where did all the quarters go?

[provantage]

i have started doing a new area that had been private, for close to a hundred years.I went down sat and found 22 wheaties 1 buffalo nickel 3 wartime nickles 2 mercs and two silver rosies. Everything seemed to be between 4.5 to 6.0 inches down except for the buffalo nickel it was 1.5 inches down. my question is where are the quarters? It almost seems to me that people may have sneaked on this property in the past and plucked them out with older machines back in the day that may have not picked up on the dimes and pennies. this is just my observation i wanted to see if f anyone agrees with my educated guess on this area

 

[Beale]

It is possible that they "Cherry Picked" the area. The only thing that makes me wonder is your silver dimes. I know on my X-Terra they do ring in at about the same as a pre 82 penny. So they may have just hunted for quarters. To me I do not get it, but it is possible, Beale.

 

[dave5710]

"Why when I was a kid........." You could buy a soda and a candy bar and a comic book, and still have change from your quarter. Kids probably didn't leave the house with more than that.

 

[silversmith]

Not only that but bigger coins stick out when dropped. Silver dollars are rare, they look like hub caps! What's a hub cap? Hummmmmmmmm!

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Previous post make a lot of good points why you don't find silver quarters.Silver quarters don't leave a big target signal.My observation silver quarters I find even around 5-6 inches sound more faint than most dimes around 7-8 inches.Pennies in the field even easier targets.Most metal detector hunters think a silver quarter will give a strong signal.Every silver quarter I find gives a faint steady signal.HH Ron

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Pro-vantage, I will answer your question from a few perspectives.

For starters, your tallies of things like "22 wheats", "4 silver dimes", etc... do not necessarily lend themselves to indicating that you should have been in-line for a silver quarter, to begin with. What I mean is, that even in an absolutely virgin old site, it would not be unusual to get your kind of target ratios, w/o getting a silver quarter so far. You can not assume that just because random pocket change right now, in 2010, seems to be 5 or 6 pennies and dimes, to each quarter in your pocket, that those ratios must have held true back then in the old days.

When I first started this (mid 1970s), there was absolutely no "cherry picking" that could go on, because there was no discrimination (at least not viable or well-sold/used yet). And it would not be unusual to get multiple mercs, roosies, etc... before getting a silver quarter back in those virgin times of school yards.

The current ability to TID quarters (verses dimes, pennies, etc...) has only been around since 1982 (with the first Teknetics). And it's not very often that someone goes around strip-mining quarters, while leaving all else (although I suppose it's possible). But most old coin hunters would have little reason to do that, and would also dig the dimes, pennies, etc.... and perhaps pass only the foil, tabs, etc.... if they wanted to "cherry pick". I find it highly un-likely that someone went through and purposefully chose to pass all the dimes, in an area where they'd have suspected that the dimes etc... would also be as old as the quarters they were digging. It just wouldn't make sense.

The old all-metal TR machines would go deeper on a quarter, than a dime or penny. So in that, I suppose they might have had higher ratios of quarters, verses smaller coins, eh?

 

[BarberBill]

All the above are possibilities, but quarters and other large coins are more easily noticed (when dropped) and easier to spot. In years back they represented more value than today so I suspect more effort was put into looking when missed, as well.
BB

 

[provantage]

JACKPOT i really took my time today combing along the stream and found a 1927 quarter and a 1945 quarter along with a 45 nickel stuck to a 59 rosie.

 

[dave5710]

So where are the pics????? Good job!! A 4 silver day is pretty impressive. How big is the creek?

 

[provantage]

the creek flows along side an old defunked grove and pool. you have to park by the creek to get to the pool cross it. its only 6 -9 feet wide at ost i actually went down in the water today and pulled to pennies.

 

[dave5710]

I would hunt both sides if possible.

 

[gilfordberry]

I knew a THr that hunted quarters exclusively. Not silver ones, mind you, just quarters. He was out to prove to his better half that he could find enough to pay for his detector and there's enough clad around he was able to collect a couple thousand dollars worth of quarters in two or three years to prove his wisdom in purchasing a metal detector. I wouldn't have done it - I wonder how many gold rings he passed by discriminating everything but quarters out. On my Whites XLT, the quarters (both clad and silver) ring substantially higher than a dime - although I haven't found enough silver ones to recall just how they ring out. I do know that it's interesting that two pennies together - copper ones - ring about the same as a clad dime and two quarters ring out about the same as a silver ring or half dollar.

 

[Elton]

or the other 10, 211 detectorists found all the quarters LOL Hahahahahahha

 

[provantage]

found out today a guy was hunting the spot last june and july everyday for two months and gridded the whole place off as he went. real downer the guy who lives next door said he walked out with pocket fulls of gold rings silver halves quarters buffalo nickles and indian pennies. real downer thats why i found the stuff i did in the poison because it was probably overgrown in those areas that late in the summer. im so upset i sweeped areas and there wasnt even a pop top to dig up .imagine how much stuff he pulled if i had back to back 4 silver piece pull days in a row.