Silver stats

Some data on my silver finds through the end of 2015. Don't know if anybody will find this useful, but it is accurate.

I started detecting in early 2008, so these are silver stats and percentages for just under eight years of dirt fishing.

I'm primarily a yard hunter. I don't have recorded data on it, but I'd estimate about half pre-WWII and half post-war. My detecting of areas too new for potential silver was minimal and only done for fun with kids in the family or to help someone find something metallic.


US 5c - 4.6% - 29 war nickels

US 10c - 74.3% - 360 Roosevelt, 95 Mercury, 13 Barber, 1 Seated

US 25c - 17.4% - 102 Washington, 4 Standing Liberty, 4 Barber

US 50c - 2.9% - 8 Walking Liberty, 5 Franklin, 4 Kennedy 40%, 1 Kennedy 90%

US $1 - 0.2% - 1 Morgan

Non-US - 0.6% - 2 Australia, 1 Canada, 1 Netherlands

631 silver coins total.


A few random observations:

88 of the silver coins, about 14%, are 1964 or 1964-D dimes.

Approximately 3 out of every 4 silver coins I found were dimes.

The rosie dates I've found most are:
1. 1964-D (59)
2. 1964 (29)
3. 1963-D (27)
4. 1962-D (22)
5. 1953-D (17)
6. 1961-D (15)
7. 1946 (14)
8. 1957 (14)
9. 1958-D (14)
10.1960-D(12)

6 rosie dates I haven't found yet: 1948, 1949-D, 1952-S, 1954-S, 1955, 1955-S.

It took me almost eight years to finally find my first Canadian silver coin.

Because of their short time in circulation, the majority of my 1964 coins have nice luster and are in AU or close to AU condition.

Good grief, maybe I should have been an accountant.

A doctor says to a female patient I've got good news and I've got bad news.

The bad news is you're going to die in about six months.

The good news is you're married to an accountant, so it'll seem like fifteen years.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2016 08:32AM by marcomo.

A very interesting post Marcus, I enjoyed reading it.----Just curious-- in what year did you find the most silver & how many silvers did you find in 2015?-----Keeping records is half the fun in this great hobby.----My wife is a retired school teacher & she keeps records on EVERYTHING! ------------Del

excellent post....

"It took me almost eight years to finally find my first Canadian silver coin"

was it a 1965 or '66 dime?

and do you have a silver ring and gold ring count for the period?

cheers...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2016 03:08PM by canslawhero.

Very good info.

Thanks for sharing.

Would be interested to know how many clad coins did you dig to find the above.


Remember this..
[www.dankowskidetectors.com]

And we never did see any pics did we???
Btw I have a pretty good idea who this was actually.
Total BSer.

I guess they had trouble trying to photo shop for two 5 gallon pails of silver coins.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2016 03:24PM by tnsharpshooter.

Another good stat would be the percentage of wheat pennies finds compared to silver coin finds. Finding wheat pennies always keeps me fired up, because I know that I'm in a good location to find silver coins.

tabman

Del - My silver count has been going down every year since 2011.
2008 - 9
2009 - 33
2010 - 95
2011 - 159
2012 - 122
2013 - 90
2014 - 66
2015 - 57
Actually, 2015 was more productive for me than 2014. My detecting hours in 2015 were only about half what they were in 2014 although I did spend more time doing research. After 2014, I looked at my numbers and realized that while there were several variables at play, the biggest reason for my decline in production was that I had pretty much picked all the "low hanging fruit." So more research in 2015. The other notable contributing factor was life outside detecting (most notably my dad's deteriorating health and passing in 2014 and the birth of my first grandchild in 2013) gradually reducing my time in the field.

