Rain Delay

[Lowbatts]

Waiting for the letup....

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[treasurefiend]

yep, same here.....

 

[watercolor]

By the looks of the radar, maybe by late morning or after noon :P

 

[Lowbatts]

So I'll ramble a bit.
How much gold coinage is lost out there? We know that in '33 during the run on the banks FDR outlawed gold as currency. What a commie tyrant. We also know that records indicate 15% of all known gold coinage in circulation disappeared in that week. That's a lot of stashes or a few very large ones.

Prior to that week bankers would have held onto their gold stock, as it was part of their own local fractional reserve component. During that week, as news spread of the ban, they might just have well passed it off to those who came knocking for their monies in the run. But I'd eliminate banker stashes from gold cache searches on the theory that they would need to use it to trade in for the gold and silver certs (paper money) to save what was left of their businesses and personal fortunes.

So, who in your family was around then and may have taken part in the run on the banks? Where did they live at the time? Where was their flower, herb or vegetable garden? Their workshed? 6000 banks went bellyup in a week in Rosies grand slam, not unlike events as they are transpiring today.

As to incidental drops, popular theory goes like this, gold was so valuable that if you dropped a gold coin back in the day, you hunted until you recovered it.

I dispute that with the reality of the number of silver halves, dollars and even quarters that have been returned to human hands through the use of metal detectors. All indications from circulation records and spending habits seem to trend toward the notion that gold coinage would be carried around with the same frequency as the least carried common coin, perhaps the nickel. It's little surprise that this is also the least found old coin as it is often disc'ed out in the silver and copper chase, yet it's obviously easier to find nickels than gold coins, even in uncommon conditions. Not surprisingly, we know from those in the gold club that this rarest of coinage digs comes in lower than a nickel on most machines unless the coin in mind is an eagle or double eagle.

Perhaps arguably as well these would be the least likely lost gold coins. The half eagle, quarter eagle and lowly 1 dollar coin (let's not forget Stella!) are then left as most likely dropped gold coins, and below the normal disc settings on your machines. Given mintage and circulation numbers, the combined totals for these gold babies may easily outwiegh the nickels lost. Given their relative size, it would also make sense that they may disappear from view at least as easily as the second most common coin find, the dime.

So would it also make sense that there is some fixed ratio of lost period common coinage to gold coinage? Would this ratio be variable by site dependent on geographical, social or economic factors?

It occurs to me that at a site such as a World's Fair, people may very well be sporting gold coinage due the sheer number of spending possibilities, the economic and social demographics of the crowd and the economy of the day.

So, how many have you walked over? Worse yet, how many have you dug to within two or three inches getting instead that old silver or copper coin that readily showed up on your rig?

I'd conservatively estimate that I've swung a coil over an easy half-bazillion gold coins and never got a peep. So here's to my peeps, may they know better!

EOR

 

[twistidd]

So I'll ramble a bit.
How much gold coinage is lost out there? We know that in '33 during the run on the banks FDR outlawed gold as currency. What a commie tyrant. We also know that records indicate 15% of all known gold coinage in circulation disappeared in that week. That's a lot of stashes or a few very large ones.

Prior to that week bankers would have held onto their gold stock, as it was part of their own local fractional reserve component. During that week, as news spread of the ban, they might just have well passed it off to those who came knocking for their monies in the run. But I'd eliminate banker stashes from gold cache searches on the theory that they would need to use it to trade in for the gold and silver certs (paper money) to save what was left of their businesses and personal fortunes.

So, who in your family was around then and may have taken part in the run on the banks? Where did they live at the time? Where was their flower, herb or vegetable garden? Their workshed? 6000 banks went bellyup in a week in Rosies grand slam, not unlike events as they are transpiring today.

As to incidental drops, popular theory goes like this, gold was so valuable that if you dropped a gold coin back in the day, you hunted until you recovered it.

I dispute that with the reality of the number of silver halves, dollars and even quarters that have been returned to human hands through the use of metal detectors. All indications from circulation records and spending habits seem to trend toward the notion that gold coinage would be carried around with the same frequency as the least carried common coin, perhaps the nickel. It's little surprise that this is also the least found old coin as it is often disc'ed out in the silver and copper chase, yet it's obviously easier to find nickels than gold coins, even in uncommon conditions. Not surprisingly, we know from those in the gold club that this rarest of coinage digs comes in lower than a nickel on most machines unless the coin in mind is an eagle or double eagle.

