Farm house hunts

[apinballer]

1) How have you done overall at farm yard hunts?
2) Your favorite coin hunting sites > farm site, in town yards, parks, fair grounds, others?

I like to hunt farm yards, but for the amount of time I put in, I find few coins. I have come to the conclusion that if I want to find coins, the farms in my area are not going to be the high producers. I do find a lot of other kind a cool stuff, but mostly parts of old toys, tools, misc copper/brass buckles from shoes or horse equipment, a old spoon or fork, buttons, lot of copper/zinc/can slaw

 

[montanagold]

I find that most of the good finds come from old parks, ball fields and anywhere there was big functions. The thing about those old homesteads is that usually when you do find a coin its a good one. So I think you have to do a little of both. We have hit allot of old homesteads and came away with allot of good coins, case in point the team and I went to an old site a few weeks ago that had produce about 4 Barber coins in the past, well they had just plowed the field and the ground was soft and powdery. we all ended up with coins that day 10 in all including 2 seated dimes a flying eagle cent, V nickels mercs etc. So I think it best to keep your options open and continue to hunt that old site. It should pay off. Are you using a smaller coil? I like my X-8 in those types of areas.

 

[Phil]

I like to detect around old farm homes but they are not generally good producers of silver around here. I mainly find IH and wheat pennies with an occasional piece of silver. I have found that the farm homes along the local trolley car route produce more coins. I have 1909 plat maps that show the trolley car routes. I've been hunting farms along the main line thru my county and found several coin spills where people stood under a tree waiting for the next trolley. In the late 1800's up until about 1930 they were very popular transportation and faster than a horse and buggy. The best silver producing sites I've found have been the yards of older homes in towns. The town folks had a regular paycheck and more coins to drop than the farmers did.lol For my oldest coins I hunt home sites in fields that show up on my plat maps from 1865 and 1874. Those don't give up many coins but they are all old and I also find civil war buttons. The local park will give up some old coins but you really have to work for anything you find there. The best hunting is going to be on private property, at least around here it is.

 

[amc rulz]

I had some luck this spring hunting farm yards, and I remember digging 5 silvers from 2 consecutive small front yards, three of them being nice Walkers. It's kind of hit or miss for me, 1 out of 3 yards might produce a decent old coin or better. Keep in mind dirt may have been brought in or moved around in the last 150 years. Also, back in the late 1970's, early 80's when silver peaked at $50/oz, lots of folks hunted yards/ballfields/parks, etc.
It's at the point now where I can eyeball a yard and know in advance if it will produce. High, puffy-looking yards have had fill brought in. Flat, low yards may be original grade. I tend to dig Indians near the road in the front yard, less fill there. If the yard has been re-graded over the years, old finds may be shallow. Dug a beautiful Barber quarter in a front yard where the grade sloped to the recently-restored road, Quarter was less than 2 inches deep, where the grade of the yard had been cut to meet the road. amc

 

[Erik in NJ]

Hi, I haven't hunted many, but this past weekend got permission at an old farmhouse (ca 1750) which has been turned into a small museum. My experiences there were similar to yours. I was able to unearth a lot of very interesting old relics for the museum which was my goal, but coinwise I was only able to find an 1890 IH cent, a couple wheats, and a bunch of clad so far. I'm fairly certain that this place has not been hunted before and some areas are loaded with iron (I've found a lot of old square nails and I think they're all over the place in some parts) so hunting is difficult with my SE. I want to bring the E-Trac there to see if it will do better. I also think some parts have been filled in, but I need to speak to the town historian to get a better picture of what went on. I too had visions of Spanish silver, colonial coppers, large cents etc. , but the relics I've found so far are quite interesting and I think will display well in the museum.

 

[Jason illinois]

More of a cache type of hunt at farms is what I imagine. Real farmers were dirt poor but they may have stashed stuff in the ground during scary political times. I found a cool old primitive padlock at a farm I think.

 

[Hotcz70]

Good post..and the responses are very interesting. Some very good points.

 

[Chris/MA]

Your experiences about a lack of quantity coin-wise are right on. Though I'm not sure from how you worded it whether that coin total for an average per farm, or a total for all 12. If that was a total for all 12 and you spent days and days at each site, then you've earned your masochist merit badge. It's also not totally clear whether you mean the yard around a farmhouse, or a field itself.

In my experience the yard around an old farmhouse should produce something decent, but not as much as other old houses in a more downtown area. Farm fields don't usually produce a lot unless they were heavily travelled or had other events there.
The finds-per-day are usually pretty poor because of the type of land use and the large area involved. If you want to find something, your coil has to go over it, so gridding out 10 acres is going to take a long time if you don't want to miss too much.

That being said, they're still a good way to find older items if you're willing to put in the time, and the digging is easy if they've been plowed so it's not a bad way to spend a few hours relaxing on a nice afternoon or evening.

