Big Boys Hobbies

How old was the coin you found, and the age of the property?

CopperMinerAZ

CopperMinerAZ

Junior Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2011
Messages
74
Location
Red Rock, az
If you pulled a handfull of change out of your pocket what years would you have on the coins? I have been trying to put myself back 100 years and ask the same questions. When you found an older coin; somthing you wouldent normally find in circulation, how old was the property/place you found it on? I know there is probably no corrilation but i wanted to have an idea of what i may find in a older site i am going to try. Thanks!
 
Not that my answer contains a whole lot of info, but I've heard that Barbers were still circulating, albeit it less commonly of course, during ths 50s. And of course occassionally buffalos, mercs, wheats, etc. into the 80s, again, not super common but a whole lot more than now.

Older sites will produce old up to modern coins. It all depends how often the property was used. I found a 1694 William and Mary Farthing and a King George III halfpenny from the 1770s on the same property I dug up clad and zincolns! The house was build in the mid-1700s.
 
I always figure you'll find coins around 30 years older then what the site dates to & occasionally you might get lucky enough to stumble across a few bit older, there is a wild factor... for instance one of the local parks I often hunt was opened in 1950 but few people know that 2 homes set on the exact same location in the 1870's/80's..
 
To my luck i found 2 wheaties at my house which was built 1970, one of those wheaties being a 1909. No silver has shown up yet though.
 
Well, the pocket spill I dug today at an 1850's house contained a 1916 Merc, 1923 Quarter, 1930 Buffalo, and an 1881 Canadian Large Cent. A decent spread there. Yeah, figure the possibility is there for coins 30-50 years before the house was built, all the way up till dates around the end of it's occupation... My friend lives in a house built in 1970, but where his backyard is used to be colonial farmland - he has found coppers going back to the 1780's... so it really all depends on the history of the land. Sometimes you get surprised.
 
filmiracle said:
Not that my answer contains a whole lot of info, but I've heard that Barbers were still circulating, albeit it less commonly of course, during ths 50s. And of course occassionally buffalos, mercs, wheats, etc. into the 80s, again, not super common but a whole lot more than now.

Older sites will produce old up to modern coins. It all depends how often the property was used. I found a 1694 William and Mary Farthing and a King George III halfpenny from the 1770s on the same property I dug up clad and zincolns! The house was build in the mid-1700s.
Click to expand...

the only silver pocket spill I ever found was a 1914 barber and a 1935 merc =)
 
Truth is you really just don't know. Too many variables. History of the land the house built on? History since the house ie landscaping, excavation, trees and their removal. Is there fill on the land? If so, history of the fill. Find old coins at new homes, new coins at old homes. Sometimes ya just gotta get lucky
 
I've got this one property where the original home was built in 1800. However the land has been traced back as far as once being part of a charter for one of the very first organized colleges of Virginia in the late 1600's, early 1700's. Also a Civil War Captain lived there during the war. We've found Spanish coins dating back to the 1770's, large coppers and silver from early to late 1800's, all the way to modern coins. The relics have quite a range also, from colonial, to Civil War, to World War 1 & 2. Its a good place to hunt, you never know what will come up.
 
My oldest coin to date is a 1805 large cent. I found it and another 1820's coin and a 1845 coin on the property of a house built in 1930. However, 2 yards over is a house built in 1870 and directly behind these houses is an old cemetery dating back into the early 1800's. Also in regards to your post, a closed club property that was established in 1957 has turned up some coins dating back to the 1920's.
 
A perfect example for this was a property I hunted that dated from the 40's. I found 11 silvers there all from the 30's & 40's. 5 Mercs, 2 Rosies, 2 Washington quarters, 1 War nickel and a WL Half. They were all no more than 5" deep. Also found almost 60 wheats all on this 1 acre piece of land. Did also find two very deep smooth large cents but the town itself was from the 1700's...Hope this helps your research...
 
thats part of the fun of it......you just never know, a perfect example is my huntin buddy has a house that was built less than 20 yrs ago.....while swingin in his yard he found a very worn KG halfpenny, using old topos showed no previous house on the property but the area used to be farmland which was probably farmed by his neighbors farm(several acres away) which dates back to the 1700's.......just goes ta show that ya never know what was dropped in any area a couple hundred years ago by hunters,farmers or passerbyer's
 
Hi I found aearly 1700s Connecticut copper in a flower bed in winthin on mile from DC.the house was built in the 60s. You just never know
 
Not sure exactly how many old sites I've hunted that I have found an old coin or two, but it's far more than 100. Here is sort of how it plays out here.


