Why do coins sink?

[spartacus53]

About 10 yrs ago when I first began to get serious about this hobby and was doing research on the subject, mostly from the point of how long it took a given object (coin) to go how far down. I actually found the subject addressed by a biologist at a university site. According to his paper, objects left on the surface, will over time sink.

and believe it or not...the biggest factor is worms. Worms are the dominant reason because they live in topsoils and are constanly moving (tunneling) and anytime they travel below a coin...they loosen the soil and it continues it's eternal trip downward to usually less than a foot. Most worm life resides in the top 12 inches of soil. Worms don't thrive in clay, or desert environments so sinking is nearly non-existent.

I'd love to know what school these so called university clowns are teaching in, so I could make sure my children never attend it Yes, worms will aerate the ground, soften it by tunneling...... But, I wonder where these yokels live that they don't have any other larger mammals that borrow.. Rabbits, moles, groundhogs, badgers, chipmunks, ferrets, fox, hamster, gerbil, etc... Need I name a few more I could swear, but I may be wrong, that the aforementioned creatures may have slightly larger tunnel systems

And don't even get me started on ants

People are paying way too much for faulty education Stick with me, I'll learn ya

 

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[BosnMate]

Well, lets see if I can figure this out. Coins don't sink, but they usually don't get deposited from the bottom first. So if they don't sink, how come I got a 1995 nickle at the park today, that was 5 inches deep. Lets see, 1995 until now is around 16 or 17 years at the most, so that's about 83 years shy of a hundred years, so apparently time hasn't got a lot to do with it. Oh yeah, there were several earth worms in the hole. I would expect in the case of this coin that the ground didn't raise 5 inches in 16 years. So my thoughts are that between the lawn mower pressing down, and the critters of what ever kind, but most likely earth worms in that location, helped along by both lawn sprinklers, rain and gravity caused the coin not to sink, but rather settle deeper into the ground. After all it's impossible for the coin to sink that far, so it must have settled. Anyhow, the nickle is gungy and red and an honest 5 inches deep. Right after that I got a dime 4.5 inches, and several 1992 pennies at two inches, along with one on top of the ground. It's an old park, dates back to the 50's, and is hammered pretty hard by detectors, so there isn't a lot of trash, so I'm using a large coil, looking for deeper coins, hoping to find silver, but without luck so far.

 

[spartacus53]

It's an old park, dates back to the 50's, and is hammered pretty hard by detectors, so there isn't a lot of trash, so I'm using a large coil, looking for deeper coins, hoping to find silver, but without luck so far.

Want to find deeper coins Hunt in an area with giant worms

 

[BosnMate]

Want to find deeper coins Hunt in an area with giant worms

Giant worms eat coins and crap out foil and pop tabs.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Giant worms eat coins and crap out foil and pop tabs.

so THAT explains it! My parks must be filled with those critters!

 

[Phanntom]

DANG...those last couple posts were funny...I was lauging so hard my eyes are watering and I can't see the screen. Those couple need more than a "Like" option...they need a "Love" option.

 

[Connecticut Sam]

Hope you don't think this is a dumb question, but why do coins sink? What factors cause them to go deeper? How deep will they go? (I'm new, so bear with me).

I had a friend who dug 3 - 4 feet for bottles that were thrown on the ground. Good luck.

 

[ticm]

About 10 yrs ago when I first began to get serious about this hobby and was doing research on the subject, mostly from the point of how long it took a given object (coin) to go how far down. I actually found the subject addressed by a biologist at a university site. According to his paper, objects left on the surface, will over time sink. How fast and how far depend on a lot of factors. A coin left on the surface of the desert, will likely remian very near or on the suface. Rain, combined with gravity will take it down a bit...during the summer when the winds blow, they remove the sand covering it, so it's back on the surface again. In heavy clay soil...they will sink...very slowly and not very deep even over long periods from the combination of rain and gravity. In good soil like topsoil or a lawn...objects will sink much faster and much deeper for the reasons mentioned...gravity, rain and believe it or not...the biggest factor is worms. Worms are the dominant reason because they live in topsoils and are constanly moving (tunneling) and anytime they travel below a coin...they loosen the soil and it continues it's eternal trip downward to usually less than a foot. Most worm life resides in the top 12 inches of soil. Worms don't thrive in clay, or desert environments so sinking is nearly non-existent.

