(Update - Well I reached my mark of $700.00 in clad in 07.
That pays for the MXT.
Now to work on the price of my accessories.

In the late 70's, and early 80's you had the likes of Gene Coe finding 10,000 coins a year. Arnold Grieves found 25,000 one year and had hundreds of rings and four hundred plus silver religious medals (over 10 years). The coins were plentiful and many of them were silver! They had been accumulating there for decades and decades and nobody had been detecting. The early detectorists were among the first to hunt these parks and schools. Most coins were in the surface to 3" range with a 'deep' coin coming from a 4" depth. Ah, the life of the coinshooter was good but things were to change.

Most detectorists would like to find the old and rare gold and silver coins, but the truth is the majority of coins found will be of the clad variety unless the detectorist has access to old sites. Even if the older sites are available the old coins are harder to find as each year passes. Each year more people enter the hobby and the old silver and gold coins are not replaced. In 1964, the government minted the last 90% silver coins and 1970 was the last year for the 40% silver half dollars. For the last 36 to 43 years people have been losing clad coins, not silver coins. Clad coins are made of nickel and copper with no silver content. In 1984, to make matters worse, the government started minting the zinc penny which replaced the durable copper penny.

I live in a urban area so most of my old sites would have to be old private yards, the grass strips between the sidewalk and street and sidewalk tearups. In my area of the country there are few abandoned sites. Old houses are bought, torn down and new houses built on the sites. The empty lots have been covered over for parking lots and shopping centers. Therefore like many in the hobby, I hunt playgounds, school yards, parks, and sports fields. I find the occasional silver coins but old finds are not the norm.

In January 2006, when I got my new detector I started keeping count of the clad I found. I've found 10163 coins for a total of $705.40 in clad. Finding these coins are a challenge due to the fact that where these coins are found is also where people leave an abundance of trash. Hunting trashy sites is a skill all in itself. I would rather hunt a trash free private yard anytime. The playgrounds require learning new recovery techniques as they can have woodchips, sand, or pea gravel floors. When hunting areas for clad I still get excited when I find a gold ring or piece of jewelry.

I can always hope that the new $1.00 and $2.00 coins will catch on. If I ever get the nerve to start asking people for permission to hunt their yards my old coin finds will increase. Even with clad there can be excitement, read about my Best One Hole Find