ABOUT COIN DEPTHS

I think the angle of the ground your searching plays a major role as well. We dug up some colonial coppers that were only 3" down, but the trail we dug them on was a hill. Heavy rains wash the layers off the hill, so it never had a chance to go any deeper.Just my guess.
 
One rule of thumb to go by "The most valuable coin will always be one inch deeper than the depth where you stop digging" :lol::lol: Steve
 
some of the fields ive detected in where things have been deep have had large cattle tramping over the ground i guess thats sent everything deep
 
i found this chart a while back coins.jpg
 
I really think trying to debate this is fruitless. We will never know what causes coins or other targets to go deeper. It would seem more worthwhile to spend the time on finding new, and previously undiscovered sites. Be there first, and you will quickly forget this....
 
Great thread and very educational.

In addition I learned that many human acts can really make for deep or on edge coins.

Prior to automobiles, most everyone used a buggy. I collect antique postcards of my hunting sites and through them I learned a lot.

People took their buggies and wagons right into the parks. It starts to rain and buggy wheels sink deep. A fast retreating buggy or wagon can push coins deep and/or on edge.

And too, many parks and private yards had fill dirt added in the years when power lawnmowers became popular.

Speaking of lawns, prior to lawnmowers, most people (and public parks) let the grass grow at least 3 inches tall (often 6+ inches tall). This made for a hiding place for dropped coins.

I could go on but don't wish to bore.

Badger
 
droppage

Maybe people dropped coins from airplanes when they had the windows down. The fast falling coins drove themselves into the ground. :lol::lol::lol:
 
I'm fairly new to this site, but I'm not new to metal detecting; I built my first detector in 1964. The information presented is all very interesting, widely publicized, and believed by many to be the gospel. Unfortunately, it doesn't explain some common observations.

For example, why do some coins pop back up after being buried for many years? Why in some areas do you find light coins (dimes for example), twice as deep as quarters or halves? Why do rings tend to lay vertically, yet washers lay flat?

I might agree that the freeze-thaw cycle is probably most of it. However, bent grasses (and even the Skipper moth grubs which feed on the grass' roots), clay under base, and even lawn chemicals all play a part. Therefore, one can't assume–carte blanche–that all older coins will be deeper than newer mintage ones.

Alan Applegate
 
I always doubt, when someone posts that a coin like a wheat cent or a dime was found 8-9 inches deep. Maybe the coin was much closer to the surface, but while digging the hole it was jumping deeper and deeper.
---
One more thing I guess, that the soil density is really important thing, but it increases when get deeper. So I think that coins goes deeper only because of the density of current soil and weight and size of the coin. NOT AFTER CENTURIES. And they stop at some point! If they would keep sinking, go deeper year by year, than how could we find Roman coins at depth 3-4 inches? According to the picture from a newspaper or a magazine, US coins from the 19th century are at 5-6 inches. It's only 150 years. What about 2000 years? They must be at 2 feet deep. But we can find them. Doug Turner from UK posts his Roman finds from time to time. So coins got "their depth" and stopped sinking.
Everything above concerns only not ploughed coins.
 
Good thread, lot's of theories from a wide pool of intelligence...

I have a theory as to why coins only sink so far.

The first thing to consider is that detectors only go so deep and people are willing to dig only so deep, so if 2000 year old coins or otherwise are out of range of detectors it does not mean they are not there.

Also, the activity on the first foot or so of soil will be greater than deeper down. As soil density increases at depth and activity decreases, the coin(object) will begin to slow it's descent. However, activity on the surface could either place more material on top of the coin/object or activity such as fast moving water might wash away material to give the appearance of bringing the coin/object closer to the surface.

I think most coins sink only so far because of much of the activity mentioned by many in this post.

There are many factors which must be considered for differing climates and earth composition in a given area...Wind, rain(or lack of), freezing, flooding, vegetation, human activity.

Scientists(some) have concluded that once upon a time the earth had ONE massive continent...Deserts used to be oceans and mountains lay sleeping deep beneath the crust...

Just another post on an awesome topic for your consideration...

Dig it up before I do!:cheers:
 
Back
Top Bottom