Does Florida dirt swallow up the old stuff?

KirkS

Sr. Member
Jan 10, 2017
282
375
St Pete FL
Detector(s) used
Minelab Explorer SE, Tesoro Sand Shark, White's TreasurePro, Tesoro Compadre, Fisher F2 + TRX
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
So as we all know, Florida is a great big sand bar. I've been hunting know for only 2.5 months, but have a total of 35 hunts in, with an average of 4 hours per hunt, so about 140+/- hours.

In those hunts, the only old coins I have found that I feel were legitimate period drops, was an 1896 IHP. I say this because it was in a yard of a 1927 house. My other old-ish finds were a 1939 Canadian Silver dollar and a 1941 Merc, but were in a hard-packed sports complex field. I believe those were brought in with fill dirt, and they were both above the 'natural' sandy soil level, in the dirt type more common in other areas of the country. My few (3 I think) wheat pennies were all recent drops, as they were within 3" in sand.

I'm using an Explorer SE with the Pro coil, which has awesome depth, but I'm wondering if it's not deep enough? Earlier in the week I was hunting a 1917 permission in an historically well to do area of town, and found nothing but modern clad, and most of it was in the 6-8" range, which I felt was somewhat deep for nothing older then 1972.

So does Florida soil allow coins (and the like) to sink faster then other areas? How much old silver have you found in Florida soil, and at what depths?
 

Last edited:

villagenut

Gold Member
Oct 18, 2014
5,748
10,224
florida
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
In order to find older coins, there had to coins being circulated in the community. A poorer community....the less coins to be lost and if one were to lose a coin, they would have made an effort to retrieve it. The old coins are there but you got to be at the right place at the right time.
 

ChuckT

Jr. Member
Apr 26, 2014
22
13
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I've found old (crushed) Pepsi cans but doubt if they were used as coinage in the 1980s (when our house was built). I could be wrong.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk
 

docglass

Newbie
Dec 10, 2016
3
6
Ontario
Detector(s) used
Fisher 1266X, Garrett ATPro International
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I am in Florida for the Winter from Jan to end of April, and have to agree that old coins are scarce. This year only 1 Roosevelt and six or seven wheat pennies. I have about the same amount of time in the field and do a lot of Sports Parks and some beaches on sand. Clad total is $105.00 and I have 3 gold rings, 2 silver, plus a lot of sterling pieces and other 10k/14k stuff. Other usual bling and a 1/4 ton of tabs and crud. I still use an old 1266X Fisher and the sucker will pull a tiny split shot or an"earring back" at 6+ inches which does not make me that happy as I am old and don't see so good at that size. The Sterling I have dug in the sand is black and hard to clean without buffing so the coins would be too. They ring up loud and I have dug a small sterling cross and a small sapphire sterling pendent at 8 inches on the beach, but never a silver coin. Just gotta find out where they were dropped I guess.
 

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