Anyone hunt back in the 1980's(the silver years)

[Bugalooob]

I bought my first detector back in 1986 from the sears catalog, a Whites 6000di pro...The first day I got it, I went to a local NYC park and silvers were just popping out of the ground...I started to ignore the clad stuff , that old analog meter on that machine could tell the difference between a clad and a silver..Every silver i pulled out was basically at 4 inches deep...It wasn't a real deep seeker, oldest coin i got was a 1921 quarter but it did give me over 200 silvers in a month...Now I'm lucky if I find one silver a month

 

[Wayfarer]

I started in about 1980 when I was a kid with a White's Coinmaster 2 DB. I used to hit the local schools, parks, and churches. Used to just meander haphazardly and probably only covered 20% or so of any given site. Usually I'd come home with pocketfuls of clad and a couple dozen or so silvers. Mostly silver Washingtons and Rosies but a number of Mercs and a few Barbers too. The old TR machine only went to 2-3" in my soil, so all coins were 3" or less. It was obvious most places hadn't ever been hunted. Sold a big bag of silvers for scrap in the late 80's. Ah, those were the days! Little did we know how good we had it...

 

[Tom_in_CA]

It depends on where you are geographically located. Believe it or not, some places were already getting a lot of md'ing pressure by the early 1980s, so it was no longer as easy as you depict it, by the mid or late 1980s. It all just depended on the skill of the hunters in the area, how much pressure they put on a park, what type units they were using, etc.... There had been a dealer here in my town since the early 1970s, and 2 clubs in two neighboring towns, with some die-hard hunters. But then in some other towns a few hours away, I noticed that hunters there, who were still using TR disc. in the early '80s (as opposed to the deeper seeking motion discriminators that were coming out then), that those parks still put out silver in easier quantities. Especially if the "first generation" that had peaked out at 4 or 5" deep, had essentially thinned out the clad for us

I think the real hey-day was the very late 1970s, for the first guys to get the ground-breaking 6000d, and Red Baron SPD. They got an immediate inch or two more than the next closest discriminator, and covered ground fast. But yes, some geographic places didn't get a lot of good turf hunters till the later 1980s or whatever. Heck, I bet there's still some small podunk towns, that would mimic your 1986 experience, even today A friend of mine stumbled on a park in a small town in Idaho, where, in a week, he and two friends pulled over 200 silver coins from. That was just 3 or 4 yrs. ago. All depends on the caliber and tastes of hunters in each locale.

 

[nw1886]

Started detecting in the early '70's. 13 years old and went back to where I bought the detector a week or so later and the guy asked how I was doing? "O.K. I guess...$36.00 face...is that good?" He smiled and his wife fed me!

 

[Wayfarer]

some places were already getting a lot of md'ing pressure by the early 1980s, so it was no longer as easy as you depict it, by the mid or late 1980s.

I started in 1979 and quit (for the time being) in 1984. In '79 the gettin' was good, but one of the main reasons I lost interest was the quality of the finds started dropping off dramatically. So I would agree they heyday was late 70's into the early 80's.

A couple of things I remember from back then: my local park (within walking distance to my home, important when you're 13!) dated to the 1890's. I'd get silver every time I went out for several years. All found no more than 3" deep. Then all of a sudden I noticed an "older" guy (probably just somewhere north of 30, lol) with headphones and all work "my" park methodically over a period of weeks. After that I never found squat in the park except for some newer clad. That experience, plus starting to not find much elsewehere, convinced me that once a place was worked over by one of these "pros" there wasn't anything else to detect. So really '82-'84 was mostly trying to find, within biking distance, sites that had yet to be detected. I think I tried and failed enough that I lost interest by '84. The second thing I remember is having almost filled a normal sized fishbowl with silver coins from my hunts back then. Basically everywhere I went was "virgin" ground with shallow silver all over the place until the "pros" came in.

