How long before 1st silver coin find - an unscientific study

[dirtsurfer147]

How long to find first silver?

I started in 1973. I really don't remember, but I would figure about a week. I was detecting about 3 to 4 times a week and about 4 hours at a time. Around 20 to 30 hrs. I would expect. The $20 dollar machine I started with didn't help much!

 

[Tilton]

Took me 2 months I think. 1943 Merc.

 

[61chip]

Took me about 12 hrs swing time to find my first silver, an SLQ

 

[Silvermonkey]

I was able to find a 1959 Rosie after about 10 hours with my new AT-Pro this past Spring. Its taken a while to learn my MD, but after a few months I am finding silver coins on a fairly consistent basis. Its all about location, and thinking outside the box.

 

[coin whisperer]

I found my one and only silver on my 3rd hunt in my local park with my at pro a month ago, it was a silver Washington. I have upgraded to a etrac now

 

[Crackdaddy]

Well I was lucky I found my first silver in about 5 hours now the second one that took awhile

 

[Dean Gretsch]

2 months for me.....64 Rosie.

 

[dirtsurfer147]

How long before the first silver?

I started back in 1973 with a $20.00 detector from a magazine. It took me a week to find my first silver, and I hunted at least 4 days, for 4 to 6 hrs. a day, so 12 to 24 hr. at least of hunting. Back them silver was coming up at a much greater speed, and the detector wasn't anything like my E-Trac or AT Pro.

 

[alands94]

6 months and probably 50 hours before I found my first silver.

 

[61Cadillac]

4 Wheat Pennies, $13 itotal in clad and 24.5 hours of detecting before I hit my first silver. I am a little anal retentive about my record keeping....

 

[ohiochris]

I took a couple months if i remember correctly before my first silver. The thing questions like these fail to record though is how much and how often a person is out detecting. Some of us have always spent a HUGE amout of our free time detecting and some may just do it now and then. Except for the very lucky , those of us who put in large amounts of time and do it very often ( more than twice a week ) are the ones who find silver early. Lots of people wonder why they arent finding silver but they may only hunt like an hour or two about once a week ( or less ) , it usually takes more dedication than that. You will get out of it what you put into it.

 

[Trapper]

first silver

I've got 2 answers, both unbelievable. 40 years ago I went to a now off limits cellar hole and on my first sweep got a silver spoon with a handle 1 inch long. I'm guessing the entire handle had been wooden and since rotted away. So, in time...5 seconds!
Fast forward 40 years when I got into it in earnest. My first silver coin, a '42 Merc, was my third of all time, 20 minutes in my backyard which turned out to be a virgin site.

 

[Silver_Seeker]

Speaking of silver finds I just realized out of all the dozens of Merks, Barbers & setting liberties I've found over the years that I've only found less then about a half dozen or so Roosevelt dimes, I guess they were the first coins to go or maybe people just started collecting them while they were still in circulation..

Good point, I've often wondered about this. For me, Mercs outnumber silver Roosies 2:1. I"m guessing it's because Roosies were in circulation in 65' when all coins went clad and people kept them. The Mercs were "just dimes" when in circulation and nothing special, the ones that were dropped, were dropped and not many people hoarded them in 65' because they were already out of circulation...just my theory.

How's everyone else doing on the Merc to Roosie ratio?

 

[Joetrikke]

I am a newbie with 33 hours and no silver... Yet.

 

[HX9X]

I found my first silver about 15 hours in. Spent the last few months looking for silver #2 lol

 

[kitemanjack]

Lucky 1st outing...

I first began swinging with an Ace 350 last November and found my first silver as my 2nd coin found on my very 1st day...it was a badly worn 1916 Merc....The surprising thing is since then I have unearthed nearly 6000 coins AND none of them were silver!!!

 

[BottleCapKing]

I found my first silver coin with a metal detector in '81 at the tender age of 12. It was 30 minutes into my first hunt at the little league park where I played baseball. It was a 1945 Mercury dime. I didn't really understand the significance. I thought it was cool, because it was a "different" coin from what I was accustom to seeing day to day.

In my adult life, you know, when I bought MY first metal detector, it took me about 12 hours to find my new first silver coin (A 1908 Barber Quarter).

 

[IowaChris]

My first silver was literally the first hole I dug. My mother-in-law had gotten an AT Pro a few months prior and while at her house one day asked if I wanted to try it. We went to the empty lot across the street and right next to the sidewalk I got a signal. After getting down about 6 inches and not finding anything she encouraged me to give up on the hole. I persisted and finally at 8 or 9 inches pulled a no date SLQ, a 36 Buff and a 43 War nickle out of the same hole.

 

[jwp1964]

My first silver was my first hunt, I started when I was 12 in 1976. There was more silver in the ground than clad at that point.

 

[GroundSweeper]

118 days to dig up a 1942-S war nickel.