Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Trashy farm, wrong machine?

Big Treble

Big Treble

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SW WI
I've been hunting this extremely trash family farm for the past two years. This farm and buildings date back to 1909. All I find is junk, this is the only place I have hunted and the only place I have much time to hunt. I simply am not finding coins. I have found about 2 five gallon buckets full of junk I try to hunt with every thing notched out below a nickel. And usually only dig signals I find that are sound decent both directions and when I swing 90 degrees off to pinpoint. All this time all I've found in coinage is four wheat pennies and two clad dimes.:(

I'm using a Ace 350, not sure if a upgrade to a xterra 505 or AT Pro would make a difference in what I am seeing and perhaps what I am missing.
 
Either machine would be a good upgrade. However, when you hunt a trashy area it takes time to dig the top layer of trash to get the good stuff. If this site is your only hunting option it will take time but with eventually be rewarding.
 
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Both machines will do. But, even with them, u will have to pick through the trash, although with their better tech, it will probably be easier. And, if u r finding a lot of brass, copper, or lead, u can make some money recycling that. Iron, however, is just about worthless unless u have tons of it.
 
Some old farmers didn't carry any money around with them, so little or none is found. You're not doing anything wrong, there just might not be any coins to find.
 
Starting to think the wife's ancestors used to tie twine around their pant legs.
 
I would concentrate on two areas. Under the clothes line and the main walk in from where they park. Narrow your search and get rid of the big stuff. if there are any coins around they will appear. If you still don't find coins find some place else to hunt. I have hunted old Amish and Mennonite farms in my area. Sometimes I find out that they didn't have that much money to carry around back then. And they never gave it to the kids. Kids lose most of the money.
 
I hunted a large part of my brothers farm dating back to the 1860's, still has a stone foundation, and didn't find a single coin. I hope to try again with my AT Pro some day.
Why none? Brother says they were poor. The original owner committed suicide over debt. They didn't have money to lose, so what they had they didn't carry, at least not carelessly.
 
if you have found wheats there must be silver just keep hunting... took me and my friends 2 years before we found our first silver at a house and it was a 1890 seated dime... patience is key
 
I will keep trying, believe it or not, even digging junk is relaxing for me. It's my only hobby that doesn't make me frustrated and want to throw things.:D.

I am seriously considering an upgrade though. Better discrimination would eliminate digging some of the junk.

Only found crusty nails under the cloths line. Been working around the old outhouse and found a lot of bib buttons. And a wheaty.
 
I bought an 1876 farm house earlier this year. Hunted it with my Fisher CZ7a pro, found no silver. Tons of rusty bits and pieces, no silver. I felt the same as you and upgraded to a minelab etrac. LOVE IT, still no silver.

The reality is, as many stated, people were poor. Not only that, if you lived in the country you didn't carry money. On the occasion someone came to do business you probably invited them inside. If you went to do business it was a long trip and when you got home you put your money and good clothes away and went back to farm work.

I leave my wallet and money in my truck, no need for it here on the farm. So even today I am not dropping coins.

I have found a lot of clad by the drive where the previous owners parked. I have 13 acres to search so I am not saying there is not a coin here, and some may be hidden by iron even though the etrac is great at discrimination, but I suspect this is not a great spot.

Another thing, I love my etrac and the fact I upgraded, but I still dig the same type signals. Most everything but for when I am certain it's a nail or bit of fence wire.
 
Most of my searching has been in the fenced in yard. This is a 4th generation family farm (not a lot of farming any more). There are pics from a couple generations ago where their were quite a few family gatherings in the yard. Most people spent more time outside in the somer due to not having AC. I guess I was leaning more towards coin spillage from that. A ton of buildings which I haven't really hunted around, and would expect the junk.

I probably will just smiling and digging junk.
 
I hunt a SUPER trashy 1800's farm with the Xterra 505. I bought a 6" DD coil a couple weeks ago and even though still no silver coin it did affect what other things I found. I dug a locket and chain and a ring(both cheapo) in places I went over 100 times with the 9" coil. Dig everything that even whispers a high tone. I did this the last couple of days and got some good coins(see my pic on here). Almost none of those sounded like coins. Mostly iron signal with a tiny wisp of 48. Normally on my machine I would pass that up as deep iron and "wrap around" halo iron.

Not anymore. :)

Good luck and have fun!
 
Detecting an old farm

I've also been detecting a 1790's farm house for a few years now and the oldest coin I've found is from the 50's (if I remember correctly). My best find so far from that site is a medallion from a 1905-1915 watch fob. It's not in great shape, but I was excited to find it.

I've been doing a bit of research into detecting old farm and can confirm what everyone else has said. Not only did farm folk not carry money in their pockets around the farm, because they often bartered, they may not have carried money much at all. The kids, who are most likely to drop coins, did not have money at all except on rare trips to town. Then they would get a penny to spend on candy and such. I've read stories of farm folk recalling this time or that time when they dropped their goin'-to-town coin and spent the rest of the day looking for it until it was found.

What little they had was so precious that they'd spend hours or days looking for something if it was lost.

Farms are better places for relics. Their trash = modern treasure. If you can find where they piled their trash, you may find old jars, bottles, broken silverware, tools, etc.

