Clad Percentages

[wmjstu]

In a little under two years of having my AT Pro, I've dug 815 coins (not great, but okay), totaling $69.23. Of the 815 coins, 45% were pennies, 8% were nickels, 27% were dimes! and 20% were quarters.

I could lower the % of pennies by not digging them! but I hate to not dig a good signal.

Just wondering how my percentages compare to others. If any of you have calculated the percentages of clad that you've dug, I'd be interested in the comparisons.

Thanks!

 

[Dancin' Dave]

Here's my clad % breakdown based on 12yrs of data. (23,102 coins). Don't ask why I kept track of this ... I'm not sure I know

DD

Dollar 0.12%
Half Dollar 0.03%
Quarters 31.23%
Dimes 28.49%
Nickels 6.49%
Pennies 33.64%

 

[wmjstu]

Wow! That alot of coins. Thanks for listing your percentages. Mine aren't too far off. Dang, 23,012 is pretty amazing.

 

[mudpuppy]

I didn't keep track of percentages, but I seem to be running an 8 cent average (US coins)...so 100 coins generally equal @ 8bucks....the quicker a guy can bang out the coins, those 100 coin days can result to some nice loot per month of weekends....Looking at Daves great numbers, get all the coins you can, pennies too...sooner or later, one of those rotten zincs will be BIG gold.
Mud

 

[Dancer]

no way I'm going to make it. I've dug 2,711 so far so im gonna be something short. The pennies are 53.3 % of my coins this yr. cause I,m digging em all. The Q,s are only 25.5 % of my coins this yr.

 

[Phillip_in_NM]

Here's my clad % breakdown based on 12yrs of data. (23,102 coins). Don't ask why I kept track of this ... I'm not sure I know

DD

Dollar 0.12%
Half Dollar 0.03%
Quarters 31.23%
Dimes 28.49%
Nickels 6.49%
Pennies 33.64%

Now THAT IS COOL!!! I have been detecting about 15 years now and wish I had kept a record of my finds! The only thing I am absolutely sure of is the dollar amount I found in the first year - $1012. I was shooting for $1100. My wife told me that my new hobby in 1998 was going to be just another money drain like my previous hobbies - hunting, fishing and competitive shooting. I figured if I could find double what I had paid for my first real detector, that would shut her up. NICE WISH!

Anyway, I think I will try to record every find beginning the new year. I'm really curious to see what my totals are. Thanks for the inspiration!

 

[senda]

Although my monetary system is different than yours I want to offer my numbers.
These are my stats, July, August, September and October this year. Only for

 

[upnorth]

I'm a horrid cherry picker in town some days and I represent about 25% of what the ATP is capable of. But I usually have a darn fun time out there though. If I consider a site worth it, I will pull out all the stops and work it hard, but unless it's an old house yard, the spots are getting harder to find in town. I actually find it kind of light and fun to go in custom mode some days. I have it set for 80 and above. So I recognize the dollar and two dollar coins by sound\sound volume, and silver by the numbers. Nothing pops my eyes open like a solid hit that reads 88-91 more or less. That is a silver quarter around here. To be honest I have little interest in clad other than the buck-two buck coins.

 

[togamac]

In my first year, I dug all the pennies too, afraid of missing a wheat. Now, if I'm shooting coins I notch out 70-80 so I don't have to bother with them. I haven't counted, but my pile of coins looks to be 50% quarters, 30% dimes, 15% nickels, and about 5% pennies.

