How to pick the right curb strip for old coins

Swing360

curbstrip nut
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As most know(or don't know), I am a curb strip hunting fool. Over the years I've learned to look for specific "tells" when I am out looking for a good strip to do. This guide should help you when you land in a town you DON'T know, have no acquaintances, and you don't know the history.

What I intend to do here is take pictures of all the different types of curb strips and show you why I get excited about certain ones.

I don't profess to know everything, so if you have info to add please do! Pictures are always great and for my sanity I will probably do 1-2 pictures and just a few tips a day. Think of this as Diggers F2 thread



Let's talk about this curb. This particular curb is right in the middle of a late 1870's neighborhood. Let's call this obvious #1 as to why I chose it. Obvious #2 (but not seen in the photo) is that the original 1877,1888,1890 houses are still here. Obviously a good sign you are in the right spot. Now, that is enough for me and probably 100% of other diggers, but what if the houses were gone and new ones were standing in its place? You could drive right past and not think twice.

The not so obvious should be fun. This curb has both good and bad going for it. Let's start with the bad because it's the only bad point in my eyes. This curb is right around 14 inches tall when 30 feet either direction has no curb. This tells me they filled this ground for something (in this case a sprinkler system a LONG time ago). You can still find coins, but more than likely not what you are looking for. This particular section of curb yielded ZERO old coins, not even a wheatie.

The good is that there is grass growing in the road. Seems odd, but it doesnt happen over night :grin: also, if you look at the curb you will see that the concrete used is old... how old? I don't know, but we will get into that more later. Lastly, but the most important here is the grass. In this instance it's borderline. What I mean by that is if you look you will see it sits above the curb a few inches. Ideally I'd like it flush with the curb or just under. This way I know there has been no fill added making a deep Merc now unreachable.

Grr... my honeydo list just started early. I'll extrapolate one this more in a bit. I've got to run into town. For now digest this and add to it if you feel compelled.

Remember to post curb strip finds here also that you feel you want to share so people can see results
 
Around here, some older parts of town have the date (Month/Year) stamped into the sidewalk when it was put down. I have seen some 1800 areas that have me drooling!
 
Great topic Swing. Can't wait to read more as I have been hitting curbstrips off and on lately & could use some good pointers :) I've found lots of early 1960's coins in the random ones I hit. The only goodies have been a couple wheaties & my only Buff to date.

-Corey
 
Sidewalk tearout in Phoenix yielded an 1842 quqrter for my neighbor a couple of weeks ago.
 
The historic neighborhoods I hunt sometimes have featured houses in brochures that give the history of the home and who lived there. I actually found my 1920s pocket spill last week without any research, the curb strip just looked and felt old. Another nice scouting technique is to look on Google Streetview at the curb itself. The old ones really do stand out. You can easily see which curbs haven't had fill dirt added because the trees are of good size and their roots are showing.
 
interesting topic Swing...Im subscribing. so far what i know is that if the house is in the late 1800s the curb usually a potential gold mine.
 
Around here, some older parts of town have the date (Month/Year) stamped into the sidewalk when it was put down. I have seen some 1800 areas that have me drooling!

around here i see dates from 1887-1914 all over the older part of town, an old stone or brick building has a 1880's date on the front above the door. most of the old part of town is still original. including a barbershop that was owned by my great and great great grandfathers from the late 1800's to around 1980's.
 
I'm interested, thanks for any info Swingy.

I'm assuming your calling it a curb strip if there's a sidewalk and the curbstrip is the grass strip along the road.
I know of very old areas here and there's not many sidewalks so peoples yards seem to go right to the street.
Tin
 
I'm interested, thanks for any info Swingy.

I'm assuming your calling it a curb strip if there's a sidewalk and the curbstrip is the grass strip along the road.
I know of very old areas here and there's not many sidewalks so peoples yards seem to go right to the street.
Tin

Correct! Just to make sure everyone is on the same page. I've heard them called "easements" and "city right of ways"
I've been running around town getting today's pictures and will have them up this late afternoon.

ChrisK: you bring up a good point in things to look for. Most houses that make it into the National Register of Historic Places are given a placard that has the name of the house plus the date built. For example the ones where I am are white and read for example "Sims House 1886"


Lord: Google earth your town to make sure you aren't missing any. I think I've onlt seen the one in your spot also though.

Sophia: excellent point! One of my topics today will be exposes roots!
Ron: good add. I have yet to come across a strip with the date imprinted on the sidewalk, but I will touch on that also as our location has the street names imprinted.
 
Good thread. I always look for square curbs. The newer ones are sloped on the street side. I dont remember the date they changed but I think it was in the 60s. Which is perfect for coin hunters.
 
My record of silver coin finds from a small town dated around 1900's.
Curb strips rule!
 

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Here's one me and a buddy hit 2 days ago. I love the ones with old walls running right next to them. Lots of people used to sit their butts on those walls and change would roll out of the pocket right behind the wall lip or they'd stand up and it would fall right in front of it. We found a 24 merc and a 39 merc in front of this one and several wheats.
 

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Here's one me and a buddy hit 2 days ago. I love the ones with old walls running right next to them. Lots of people used to sit their butts on those walls and change would roll out of the pocket right behind the wall lip or they'd stand up and it would fall right in front of it. We found a 24 merc and a 39 merc in front of this one and several wheats.

Brilliant! You touched on something VERY important. I've come to find that a HUGE percentage of diggers don't hit that little 5"-8" (in your case 3 foot) section that comes off those walls to the right of the curb. In most cases this requires permission from the home owner, but if you have permission to do the yard, don't forget to focus your energy on that wall, because like you said. MANY a person has hung out to catch a breather over the years I'm sure!
 
My record of silver coin finds from a small town dated around 1900's.
Curb strips rule!

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the street names, the fact that your systematically covering every curb and plotting it so you know where everything has come from. FREAKING AWESOME!

Crusader, you are a stud!
 
these are my favorite. old granite curbs. theres a few streets with these in the neighboring town, and also in a larger extremely old town on the coast there are a ton of these as well as sidewalks made of octagonal stones.
sawn_top_and_textured_top_curb_500_500.jpg
 
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