I finally found my first silver coin!

bertmaster2000

Full Member
Dec 19, 2013
214
96
Northern US
Detector(s) used
Minelab 705
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Yesterday, my metal detecting buddy reported to me he had gone detecting without me over the weekend and found a silver half and two silver dimes. He knows I have been detecting for over a year now, and I have not found a silver coin. He told me where he went to find the silver half and silver dimes, but I don't like to poach spots, so on my way home from work I decided to hit a spot he and I had detected together in the past.

I had always felt this spot would eventually yield my first silver coin because it was heavily used for recreation by GI's during WWII. The best thing I had found at this spot to-date was a 1952 license plate buried about 5-inches. Meanwhile, my detecting buddy had found about 5 silver dimes at this location :BangHead:. I know, I know, I must be either really unlucky, or a very poor detectorist. I like to think of myself as really unlucky:laughing9:. I parked my car, readied my gear, and headed to the spot. I had been working this area in a grid pattern I had committed to memory, so I started in the next part of the grid.

I use a Minelab 705 with a 7.5 KHz concentric coil set on all-metal, and I dig almost every target. After only 5 minutes I got a jumpy 38-42 signal, but my detector then went nuts and started giving false detections and acted crazy. I powered it off and on twice, then ground balanced it again, and it started working normally. I've found this happens about one time for every 4 hours of detecting, but I am not worried about it as long as I can easily correct the problem.

Back to my story, I swung over my target again and kept getting a 38 in one direction, and a 38-42 in the perpendicular direction, with a depth of about 4-inches indicated in both directions. I knew this was a very good signal, but I had seen this before and then found rounded pieces of aluminum...I carefully dug the target, and out popped my first silver coin, a 1944 liberty (merc) dime. Needless to say I was stoked! :occasion14:

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I keep a metal detecting log and I totaled the time I spent at this location before I found this silver dime...14.5 hours! I found $4.74 in clad, including a handful of wheat cents from the 40's and 50's, before finally finding the silver dime, so my effort wasn't a complete waste of time, but almost :laughing7:

Happy Swinging everyone...Don't give up, eventually even a blind squirrel finds a nut!
 

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Great to hear. I hope to get my first silver coin this year. A big part of my dry spell has been the places I hunt. Most only date back to the "clad era". I did find a sterling silver ring last year, so I HAVE found some silver, just not in coin form...yet :)
 

Congrats on scoring your first silver coin. I fondly remember the day that I found my first.

The really important part is to have fun, and from the sound of things, you are already good at that!
 

Congrats on that Merc and its always nice to me to hear from another Minelab owner.
 

Awesome score on the Merc!
 

You're a perseverant man, it always pay at the end of the day. I can't detect no more than 4 or 5 hours at a time. Congrats on your first silver. WTG!
 

Grats! I don't remember my first silver, but I do remember my first gold ring. It's the silver and the gold that gets people hooked.

Sent from my SM-S975L using Tapatalk
 

Congratz on your first silver coin! I'm a stats guy, so I keep a metal detecting log as well. I can answer pretty much any question that comes up by referring to my logs!
 

Congratz. Pretty soon, you'll be finding so many gold coins, that denominations smaller than $20s will bore you ! :occasion14:
 

Congratulations on finding your 1st SILVER coin and a Mercury dime at that!!! I feel your frustration at working so hard to find that silver coin, I'm glad your persistance finally paid off! Like you, I also hunted many months to find my 1st SILVER coin, sure was worth the wait! And what others told me turned out to be true, that once you find your 1st, others seem to follow easier. My 1st silver coin was a Washington quarter, and while I was truly stoked by finding silver, I was a little dissapointed at the same time because somehow I had it in my head that I wouldn't be a "true detectorist" until I found my first Mercury dime! Lucky for me, my next silver coin was a 1928 merc found in the same park on my very next hunt there the following day. So congrats and keep the faith, cant wait to see what your next silver coin is and I bet it won't be long before you find it!
 

Congrats on your first silver coin.
 

Congratulations on your first, and many more! :occasion14:
 

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