I tried to get back into detecting in the late 80's with a 6000D series 3 I bought after saving up from a summer job. I tried that for awhile, got only a few silvers, and then "hung it up" figuring all the good stuff had already been found. It was a big letdown to go from a 2DB to a 6000D and find only 1/10th the silver I had found 6 years earlier with the 2 DB! Then, finally, I got back into the hobby for good with my XLT I bought in '94. At that point I just simply had to come to terms with the fact that the heyday of pulling silver was over for good and that MD was now just a fun hobby where you get to dig in the dirt and every once in awhile find something interesting or valuable.

All those 80's White's sales brochures really had incresed expectations for handfuls of silver coins and gold jewelry. Once the "bank" of a hundred years or so of good stuff was quickly cleaned out '75-'85 the good finds have been thin. I'm not sure if enjoying the heyday where silver was everywhere in all the most obvious locations was a good thing or not. Of course it was good! But it did spoil me to where I was not too enthused about the hobby for awhile there until I came to see it in a different light of the benefit of just being outdoors diggin' around in the dirt finding little pieces of history.

Thanks for stirring those memories with this thread.

 

[rglyons]

Boy, these posts does bring back memories. My first detector was a Heathkit BFO I put together back in the mid 60's. As a detector it was pretty poor in depth but it was really fun to find coin spills in parks and homesites with kids that were all silver. Clad coins were just starting to show up, and all that silver had laid there for years and years. The penny / silver ratio was about the same back then as now, and you very rarely saw another detectorist. I also got a White's 6000 DI Pro in the mid 80's and boy that went much deeper!! Clads were starting to invade the silver and so were other detectorists. That 6000 DI was a good machine although much heavier than my little Ace 250 is today. My Ace hasn't paid for itself yet, mostly due to my health problems nowadays. Thinking back I believe every detector I've had (I've had five) paid for itself the first year I owned them. Even the White's was paid for by finding only one gold ring. Everything else was bonuses. No, I'm not in this for the money but for the enjoyment of not knowing what I'll find next. It can be quite addicting. Oh yes, the White's had a hard time finding as much silver in the 80's that the old and primitive Heathkit found in the 60's. Eventually, it far surpassed all the others in finds.

I usually haunt the Garrett forum but every once in awhile look around.

As Jimmy Durante used to say, "Thanks for the memories".

 

[Southwind]

Wow what memories. The good ole days

I started detecting back in the 70's but didn't really have a good detector until the 80's. I could go hunting for several hours and come home with 10-20 silver coins on every hunt. Can't remember ever digging anything deeper than 4-5", but I sure thought my new Tesoro Inca was the best there was. I pretty much clean out everything within reach of my detector, and then in 1991 I bought a new White's Eagle Spectrum and it was candy land all over again.

I sure miss those days

 

[ron_c]

Started in 1968. First detector was a D-Tex. Had a choice of the D-Tex or Garrett. Because the D-Tex used gold circuits and could also detect paper money went with the D-Tex. What a mistake the D-Tex would drift to where I was making adjustments every few minutes. Found out also you had to have the paper money actually touch the coil to detect it. Also used the White's TR for awhile but if you adjusted it within an inch of the ground and you moved it lower or higher it would be out of tune. Finally just tuned it touching the ground and scrub the ground with the coil. Didn't work worth a darn in high grass. Went with Garrett from then on. I can remember the first time I found a clad coin and was excited as when you found a dime, quarter or half it was silver. Can remember being disappointed finding a Roosevelt instead of a Mercury or Barber and also being disappointed because when I found a Mercury it was only a '41 to '45. Most coins were found in the 4 to 5" range. By about '85 you saw a lot more people metal detecting and by then you found more clad with little silver. By 1989 stopped looking for coins all together as it just wasn't fun anymore finding clad. I guess I had been spoiled. Haven't looked but maybe a dozen times since '89. Only recently have gotten interested again because of a school that burned in '65 that I tried to look back in '68 but not allowed. Someone I know bought the property and told me I could look all I wanted. The school was started in 1914 and as far as anyone knows it hasn't been looked over. Haven't had a change to go look, yet.

PS Forgot about how much jewelry was found. In 1974 I was probably the first to look at this swimming area and in a 8 hour period of time found 33 rings. 11 gold, 11 silver and 11 junkers. Those were the days.