 

[mudpuppy]

Mega Clad Grabbing is a discipline in its own right, a subset of our sport that can be easily disdained or overlooked. However, it sure teaches you FAST about humans and their habits, travel patterns, locations, access, and drop zones etc...the key is super fast retrieval, that means no looking at the screen and dinking around once you hit a "ping"..10 secs from ping to pouch is what you need to be able to do....it also means super fast sweeping and focused hunting for shallow freshies...you got no time to sweep and wonder about anything deeper than 5" max...of course unless it really sweet and screams "silver" which you will undoubtedly pick up several per year along the way, since you WILL be covering vast amounts of acreage...you need to be able to stab, grab, and go...no trowels, just a screwdriver...no kneepads, just stoop, stab and grab! You got to get good at multidenom tight spills, stacks, and slants...you got to run a low sens and be an absolute madman about clad grabbing to rack up over 100 coins per few hours out, and then be capable of doing this time after time, day after day...running a "milk route" of totters early every weekend, open parks during the week...you got to wear the right pants that dont bind in the crotch, you got to run and gun a totter in less than 10 minutes, you need everything light and simple, your finds pouch should be one of those cotton cheap nail pouches...you got to eat an aspirin before you start, and probably another after you finish...you need to hunt right after a local festival or fair or football game, so you have to pay attention!...you got to dive under the bleachers and get good in there in all that iron and aluminum, you have to be able to work tight to chain link, in the trash, and snowplow zones! You need a super economical vehicle to run and gun before the sun, hitting 20 locations in a hurry and gone!....If you drink coffee, GOOD! If you smoke, BETTER!..anyway, young squire, Mega Clad Grabbing is fun, fast and furious, get yourself a tumbler and a screwdriver if you decide to seriously embark upon this endeavor...you can make a substantial amount of money if you get really good and fast, its heads up hunting, looking for bills too,...set a big goal, like 10k coins per year, and just flat outrun everybody else.

This all said, as far as I'm concerned, the Pro is way too powerful and not light enough or balanced for this kind of work, it was built for other things than mega shallow clad grabbing....if however, if its all you have, and you want to give this genre a try, you CAN do it with the Pro, if you can get very quick with the retrieval, and are willing to put in the effort, you will outshine economically the vast majority of detectorists out there ...just by the sheer volume of targets yo will be getting....these skills will come in very handy when you move on to other forms of hunting this sport affords...Good Luck!
Mud

 

[DEEP-ON]

Interesting post Mud and subject wmjstu, and you are correct about clad being overlooked. I am looking for the silver like most, but love to grab a clad quarter, dime, and love that elusive 5 cent coin, that can be harder to find, atleast it was for me when I first started. My house is rite next to a park, out my door and 100 yards and I am swinging. when I first whent there, you could not walk 5 steps without finding a coin, I hunted it after work, aug, sept and oct. I think it helps a persons skills to go on a clad hunt, I found 390 quarters, aprox 600 dimes, 180 nickels and probally 500 pennies, probally 80 to 100 wheats. I turned it in the other day and it was 200 bucks, that payed for my new sunray x5 5 inch coil I got from Bart at BBH, alot of fun and payed for a new coil, got to love it. I think the best benefit of hunting all that clad, was that it really hones your recovery skills, as far as speed and less evidence of cutting a plug. The park at my door step also gave up 24 siver dimes, 7 siver rings,a colonial copper,2 silver medalians, and a 1800's gold pocket watch, The only down side of the whole thing is, now the last half dozen times I have tried the park, nothing,and I mean nothing . In the spring when the ground thaws and is WET I will give it a few more tries, especially in TTF, wich I am still trying to get the hang of, it's pretty much done in conduct, it was fun while it lasted.

 

[Wandering Yoda]

wmjstu, Mud speaks wise words on the Mega Clad Grabbing!! Some folks aren't fond of it. And yeah, the Pro may be a bit to juiced for it. Still there are some good places around that once you find'em, it's simply a matter of extracting, sort'n and stacking, throw in some banking activity, and then a visit to Silvertowne.com. These are pic's from some locations I don't think anybody has hit before that, judging by the amount of clad, should allow the Pro to heap goodness up year after year. I wish we had $1 and $2 coins like our friends up north do, sigh

 

[mudpuppy]

WOW Yoda! I take back everything I said about the AtPro not being the perfect cladgrabber!
It sure looks like its treating you just fine! Those are really nice pics...you gotta start posting more often! And just maybe I'll take the Pro out for a spin on clad someday...up to now I've just used it in the water and on the beach, and shot clad with a different unit.
Mud

 

[WIHawker]

Well heres mine. I don't no how to do the percentages. These totals were found with four detectors With the Atpro being used 75% of the time. My last 2 years.

dollars 2
halfs 6
quarters 937
dimes 1158
nickels 244
pennies 2474

wheats 217
silver coins 72

Dang after posting this a can't friggin wait for the thaw!

