Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Spanish silver out west?

Vermonster

Vermonster

Elite Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
9,477
Just wondering, there are quite a few Spanish slivers out on the east coast that pop up, and us west coasters are envious of the older coins you guys are able to dig. However, have there been many/any west coast Spanish silvers found? Given the fact that a large amount of California cities started as Spanish missions, you would think there is that possibility.

Dan, Jason, and of you guys that regularly pound the turf out here, do we have any shot at them whatsoever? I think the Reale was produced a few years past 1800, and missions started being founded around 1770, so there should be about 35 years of Spanish silver out there. I have my 1856 Seated quarter, but curious if we can get much older. I Understand that it's very, very, very rare, but possible, yes?????
 
Mexico gained her independence from Spain in 1821. And then go-figure that the coins of Spain (their reales versus Mexican reales) circulated another 10 or 20, or even 30 yrs. Hence Spanish reales are found even in gold rush era sites (1850s).

But to find those truly lost during Spanish times (lost prior to the mid 1820s) is going to be difficult here. Because prior to the 1830s, the west coast was still the "remotest ends of the world", so-to-speak. The entire European (non-indian) population here in CA, prior to the mid 1820s, was probably numbered only in the low 1000's. Just remote outposts centered around the missions, a few pueblos, a few presidios. Very few people living outside those clusters, till the 1830s (the golden age of the land grants and ranchos).

I've found well over 100 Spanish reales here. Actually find more Spanish ones than Mexican ones for that matter. They won't be found in park turf where Dan and Jason are so proficient at. You gotta get into adobe sites and mission era type sites to find them.
 
Tom_in_CA said:
Mexico gained her independence from Spain in 1821. And then go-figure that the coins of Spain (their reales versus Mexican reales) circulated another 10 or 20, or even 30 yrs. Hence Spanish reales are found even in gold rush era sites (1850s).

But to find those truly lost during Spanish times (lost prior to the mid 1820s) is going to be difficult here. Because prior to the 1830s, the west coast was still the "remotest ends of the world", so-to-speak. The entire European (non-indian) population here in CA, prior to the mid 1820s, was probably numbered only in the low 1000's. Just remote outposts centered around the missions, a few pueblos, a few presidios, and very few people living outside those clusters, till the 1830s (the golden age of the land grants and ranchos).

I've found well over 100 Spanish reales here. Actually find more Spanish ones than Mexican ones for that matter. They won't be found in park turf where Dan and Jason are so proficient at. You gotta get into adobe sites and mission era type sites to find them.
Click to expand...

Thanks Tom, forgot about you and your plundering out here also...... ;)

I guess Mexican or Spanish reale, either would be a good find out here in my book.......
 
I've only found 1 reale and it was a fractional 1/4 reale from 1860 and Dan hasn't found any reales. I did find a 1904 silver 5 centavos from Mexico yesterday while hunting with Dan. Athought not a reale but still pretty cool for a park find.
 
Tom_in_CA said:
Mexico gained her independence from Spain in 1821. And then go-figure that the coins of Spain (their reales versus Mexican reales) circulated another 10 or 20, or even 30 yrs. Hence Spanish reales are found even in gold rush era sites (1850s).

But to find those truly lost during Spanish times (lost prior to the mid 1820s) is going to be difficult here. Because prior to the 1830s, the west coast was still the "remotest ends of the world", so-to-speak. The entire European (non-indian) population here in CA, prior to the mid 1820s, was probably numbered only in the low 1000's. Just remote outposts centered around the missions, a few pueblos, a few presidios. Very few people living outside those clusters, till the 1830s (the golden age of the land grants and ranchos).

I've found well over 100 Spanish reales here. Actually find more Spanish ones than Mexican ones for that matter. They won't be found in park turf where Dan and Jason are so proficient at. You gotta get into adobe sites and mission era type sites to find them.
Click to expand...

VERY true! The sites I used to just drooooool to detect... but never could... were the Missions! I was within walking or transit distance from Olvera Street AND Mission San Fernando. *sigh* neither site is detectable.

Here in Santa Fe, you would think that there would be finds GALORE, but, regrettably... I have NO transportation, so whatever's out there is gonna have to STAY out there.

