Interesting question...just my thoughts on it...with some MAJOR assumptions:
There are
43,787 members in the Forum. I am assuming the average member gets out for
2.5 hours per week. (This may be a little low, but I am weighting this with the lack of time spent by those of you who hibernate in the winter
). This means that as a whole, we do about
5.7 million hours of detecting on an annual basis. For those of us who coinshoot, our keeper to trash ratio is a little higher; however, I am assuming that
68% of targets dug are trash (nails, tabs, cans, etc.) with an average of 12 targets dug per hour. With this in mind, we dig
47.5 million trash targets annually. I came up with a normalized trash weight of 6.12 grams per dig. This assumes that the cans/slaw we dig is about 65% of the can, or 10.8 grams (accounting for 15% of our digs), tabs (and other smalls (.284 grams)) account for 35% of our digs, bottle caps and the like also account for 35% of digs at 2.3 grams a piece, and lastly misc items that account for 15% at 24 grams a piece. This means that as a whole we dig about
313 tons of trash per year!!!
This post here reminds me of the following.
A little background,,,this gent had posted he had been detecting 30 years,,and had found 2 five gallon pails,of silver,,,and was working on his third.
So I got curious,,,and put the following writing together,,,to maybe see if I could understand if this was indeed practically possible.
I never did see pics of these 2 five gallons buckets of silver.
I put this piece together more for gee wiz and perhaps shed some light on the realities of coin hunting using a metal detector. Especially what one could/should expect to be maybe be able to dig in a one hour time period of detecting quantity wise (any kind of target). There are some things assumed, some of which I feel are very conservative. I also calculated monetary value using one scenario assumed with some prize find value added in. I think folks can see after reading/studying this information, we as detectorist had BETTER keep our day jobs!!!
This data is an exploration/possible detailing of finding 60,000 silver coins in the wild over a span of 30 years. (one person)
After a little more research I feel 2 five gallon pails of silver mainly quarters and dimes found in the wild would be me more than 60,000 coins. But in the interest of this grand discussion and realizing some silver dollars and halves would be found to increase the overall volume in the pails we will assume 30,000 silver coins per 5 gallon pail. So the total silver haul for 2 pails (5 gallon liquid volume size) =60,000 silver coins.
Alright would it be fair to assume hunting for 9 months (270 days) for 8 hours a day be possible per year? This allowing for 90 days of non detecting for other obligations, illness, inclement weather, foilage/tall grass per year. In assuming this then:
270 days times 8 hours a day per calendar year equals 2160 hours. And repeating this for 30 years(periods) would be 2,160 times 30years = 64,800 hours total detection time. This 64,800 hours is site coil time (in the field), not travel time.
Alright so 60,000 total silver coins. Would a 6 to 1 copper to silver coin found be reasonable in the field?? I think this is reasonable, so we'll use it. So with the 6 to 1 ratio, that would mean 60,000 times 6 = 360,000 total copper coin finds.
What about silver coin to clad quarter/dime find ratio??? Would a 3 to 1 ratio, meaning 3 clad dimes or a mix, of quarters for every silver coin found. I think this is conservative, but again we will assume. So a 3 to 1 ratio would mean 3 times 60,000 = 180,000 clad dimes and or quarters found.
What about junk targets. Would it be fair to expect maybe one junk target (non coin, could be ring/nickel,gold jewelry etc.) for every 15 silver coins detected??? I think this is again conservative, but will assume. So 60,000 silver coins found with a 1 in 15 junk find rate would mean 60,000 silver coins divided by 15 = 4000 junk targets dug.
Now let's see what we have:
60,000 silver coins dug
360,000 copper coins dug
180,000 clad dimes and quarters dug
4,000 junk targets dug
Add these all together comes to 604,000 items dug in a total period of 64,800 hours.
So now we have the number and we know the hours detecting time applied. So 604,000 items divided by 64,800 = 9.32 items an hour on average dug.