 

[Wandering Yoda]

Well thank you Mud!! I used a GTAx 1000 for a long while and after switching to the Pro early in 2013, I loved the lighter weight and faster recovery speed. (and waterproof-ness!!!!) My challenge now is trying to get tighter to the metal playground equipment and reinforced sidewalks. Slowing the sweep speed has helped but whoo-buddy I need to get my paws on a Sniper coil

And back to the MCG post specifically, there are so many good nuggets of info in there, that a thank you is in order I've been a lurker for a little while and have very much enjoyed, tried to learn, and implement what you, John B, jimtn, and rest of the good folks here have posted. It's a great resource. Been thinking about gold and silver chains (anklets and bracelets to.) lately, and I know a fella has to slow down to find them, but surely there must be a ton of them out there.



WIHawker, NICE numbers!!!

Dang after posting this a can't friggin wait for the thaw!

I totally agree, been fight'n the flu for the past week or so and it's high time to get back out in fresh air and good dirt.
- WY

 

[mudpuppy]

Oh yes...you know theres a lot of chains out there that have had a coil go over them in the past, just to get dismissed as junk! There has been some really nice chains found with the AtPro this year...more so than any other machine on the forums I read. Hope you get to feeling better!
Mud

 

[Steve Keppel]

Here's my 2 cents worth. For 2013: 8,640 coins, totaling $1,062.32, over 274 days [519 hours] $3.87/day, $2.04/ hour
18 $ coins; 2- 50 cents; 2,959 .Quarters; 2,396 dimes; 783 nickels; 2,482 pennies.
$ coins: 0.21%; 50 cents: .02%; Quarters:34.25%; Dimes: 27.73%; Nickels: 9.1%; Pennies:28.82%.
I generally disregard "75-76-77 zincolns, unless the sound tells me to check it out [2 clad gold rings!]
The previous 2 years were $700- plus each, as well as 6000- plus coins each. The difference this year is that I settled down to tight patterns on ball fields and play areas, and it really paid off. Some fields took at least 2 weeks to cover [2 hour outings] Hope this is of interest. I enjoy logging the data for each hunt. Adds an extra dimension to detecting.

 

[fongu]

Sadly, I don't keep up with my clad. When I detect on land, it wears me out quick and I can't bend over too many times for a shallow target with a screwdriver like Mud does and squatting and kneeling are ever worse on my back and knees. Water hunting and land hunting are both comparable in that most of my coins are pennies with some dimes, quarters and a few nickels thrown in. I do try a fast recovery and dig most targets with the use of my pro pointer and screwdriver if they are shallow. Thank God for some good knee pads or I couldn't recover as many targets as I do. Since I learned to use the screwdriver for most of my targets, my recovery time is 100% faster and I hesitate to leave any target behind, but might be better off to just dig the dime & quarter signals.

 

[senda]

Hey Mud! What kind of government does not circulation coins one and two dollars for its citizens to lose and find them? I did not realize that you do not have these coins, is a national ruin Here, they are still 500 pesetas coins, change 3 euros, about 4 dollars approx

 

[mudpuppy]

No unfortunately for us here in the USA, Senda, we have only 1 dollar coins, and they are very rare, we also have half dollar coins, but they are rarer yet! So we have to concern ourselves with Quarters, and Dimes. if a fellow wants to shoot for clad. However, clad brings us near the gold and silver, so we have hope for a big score a few times per year..every once in a while a guy will find paper money! which can be a good day! Its better than sitting around in the house!
Mud