SageGrouse
 
Jamflicker said:
I've only found 1 reale and it was a fractional 1/4 reale from 1860 and Dan hasn't found any reales. I did find a 1904 silver 5 centavos from Mexico yesterday while hunting with Dan. Athought not a reale but still pretty cool for a park find.
Click to expand...

Man, when do we get to see the 5 Centavos Jason?

BTW, should have my Sovereign up and running in the next week..... ;)
 
Vermonster said:
Man, when do we get to see the 5 Centavos Jason?

BTW, should have my Sovereign up and running in the next week..... ;)
Click to expand...

Maybe sometime this week as soon as I clean up the finds. are you on instagram? I posted it on there. Nice, good luck with that Sovereign. Can't wait to see some finds from the water/wet sand now.
 
One would think there would be a ton of Spanish silver to be found throughout southern California, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Utah and Colorado. Though, given the Federal Governments majority owner stake in large portions of the west coast, prime hunting grounds would probably be on federal land.
 
BottleCapKing said:
Ummm... Detecting on most federal land is ummm... Illegal?
Click to expand...

Actually, not in most cases. BLM its legal, you just need to abide by the antiquities act, protected sites, etc., and a few other scenarios that may present themselves. But is says very specifically that metal detecting is allowed on BLM land.

Just looked up National Forest out here too, and it is allowed there also. As long as it is not a protected or archeologically significant site.

The Nat Forest site even goes on to say that finding coins used for personal use is fine, again, as long as there is no archeological significance. So dropped coins would appear to be fine.
 
Man I would faint and be so happy to pull any reale out of the ground here - but I think Tom and is it Ron? (guy who post some gold coin videos awhile back) found them all :laughing:
 
As vermontster points out: It is a oft-repeated notion, that all (or "most") federal land is off-limits to md'ing. This is not the case. Like the 2 examples that he gives (BLM and NFS) actually have express allowances . Oh, sure, as long as you are finding 49 yr. or newer coins (how's your math ?).

And another type that recently came up on a thread was federal wildlife preserves. If you study their verbiage deeply, you only find stuff about disturbing archaeological stuff or "treasures", etc.... So again: fumble fingers modern stuff is not dis-allowed, and there is no specific mention of md'ing anywhere as prohibited.

Perhaps, yes, National parks (NPS) is a type that, yes, is federal dis-allowed by specific language.
 
BottleCapKing said:
Ah. I did not know that. Good to know. Not much BLM land here in the North East. Federal land tends to take the form of National Parks and Military Bases.
Click to expand...

And both those places would be a no-no. National Forest, which there is a bunch of out here, is different than a National Park. Both National Forest and BLM account for almost 440 Million acres, of which probably 75-80% is out west. And as long as you don't hunt the places I mentioned earlier, or take with you certain items, or dig/destroy anything culturally significant, it's all good to go. Some places want you to get a permit, some don't care, they usually leave it up to the local Nat. Forrest or BLM Office.

So go find an old wagon road through the Rockies on BLM land, and look for that gold eagle that some settler dropped. It's out there to be found...... ;)
 
Vermonster said:
And both those places would be a no-no. National Forest, which there is a bunch of out here,....
Click to expand...

When you said "both", were you referring to military bases ? If a base is an "open" base (let's say there's no check-point charlie), then would you consider those off-limits to md'ing ? There's a few bases here, that we hunt ad-nauseum. And .... so long as you're not being a nuisance , or begging for attention, we've never had any issues.

As for NFS, if anyone's interested, I can find and post the link showing that it actually has an express allowance for md'ing (versus merely silent on the matter.)
 
Tom_in_CA said:
When you said "both", were you referring to military bases ? If a base is an "open" base (let's say there's no check-point charlie), then would you consider those off-limits to md'ing ? There's a few bases here, that we hunt ad-nauseum. And .... so long as you're not being a nuisance , or begging for attention, we've never had any issues.

As for NFS, if anyone's interested, I can find and post the link showing that it actually has an express allowance for md'ing (versus merely silent on the matter.)
Click to expand...

In general, active military bases don't allow it, because anything on the base is military property. That's what has come out of a few inquiries around here. Then again, they are all gated, active bases.

As for the Forrest land, that's what I mentioned in my first post. It actually directly addresses that you are allowed to do it. One site I found give the 4 kinds of detecting that are recognized, as in hunting for treasure trove, dropped coins, etc.
 
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