I'm in southern cal and am new to metal detecting, just spent about 4 hrs on my new (well new to me) t2se at a local old park. The park dates back to 1929 so should have some old stuff in it. I noticed that I've been finding foil/pulltabs/aluminum bottle caps about 2-5 inches down both on bare ground and what little sod I've cut through. ( I try to avoid damaging sod and stick to bare ground/woodchips till I get better at plugging). I've gotten mountains of pulltabs, some new clad and zero anything old. I'm guessing that there are layers of new topsoil/sod that bury the older layers deeper down. The park is on a hilltop, this is my question. Would it be better to concentrate on the sides of the hill where the park has not laid down new material. Is it better to go bp mode, ignore the top layer signals to concentrate on deeper items at the cost of having to dig deep to get to them ? I'm sure digging deep is quite frowned upon. Is there another way of going about this that I'm missing ? Thanks for any input.
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old park, new grass question.....
- Thread starter hartage
- Start date
Surfinsafari
New member
I have found old goodies shallow but not very often. Practice cutting plugs, its not hard, and go deep. You will find new drop goodies shallow but old coins and old jewelry usually head for China. Its a good idea to dig shallow junk to clean up the area to find deeper, masked targets and it always looks good to have some trash in your pouch if someone does ask what you are doing. Showing trash has saved me from getting the boot a few times. Don't be timid but don't be aggressive and get to digging.
ChicagoJohn
New member
That's not good and I found 1970's coins at 6 to 8 inch deep on new grass in park! Older coins might be much deeper but I might be wrong.
GeorgeinSC
Well-known member
Modern Clad, pull tabs and other junk can mask those deeper silver coins. Having said that I have found silver coins that were less than four inches deep. I have also found them that were down quite deep. It all depends on the type of soil that they were lost on. Also remember that even though the park has been there a long time it may have been detected a number of times over the years. Pay very close attention to those Iffy signals from your detector. They could be a very deep silver that is at the limits of your detectors ability to see the target. Learn to dig a proper plug. Try not to leave any dirt lying around the area where you cut the plug and make sure that the plug is pressed back into the spot that you removed it from . I have had park employees compliment me on how I can remove a coin and they have difficulty seeing where I removed it from. It can be done. Good Luck and Happy Hunting.
I know a guy who's harvested a few thousand silver coins from So. CA parks over the last 10 yrs. or so. And I'm betting the vast majority of them are 6" or more, in regular turf-zones type hunting. And he skips all the clad he can (avoiding shallow coins, since they're most likely to be new). And he also passes the foil and tabs. Only digs mids and up. Yup "kiss nickels goodbye", except on occasion if he's studying the cursor indicators on his Explorer TID, and cares to shoot for nickels. I know this is taboo for some people (who say "dig it all"), but his rationale makes sense to a lot of turf hunters:
a) the nickels had few good dates and mint marks, and are always gonna come out scr*wed up cruddy orange-brown anyhow, numismatically worthless EVEN if you had a key date.
b) the nickels TID zones share space with a LOT of aluminum junk, tabs, beaver tails, etc..
c) and in-so-far as it pertains to the possibility of missing gold rings, his reasoning is that if he were THAT all hot-&-bothered to find gold rings, he'll simply go to the beach. Where gold rings have better ratios, and digging is easier. In other words: If gold rings are a persons goal, why the h*ck are you hunting junky urban parks, to begin with? Hence his primary focus is the older silver (and wheaties and indians etc...) when turf hunting.
My advice to you, is to try to hook up with someone proficient at turf hunting, and trade off flagged signals to compare on. Someone who routinely comes in with silver from the parks. See how he swings, see what signals he's trying to isolate, versus those he'd say "I'd pass", etc.....
a) the nickels had few good dates and mint marks, and are always gonna come out scr*wed up cruddy orange-brown anyhow, numismatically worthless EVEN if you had a key date.
b) the nickels TID zones share space with a LOT of aluminum junk, tabs, beaver tails, etc..
c) and in-so-far as it pertains to the possibility of missing gold rings, his reasoning is that if he were THAT all hot-&-bothered to find gold rings, he'll simply go to the beach. Where gold rings have better ratios, and digging is easier. In other words: If gold rings are a persons goal, why the h*ck are you hunting junky urban parks, to begin with? Hence his primary focus is the older silver (and wheaties and indians etc...) when turf hunting.
