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ABOUT COIN DEPTHS

I noticed that if I came back to outhunted sites in a year or two, I can find some new targets, but my version is the ground oscillation especially after cold winter. The layers of the ground goes chaotically and the coin go round from edge to horizontal position and not only horizontal but up and down, so we can easy hear it , but year before we thought it is trash
I think it’s seems to be real , because the 1000 year coin is about 30 centimetres underground only.
And the ground Layers above the coin is the dust+ rotten leaves And trees
 
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I've often wondered how an IH penny can be 2-3" down, while on the same lot a 1978 Quarter can be 6-8"?
You have walked through a dirt or gravel parking lot, or down a dirt road. The ground is very hard. Coins will not sink very far. Or maybe you've walked in a wet field where you sink in. Those are two extremes, but to a lesser degree, those conditions can exist on the same lot. Erosion can cause coins to be exposed at the surface. I once spotted a standing liberty quarter on the surface, it turned black from being in the sun. Just yesterday I dug an Indian Head Nickel one inch down, it was on top of a root. Most of the time the harder the ground your digging the less your target will sink. I know, I know, I've done the same thing, a ten year old quarter might be eight inches, and not ten feet away a wheat penny is only two inches. Sometimes I am puzzled too.
HH everyone
 
About Coin Depths

ABOUT COIN DEPTHS


Why are some older coins very shallow when newer coins are deep at the same sites? How can a new coin sink deeper in a few years than an old one in over 80 years?

The Density of Soil

The density of inorganic soil is from 2.6 to 2.8 and any object of greater density, including coins, would eventually sink until the density of the soil equaled the density of the object.

The Sink Rate

The sink rate is determined by the difference in density, the greater the density the faster the sink rate. Contributing factors are vibration, rain, frozen soil, grass buildup, leaves and a few others.

How often the ground gets saturated can be a much bigger driver of coin depth than any minor differences in soil density. Until the ground directly beneath the coin becomes saturated to the point where the dirt becomes suspended in the water, and can move to the sides of the coin due to the coin weight, then little depth due to sinking can occur.

That's why many coins seem to end up in the 6-8 inch range - it takes a real soaker to move them deeper. So maybe the discrepancies in coin depth can be attributed to minor differences in the local drainage. The finer the soil particles, the easier they get suspended and the faster the sink rate.

Chart of Densities

Here is a chart of the densities of some of the common metals we find with metal detectors, also the differences in the density of different metals and a major difference between most of them and soil.

Looking at the chart below, the dime should sink a lot farther than the penny, because the gravity is twice as high on silver as copper is? I know I've found silver just under the grass and then dug 6" or 7" for a clad penny. Nothing worse than getting a deep signal, dig it and it's a clad penny!

The good stuff is sinking faster than the trash. No wonder not many gold coins are being found!

Density of Precious Metals

Platinum 21.45

Gold 19.3

Silver 10.5

Copper 9.0


Densities of Some Common Metals

Aluminum 2.7

Lead 11.4

Magnesium 1.8

Steel 7.8

Tin 7.3

Zinc 7.1

Iron 7.87
Well done for publishing a useful topic that is worth taking into consideration when researching for coines
 
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