Which series are the hardest to find?

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Boosibri
Boosibri Posts: 12,714 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Metal Detecting

Putting aside coins pre-Seated period and the dollar denominations which are all obviously extremely rare to find, how would you rank the coins in order of hardest to easiest to find?

The Contestants:
Seated Half
Seated Quarter
Seated Dime
Seated Half Dime
Barber half
Barber quarter
Barber dime
Walking lib half
Franklin half
Standing Lib quarter
Washington quarter
Merc dime
Roosie dime

Latin American Collection

Comments

  • WildWestHalfDollars
    WildWestHalfDollars Posts: 7,105 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 18, 2025 4:49PM
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    Would it not depend on what mint they were minted? I would think some mints would be much tougher due to lower mintages. Just a guess I would imagine lower denominations lay around much more than say half dollars.

    Or maybe you just mean in general.

    Liberty Seated Half Dollars

  • Bayard1908
    Bayard1908 Posts: 4,184 ✭✭✭✭
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    Franklin half is tougher than any of those halves, other than Seated.
    Barber quarter is the toughest Barber coin.
    Seated dime is more common than Seated half dime and all other Seated denominations.

  • BlakeWest
    BlakeWest Posts: 1 ✭
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    Great list! I'd say rarity climbs with age and denomination.

  • johnny9434
    johnny9434 Posts: 34,049 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    The older quarters seems to be the most elusive to me in finding, right place right time, fwiw

  • CharlotteDude
    CharlotteDude Posts: 3,318 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    For me, Franklin, Barber, and Seated halves and Seated quarters all represent empty blanks on my finds list.

    Got Crust....y gold?
  • Boosibri
    Boosibri Posts: 12,714 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    @CharlotteDude said:
    For me, Franklin, Barber, and Seated halves and Seated quarters all represent empty blanks on my finds list.

    Aq it’s funny, I found both a barber half and a seated quarter, but I’ve never found a Washington quarter.

    Latin American Collection

  • CharlotteDude
    CharlotteDude Posts: 3,318 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    @Boosibri said:

    @CharlotteDude said:
    For me, Franklin, Barber, and Seated halves and Seated quarters all represent empty blanks on my finds list.

    Aq it’s funny, I found both a barber half and a seated quarter, but I’ve never found a Washington quarter.

    But have you found a Frankie?? At this point, I feel like I’ll find half a dozen barber halves before I find one Frankie.

    Got Crust....y gold?
  • Boosibri
    Boosibri Posts: 12,714 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    @CharlotteDude said:

    @Boosibri said:

    @CharlotteDude said:
    For me, Franklin, Barber, and Seated halves and Seated quarters all represent empty blanks on my finds list.

    Aq it’s funny, I found both a barber half and a seated quarter, but I’ve never found a Washington quarter.

    But have you found a Frankie?? At this point, I feel like I’ll find half a dozen barber halves before I find one Frankie.

    Nope. They hardly circulated I would guess

    Latin American Collection

  • Dockwalliper
    Dockwalliper Posts: 1,171 ✭✭✭
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    I dug my first Franklin a couple years back. I’ve never dug a Barber half. As far as hardest to find in that date range, it has to be seated 20 cent piece.

  • pcgsregistrycollector
    pcgsregistrycollector Posts: 2,325 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Seated half. And gold pieces. Has anyone found a gold piece while metal detecting?

    Proud follower of Christ! I love the USA! Land of the Bright and Beautiful! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

  • Bayard1908
    Bayard1908 Posts: 4,184 ✭✭✭✭
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    @Boosibri said:

    But have you found a Frankie?? At this point, I feel like I’ll find half a dozen barber halves before I find one Frankie.

    Nope. They hardly circulated I would guess

    I think it's more likely that Franklin halves were easy targets for detectorists in the 1960s and 70s. They could find the shallow Franklins, but, left the deeper Walkers and Barbers for us. If you've ever bought junk silver, you'll see that there's no shortage of circulated Franklins.