Now for argument sake lets use 9 targets an hour. So how long does it take to---- after the target is located to pinpoint, dig, find in the dirt, retreive, and cover hole properly. Is 3 minutes (on average) a target a conservative number?? I think so. So 9 targets x 3 minutes per target would = 27 minutes. So 27 minutes out of every hour detected(looking for coins) is spent pinpointing/retrieving coin/junk/clad/copper and covering hole. So this means for every hour only 60 minutes in an hour - 27 minutes for target retrieval leaves 33 minutes per hour to detect(located coins). So this would suggest on average the person would have to actually find/locate 9 supposed worthy targets in the 33 remaining minutes left. Or said another way find a worthy target every 3 minutes and 39 seconds. If we use the true 9.32 items an hour this figure changes to only 32 minutes out of every hour for discovery or a worthy target found every 3 minutes and 26 seconds.
And just think leaving all conditions above intact and just by changing the detecting time from 270 days 8 hours days a per calendar year over a 30 year period to 200 detecting days out of a calendar year 8 hours a day for 30 years the following is noted. The average hourly find rate moves from 9.32 finds per hour to (200 times 8= 1600 times 30 = 48,000 hours, 604,000 items divided by 48,000 hours =) to 12.58 finds per hour. And allowing 3 minutes to pinpoint/dig/retrieve/ and cover per hole would be 37 minutes 44 seconds per hour. And leaving 22 minutes 16 seconds for a person to locate/find 12.58 worthy finds or one find every 1 minute 46 seconds.
Or if we leave everything assumed originally, and use the 270 days 8 hours a day per calendar year for 30 years and drop the pinpoint/dig/retrieval/hole cover time to 2 minutes average per target dug. The following happens.
9.32 items per hour would take 18 minutes 38.4 seconds per hour for pinpointing/retrieval/dig/hole covering. And leave 41 minutes and 21.6 seconds to locate 9.32 targets or 1 target every 4 minutes and 26 seconds per hour every hour detected.
Or if we leave all assumptions intact but double the junk find rate from 1 in 15 to 2 in 15 and double the clad dime/quarter rate instead of 3 to 1 but instead 6 to 1, this is the result. 8000 junk targets dug and 360,000 clad dimes/quarters dug total, so the total coins/junk targets dug moves from 604,000 to 788,000. And then with the 64,800 hours detecting time, this would equate to 12.16 finds per hour, and using 3 minutes to pinpoint, dig/retrieve/cover hole for 12.16 targets would be 36 minutes 29 seconds leaving 23 minutes 31 seconds to locate 12.16 finds, or one find every 1 minute 56 seconds per hour of detecting time on average.
Or if we leave all original assumptions in place except assume 360 days of detecting per calender year, 8 hours a day for 30 years and use the 2 in 15 junk find rate and 6 to 1 clad dime/quarter to silver coin rate this is the result.
360 x 8 x 30= 86,400 hours detecting time. So 788,000 finds divided by 86,400 = 9.1 finds per hour. And allowing for 3 minutes to pinpoint/dig/retrieve/cover holes for 9.1 finds is 27 minutes 18 seconds, leaving 32 minutes 42 seconds to locate 9.1 finds or one find on average every 3 minutes and 35 seconds.
One last scenario, suppose 20 hours detecting a week for every week over an entire 30 year period and assuming a person has 1 in 15 junk find rate, and they have the same find rate for a silver dime/quarter as they do a clad dime/quarter, and dig 1 copper for every silver coin. So 20 hours x 52 weeks x 30 years = 31,200 total detecting hours. And we would have 60,000 silver coin, 60,000 clad coins, 60,000 copper coins and 4000 junk targets. So 184,000 finds total. So 184,000 divided by 31,200 hours = 5.89 finds per hour. Assuming 3 minutes on average for pinpointing/ digging/retreival/covering hole, 5.89 finds would take 17 minutes 40 seconds, leaving 42 minutes 20 seconds to locate 5.89 finds or one find every 7 minutes and 11 seconds. (IMO least plausible scenario I've listed)
And remember there is no time allotted for breaks i.e rest room or just plain rest or lunch/snacks/detector breakdown, or threatening weather if you are at a site detecting and have to stop..