My advice to you, is to try to hook up with someone proficient at turf hunting, and trade off flagged signals to compare on. Someone who routinely comes in with silver from the parks. See how he swings, see what signals he's trying to isolate, versus those he'd say "I'd pass", etc.....
Look for older large trees in the park and hunt around them especially if they have large limbs protruding out that those showoff lovers use to climb and hang upside down to impress those young ladies and slow down and listen to try to hear those faint sounds that will be the deeper targets most of the time clad and pulltabs and such will be heavy hitting tones
I guarantee you a 1929 park in Southern California has been heavily pounded by scores of dirt fishers.
That doesn't mean you can't find anything good, but you can bet that virtually all of the "cherries" are gone. The good stuff is either going to be deep, masked or both. That's an especially big disadvantage when you are new to the hobby.
The first thing I'd suggest is getting proficient at retrievals. Get to where someone can look at the area and never tell you were there. Then you'll be ready to detect yards without ticking off the owners.
Most houses have yards that have never been detected. Forget about the 1964 date. Silver dimes were actually minted until early 1966, and silver quarters were minted until late 1965. After that silver disappeared from circulation pretty quickly because the intrinsic value of the silver was worth more than the coin value . The more years the house was built before the last minting of silver the better. So Ca has tons of post-war ranch houses that were built in the late 40's, 50's and early 60's.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that you have to go really old to find good stuff. There's a whole lot of silver under the ground in postwar yards and a good percentage of it still at detectable depth. Plus yards are used year-round in So Ca so more potential for drops to happen than in a 4 season area.
Start with relatives, friends, friends of friends, co-workers, business associates, members of your church or any organizations you belong to, and anyone else in your circle of acquaintances. Let them all know you detect, and if the age of their house has pre-clad potential, ask them to let you detect there.
The T2 is a fine detector, but it does have a longer learning curve than many good and less expensive detectors which is a little extra handicap for you being new. I struggled in the beginning, most of us did. In time you become more proficient, don't get discouraged.
That doesn't mean you can't find anything good, but you can bet that virtually all of the "cherries" are gone. The good stuff is either going to be deep, masked or both. That's an especially big disadvantage when you are new to the hobby.
The first thing I'd suggest is getting proficient at retrievals. Get to where someone can look at the area and never tell you were there. Then you'll be ready to detect yards without ticking off the owners.
Most houses have yards that have never been detected. Forget about the 1964 date. Silver dimes were actually minted until early 1966, and silver quarters were minted until late 1965. After that silver disappeared from circulation pretty quickly because the intrinsic value of the silver was worth more than the coin value . The more years the house was built before the last minting of silver the better. So Ca has tons of post-war ranch houses that were built in the late 40's, 50's and early 60's.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that you have to go really old to find good stuff. There's a whole lot of silver under the ground in postwar yards and a good percentage of it still at detectable depth. Plus yards are used year-round in So Ca so more potential for drops to happen than in a 4 season area.
Start with relatives, friends, friends of friends, co-workers, business associates, members of your church or any organizations you belong to, and anyone else in your circle of acquaintances. Let them all know you detect, and if the age of their house has pre-clad potential, ask them to let you detect there.
The T2 is a fine detector, but it does have a longer learning curve than many good and less expensive detectors which is a little extra handicap for you being new. I struggled in the beginning, most of us did. In time you become more proficient, don't get discouraged.
DirtFisher60
New member
Marcomo...."Forget about the 1964 date. Silver dimes were actually minted until early 1966, and silver quarters were minted until late 1965."
