How long before 1st silver coin find - an unscientific study

bazeball7

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I have read on this forum that a few people have found silver coins not too long after they got their metal detector, and others who have taken months to get that first find. So I thought I would poll the group to see what is the "average" amount of time it took them to find their very first silver coin using a metal detector.

I will collect the data and post some statistics to this forum (yeah, I'm a math nerd). Please give your best estimate of the amount of time you spent in hours until you found your very first silver coin (of any denomination) using a metal detector.


PS:
This is "unscientific" for many reasons including quality of equipment, accuracy of estimation, accuracy of responses, etc.....However, it may be informative, or at least interesting!
 
It took me two summers to find my first silver coin. I'm going to guess I spent an average of one hour a day detecting, making up for long hunts and days I didn't hunt of course. It was found in October. So roughly 90 days a summer. 180 Hours. I'm going to say half the amount of time for septembers and octobers because of school. Add another 60 hours. Add in additional Spring time and Fall hunts and I'm going to guess, GUESS, that it took me nearly 300 hours before I found my first silver coin. 300.
 
One year, i'd hate to estimate how many hours.... i actually found alot of gold before my first silver coin....
 
Can you believe I found a 1964 rosie the first time I used my ACE 250. It was in my own yard. My (then) house was built in 1969, so I did not expect to find any silver!
 
I started in May of 2008... I'd say about 48 hrs worth of hunting later, and in April 2009 I found my first Merc. My issue was nearly 100% location.
 
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Trick question; When I first started many, many years ago It took several days before I found my first silver and back then, you could find more of it, and I did find lots more of it eventually along with about a million pulltabs. And then the the years past by before I got back into the hobby again. I purchased a brand new detector and within five minutes of turning it on! BAM, Silver! Franklin half dollar right on top of the ground just covered by a little dirt to camouflage it. :D

So since I had two firsts, which counts? :?:
 
Detected for about a year or so & after upgrading to a brand new whites XLT I found my first silver coin the first day out with it, That was about 12 years ago.. I usually find one now about every other hunt or so..:grin:
 
Started last June...Still waiting for my first. I hunted mostly newer tot-lots though. I have mentioned this before but when I bought my ACE at Fry's I got a silver dime in my change, haven't produced anything since...
 
Found mine shortly after I bought my Whites Eagle 2 SL.

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION!

Your not going to find much for silver coins in a park unless they clear out a over grown area of land that hasn't been used since the 80s.

Old houses, schoolhouses, church yards, are the place to go, the older the better.

You have a half-way decent detector quite capable of pulling silver out of the ground, but where you put your coil is the key factor.

Good Luck!
 
It took me about two weeks to find my first Roosevelt silver dime and I found two that day. I would estimaste it was about 20-25 hours after I got my detector.
 
For me, I don't remember, but for my son it took less than half an hour in our backyard to find a 1943 quarter with his new birthday gift, a BH Quick Silver. I was thinking that the Quick Silver really was living up to its name! About a month later he found his second – a '28 Merc.
 
One thing to factor in is "when" the first silver was found. I started MDing in 1983 and found a silver dime within a few hours on the first day. Back then there was more silver in the ground and detectors weren't as common as today. I'd be willing to bet that in the years to come, silver coin finds will become less and less common.

Dusty
 
Trick question; When I first started many, many years ago It took several days before I found my first silver and back then, you could find more of it, and I did find lots more of it eventually along with about a million pulltabs. And then the the years past by before I got back into the hobby again. I purchased a brand new detector and within five minutes of turning it on! BAM, Silver! Franklin half dollar right on top of the ground just covered by a little dirt to camouflage it. :D

So since I had two firsts, which counts? :?:

I think you and Dustyloins are both on the same track. Years ago there was more to be found, so it is reasonable that it should take longer for that first find to happen these days. Although I wonder if newer equipment used in the last 10 years would make it easier (i.e. quicker) to find silver coins. :?: That is yet another reason why this is an unscientific study!

To answer your question, perhaps we should use an average of your two first finds!

- - Thanks
 
It took me almost exactly 6 months to find my first silver. A Barber dime. I haven't the slightest idea of how many hours. You might be better off doing the survey in days and months then hours. Most people on here will not be able to give you an exact or even semi close guess on hours...
 
Speaking of silver finds I just realized out of all the dozens of Merks, Barbers & setting liberties I've found over the years that I've only found less then about a half dozen or so Roosevelt dimes, I guess they were the first coins to go or maybe people just started collecting them while they were still in circulation..:?:
 
My first metal detector was one that I got in about 1971. ?? Back then I mostly detected in my own yard, didn't find any silver, just wheats. Then I gave up detecting for other things, probably girls, and didn't get into it again until last Dec. and found a 1945 Merc in my second month. You just never know.
 
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