The Search For Older Coins

[ZumbroKid]

Well, this morning i made some excel files on my first two years of hunting (2001 & 2002). Missing 2003 (might be on wife's computer still. But it made me think about the progression of my hunting and the types of coins i found over those years.
I started with a Radio Shack detector and hunted grassy strips between the side walk and street and asked door to door and got to hunt some yards. Finds in the first year were silver coins and only one pre-1900 coin (1887 Indian Head). Amazing 3 were walker halves. Total keepers (17, 15 of them silver).
Year two continued to hunt these same areas and doubled up on keepers to 34 coins. This was most likely due to more time with detector. Records are incomplete for this year. But did find first Barber Dime and V-nickle in the same hole no less (house demo site).
Year three, i started to hunt side walk tear ups and demo sites only. Keepers jumped to 65, on average they were older coins, 65% or so were pre-1900 coins. This was the year of the gold coin, my oldest U.S. coin. detector at this time was a higher end Radio Shack detector (cost about $200 or so).

 

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[ZumbroKid]

The next year I upgraded to a MXT(2004). Still focused in the side walks and demo sites. The town had some major renewal projects and the number of keepers coins ended up at 169. The breakdown of this was amazing over the first two years. Pre-1900 (124), Indianheads 94 or so. I ended up with about 34 coins from the 1860's. The 1870's seemed to be the harder ones to find, worth a little more when you get them. It was common to get 1880's and 1890's coins.
The 2005 season, I only managed 83 keepers, less renewal going on with the economy in a slide and a change to a different shift. Still managed to get my oldest silver U.S. coin this year 1853 or 54 Dime (side walk site) Over these two years the percentage of pre-1900 coins had stayed between 65 and 70 %.
The move to Montana, has only produced 8-9 keepers. Of which just 2 are pre-1900 coins. The number of silver is a higher percentage at this time, but this is not many to base this on yet. The coins average more modern that is for sure.

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Thats a good idea to put in Excel....I keep everything in journals. I think it has alot to do with the research and skill of the hunter and not necessarily the cost of the machine whether you find good stuff or not.

 

[ZumbroKid]

So the purpose of this thread is just to express the old ones are out there to be found. They can be found with cheaper machines. They can be found by fluke like i started out. But the most important part i've discovered is over time my choice of hunt site has changed. I've gotten more selective in where i like to spend my hunt time. I've enjoyed setting new records for myself in oldest coin dates. I found as time pasted i ended up finding coin types i had not found before. I believe everyone can find coins that pre date the start of there communities. So hopefully others find these same results will be true for them also. Just another long winded thought on this subject. Good luck and happy hunting.

 

[buckeyehunter]

Pete thanks for the post, I am with you and keep everything documented on excel, I also have another excel spread -sheet that I keep records of places I want to hunt with info like phone numbers, who gave me permission, who I need to contact about the property etc. both have helped me great due to my poor memorey!

I would also like to say thanks for all your great posts and sharing with all of us about the construction and sidewalk tear-ups, I am constantly on the look out since I have read your posts on the subject.

I am supposed to have dinner with a guy who is the manager of a large commercial construction company, he is going to start letting me know where they are going to be and I will have permission to hunt all the sites, I am so excited!

 

[bk]

I have always kept a record of my coin finds and recently transfered all the data to Excel by the year that I found them. I spent the entire winter months photographing each coin that I consider a keeper, plus I now have a cumulative total of each coin type.
I set up and printed the coins 35 coins per page so that it looks as though they are roughly the same size as a coin in a 2X2 holder. Then I put them into a three ring binder.

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Wow BK ....pretty impressive.