Some detectorists have mentioned that there aren't as many cons on the beaches anymore because people aren't using cash or coins as much anymore. I think that is probably true, but there might be additional reasons as well. For example, there might also be more detectorists.
There are some places where coins pile up like sand on the beach. If you every go to Disneyworld, check out the dock area around the boat that goes to from the transportation center to the Magic Kingdom. You'll see coins by the gallons there, as well as any of the water areas in the parks, which they clean out periodically. There are still many coins out there and people are willing to just throw them away.
The table at the top of this post gives the number of various coins produced by the U.S. mint from 2010 to 2014. That is just the bottom part of the table, but from those figures, it appears that there was a peak in coin production in 2015 followed by decreasing numbers almost every year since then. Still, there are a lot of coins being produced - billions every year.
More one cent coins are produced than any other denomination. Usually at least three times more. and often way more than that.
I think most detectorists, unless they discriminate pennies, find many more of those. There can be multiple reasons for that besides there being more produced. People don't care as much if they drop a penny, for example. And when it comes to zinc pennies, they'll be closer to the surface than most other coins. There are other light coins. Some coins from foreign countries, such as the very light coins from places such as St. Lucia or some of the older coins of Germany.
I have no real numbers, but the zinc pennies seem to deteriorate and fall apart rapidly - especially those lost on a beach, but also under less difficult circumstances. I don't know what the life expectancy of a penny is, but when it comes to the zincs, I'd expect the actual period of circulation to be much shorter than the other coins. Maybe I'm biased from what I've seen of beach found zinc pennies, but some that have never been on a beach deteriorate.
If you notice, the coating on zinc pennies bubbles up and peals. Also, they adhere to the sand, which affects to some extent where they are found.
There is not a perfect correlation between the total number of coins produced each year and the total value of the coins produced each year. From 2023 to 2024, there was a big decrease in both the number of coins produced and the value of coins produced. In the same period, the number of pennies fell off proportionally less than nickels and dimes.
Of the four lower denominations, fewer nickels are typically minted, and by a significant amount. You probably find relatively few nickels.
Despite there being fewer nickels minted, they are more often missed by some detectorists, depending to some extent upon the detector and detector settings being used. There is one location I detect that is detected very well by another detectorist, but he leaves nickels. When I detect an area after he has been there the majority of my modern coin finds will be nickels.
My equinox, by the way, seems to be rock solid on the conductivity readings for nickels, giving a solid 13, which of course can also be produced by a few other items, including some lead sinkers.
You can follow other detectorists and determine what they are leaving or not leaving and then select a strategy to take advantage of the situation. Over time you'll get to know the detectorists that regularly detect some areas and how they detect even if you've actually never seen them except maybe their footprints.
Pay attention to odd percentages of different types of coins and other finds and try to figure out what is going on.
Relatively few halves and dollar coins are produced every year and you seldom find them in circulation or on the beach.
The U.S. Mint has been trying for decades now to get Americans to grow fond of using the dollar coin for everyday purchases for these reasons:
- Coins last longer than paper money — by many decades.
- Coins are easy to recycle.
- Dollar coins are also easier to use with vending machines than dollar bills.
Here is that link. Why U.S. Dollar Coins Are Not Circulating | The U.S. Coins Guide
Despite many attempts to get the public to accept and use dollar coins, they never seem to catch on. The Eisenhower dollar coins were too big, and the Anthony coins are the same size as quarters, but not used much. Are the Anthony dollars to easily mistaken or do people just think that dollar coins are special somehow and therefore keepers rather than spenders. What do you think?
Of course, there was a time when the public used dollar coins a lot, and even gold coins of higher values circulated. Now paper money just seems to be the most convenient.
If you would use dollar coins, you wouldn't have it long because very few modern transactions are an even dollar amount. When is the last time you paid an even dollar amount for something and didn't either have to add some change or receive change for the dollar. Could that be partly the result of the sales tax, which is always some odd amount. When the Dollar Tree actually had things for a dollar, you never ended up paying a dollar. You always ended up counting our or receiving change - often involving some number of pennies. That makes the transaction more complex than it needs to be and it is an added hidden cost. I've long thought that if I ran a business, I would try to price things so that with the tax added, the price would come out to an even dollar amount. Anyhow...
If you look back to 1887, the total number of coins minted went from 109 million to 5.6 billion in 2024, so that is huge increase. I don't know how it compares on a per person basis.
Below are the 1887 figures.
Back then there were about 33 million dollar-coins produced compared to 45 million pennies. Not a huge difference like in modern times. Dollar coins were accepted and used more back then.
Here is the link for the full table that goes back to 1887.United States Mint coin production - Wikipedia
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We have a decreasing surf now, but another bump is predicted for the near future.