Maximum depth for dropped coins? Whats your deepest?

[SilverFinger]

Maximum depth for dropped coins? What's your deepest?

I've found quite a bit of silver coins in the years I've been detecting. In my observation, they are never any deeper and in most cases NOT as deep as clads.

I think the deepest silver I've found was a '59 Canadian quarter that I took the time to measure at 7.5"

All others seem to be right around the 4-5" mark. I found a 1912 Barber dime that couldn't have been any more than 2" deep.

My question is, what's the 'terminal velocity' for the depth of a coin? Really, how far can it work it's way into the ground before it can't get any deeper?

Unless the soil has been turned or filled, my theory is that there has to be a maximum depth at which a coin can naturally settle into the soil.

Out of curiosity, and without embellishment what do you think your deepest silver was?

 

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[empty_pockets]

You are so right about the depth, but if you listen...... ...............to the arm chair coin shooters, oh my goodness, 18 inches....Read the posts that will follow.

 

[golden sluice]

In california our coins get josteled by tremors and quakes so I find my coins a little deeper in the soil. My deepest coin was in a very sandy soil...1943 wheatie @ 8.5 inches. I measured it with my trusty ruler and read my metal detector. The detector said 8 - 10 inches depending on the sweep angle. I use an at gold.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Over the years I found a number of coins at 8"-10", nothing deeper there. So far the deepest I've found with my E-Trac are at 6" - but that has been limited by the places I've been searching (get down past the sod level and it's rock).

Back in about '82, I really did dig a balled up cigarette pack at 13" (the black pound cake soil of Ohio) - talk about disappointment, sounded just like a silver dime....

 

[Kenkoehn1950]

Glad you posted this! I live in Denver, Co and thought my skills were bad because I couldn't find anything deeper than 8". Kept reading stories where people were finding coins at 12" and deeper and thought I was not doing something right. Still convinced mineralization here in Colorado affects depth readings.

 

[PatrickD]

a 1943 Wheatie? Steel, right?

 

[DeepseekerADS]

As for age of the coin and depth, in that same pound cake soil of Ohio, I dug an 1894 IH at about 1 1/2". probed down (can't really probe in rocky soil), and popped it out with my bent screw driver.

Either it was a recent drop, or the freeze cycle of the soil impacted the depth.

 

[Silver Searcher]

I had a 8mm hammered coin on it's side....at 44ft... Took some digging I can tell ya.

SS

 

[Jeremy S]

10" is probably the max with my AT Pro for a coin. At that depth the ATP won't give a solid ID, but the signal will bounce around a lot and be faint, almost like it is garbage. Occasionally swinging very low and slow you will get a repeatable high tone. At old properties with the potential for old coins and relics, I always dig the faint deep signals like this.

I have found all of my silver coins at less than 5 or 6 inches over the years. I've pulled a couple wheats from the 8-10" range.

 

[Frankn]

The thing some don't take into consideration is that coin could have been lost yesterday. The date on the coin and it's composition don't equate to depth.
The deepest coin I have found was a quarter at App. 10" in sand on the beach with a 13 year old Surfmaster PI.
Frank...

 

[wingmaster]

I find silver coins that are 10-12" deep in some local parks around here as these parks have been pounded since the 70's and most all the silver left is really deep and mostly dimes, I'll only listen for those real deep whisper targets to avoid digging mostly trash and clad. When I get a real deep one over the 10" mark I barely have enough room on my hand towel for the mound of dirt, I've found them deep enough that once you cut the plug and break up the soil matrix the detector won't even pick up the target anymore. HH

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

Id say 10" is about the Max ive found with the AT Pro....but there are so many variables on what coins are deep, and not just because of Earth Work.

Foliage, Cracks in the ground during the summer. Because i too have found Silvers mayeb 1-2" deep, and not 5 feet away, dig a state quarter at 4 inches

But if you are in a place that is consitant...clad being very shallow, and oldies being deep, it gives me more hope that nothing has been moved around

 

[Msbeepbeep]

I had what read penny 8", turned out to be a religious medallion made of copper/gold mix 1 1/2" X 1" @ little over 10" down in sand.
I was determined to collect my "penny", thinking it was copper pipe @ that depth!
So I'm guessing I could probably get a LC laying flat at 10" depth.

 

[BosnMate]

My deepest coin was a quarter at the beach. I was using the MXT shortly after I'd bought it, and the read out said it was a quarter at 10 inches, and it was correct, that's why I remember it. Most of my coin finds have been just below the grass roots, down to 4 or 5 inches deep. I've dug pull tabs 7 and 8 inches, and in the same field found coins shallower. I don't think length of time in the ground effects the coin depth after the coin gets to 4 or 5 inches down. I've found silver and clad at about the same depth. I think ground dwelling critters tend to affect depth more than most give them credit for. I've found arrowheads on top of the ground, on top of pine needles, and they didn't get lost yesterday, so a gopher must have pushed it up to the top, how else would it get there?

 

[liftloop]

the main wire in your breaker box by code is tightened to 250 foot pounds per square inch so street traffic won't loosen it up and cause a bad connection
so if your not using a P.I. detector your walking right over the really deep ones....


liftloop

 

[golden sluice]

Rigth patrickd,it was a 1943 steel wheatie! It was my first and only.