Damn worms.

 

[Bev]

I like the theories. All seem possible. I have my small amount of experience but silver seems to be deeper than coppers. Keeping in mind of course that most likely coppers were lost more than silver. I've read on here that a lot of people think silver sinks deeper than other coins. Any thoughts on that?

 

[ticm]

I like the theories. All seem possible. I have my small amount of experience but silver seems to be deeper than coppers. Keeping in mind of course that most likely coppers were lost more than silver. I've read on here that a lot of people think silver sinks deeper than other coins. Any thoughts on that?

Like people worms like silver better then copper. They dig around the silver more then copper causing it To go deeper.

 

[spartacus53]

I've read on here that a lot of people think silver sinks deeper than other coins. Any thoughts on that?

OK, I'm only replying because you're cute Without going into boring details, it may have something to do with atomic weight...

Personally, I thinks it's just trying to avoid contact with cheaper metals. The other reason it travels further in the same time period is that it's probably Quicksilver

 

[Bev]

OK, I'm only replying because you're cute Without going into boring details, it may have something to do with atomic weight...

Personally, I thinks it's just trying to avoid contact with cheaper metals. The other reason it travels further in the same time period is that it's probably Quicksilver

Oh mannnnn....So gold being so snotty and aloof is way way down there! God forbid it should fraternize with other lesser metals!

 

[Jason in Enid]

I like the theories. All seem possible. I have my small amount of experience but silver seems to be deeper than coppers. Keeping in mind of course that most likely coppers were lost more than silver. I've read on here that a lot of people think silver sinks deeper than other coins. Any thoughts on that?

It probably has to do with the fact that many hunters are targeting silver exclusively. As detector technology improves it lets us search a little deeper. So while the old guys cleared out the shallow silver decades ago, there are still a few deeper ones hiding.

 

[Frankn]

Well this is unusual, but Jason, Keppy and I think the same on this subject. Coins don't sink in the ground..........
You have to look at this with some logic! Has your house vanished in the ground? I have hunted yards around homes that were 200+ years old, and there they were, sitting on top of the ground. Well you might say that they have a large base that holds them up! Well what about that old fence. The posts have a small base area, but the fence is still there. Now look at the cemetery. All the headstones are still sitting on top the ground. Most sidewalks and roads are still there on top the ground in spite of taking a heavy pounding. Hay! And all these things probably have plenty of worms under them. Gravity is known as the weak force in science and by the way, It doesn't pull down. Gravity pushes in from space as proven by Einstein. Those college theories don't hold a candle to his.
By the way, I have an old hay baler that has been sitting in my field for 20+ years. I just went up and checked. The tires are rotten but it hasn't sunk. Lets get real! Frank

 

[BosnMate]

Well this is unusual, but Jason, Keppy and I think the same on this subject. Coins don't sink in the ground..........
You have to look at this with some logic! Has your house vanished in the ground? I have hunted yards around homes that were 200+ years old, and there they were, sitting on top of the ground. Well you might say that they have a large base that holds them up! Well what about that old fence. The posts have a small base area, but the fence is still there. Now look at the cemetery. All the headstones are still sitting on top the ground. Most sidewalks and roads are still there on top the ground in spite of taking a heavy pounding. Hay! And all these things probably have plenty of worms under them. Gravity is known as the weak force in science and by the way, It doesn't pull down. Gravity pushes in from space as proven by Einstein. Those college theories don't hold a candle to his.
By the way, I have an old hay baler that has been sitting in my field for 20+ years. I just went up and checked. The tires are rotten but it hasn't sunk. Lets get real! Frank

OK, you are telling me it's impossible for that nickle to be 5 inches deep. The reason I had to dig the nickle is because grass clippings caused the ground raised 5 inches in 16 years. Well then, my house is over 60 years old, and grass has been mowed around it for all those years, how come it hasn't had the ground raise around it a foot? If coins don't sink and the ground don't rise, how the heck do the coins end up on top of the denser soil? Seems like they stop when clay is reached. I certainly don't know the answer, all I know is when I find a coin, 99% of the time I got to dig it up.