Perhaps arguably as well these would be the least likely lost gold coins. The half eagle, quarter eagle and lowly 1 dollar coin (let's not forget Stella!) are then left as most likely dropped gold coins, and below the normal disc settings on your machines. Given mintage and circulation numbers, the combined totals for these gold babies may easily outwiegh the nickels lost. Given their relative size, it would also make sense that they may disappear from view at least as easily as the second most common coin find, the dime.

So would it also make sense that there is some fixed ratio of lost period common coinage to gold coinage? Would this ratio be variable by site dependent on geographical, social or economic factors?

It occurs to me that at a site such as a World's Fair, people may very well be sporting gold coinage due the sheer number of spending possibilities, the economic and social demographics of the crowd and the economy of the day.

So, how many have you walked over? Worse yet, how many have you dug to within two or three inches getting instead that old silver or copper coin that readily showed up on your rig?

I'd conservatively estimate that I've swung a coil over an easy half-bazillion gold coins and never got a peep. So here's to my peeps, may they know better!

EOR

I think of the individuals I hunt with that will dig low signals regularly (Mark, for example) and figure they will ultimately be the first ones to recover a gold coin and announce it. Very few of us will be patient enough to dig those same signals in trashy parks even though a lot of those parks (we all know which ones) MUST hold some gold coins, especially the smaller gold. I make a point to dig any lower, repeatable signal in any wooded area that has given up coins from the same era that utlized gold coins. Yes, I end up with a lower silver count and a higher nickel/pulltab/foil/cracker jack (lol) ratio, but I figure in the long run, it might have all been worthwhile. I told Kermit and Mike that I'm fairly certain I will achieve finding a gold coin at some point in my life. It doesn't have to be a double eagle; a tiny one dollar peice will suffice. Though I'm in no position to give advice on finding gold coins (since I haven't found any yet), I'd recommend swinging the coil diligently in an area that may have given up a number of early nickel, copper, or silver coins, and retreiving any signal above iron. Yes, I know that in some cases this is simply not practical, but it areas where trash is low and time is abundant, why not? A gold coin popping up in a hole would be the most exciting sight I could imagine (in terms of MD'ing)...I've daydreamed about it and won't stop doing this before I can make that a reality.

Joe

 

[Lowbatts]

I'd have no problem bettin' on you, Joe. Just think smaller, fainter signals...

C'mon Nick, I be just ramblin' in the rain today. Grandpa Lowbatts, orphaned in a new country went to work for the railroad at 13, tool bearer and water boy. They paid in silver and gold back then, just prior to WWI.

So I'm guessin' the average fella who worked for a big place could get part of his pay in gold back in the day. That's where that half eagle, a week's pay for many would come in handy in a payroll scheme, as would the quarter eagle. Problem might come to light as they would often get this pay on the road, in the road crews on new lines or old line expansion and rework. Much like the Army at the time, the fellas had to figure out what to do with this pay in some remote or semi-remote work camp.

I do know there were always females and barkeeps that offered commodity exchanges at the time.

 

[treasurefiend]

I dunno, I'm split on this, half of me thinks that gold coins would of been lost just like any other coin because they were so small. It's not like somebody dropped an barber dime, saw it and said oh well its just a dime and walked away , nope they were lost and that's why we find them.

But on the other handpeople would always prefer gold coins over paper money. So if you went to the store and paid with a $5 gold coin you would most likely get paper money and silver back in your change with no gold dollars. People always held onto their gold.

I think that their is plenty of small gold coins out there just waiting to be dug up but sadly they come in as garbage that people will continue to bypass digging them and as said above you would have to dig in a spot that would of had a lot of people to loose them.

As for people just walking along and finding them back in the day, I'm sure they did but like anybody that has found a gold ring, it was just laying out there for anybody to walk along and find but it somehow eluded everybody and over time worked its way down into the ground.

Other than beach combers & nugget hunters, I haven't ever heard of anybody just going out to detect for gold, when ever someone post on here they always say that they were just investigating a signal that they got and never dreamed of actually finding a gold coin.

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." - Thomas Jefferson "

 

[treasurefiend]

As you can tell I did not hunt today so I have some fun facts for you, I got these diameters form my red book. As you can see, I have the gold coins next to their modern equivalent.

$1 Indian Head - 15mm / modern dime is 17.9mm
$2 1/2 Indian Head - 18mm / modern dime is 17.9mm
$5 Indian Head - 21.6mm / modern nickel is 21.2mm
$10 Indian Head - 27mm / modern quarter is 24.3mm
$20 St. Gaudens - 34mm / modern half dollar is 30.6mm

With the gold coins being similar in size to the coins that we are already finding, I would have no problem in believing that there are lots more out there waiting to be found. NOW START DIGGIN THOSE LOW TONES!!!!!!!