ABOUT COIN DEPTHS

I have always believed that coins do not sink unless they are in pretty watery mud. In my opinion coins get buried.....they don't sink. A coin in the middle of a ball field only gets buried by grass clippings. On the other hand a coin under a Maple tree gets buried much deeper and faster than the coin in the middle of the field. Maple leaves are much bigger than a blade of grass! Then you have coins that get lost under Pine and Fir trees, and only sink to the dirt at the bottom of the needles. These are in the best condition when retrieved for some reason. I have found silver coins and copper penny's only 2" under fir needles that has been there since the 1920s and the silver still looks shiny and new, while the coppers have a nice green patina but no flaking or degradation. The worst coins I have found have came from near salt water and they all are pitted and corroded. Coins that are lost in wet grass get buried very rapidly due to muddy conditions and lots of grass clippings accumulating on top of them. On hard dry ground I've found penny's from the 1940s right on top that haven't sunk any since being lost. Hope this common sense makes sense......lol
 
I think they initially get covered by grass clippings, leaves, etc. But after that I think they sink once they get into the soil strata. Rain softening the ground, coupled by freeze and thaw of the ground moves coins up and down, not to mention moles and other critters. I think a lot of things play into a coin's placement in the ground. But the clippings from grass definitely start the burying. Just my opinion, definitely not an expert lol.

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How deep do you think an 1890s coin could sink in an area that has fully. Flooded several times for several days at a time?

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Coins will definitely sink in the sand. Every time it rains, they are generally more dense than the sand, and sink when liquefaction of ground occurs under the coin. They don't only sink in mud. In fact, I have found silver Rosie's just under the leaves in a wetland soil area. The mud was apparently dense enough and sticky enough to prevent the coin sinking.


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AND there's the rare case where the ground is dry and cracks appear. Some of the cracks can be several inches deep and if a coin happens to fall into one it gets a head start. Rare but it happens.
 
I am soon to find out why my high signal is showing a 6 inch coin.
this could be a good test in a rainy area.
thank you
 
I have always believed that coins do not sink unless they are in pretty watery mud. In my opinion coins get buried.....they don't sink. A coin in the middle of a ball field only gets buried by grass clippings. On the other hand a coin under a Maple tree gets buried much deeper and faster than the coin in the middle of the field. Maple leaves are much bigger than a blade of grass! Then you have coins that get lost under Pine and Fir trees, and only sink to the dirt at the bottom of the needles. These are in the best condition when retrieved for some reason. I have found silver coins and copper penny's only 2" under fir needles that has been there since the 1920s and the silver still looks shiny and new, while the coppers have a nice green patina but no flaking or degradation. The worst coins I have found have came from near salt water and they all are pitted and corroded. Coins that are lost in wet grass get buried very rapidly due to muddy conditions and lots of grass clippings accumulating on top of them. On hard dry ground I've found penny's from the 1940s right on top that haven't sunk any since being lost. Hope this common sense makes sense......lol



Worm feed under any hard object and make cavities causing the object to settle and sink. In areas with pines it is often too acidic for worms to feed.
Although some cover is due to leaves and clippings the worms and insects work very quickly to settle the objects.
Testing was done with layers of lime that have shown in different types of soil the rate of decent.


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Coin depth depends on the ground you're hunting. In a wooded area, you will find old coins shallow alot of times. In a ballfield or school yard, or just a yard where the grass gets cut, is where the largest depths, at least from my personal experience, is. This is because a coin gets dropped, and then if not picked up, will be covered in relatively short time by the growing grass. Then people come by, step on it, it goes a little deeper, then all the movement from moles, earthworms and the like can make it go even deeper. Coins if dropped in the 80s and not disturbed by man since then will be in the 4 to 5 inch depth on my area, so imagine the same situation for a silver coin. Double that depth, but occasionally freezing and thawing of the ground move it up a little along with moles and such, and you may get a silver coin at times in the 6 inch area. On rare occasions you will find silver a little shallower, and this could be due to dirt fill from another source, or something due to being disturbed from man. But those undisturbed dropped silver coins are deep in the yards. This has been my experience with the ground in my area.