When I first got back into the hobby in 2005 and bought a DFX, I got permission to hunt a couple of fields that were probably 8 or 10 acres each. Probably spent 3 hours every other day for a solid month on each one, digging everything that didn't sound like iron.
Well, let's back up a second, I actually started the first field with my old garrett and found a 1776 spanish silver 1/2 reale on maybe the second plow-row I did. (THEN I went out and bought a DFX)
After spending basically 2 months solid on those couple fields, I ended up with maybe 6 or 7 indians, 10 wheats, 1 gold ring, 2 large cents, 1 king george copper, 1 or 2 v nickels and a buffalo or two, and two silver coins total. One was the spanish reale, the other was a silver washington quarter. 1 silver from each field. And 90 percent of the coins came from the second field. A fair number of musketballs and half a dozen buttons were also recovered.

So it is a good way to find older coins, but usually you won't find many of them.
There are exceptions where I've heard of lots of old coppers coming out of a field, but that's more the exception than the rule.

Whether it's worth it or not is up to you.

 

[jeff & Maria]

Digging around an old farm is like opening a time capsule of long ago. You find the types of toys kids had in the 1800's, the womens compacts, and so many other items that tell a story of life on that farm. I usually find a few coins but you need to look in the likely places.

 

[NiagracountyNY]

I love old farms myself..But each one can be very diffrent as far as the finds.Depends on the families that have lived there.I know farmers tend to Not make alot of money back in the day...They didnt have alot to lose..and they were careful with what they did have..Now and then you may find a farm house that was abit more well to do..You can usually tell by the size/style of the home.Also farms have a TON of iron..Alot of coins may be hiding next to that iron..You really have to work a farm house from several directions and for a few years(the frost up here in NY shifts the ground alot each winter).Dont count them as being hunted out ever.I tend to hit the same houses each year during the wet time of year,and usually manage a coin or 2.Some of these places i have been hunting for years .You are very lucky to have access to the old homes..alot of people dont..I wish you great Luck...Look forward to some of your finds pics...HH

 

[Erik in NJ]

Thanks for your reply - not sure if it was directed at me or the thread author. Wish you were closer as it'd be nice to hunt the place with someone that has experience in heavy iron - I don't, but have been able to plod through it and pull some interesting relics which I'll probably post this weekend when I have a chance. I suspect you're right that there's a lot of good stuff down there amongst the iron. I've been using my SE, but I think it might be time to try out the E-Trac there and see what it can do. Regards, Erik

 

[Erik in NJ]

Hi, What are the likely places? Thanks.

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[TokenDigger]

Hunting old farm sites here in Ohio is a lot of fun. We usually don't find a lot of coins (with the exception of some Indian head cents and a Barber dime here and there). However, we find a lot of other neat things like tokens, watch fobs, old toys (like cast railroad cars and lead soldiers), neat buttons, etc. Most of the time these sort of things are more interesting than most any coin find. One thing you have to be wary of though is the remnants of the burn pile. This is where the family would burn their garbage (in pre-garbage collecting days). This usually contains melted bits f brass, copper, aluminum, etc. Once you find this - steer clear or else you'll be wasting your time. On some occasions there can be more than one location of burn pile. Some farmhouses do have a lot of iron but there is usually enough land that you can just move over to less iron areas. Also, check around the old trees. Many times the family would eat outside under some shade trees to escape the summer heat and some items could be dropped. If the place is old enough, try finding the bottle dump. There can be some real goodies but this usually requires digging and shifting. However, you can find bottles, marbles, clay pipes, etc. I found four silver spoons in a farm bottle dump once. My best find at a farmhouse was a neat brass gunpowder flask. It was smashed flat and about 18 in. deep but it is really cool. Good luck and HH.

 

[apinballer]

Thank you for all the responses ! I really liked reading your experiences, and it is great information. I'll throw this out here - the last farm site I hunted last weekend was in Benton County, Iowa. It was the first time there, and I am sure it has not been hunted before. I spent about 1.5 hours hunting (LOADS of iron, 2 pennies from the 60's, one 66' dime, a silver plated spoon, a bunch of brass/copper buckles, broken toy parts, and lots of tin/copper/foil slaw). I am not able to get out and hunt nearly as much as many of the people here, but if there is anyone that would like to hunt this site with me sometime, and we can work out a day to do it, anyone is welcome.

 

[nighthunter2]

I live in West Central Ohio...prime farmland! I have had very little luck in farm yards. It seems the coins are just too deep! The only farms I hunt now are house sites that I find on my 1857, 1876 and 1888 plat map.....just open fields now. Believe me..those are the sites to hunt! IH's Barber's and Large cents!!!!!! Easy to hunt and easy to get permission...walk out with your detector and a shovel and dig as big a hole as you'd like!