 

[spartacus53]

I certainly don't know the answer, all I know is when I find a coin, 99% of the time I got to dig it up.

Bosnmate, what these fine folk neglected to tell you is that the grounds are actually seeded with coins. Between the tooth fairy and Santa's elves, they have to do something during the off season and this is it. They dig holes anywhere from 5 to 14 inches and toss in a few old coins

Like I said in my first reply.. I dare any of them to drop a coin on soft soil, step on it and not have the coin sink. I'll also bet if he could get the hay baler to move, he would see an impression of the tires.

 

[BosnMate]

I just thought of something. A long time ago, probably back in the '80's I was hunting in the Cascade Mountains, crossing over flat bench in an area of really big pine timber. There was no under growth, the forest floor just a carpet of pine needles. Laying on top of the pine needles like it was dropped yesterday was a perfect obsidian arrow point. The last stone age man to be hunting or living in that area was probably a minimum of 150 years ago. So the only way that point could be on top of the needles is a gopher brought it up and the rain washed the dirt away. I've also found an arrowhead, or as some call it, a biface, when digging a post hole, and the point was over a foot deep. I suspect gophers or ground squirrels had a lot to do with the location of that one also, instead of pushing it up, rather causing it to go deeper. The gas company dug a pipe line across the ranch in Nevada where I was working. They dug up several large grinding stones, I don't know if I'm spelling it right, but matates, the flat grinders rather than a bowl, plus a large number of the flat stones they ground the grain with. Those stones were under the ground, but there were numerous arrowheads and beads on top of the ground. On that ranch I found arrowheads after a rain that were sitting on little pillars of sand where the rain around the point had pounded the sand down. I don't have any answers on why or how stuff gets buried, but in Israel they dig up houses that are buried quite deep. All I know is, when I'm out swinging, I gotta dig to get what I'm after, so it had to sink or settle or build up, and all I want to do is find it.

 

[Jason in Enid]

OK, you are telling me it's impossible for that nickle to be 5 inches deep. The reason I had to dig the nickle is because grass clippings caused the ground raised 5 inches in 16 years. Well then, my house is over 60 years old, and grass has been mowed around it for all those years, how come it hasn't had the ground raise around it a foot? If coins don't sink and the ground don't rise, how the heck do the coins end up on top of the denser soil? Seems like they stop when clay is reached. I certainly don't know the answer, all I know is when I find a coin, 99% of the time I got to dig it up.

You seem to be intentionally ignoring the facts. Yes, grass clippings ARE burying your coins. The reason the ground level isn't rising is because the top 6-8 inches is in constant flux.

Decaying plant material covers the ground
current soil is in a constant state of decomposition
living plants are pulling material from the decomposing soil, growing and depositing more dead material on the ground to decompose.
This is why MOST coins are found within the top 8 inches of ground. The slow addition of windblown material, flood deposition, etc will cause very old coins to continue to be buried deeper but that is a VERY slow process.

Look at England! They are still pulling 2000 year old coins from the fields which are not plowed more than 12 inches deep. If coins "sink" then you could say that because a 50 year old coin is found 6 inches deep then a 2000 year old coin would have to be over 240 inches deep! It just doesn't happen. Continue to believe all the old wives tales you want, it doesn't make it fact.

 

[Frankn]

BosnMate, Vegetation decays and gives berth to new vegetation, it is a cycle. So those grass clippings grew from the decayed old clippings. There is just a very thin buildup on the ground and some vaporizes, you know, the smell of fresh cut grass. In a park or lawn type setting, I find 40's coins app. 4" around here. In the desert setting of AZ. I found old 45/70 casings just laying on top the ground. You have to take erosion and blowing material into consideration also. I read an story in a magazine that stated dust is constantly raining in on Earth from outer space.
I think it is one of those cases like what happens to all the rubber that is worn off tires as vehicles drive down the road.
Hay, it's only a theory until someone proves it, but no one lives long enough to prove it. lol Frank

 

[Frankn]

Jason, this is getting to weird!!! We both posted at the exact same time and said about the same thing. I think I must have slipped into another dimension! Frank