If you're determined for coins, here are a few places to look.
  • around the mail box (where it used to be if moved). It was common for farm folk to leave coins in a mail box to buy postage from the delivery person. sometimes they were lost in the high grass around the post.
  • clothes line, as mentioned above. Check not only where it is now, but look for older trees, posts, or stumps that would have had good noon and afternoon sun (thinking wash was done in the morning and left out to dry for the day)
  • outside the kitchen door. Bathwater and wash water would have been tossed. Coins, rings, silverware could be tossed with it.
  • high traffic areas not related to farm work. from driveway to nearest door, from front door to street & driveway
  • around the edges and under the porch for anything that fell and rolled
  • family garden. wives would sometimes bury jars or caches of coins in the garden where no one would notice someone digging frequently
  • chicken coup. caches were sometimes hidden in coups because chickens were a natural alarm.
  • outside the bedroom window was a common place to burry a cache because it was close enough to hear a robber digging at night

There are lots of other places where cache's could have been hidden, but these are a good start and likely spots for a shallow cache. Also, caches could be buried in ferrous containers, so you may need to dig the ferrous targets if you're cache detecting.

Several of these ideas came from listening to Dan Hughes podcast. You can check out the podcast, his articles and take a look at his book at http://creativitycoachingsite.com/treasuremanual/book.htm

Happy hunting.
 
Big Treble said:
I will keep trying, believe it or not, even digging junk is relaxing for me. It's my only hobby that doesn't make me frustrated and want to throw things.:D.
...
Click to expand...

:agreed:
I view detecting as therapy... a chance to get away from it all. Many times I come home with very little, but I'm happy. Someday I will find a cache since most did not believe in banks around here.

I've hunted my neighbor's 1840 farm the last several years and have yet to find a coin older than a wheatie. It is loaded with trash as most farms are. Better detectors and different coils has not helped find the older stuff, but has made it a fair fight... Fact is, there may not be much there under all that trash. I would really like to take some of these sites and scrap off the top 5" ~6" and really see what was lost :D . In all seriousness, I'd rather hunt the tenant house that belonged to the farm. Much better finds in my experience.
 
Detecting as therapy

MClever said:
:agreed:
I view detecting as therapy... a chance to get away from it all. Many times I come home with very little, but I'm happy.
Click to expand...

I so agree. A bit of detecting usually leaves me feeling more calm and refreshed. There's something about pulling things out of the ground. I even enjoy finding pull tabs! I think of them like lottery tickets, any one could be a ring.

MClever said:
Someday I will find a cache since most did not believe in banks around here.
Click to expand...

I really hope you do!
 
MClever said:
:agreed:
I view detecting as therapy... a chance to get away from it all. Many times I come home with very little, but I'm happy. Someday I will find a cache since most did not believe in banks around here.

I've hunted my neighbor's 1840 farm the last several years and have yet to find a coin older than a wheatie. It is loaded with trash as most farms are. Better detectors and different coils has not helped find the older stuff, but has made it a fair fight... Fact is, there may not be much there under all that trash. I would really like to take some of these sites and scrap off the top 5" ~6" and really see what was lost :D . In all seriousness, I'd rather hunt the tenant house that belonged to the farm. Much better finds in my experience.
Click to expand...

Funny u mentioned that, I finally brought my detector home from the farm(where I spend most weekends) and spent 45 minutes in my back yard last night and found 3 Lincoln's and a knife. I just purchased this land in 05 from a estate on my side of the family. My father purchased it in like 70 and before that it was a small field. These were all post 60's coins that I probably lost as a kid.

Maybe I'll just get a smaller coil..... But a better detector would make me feel more manly :D
 
mlitty said:
I've read stories of farm folk recalling this time or that time when they dropped their goin'-to-town coin and spent the rest of the day looking for it until it was found.

What little they had was so precious that they'd spend hours or days looking for something if it was lost.

If you're determined for coins, here are a few places to look.
  • around the mail box (where it used to be if moved). It was common for farm folk to leave coins in a mail box to buy postage from the delivery person. sometimes they were lost in the high grass around the post.
  • clothes line, as mentioned above. Check not only where it is now, but look for older trees, posts, or stumps that would have had good noon and afternoon sun (thinking wash was done in the morning and left out to dry for the day)
  • outside the kitchen door. Bathwater and wash water would have been tossed. Coins, rings, silverware could be tossed with it.
  • high traffic areas not related to farm work. from driveway to nearest door, from front door to street & driveway
  • around the edges and under the porch for anything that fell and rolled
  • family garden. wives would sometimes bury jars or caches of coins in the garden where no one would notice someone digging frequently
  • chicken coup. caches were sometimes hidden in coups because chickens were a natural alarm.
  • outside the bedroom window was a common place to burry a cache because it was close enough to hear a robber digging at night
Click to expand...
Hmmm. A lot of this sounds familiar to me....


Several of these ideas came from listening to Dan Hughes podcast. You can check out the podcast, his articles and take a look at his book at http://creativitycoachingsite.com/treasuremanual/book.htm
Click to expand...

AHHH! No WONDER it sounded familiar! Thanks for the plug, mlitty!

My mother (farm family in the depression) dropped a nickel in the yard when she was little, and spent hours crawling around the grass until she found it. And she DID find it.

So as several others have implied, the best detector ever made will not find coins where there are no coins. An upgrade probably won't change your luck much here. Instead, start hunting some private older homes near downtown areas. THAT'S where you'll find a plethora of coins, many old and many silver.
 
Dan Hughes' Treasure Corner Podcast

dan said:
...
AHHH! No WONDER it sounded familiar! Thanks for the plug, mlitty!
...
Instead, start hunting some private older homes near downtown areas. THAT'S where you'll find a plethora of coins, many old and many silver.
Click to expand...

Credit where credit is due! It's a great podcast. I still have them all on my phone. I'm on my third listen through. Starting to trim down to the ones that apply most to my detecting.

As soon as I find enough gold to pay for my last detector I'll be buying that book. Heading to the beach this weekend. Wish me luck!
lol:yes:
 
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