Can you please explain the above? I've been a coin collector for longer than I've been into detecting (over 30 years) and I've never heard of either silver dimes or quarters dated newer than 1964. I know halves from 1965-1967 were partly made of silver, but not dimes or quarters. Not trying to start anything, just have never heard/seen that before.
Can you please explain the above? I've been a coin collector for longer than I've been into detecting (over 30 years) and I've never heard of either silver dimes or quarters dated newer than 1964. I know halves from 1965-1967 were partly made of silver, but not dimes or quarters. Not trying to start anything, just have never heard/seen that before.
DirtFisher - As someone who detects quite a few postwar suburban yards, I've long been curious to know when the tipping point was for silver being overtaken by clad. In other words, when did the chance of a dime or quarter being dropped become more likely to be clad. I assumed that silver coins stopped being minted at the end of 1964 (not counting 40% half dollars) and clad coins started at the beginning of 1965.
What I found last year when I did some research was that silver quarters with a 1964 date were minted until almost the end of 1965 and silver dimes with a 1964 date until early in 1966.
The first thing I looked at was the Johnson Coinage Act of 1965, I'm not posting it here because I don't want to make this too long of a post but you can find it on a site called The American Presidency Project and it's a very worthwhile and interesting read.
An article by numismatic historian and writer Tom LaMarre best summarizes the silver/clad timeline:
"By the mid-1960s the rising price of silver, and the dwindling national stockpile, forced the Mint to consider alternative metals for the dime, quarter and half dollar. Many different materials were considered and tested in an effort to find something that would be compatible with the current coins and work in vending machines without requiring expensive modifications.
Private companies were an important part of the process. The Medallic Art Co. and the Franklin Mint struck experimental dimes in a nickel alloy, using designs engraved by Gilroy Roberts. The obverse depicted International Nickel Co. executive Paul D. Merica. The reverse pictured INCO
What I found last year when I did some research was that silver quarters with a 1964 date were minted until almost the end of 1965 and silver dimes with a 1964 date until early in 1966.
The first thing I looked at was the Johnson Coinage Act of 1965, I'm not posting it here because I don't want to make this too long of a post but you can find it on a site called The American Presidency Project and it's a very worthwhile and interesting read.
An article by numismatic historian and writer Tom LaMarre best summarizes the silver/clad timeline:
"By the mid-1960s the rising price of silver, and the dwindling national stockpile, forced the Mint to consider alternative metals for the dime, quarter and half dollar. Many different materials were considered and tested in an effort to find something that would be compatible with the current coins and work in vending machines without requiring expensive modifications.
Private companies were an important part of the process. The Medallic Art Co. and the Franklin Mint struck experimental dimes in a nickel alloy, using designs engraved by Gilroy Roberts. The obverse depicted International Nickel Co. executive Paul D. Merica. The reverse pictured INCO
DirtFisher60
New member
Marcomo.....thanks for the info! I was thinking you were saying that there were silver dimes and quarters out there dated 1965-1966, but the mints making them with the 1964 date makes sense. I'm sure that that kind of thing is a fairly standard practice for the mint, continuing to make the previous year's coinage into the next year, especially if it involves a metals change.
ChicagoJohn
New member
Yesterday I went to park that I never there before. My son want fishing for one hour so I metal detecting. I know Park is as old as around 1920's and I can tell new grass and new building so I got 99 cents clad and found one deep at about 8 inch is 1957 Wheat cent. It made me thinking about how deep 1920's to 1930's coins is! Of course shallow is possible closer to large old trees and lake's shoreline!
DirtFisher, no coin will ever top the Maria Theresa thaler for longest frozen date . From 1780 until now the date has stayed 1780.
Actually, there are extremely rare 1965 dated silver error dimes and quarters that were accidentally struck on silver planchets. They are valuable enough that you don't want the IRS to know if you dig one!
Actually, there are extremely rare 1965 dated silver error dimes and quarters that were accidentally struck on silver planchets. They are valuable enough that you don't want the IRS to know if you dig one!