Del, my mom and dad were both retired educators too as well as children of the depression. So I understand what you're saying about saving records and anything else they considered to have any possible future value or use. I learned so much about my parents that I didn't know after they died just from going through everything. A blessing? Yes. But in some ways a bit of a curse too. Especially when you are the executor of the estate.

canslawhero, it was surprisingly a less common date - a 1954 dime. For rings attractive or interesting enough to display, I'm on the second row of my second 72 count ring box. Most are silver. Only 8 gold rings. Anybody looking to make the most money out of this hobby should detect beaches if possible or tot lots. Yards aren't a strong area for gold. Dinkys are another story. I'm on my fourth small bucket of toy cars. Haven't counted those though. When my grandson gets a little older and we line them up, it'll make CarMax look like small potatoes...

tnsharpshooter, I can actually figure the $ amount at some point when I get time. Every time I cash in clad and pennies, I write down the amount cashed in. The problem right now is the amount is not updated since I have a massive backlog of clad and pennies I haven't cashed. Occasonally Coinstar will have deals with their gift card sponsors where you not only get full value for your coins, you get a bonus too. I've been kind of building up coins waiting for a deal like that but haven't seen any in a while.

tabman, my last wheat count was 3011 but I have probably around 100 that I haven't tumbled and oiled yet. 5-1 would probably be a real close estimate. I agree with you about wheaties, it's great to find them because it means potential silver. Find enough wheaties and you'll no doubt find silver. Although in one yard I found 25 wheat pennies without a single silver coin. Almost all of those 25 were in the backyard. That was by far the most I ever found in a yard without finding silver.

Thanks for your response.

As far as your penny to silver find discoveries.

I have this yard I hunted.
It does contain quite a bit of nails/ iron.
Front yard actually, I must have dug 20 plus wheats, mostly 42 and 44 years with a couple older 1909, 1910, 1919.
Not a silver coin whatsoever not even a dime.
And the wheats mostly between 8 and 10" deep.
And I keep going back over this small area where most of the wheats were found-- even trying this Blisstool V6 trying to snag maybe one there that's even deeper- no luck

In the backyard of this same house no pennies at all, did find 2 dimes-- 1964, and 1951.

Strange to say the least.

Btw this site only hunted be me. I know because part of my family has lived there in the house for many decades.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2016 05:31PM by tnsharpshooter.

shiny dimes catch the eyes. The duller pennies get overlooked.

Impressive stats marcomo!
I'm interested in what you do with your wheat pennies.
You say you tumble and oil?
I have been thinking about tumbling my common later date wheats but have never done it.
I don't want to mess them up.
Any tips would be appreciated.

The wheat penny to silver ratio has been all over the place for me this year.
I have an old school I hunt where it's 20+ wheats for every silver and two old parks that don't give up much
but when they do it's almost always a silver dime or old nickel.
You would think wheat pennies were extremely rare when hunting there.
Bryan

Several good points made here.

As Mike Hillis said, the shiny coins are always easier to spot when someone is aware coin(s) have been dropped. And pennies lose their shine after a short amount of time in circulation.

50 years ago, even 100 years ago, a typical adult that might bend over for a dropped coin they could see, wouldn't be as likely to get down on their knees to look for a coin they couldn't spot from above.

Bryan, first of all I would never tumble any coins that have any significant numismatic value. But common date wheat pennies that haven't been dug are only worth a few pennies. Wheat pennies that have been dug aren't worth more than intrinsic copper value because coin collectors consider dug coins environmentally damaged. And unlike most silver coins I dig, there's no way to make a dug penny look natural like an undug one. A dug 1909-S VDB, the rarest non-error lincoln penny, would only be worth about 10% give or take of what a non-dug penny would be worth.

So I tumble them long enough to get the dark off and then soak them in extra virgin olive oil for a few days. Then I use a towel to sop up the excess oil, leaving some light residual oil on the coin. I do it that way because it's a quick way to do a lot of coins at a time and I don't like the way the washed out way the pennies look when they are tumbled before soaking in oil. After the first few hundred, I quit checking the dates. So there's probably at least some semi-keys in there. But being dug coins, the value would be minimal so I don't take the time. I figure if, God willing, I live long enough, then someday I'll have a coin collecting grandchild that will have a lot of fun searching for dates and filling penny books.

Silver coins are a different story to me. Although most of what I find are only worth bullion value, I love the natural look of silver coins and I never rub the dirt off a silver coin when I'm out in the field. And I clean them carefully when I get home. Usually soaking in warm soapy and carefully picking the dirt off with my finger or a toothpick if necessary. Dirt will very easily scratch a silver coin and can easily give it an appearance similar to what is called "whizzing" by numismatists. But this is just a personal preference. The bullion value of a silver coin is going to be the same even if you clean it aggressively. Some detectorists even use silver cleaner on bullion coins. I personally just don't like the unnatural look of a silver coin that shows signs of cleaning.