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coin depth

Hello.
I hunted today for about 2 hrs. The clad quarters were mostly 0nly 2-3 " deep . I also dug several clad dimes that were over 4-5" deep. One would think the heavier coin would be deeper ? It's also very wet here from our latest snow and rain storm so I was limited as to where I could hunt and dig plugs. I will be trying a new spot tomorrow. Hope there are some good targets.
Good luck to all, and please check my albums of some of my recent finds.
Good luck and happy hunting.
Bubbaron AT Pro and AT Carrot Pin Pointer. Using the 5" X 8" Garrett coil. Love that coil !!!
 
Maybe the dimes were dropped alot longer ago? And you really can't go by dates of the coin. Sometimes you can, but somebody could drop a silver dime tomorrow and somebody could come by and find it close to the service in a couple of months. That scenario isn't likely, but could happen.

I still get quarters in circulation from the 60s and have found that decade close to the surface many times metal detecting. Its not the date, its when the coin was dropped that determines its depth. That, and if the ground has had fill or not. Moles moving it in the ground, earthworms, etc. Lots of factors play into it.

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bubbaron, the size of the item is as important as its weight. A dime is smaller and so doesn't have to move as much earth to sink. It can slip through smaller openings than a quarter.
 
No point in looking for rhyme or reason. It's all gophers, gnomes, goblins and gremlins...
 
I could show you right now where there are block buildings built in the 1940's or 50's .....and the soil around them has not been disturbed much besides people walking on it. There are clad coins from the 60's and 70's up to 4 or 5 inches deep all around them yet the turf is not 4 or 5 inches above the foundation line or concrete pad at these buildings...the concrete pad is still slightly above the turf. 5 inches of soil has not covered these coins , if it did then it would be swallowing up the concrete pad at these buildings. Either these coins did some sinking somehow , or some idiot spent a lot of time burying coins all over the place decades ago :lol:


Coins dont always sink , it depends on a lot of factors including soil moisture and density , but Ive seen too many examples over the years where nothing else but sinking could account for the depth.
 
I could show you right now where there are block buildings built in the 1940's or 50's .....and the soil around them has not been disturbed much besides people walking on it. There are clad coins from the 60's and 70's up to 4 or 5 inches deep all around them yet the turf is not 4 or 5 inches above the foundation line or concrete pad at these buildings...the concrete pad is still slightly above the turf. 5 inches of soil has not covered these coins , if it did then it would be swallowing up the concrete pad at these buildings. Either these coins did some sinking somehow , or some idiot spent a lot of time burying coins all over the place decades ago :lol:


Coins dont always sink , it depends on a lot of factors including soil moisture and density , but Ive seen too many examples over the years where nothing else but sinking could account for the depth.

I agree with you on coins don’t always sink far..I just dug a 1899 barber dime at maybe 3 inches,and a v nickel at maybe one inch,just under the grass.
 
I know this is a small sample but in the last year I have dug 11 silver coins. None were over 4 inches deep.

I might also add that I am an amateur archeologist who has worked with professionals now and then for the last twenty years. The archeological term for the movement of artifacts up and down in the ground is called turbation. There is faunal and floral turbation which is natural. Also natural would be deposition from wind blown and water bourne deposits., and then there is erosion which might create a gulley dropping a younger coin lower than an older one near by. The human causes are many too.

There are all kinds of reasons older artifacts can end up above younger ones. Every situation is different and there are a myriad or reasons the young coin might be deep and the old one shallow. An example might be the dust bowl area of the country. Early coins might have been right on the surface in some places after soil blew away, While newer coins got buried where ever soil got redeposited.
 
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Not unusual to find flattened aluminum cans five inches deep, makes one wonder how they got that far down.
 
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