  • Göttinger
    Göttinger Posts: 230 ✭✭✭
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    @pcgsregistrycollector said:
    Seated half. And gold pieces. Has anyone found a gold piece while metal detecting?

    In my 5 years of detecting I haven't found a gold coin so far.
    Of the many detecorists I have met during this time (a couple hundred I suppose), only four of five were fortunated enough to find a gold one. Only one of them found several ones, the rest had found only one.

    (In my county gold coins were used continuously from ancient times onwards, but only really started to be heavily circulated during the 1870's. Although they were legal tender until 1938, they practically vanished from circulation in 1914 and were replaced by banknotes).

  • HiBucky
    HiBucky Posts: 633 ✭✭✭
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    I would say a 20 Cent coin....I have all the items listed including gold coin and a silver dollar and 3 seated halfs but no 20 cent coin.

  • lordmarcovan
    lordmarcovan Posts: 45,335 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 3, 2025 2:49AM
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    @Boosibri said:
    Putting aside coins pre-Seated period and the dollar denominations which are all obviously extremely rare to find, how would you rank the coins in order of hardest to easiest to find?

    The Contestants:
    Seated Half
    Seated Quarter
    Seated Dime
    Seated Half Dime
    Barber half
    Barber quarter
    Barber dime
    Walking lib half
    Franklin half
    Standing Lib quarter
    Washington quarter
    Merc dime
    Roosie dime

    I have found all of those except the Seated half.

    Going off fading memory, here's what I dug during my detecting days:

    Seated Half: 0
    Seated Quarter: 1
    Seated Dime: 3
    Seated Half Dime: 3
    Barber half: 1
    Barber quarter: 2
    Barber dime: 10-15
    Walking lib half: 2
    Franklin half: 1
    Standing Lib quarter: 4
    Washington quarter (silver): maybe 15+
    Merc dime: 50+
    Roosie dime (silver): 40+

    Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.

  • pcgs69
    pcgs69 Posts: 4,406 ✭✭✭✭
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    A 1964 Kennedy is pretty tough, don’t have one of those. I did find a 40% Kennedy though.

  • johnny9434
    johnny9434 Posts: 34,049 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    I know a place to dig walkers, Franklin's and all. Problem is permission problems (NO). Its not worth it chatting with the cops. I hear yA pcgs69

  • ebaybuyer2
    ebaybuyer2 Posts: 104 ✭✭✭
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    i was lucky.... found a franklin half with two silver quarters in a spot the size of heel print. the franklin was literally just under the leaves in the woods. the quarters were a half inch into the soil

  • johnny9434
    johnny9434 Posts: 34,049 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    @ebaybuyer2 said:
    i was lucky.... found a franklin half with two silver quarters in a spot the size of heel print. the franklin was literally just under the leaves in the woods. the quarters were a half inch into the soil

    That ya gotta love best at times 😉

  • MrEureka
    MrEureka Posts: 24,777 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    @Bayard1908 said:

    @Boosibri said:

    But have you found a Frankie?? At this point, I feel like I’ll find half a dozen barber halves before I find one Frankie.

    Nope. They hardly circulated I would guess

    I think it's more likely that Franklin halves were easy targets for detectorists in the 1960s and 70s. They could find the shallow Franklins, but, left the deeper Walkers and Barbers for us. If you've ever bought junk silver, you'll see that there's no shortage of circulated Franklins.

    That, plus the Barbers circulated for much longer than the Franklins. Even a 1948 Franklin would have only had maybe 16-17 years in circulation.

    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • threefifty
    threefifty Posts: 194 ✭✭✭
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    In my opinion the larger denominations are harder to find because they were disproportionately targeted. I saw an old magazine from the 80s once that had an article titled "Why You Shouldn't Skip Silver Dimes"... hilarious that that was even something you could do.

    Anecdotally, one of my good friends who started detecting in the 60s had only ever found a few seated halves, one bust half, and one draped bust half. He had found about 25 half dimes/10 3 cent pieces over the years.

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