Big Boys Hobbies

Wheat Pennies on Surface???

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airborne

Junior Member
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Jan 20, 2020
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Columbus, GA
Has anyone else run across finding wheat pennies on top of soil while detecting? It has now happened at two completely different locations.
If so, how does this happen? It just seems odd the 70 year old pennies are just hanging out on surface lol
 
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Yes. I've found 17th and 18th century coins on the surface more then once. I've found roman and younger and older pottery and objects like beads on the surface a lot. And much more.

Soil works. Soil lives. Digging animals/bugs and growing roots push for start. When i'm in old territory i always look at molehills and this way found me up to medieval objects (molls clean their tunnels).
And objects move especially when the soil is wet and by rain and its vibrations. Eventually the objects floats in and through the ground. Objects with higher density then the soil also tend to go down, and with lesser density tend to go up. You will find objects like coins or foil more often on the surface then say lead objects. Any Parc hunters? Pull tabs mostly (almost surface) are almost never (rained) as deep as coins. I made a test track in my garden. Put objects in the ground on certain points. Now after less then 10 years some objects are moved up to 20cm's/4inch. That is in a fixed garden, so no plowing or whatever.

Try it yourself i would say. Put an object in the grass and remind the exact spot. Then follow it the next years.
Or (the quicker way) put some light plastic (bag? small toy puppet?) less then half an inch aka just covered under soil and look what's happening with the next rain shower.

Still have this image (and the movie picking them up). Picked it clear, and went back another two times in some years to pick up more.
Iron age and Roman pottery shards on the surface. See the footsteps for size:

surface.jpg
 
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airborne said:
Has anyone else run across finding wheat pennies on top of soil while detecting? It has now happened at two completely different locations.
If so, how does this happen? It jus seems odd the 70 year old pennies are just hanging out on surface lol
Click to expand...

Do they have 70 year old patina?

Or is this a case like another thread where they have very recently come back into circulation? Maybe due to digging into gran-pops coins, etc
 
waltr said:
Do they have 70 year old patina?

Or is this a case like another thread where they have very recently come back into circulation? Maybe due to digging into gran-pops coins, etc
Click to expand...


Can be lost recent off course. :thumbsup:

But patina also isn't consistant as you can see at this 70+ yo coin found as on image, uncleaned (only brushed sand off).


1937.jpg
 
I usually find over a half dozen wheats per year in my pocket change each year and close to a dozen in every $25 box of pennies when roll hunting, so there are many still in circulation. Modern drops.
 
beest said:
Can be lost recent off course. :thumbsup:

But patina also isn't consistant as you can see at this 70+ yo coin found as on image, uncleaned (only brushed sand off).
Click to expand...


This one is out of roulation since 1948 so can't be a recent drop.
This one came from rather clean soil which made him corrode less. Soil makes patina.
So it is possible.
 
beest said:
I made a test track in my garden. Put objects in the ground on certain points. Now after less then 10 years some objects are moved up to 20cm's/4inch. That is in a fixed garden, so no plowing or whatever.
Click to expand...

Funny you bring that up. Just yesterday I was thinking about starting a thread to ask if anybody ever dug up an old test garden and found the deeper coins to be measurably deeper. (Ignoring any initial settling as a result of not thoroughly compacting any fill dirt under the coin.)

As far as the original question, it's going to happen if there's erosion, the dirt gets turned over, it's actually a recently dropped coin, or a root or animal pushed it up.
 
ToySoldier said:
As far as the original question, it's going to happen if there's erosion, the dirt gets turned over, it's actually a recently dropped coin, or a root or animal pushed it up.
Click to expand...


I don't agree with that and it can be proven easily. I would say, first do these tests before speculating.
To move those triggers (erosion, diging) you mention aren't needed. It happens by itself. By unnoticeable movement of the earth and by water movement in the soil.

Put a coin ON sand soil. Wait for a few good rains. And the coin will dig itself in. Leave that for a long time and it will become inches.

As i said already. Put something not to heavy a quarter of an inch or some more under the ground. Wait for a good rain. And that object will surface.

If that happens on the surface, and happens at an inch deep, it also happens 2 and 3 inches deep and more. And on 4 feet, although that will not surface by itself.
Soil (and objects in it) is not static. Soil works! Soil lives! Test it!
 
beest said:
I don't agree with that and it can be proven easily. I would say, first do these tests yourself before speculating.

Put a coin ON sand soil. Wait for a few good rains. And the coin will dig itself in. Leave that for a long time and it will become inches.

As i said already. Put something not to heavy a quarter of an inch or some more under the ground. Wait for a good rain. And that object will surface.

If that happens on the surface, and happens at an inch deep, it also happens 2 and 3 inches deep and more. And on 4 feet, although that will not surface by itself.
Soil (and objects in it) is not static. Soil works! Soil lives! Test it!
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what it is I wrote that you're disagreeing with. I agree that coins (and other objects with greater density than the surrounding soil) sink. I was just listing the things that would explain why a wheat penny (or other higher density object) that's already in the dirt would later appear on the surface. Erosion, animals, plowing, etc...

Depending on the soil composition at each level of depth, including how much each layer is subjected to saturation/liquidification and vibrations, the sink rate can speed up, slow down, or stop entirely.

In addition to sinking, they also get composted over, which adds to the depth. I've noticed that properties where the grass has repeatedly been allowed to grow long, or leaves never raked, have deeper targets.
 
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ToySoldier said:
As far as the original question, it's going to happen if there's erosion, the dirt gets turned over, it's actually a recently dropped coin, or a root or animal pushed it up.
Click to expand...


From this i understood you were saying that there should be erosion, or dirt turned over (plowed? digging?) ... or otherwise it would be a recently dropped coin.

If i understood that wrong i pull back my reaction with excusses. Reading again i start to become affraid it can be read otherwise. :?:


If it turnes out you meanth the same then we have that clear together. :cheers:
 
I found a 52 wheatie a couple of weekends ago about an inch deep. I get wheaties in change still, so it was probably a recent drop that someone got in change, or at least that is my best guess.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
I’ve found mercury dimes, barber dimes and a war nickel in the surface and also found a 1836 hard times token on the surface


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
beest said:
From this i understood you were saying that there should be erosion, or dirt turned over (plowed? digging?) ....
Click to expand...

Indeed. Without some other force --plowing, borrowing animal, erosion -- I'm not seeing a copper penny work its way to the surface unless it was never more than barely below the surface in the first place. In fact, wouldn't any soil that encouraged flotation resist any significant sinking in the first place?
 
Every winter, rocks will come to the surface of the soil due to thawing and freezing of the ground. If your soil is right, a coin could do the same. My instance I pointed put earlier on the 52 wheat was most likely a recent drop, it had hardly any oxidation on the coin. But if you are finding coins with a green patina or oxidized near the surface. They have been in the ground for awhile. And freezing and thawing of the ground can explain some of it. I imagine things like moles and burrowing critters can also displace deep coins to shallower depths as well. But a rock is alot heavier than a coin, and each year after a winter, they rise to the surface.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
Yes I've seen this a bunch. Found a seated on the surface once as well. Usually where rain drainage has eroded dirt away. Just found a surface wheat last week at a 1930s house, under the downspout from the roof.

If it is a farm field, plows turn the soil each year and sometimes get pulled to the surface.
 
It all depends. In a nicely manicured park no, but in parks with gopher activity and open house lots where they ground has been turned over yes.
 
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