Let's talk value ---First face value. And using the first set of assumptions/parameters in this piece. Would it be conservative to say for every 100 dimes found, 6 quarters were found. We'll use this in our computation. So 240,000 silver and clad dimes and quarters found total. So 240,000 divided by 1.06 = 226, 415 dimes, and the remaing 13, 585 would be quarters.
13,585 quarters times $.25 = $3396
226,415 dimes times $.10 = $22,641
360,000 copper coins times $.01= $3,600
So the total face value is $29,637 of all dug coins.
What about silver scrap value. There were some folks paying 20 times face value for silver coins, this a few months ago. If we use this 20 times face value dimes= $2.00, and quarters = $5.00 a piece.
So 60,000 silver quarters and dimes with 6 quarters for every 100 dimes in the pails.
This equates to 3,397 silver quarters and 56,603 silver dimes.
So 3,397 times $5 = $ 16,985 scrap quarter value
And 56,603 times $2 = $113,206 scrap dime value
So silver scrap total value is $ 130,191
So taking the silver away from the total coin finds, we need to calculate just clad dime and quarters found face value..
So 180,000 clad dimes and quarters dug, again using the 6 quarters for every 100 dimes. 180,000 divided by 1.06= 169,811 clad dimes with the remaining 10,189 being clad quarters
.
So 10,189 times $.25 = $2,547
And 169,811 times $.10 = $16,981
Adding the 2 together comes to $19,528 this the total face value of all clad quarters/dimes dug.
So now we can add the totals together for a realistic value of all coins dug.
$19,528 for the clad quarters/dimes
$130,191 for the silver coin scrap price
$3,600 for the copper coins dug
This makes for a real total value of $153, 319 for all coins dug.
If we divide the total value by the total hours inccured it gives us the hourly rate achieved from a $$$ aspect. So
$153,319 divided by 64,800 hours = a shade over $2.36 hour
Let's assume the person digging the 60,000 silver coins was able to find 10 prize finds. One valued at $10,000, 2 at $7,500, 3 at $5000, 1 at $2,500, 1 at 1,000, and 2 at $500. This would be a total prize find value of $44,500.
Adding this to the total above $153,319 would come to $197,819 total value. So again adding in the prize find value doing the math equates to a shade over $3.05 an hour for 64,800 hours.
And 64,800 hours is in case you forgot==== " 8 hours a day for 270 days of a year for 30 years".
Summary:
The assumptions/presumptions made in this 2 five gallon pails of silver coins dug from a detecting standpoint are very conservative. A 1 in 15 junk target find rate is very conservative. A 3 to 1 clad dime/ quarter to silver coin again very conservative. I erred on the low side for what is likely to be experienced in the field IMO. I even rounded the find rate per hour down from 9.32 to 9 in one scenario.
I feel the 2 or 3 minutes average per target used (for pinpointing/digging/retrieval/hole covering in calculations is conservative, certainly not high or exaggerated imo.
And this data assumes a person has kept their silver coins, not sold say years ago when the price of silver/cost of living was lower.
Now remember this face/scrap value data doesn't consider the silver dollars/halves that may be found. Even the 2 and 3 cent pieces that may be found. . All this combined would drive the total value of the coins dug upwards. And the silver jewelry/gold jewelry and nickels found would even add to the total value.
Also I don't think we as detectorist realize how much time we spend in the field doing something other than swinging or moving our coil over the ground i.e digging, using pin pointer, retrieving finds and covering holes.
The next time you're out you may want to make a conscious effort to track and see just how much time is really coil swinging vs chasing targets in the ground out of every hour in the field.
Cheers everyone and happy detecting!!!
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