 

[jim tn]

Having started detecting in 1972, for me, I am not really sure when the best silver decades were. The detectors I had in the 70's had little to no depth and were beep and dig ones, but still found a good bit of silver and quite a bit of jewelry. My first pretty decent detector came shortly after the mid 80's, a Garretts Master Hunter 7. I did find a good bit of silver with it, but found a lot more when I bought a Fisher cz 6 in 92, I believe it was, and that decade produced a lot of silver for me. Without question, over all, the days are pretty well gone when one can walk off a site with more then a few silvers. But, as Tom Ca mentioned, there are still some off the main road places where one can stlll find a goodly numbers of silvers. From such places, I have had several outings in this decade that I've recovered 20 or a few more silvers in 3-4 hours of hunting. Some of the small rural towns have old parks, schools and fairgrounds that still have not been pounded to death. We just can't get to them as often as we would like. But, I, for one, am trying. HH jim tn

 

[tab-nabit]

70s - 80s were good days detecting. Not only was the silver common finds, but more property to hunt and more gave permission to hunt.
I started to slow down at one point and had a hand full of used and abused detectors. I probably used the Red Baron the most since it worked as designed and looked in better condition (I know) than the others. Then around mid 80s I bought my first new in the box detector, the Whites 6000 Di Pro. And a friend bought the Compass. I had someone show me a mag that had an ad and so I had to have it. That meter, yeah, that's what did it for me then. Well I used that 6000 for years and it served me well. I liked it so much that I gave all my other detectors away because this was all I needed. Well now I'm back to a handful of detectors (bounce from half dozen to a dozen usually) from year to year.
But now the one thing I don't have anymore is the way it was finding silver coins, many wheat's, buffs, etc, and all the property I could hunt with such nice folks. It's just not the same for me anymore - yeah, those were the days.

 

[Dang]

Great post!

 

[nw1886]

My first detector was a Garrett Ghostowner and my next a Garrett DeepSeaker. Silver was everywhere and that old VLF/TR stuff gave me plenty of depth. Had the DeepSeeker up until 6 years ago and had the typical slide in battery pack problem (but I did get it to work). What an unergonomic BEAST! (Ignorance was bliss and the performance was excellent!) Tried a 6000 back then and just didn't "take to it" but gave one a shot awhile back and really appreciated it. So many memories are flooding back!

 

[Uncle Willy]

I started hunting in the sixties when you could practically scoop the coins up with a shovel but those days are gone forever. Silver here in my state is as scarce as hens teeth and I'm lucky to find a couple or so in a year. I started in the early sixties with a Metrotech while I was working on the facilities for the then top secret spy plane- the SR-71 at Beale Airforce Base in Northern California. here did the time go?

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah I remember the eighties when the Hunt brothers in Texas bought up about 20 million ounces of silver and drove the price up to $50 an ounce and everybody and their dog was lining up for a block or more at the coin stores selling everything made of silver including bags of silver coins from dimes to dollars. Millions of beautiful coins got sold and melted down then. Then the Hunt boys unloaded most of their silver and made a freaking fortune.

Bill

 

[ron_c]

I remember the days of $50 silver. Sold all my common silver coins, just to good of a deal to pass up. Dealers were paying 22 times face valve when I sold. A $5 roll of silver dimes you would get $110.

 

[ron_c]

One more thing, I believe there is more silver still out there than what has ever been found, BUT it is widely dispersed mainly in people's yards and places we just aren't allowed to look (Court House lawns and the like). Even if you could get permission to look in people's yards it would still be very time consuming with a silver coin here and a couple somewhere else. Just recently, I went back to a small town park that in the mid 70's produced lots of silver and thought I would check it out again. Then, there was very little trash in the ground and you might walk and not even hear a signal for a couple of feet or more. I couldn't believe how trashy the park had become. You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting trash. I'm talking about in the ground, mostly pull tabs or screw caps. You would have multi signals under the coil and couldn't tell if a deeper good target was present. You would have to dig every signal but again it might be worth it Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[jim tn]

n/t