sell some of your silver and but a really nice gold coin. Then indirectly your MD'ing efforts have produced a gold coin. Just a thought...

 

[stoney56]

One other thing worth mentioning, not just gold but coins in general also rings. Every time the ground freezes each year, things in the soil moves. Think of it as ocean swells though not as fast, pushes coins down but also brings them up somewhat. You always wonder why U might find silver at such shallow depths and other coins at lower levels. Also keep in mind when most people mow, they let the grass or thatch build up over the years, thus burying coins even deeper. Just a personal conjecture.

 

[Copper]

There are hundreds and maybe thousands of small treasures buried throughout Michigan and many other states. My father passed away 6 years ago at age 92. Dad often spoke of the "flu epidemic" days.

Back in the early 20th century, various flu viruses claimed many lives. In fact in 1918 millions of people died. Dad said whole families were found dead in their homes. Many of these individuals buried all their money. Dad said they searched but seldom found anything. Those were the days before metal detectors.

In any community, there are loads of old stories about money that was hid and never recovered. Due to private property problems, etc., and the passage of time, most have been forgotten.

The ambitious treasure hunter could locate some of these little treasures (maybe $200 in gold & silver) with some old newspaper research.

SEE:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/uda/

 

[spotz]

Gold! Can you feel it calling you? Can you smell it? Don't you dream about finding it? There are lots of valuable things buried out there. Many more precious than gold, but gold has a feel & a calling all of it's own. Diamonds may be a girls best friend, but GOLD calls to all men. Want some. Find some. Get some. GOLD! Spotz

 

[Copper]

Boy, you bet I do!!!!

I've been a needin a gold crown on one of my teeth fer some time now.

Give me GOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Copper]

Coins can be very deep. In some areas the sod gets a lot thicker and the coins are about 5 to 7 inches deep within just a few years. I've found that coins sink rather quickly to the base of the root system. If one were using a cheap detector, one would find almost nothing in such areas.

In areas that tend to be dry, 100 year old coins can be dug with the boot heel.

Many parks have been filled. Years ago they went through many parks and filled all the low spots. I once found nearly 20 Indianhead pennies dated from about 1870 to 1906 in such a fill-in area. I was using a Wilson Newman in all metal mode. Those detectors were very poor in discrimination but in all metal they could detect a penny 8 or 9 inches deep.

 

[Copper]

Is there a picture of this Dahlonega coin online?

I'd sure like to see it.

Cooper

 

[Copper]

Thanks, MAN! what a find!

If seeing that coin doesn't fire one up for detecting, nothing will.

Copper

 

[jeff of pa]

Why not while I'm at it. I asked Jeff about the Dahlonega coin in Best Finds section of this forum, I heard it was the only one found ever detecting, Jeff, a friend and me have been researching to see if a Dahlonega was ever found before? Both Jeff and my friend says they believe they seen an article of a gold coin from that mint found but it was over 20 years ago. That was from memory, have not found the article yet.? So the coin in best finds is a ultarare one. Lucky us to get to see it on the forum. Later Free

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? FREE, I'v been thru all My Issues, and havn't seen one "Found" they aparently are extremely rare

 

[Copper]

It's a nice coin. We're talking maybe $75,000 or so for some of this type.?

The real value of any of this mint can only be established at auction. Auctions are funny things. What sells for $500 one day, could be $5000 the next. Book value can be very deceiving.

I'd sure like to find one of these...I'd take any date!

http://www.dahlonegagold.com/