D. Michael Quinn said that seer stones common for treasure digging in Palmyra in Joseph's time.

Even in Palmyra, several of Smith’s neighbors had seer stones. Until the Book of Mormon thrust Joseph into prominence, Palmyra's most notable seer was Sally Chase who used a greenish-colored stone. Her schoolfriend said: “She told me she would place the stone in a hat and hold it to her face, and claimed things would be brought to her view.” William Stafford also had a seer stone, and Joshua Stafford had a “peepstone which looked like white marble and had a hole through the center.” The hole allowed Stafford’s “peepstone” to double as an amulet (see ch. 3). Both the Chase and Stafford families used their stones for treasure-digging around Palmyra. Joseph Knight described Samuel Lawrence as a fourth non-Mormon “Seear” at Palmyra. Martin Harris and another Palmyra neighbor also described Lawrence as participating in local treasure-digging with the Smith family.