March 1781, The Articles of Confederation gave Congress the right to decide the value and the alloy to be used in any coin struck in America. This gave the states the right to coin money, and New Hampshire was the first to take action but few of the coins made it into circulation. Some states, such as New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York began coining copper coins. In 1793 the Us Federal Mint opened for company producing half-cents and cents because they were desperately needed for everyday industry in the young but growing new nation. These early colonial and Us Federal Mint coins have been found by metal detector users by full, explore and also by luck. The low mintage level meant fewer coins were lost and the likelihood of looking them with a metal detector greatly reduced.
Many half-cents and large cents minted from 1800 to 1857, when the era of their minting ended, have been located by detectorists, with the majority of them being found in the eastern sector of the Us. My personal oldest is an 1812 Large Cent found at a spring in Palm Harbor, Fl. This spring was known to be a watering spot for wagon trains going through Florida in the mid 1800's and had become a favorite swimming and partying spot for teens in modern years. It was explore that urged me to check it out and that 1812 cent was my reward. It was also the only non-modern coin I found as many others had hunted this spot before I did in the early 70's.
Collections
As a young man in my early twenties, I learned a history chapter that has impacted my metal detector use for nearly 40 years. If you want to find a specific type or dated coin, i.e. Standing freedom Quarters 1916-1930, you need to explore and find settlement or building action information corresponding to that time frame. The 1916 Sl Quarter is highly rare. To find one that has a date on it is fantastic as only 52,000 were released into circulation in 1916 and the dates on all issues from 1916 to 1924 wore off speedily by handling. explore county or city building records, read early histories of your society and yes, if possible, talk to elderly people who were raised there. To find a potential rare 1916 Quarter, the areas checked should have had building action between 1916 and early 1920's. looking in these areas will growth your chances of looking rarer tougher dates. I have found one with just a trace of the date and it was found on a researched school building site. This site also yielded a 1916 S Barber Quarter in Vf, 1916 P & S Mercury Dimes in Au health and a high grade 1916 Buffalo Nickel.
Silver coinage has great appeal to coin collectors and has a history worth investigating. The 1792 half-disme or half-dime is rumored to have been made from George Washington's own silverware. This was the year before the Us Mint indubitably opened and the half-dime was struck by the Us Mint from 1794-1873. It may seem strange to us today that our first 5 cent coin was not a nickel, but a silver half-dime as nickel yield did not begin until 1866. These gorgeous small denomination silver coins of Some varieties are also tough to find because of age and size. explore again is requisite in looking many of these. I have found six dating from 1841-1857 fluctuating from Ag (about good) to fine condition. Five of the six were found in researched sites and the lower health coins probably reflect the fact that 1860 is the earliest settlement date for this society and only 2,000 people lived here in 1900. By 1900 very few of the half-dime coins were in general circulation.
Other silver denominations that have been struck consist of the 3-cent piece or "trime" as it was known, the dime, the 20-cent piece, the quarter dollar, half dollar and one dollar coins.
Why would our nation furnish a 3-cent Silver coin? Postage stamps cost 3-cents for many years and convenience was foremost to the public. That is probably the reckon that a 3-cent nickel was produced too (the convenience issue is why many coins have short-lived production). I have used coin history in looking both 3-cent coins but the numbers are small because mintages were low and the silver coins only minted between 1851-1873 and the nickel version from 1865-1889. I have found sufficient of the nickel type (a larger coin) to have filled more than half of the spots in the coin folder. Grade levels for most of these coins are lower than median as nickel coins do not do well in the ground.
The 20-cent coin is the toughest silver issue to find in the ground. Only the flying-eagle cent had a shorter life. yield of this type was only four years with coins issued for circulation 1n 1875 and 1876. This is the only type coin that I have not located with a metal detector. looking one is my biggest challenge because yield in 1875 included 1,155,000 coins from the San Francisco Mint, 133,290 from the Carson City Mint and only 39,700 from Philadelphia. To make it tougher, the examine was so low for the coin that the mint director Linderman ordered Carson City to melt all that it had on hand after producing only 10,000 for circulation in 1876. 12,359 coins were melted down leaving very few of the 1876 coins escaping into circulation and only 15,900 were produced in Philly and none in Franny for that year. This is an issue that very few metal detectorist have found, but I will keep trying!
The most sought after and most collected silver coin is the Morgan Dollar. Minted from 1878 to 1921 many millions were minted and large numbers of them, singularly and in caches, have been found with metal detectors. There were none minted between 1905 and 1920 and 1893 - 1895 mintages were low but applying the same type of building action diagnosis can lead to some good detector finds. An upper class neighborhood area where many of the homes were built in the 1880 to 1900 time-frame has yielded Some Morgan Dollars for me. A very requisite 1882 S in Au health with doubling on both sides is the best, but choice 1885 O and 1896 coins are also nice additions to my collection.
I have applied the explore principle of coin history to building time with all 20th century coin types. Whether it is houses, schools, industrial structure or industrial structures, I have found numerous requisite coins with this technique. A home built in 1909 turned in a 1908 S Indian Cent and a 1909 S Lincoln. A two story house built in 1890 and used as a high school turned up nearly 40 V Nickels including a 1885 and a 1912 D (plus numerous turn of the century Indian cents). A industrial parking lot from an early 1900's tanning company yielded a 1904 O and 1904 S Barber Halves with the New Orleans mint coin in Xf and valued at 0. A school yard where the 1917 building was destroyed in 1964 yielded over 240 pre 1940 coins when the entire lot was leveled over a three month frame in 1978. Over 50 of those coins were Buffalo Nickels with 30 of them in the teen years. This is the same site mentioned above that turned up my rare 1916 Sl quarter and as an unexpected bonus, the oldest of my metal detecting coin finds, an Ad 69 Israel half-shekel.
I hope you have learned something about our nation's coin history and how it can help you to add many older requisite coins to your coin collection while having much fun with your metal detector. Here's to "diggin it"! Larry
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Coin History - Aid To looking & building Coin Collections With Metal Detectors
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