Silver

[Kiros32]

Ok so I know this topic has probably been beaten into the ground, but this is MY plea for help. I have been searching a park in my area and in this one section I have found a couple of wheats, oldest being 1936 and not 20 feet away, I found a CW Marine button. This site definitely has potential for silver, but I have struck out so far. Not only have I not found silver, but 90% of the coins that I find are pennies. I have only 3 or 4 dimes, maybe 8 quarters, and zero nickels. Now it makes sense that the majority of lost coins are pennies, however, I need to know if I am doing something wrong. Do silver coins register with a VDI of modern coins, ie ~80 for dimes, 84 for quarters, etc? If not, when do I know to dig or should I just dig everything?

 

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[bk]

If you are finding pennies you will find silver if it's there. Thats a given.
The problem is; statistically, you will find far more pennies than dimes and quarters under normal circumstances. That could be different if you were;for example, to detect an area where more dimes would have been spent, like at an entrance to a swimming pool where the cost to get in was ten cents.
My guess as to the reason you're not finding nickels is that you are probably using your discrimination a little too high to accept nickels, or, you may be ignoring the type of signal a nickel will give you. Many times they will read like a pulltab. But again, you will probably tend to find more pennies than nickels.
Thats my 2 cents worth. (No pun intended).
Good luck!

 

[Kiros32]

Thanks for the information. I know the silver is out there, I just need to find some better places to look I think. The city I live in, Arlington, VA, is very urban or course, and it has been difficult to find historical data on it. I suppose a bit more intensive research is in order.

 

[petersra]

I searched a beach last night in the dry sand with my $200 Radio Shack MD. I found 5 quarters, 2 dimes, 5 nickles and 28 pennies, some with heavy corrosion, so they have been there a while. I think you are not finding silver because it is not there, unless you are discriminating it out. I only discriminate out iron when that proves to become a problem, otherwise I don't discriminate anything. Oh ye, I also found about 40 pull tabs, two lead weights, a live 32 caliber bullet and a couple beer cans over one foot down. Keep looking, because you haven't found it yet doesn't mean it isn't there. But then if you are looking in a park where only little kids play, maybe they only carry pennies. Try looking where the big kids play and turn upside down.

Ralph

 

[Mirage]

My son and I average about 8-10 wheat pennies per silver coin. Sometimes wheat pennies can be easier to find due to the "halo" effect - they pick up better because the copper leaches into the surrounding soil making the target appear slightly larger. IF your wheat pennies are in bad shape and more than 5" deep this is probably true and you will have to turn your discrimination down and dig the lower numbers to get the silver. Deep silver can sometimes sound trashy, broken up and VDI at low numbers. BUT, there still is a good chance that it is just not there. Good luck.

Mirage

 

[bk]

I just did some math of the ratio of Wheat cents to silver dimes (Roosevelt's and Mercury's) that I have found in 30+ years of detecting.
It comes out to be about 4:1
That ratio is only for wheat's and silver. It does not include Memorial cents and clad.