I'll put my sites in groups for timeline because they do tend to be quite different.


Sites dating about 1820 up we still find the odd 1700s George copper. Early 1800s would be common, 1770s George III the odd time, but probably wouldn't see too many George II. I wouldn't call it rare to see a II, just wouldn't expect many.

Sites dating 1780-1820 George II and George III coppers are normal, the odd King George I does turn up, very rarely a William III (1695-1701) of which I can only confirm 2, and I have dug a lot of coppers. I have never found or witnessed a William & Mary (1694) and all Spanish are milled, never a cob from these sites.

My earliest date from 1720-1755. At these places Spanish silver can be both milled or cobs, but I have found more cobs. The majority of coins are 1700s but 1600s do turn up quite a bit. My oldest is a 1500s coin that was restruck in 1692, but I have witnessed a 1300s English silver.

So here it is possible to find coins quite a bit older than the site, and it does happen quite a bit, but to find ones that are much MUCH older you still have to be a bit lucky. When my friend dug the 1300s silver penny I was pretty surprised and that was thinking it was probably mid 1500s.
 
I found a 1909 Wheatie at a soccer complex that is only about 10-15 years old. It is in great shape which makes me think it was lost by the farmer years ago when it was a field.

My oldest coin, a 1903 IH, came from my own yard. My house was built in 1972. But, there was an older house on the lot before mine was built.

You just never know what you will find and where. Remember, the land has always been there even if the current use of the property isn't that old.
 
Well I remember as a kid that some of the dimes were silver and some were clad. But to us they were still just change. I think that goes for anyplace you go. People would still be using older coins as normal change till they were no longer accepted, or became valuable. Makes me wonder more how many valuable coins I spent on candy and sodas.
 
Iron Patch said:
Not sure exactly how many old sites I've hunted that I have found an old coin or two, but it's far more than 100. Here is sort of how it plays out here.


I'll put my sites in groups for timeline because they do tend to be quite different.


Sites dating about 1820 up we still find the odd 1700s George copper. Early 1800s would be common, 1770s George III the odd time, but probably wouldn't see too many George II. I wouldn't call it rare to see a II, just wouldn't expect many.

Sites dating 1780-1820 George II and George III coppers are normal, the odd King George I does turn up, very rarely a William III (1695-1701) of which I can only confirm 2, and I have dug a lot of coppers. I have never found or witnessed a William & Mary (1694) and all Spanish are milled, never a cob from these sites.

My earliest date from 1720-1755. At these places Spanish silver can be both milled or cobs, but I have found more cobs. The majority of coins are 1700s but 1600s do turn up quite a bit. My oldest is a 1500s coin that was restruck in 1692, but I have witnessed a 1300s English silver.

So here it is possible to find coins quite a bit older than the site, and it does happen quite a bit, but to find ones that are much MUCH older you still have to be a bit lucky. When my friend dug the 1300s silver penny I was pretty surprised and that was thinking it was probably mid 1500s.
Click to expand...

I imagine coins back then switched hands quit often seeing how the average life span was something like 30-40 years of age... Thats some pretty neat info you posted, I couldn't imagine the excitement of finding a coin in the United States older then the 1700's..
 
Lightningjack said:
I imagine coins back then switched hands quit often seeing how the average life span was something like 30-40 years of age... Thats some pretty neat info you posted, I couldn't imagine the excitement of finding a coin in the United States older then the 1700's..
Click to expand...


I'm used to hunting 1800s places and have had many great days at sites like that, but it's the 1700s sites that give me the high.... and I mean that literally because it does feel like I'm on a drug. The reason it does is because sites that old here we almost always find something good, and that makes for a lot of anticipation once we figure out it is an early site.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

W
Two nice little woods finds
Replies
2
Views
40
Tom_in_CA
Tom_in_CA
G
One keeper today but wow is it a good one
Replies
11
Views
74
Fe Man
Fe Man
maxxkatt
Hunting creeks for Civil War Relics question
Replies
0
Views
19
maxxkatt
maxxkatt
TundraPlugger
A couple more Indianheads from the old homestead
Replies
0
Views
18
TundraPlugger
TundraPlugger
TundraPlugger
FEATURED Jesus, what a hunt! 3 old silvers and my first old gold ring!
2
Replies
25
Views
358
GeoAngelo
G
Back
Top Bottom