My Lifetime Finds: Updated with non-coin finds

[chuckbordell]

Well, since it's cold as heck here in Montana and I won't get out again until spring, I decided to do a little retrospective. I've been metal detecting since I was 12, with a few years off here and there for college, etc I've also been keeping meticulous records the whole time, charting my finds by date found, depth, year, condition, where found,etc. I thought the stats might be of interest to some people here at T-Net. The photo represents some of my favorite finds, but not not nearly everything, of course.

So, here we go: total coins: 15,551

Indian 1c - 153
Buffalo 5c - 125
Liberty 5c - 39
Shield 5c - 1
S. Roos. 10c- 214
Merc 10c - 264
Barb 10 - 57
seated 10c - 3
S. Wash 25c - 76
Standing 25c - 7
Barb 25c - 7
seated 25c - 3
Franklin 50c - 4
Walking 50c- 6
Barber 50c - 2
Seat 50c - 1
Peace $ - 2
Morgan 1$ - 1
Two Cents - 2
3c nickel - 1
S. Can. 10c - 10
S, Can 25c - 3
Can 1/2 dime - 1
Silver 1/2 Reale - 1

Oldest 1c - 1864
" 5c - 1867
" 10c - 1875
" 25c - 1858
" 50c - 1877
" $1 - 1888
" Canadian coin - 1859
" foreign coin - 1668 Chinese Cash Coin

Most coins in one day - 172
Most in one hole - 16
Deepest coin - 8"
Most silver in one day - 14 (11 dimes, 3 quarters)
Most valuable coin - 1909 S vdb Lincoln (x 2)
Rings - handsfull

Here's some statistics I've calculated from detecting for many years in both Pennsylvania and Montana: In PA, 6% of all coins found were silver. In Montana, 3 % of all coins found are silver. Oddly, the silver found in Montana has been of larger denomination and older than in PA. This seems backwards, but this is how it happened - Montanans worked mainly for the forestry and railroad industries up through the 1960's, and those jobs paid in hard cash far longer than they did in PA. So those large silver coins stayed in circulation in greater numbers in MT for more years, while in PA people picked the old coins out and also didn't mind using paper money. Banks were greatly distrusted in MT up until after WWII.

For those who might be curious about the number of wheat pennies I've found, well, I stopped counting them years ago but I weigh them from time to time. I've got about 30 pounds of them in a big bin. ;-)

thanks for looking

Chuck

 

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[oldhippiecoinhntr]

HI, and thanks for posting your hunting results/findings. I had to comment because they validate something I observed years ago. In the late 60's as a high school kid, I pumped gas here at a local truck stop. Even then silver dollars coming in to pay for purchases were grabbed up by anyone takeing them in. A lot of trucks coming in came from W ND, or Mont. We could count on silver dollars from those truckers for purchases. Most of the silver dollars and half dollars came from western truckers. They had pockets full, and we even inquired with them, if they had any.To bad as kids, we werent smart enough to keep them very long. We found buyers even then to buy them from us. A local funeral director was a collector, so he bought many of the ones I had. But now, even if its a bit late, I dont get rid of silver, especially dollars, which just dont show up anyplace anymore. Thanks for your posting, and I am going to keep it for information.

 

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[chuckbordell]

Yeah, it's quite interesting when your own finds confirm a bit of history!

Chuck

 

[SilverDreams]

Great collection of finds. Very impressive!