When was that silver coin dropped

[deepsilverdetector]

I was wondering if anyone judges the age of a site based on the condition of the coins found. I was hunting an area where I found a 1936 mercury dime in AU condition, so my thinking was this coin was dropped with in a few years (1-3) of it's date. At the same location is a school dated 1927, I found a 1907 barber in A06 condition and based on the wear of the coin I'm thinking it was dropped after 1927. So my question is, how fast did silver coins wear down? If we look at our clad coins, I have seen 1965 quarters and dimes that have almost no wear. Just one of those....hmmmm

 

[moonshine]

i think silver wore down A LOT faster than clad. there was a display of coins found from the Titanic wreck and some silver wore really quickly! I cant remember the dates (coin dates and the shipwreck date) but I remember thinking that there was a very high amount of wear on such "young" coins. you can definitely get a feel for when a coin was lost by looking at the dates and their wear. especially if you are at a site and you are finding a lot of "period" coins. Ive been lucky to have found a site that Im working that seems to have had a lot of activity from 1950 or so to 1960 or so. Very, very few "modern" coins, but nothing super-old either. (no 1800's stuff). Almost all mercury dimes and wheat pennies. nothing much else bigger than the dimes though, unfortunately. the coin dates are mostly 40's and 50's. i always thought that a coin would be most likely to be lost within about 20 years following its mintage. but i remember an episode of andy griffith where the grandfather was telling Opie ot look out for indian heads in the fountain. and that was what, in the late 50's? but that would be the exception, not the rule.

 

[MAcle1997]

Wear on silver coins is my favorite way to guess the age of a site. Silver wears a lot
faster than clad. I figure that the average life span of a silver coin was about 25 years
from new to severely worn, AG-3 condition. Its not an exact science but you can get
a rough estimate of when a site was active judging by coin date and wear.

Mark