How deep is your silver?

Timebandit

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Apr 9, 2018
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Guys,
I was out for several hours today and broke a silver drought with a ‘46 Rosie at about 8” on a bouncy iffy signal on the Etrac. I hit a 12-45 once in my swings but mostly bounced with only a few 45’s. I dug it and new it was silver as soon as my pin pointer placed it in the center of the hole. Question... can you guys tell me the average depth of your silvers and what type of dirt your digging? I pulled this one at 8” in black soil but my usual silvers come in about 4”-6” and most of that is in clay under an Inch or 2 of topsoil.
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GoDeep

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You are losing your own argument here... First, YOU made the statement adding gravel to building footprints, which has ZERO to do with "naturally occurring gravel beds above bedrock"

Again.... coins dont "sink", because soil is NOT a liquid medium.


Your point about my point about gravel is nonsensical. Gravel beds occur naturally or can be laid by a builder. Top soil is removed and a gravel bed laid in.

Again, soil is not a cohesive medium. It is fine grained, readily separates and can effectively become a liquid medium when subjected to enough water.
 

Jason in Enid

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Huh? Plasticity and water content of soil applies to all types of soil. All have a rate. Heres some more reading. I can provide more information if needed, but my claims are all grounded in science.

HA! Your understanding of the science you talk about is laughable. Plasticity of soils are used for modern engineering to take account for expansion, contraction and movement of the soils as moisture content changes through seasons. It has nothing to so with your assertion that a coin dropped on the ground today will physically sink through the surrounding, naturally compacted soils on its own without additional force.

Your attempt at using "science" is nothing more than a red hearing to distract from your first point, which you lost long ago.
 

xr7ator

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I've stepped in saturated soil and not sunk, mud, etc.
I'm with Jason. Coins don't normally sink, they are covered up. When archies do a dig, do you think that they dig to dig up something that sunk or got buried?
 

GoDeep

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HA! Your understanding of the science you talk about is laughable. Plasticity of soils are used for modern engineering to take account for expansion, contraction and movement of the soils as moisture content changes through seasons. It has nothing to so with your assertion that a coin dropped on the ground today will physically sink through the surrounding, naturally compacted soils on its own without additional force.

Your attempt at using "science" is nothing more than a red hearing to distract from your first point, which you lost long ago.

Are you serious? Is this some sort of April fools? This is basic geology. There are thousands of articles and diagrams of soil layer composition (just google soil layers). Heavier objects settle through soil over time. This is a fact. Denser, heavier metals settle deeper, fact.
 

GoDeep

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I've stepped in saturated soil and not sunk, mud, etc.
I'm with Jason. Coins don't normally sink, they are covered up. When archies do a dig, do you think that they dig to dig up something that sunk or got buried?

If you can show me a video of someone stepping in mud and their foot not sinking in, i'll buy anything you are selling me. Jesus may have walked on water, but man does not walk on mud....
 

GoDeep

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Yes, if you took a coin, placed it on dry soil, that is shielded from all wind, vibration, heat, cold, water, plant life, animal life etc (in a bubble so to speak) sure, it wouldn't sink. But that's not how soil in nature works. It is fine textured, non-bonded, readily permeable, constantly heaving and cleaving, expanding and contracting by means of water, heat, cold, as well as plant, animal and microscopic life. Heavier metals slowly settle through soil. Some faster then others depending on their surface area, atomic weight and density (like gold will settle faster then silver). It's nature and science.

I think I've hijacked the OP's thread, so peace and may the science be with you....
 

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wingmaster

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Well the parks around here have been pounded for years and all the silver left is 10"+ at the parks, normal depth at old home sites seems to be 6" to 8" here in Indiana but some silver is at old home sites have been deeper. It's really hard telling what dirt has been moved around over the years in flower beds or what ever, I do like those really deep whisper signals as those are almost always the good old stuff. HH
 

wingmaster

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Soil will build up over time as well as in all the grass clippings breaking down making new soil, less on a hill but more at the bottom of hills where all the leaves, sticks, ect will settle and even soil eroding from the top to the bottom. HH
 

GoDeep

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Soil will build up over time as well as in all the grass clippings breaking down making new soil, less on a hill but more at the bottom of hills where all the leaves, sticks, ect will settle and even soil eroding from the top to the bottom. HH

Great point and to clarify, i'm not saying plant, leaves and soil matter depositing on top via wind, erosion, and the natural life cycle of plants don't contribute too to a coins depth, they both (settling as I've described and deposits on top as you've said). And yes to deep signals, those always get me excited!!!
 

Jason in Enid

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If you can show me a video of someone stepping in mud and their foot not sinking in, i'll buy anything you are selling me. Jesus may have walked on water, but man does not walk on mud....

so you are contending that every time it rains, the entirety of the rained upon soils becomes this purely liquid mud?! Amazing! I must live in the strangest place on earth, because no matter how it has ever rained here, those "mud spot" are nothing more than tiny spots. So I take it where you live that the entirety of ground becomes liquid and everything sinks every time it rains. Must be the worst place on earth!

AS a matter of fact, I have seen rivers and creeks flood their banks on many occasions, and every time the water recedes, the bank are exactly as they were before. Aside from scouring and undercutting of banks, I've seen no damage or change from these occasional floodings. How is that possible in your world where a simple rain turns the ground to a pure liquid through which EVERYTHING more dense than liquid sinks to bedrock?
 

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Roger Mn.

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There is no real answer to your question. First, if someones detector can only see a coin 4 inches deep in their soil, thats the deepest you are going to get as an answer. Next, a different detector may be capable of 12 inches in that same part of the country.

Now, to make it even more confusing, the "depth of silver" changes dramatically over very short distances. I have a site where silver and other coins lost as far back the founding of my town in 1893 have been 18" deep and there there could be more deeper still. Yet a few blocks away I recover silver and similar dates coins at all depths including sitting on the surface.

Plant growth, irrigation, fertilization, mowing practices, shade trees, freeze and thaw cycles and other factors all play a role in how deep targets get before we dig them.
May i ask what detector you were using to get coins at 18 inches and what coin was it?
 

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Timebandit

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LOL, well said. I don’t care where you dig a zinc....they all look like....
 

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Timebandit

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Silver nuggets...nice! I was hunting a local ski hill and just about blew an ear drum with a big hit....I dug...several large chunks of copper ore. Not silver but it is now a business card holder on my desk.
 

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Timebandit

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Wow guys, great stuff. I can’t help but wonder how many silvers have been virtually lost forever by construction and destruction. I was driving past a local park the other day and saw that they were filling in about 5 acres of park at about 3ft deep. I will be hunting that area as soon as they are done because the fill came from old base from city streets that were recently dug up and reconstructed.
 

Jason in Enid

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May i ask what detector you were using to get coins at 18 inches and what coin was it?

LOL, I knew that would come up! I wish I could detect coins that deep!

Our town square behind the courthouse has been roughly the same since the founding in 1893. Several years ago, homeland security said "your parking next to the building is too close" so they tore out all that original cement, and then they scraped out part of the park sod for the new parking. They cut it down roughly 12". When I jumped in and started detecting, I was getting coins from surface down to 6 inches which means they were at least 18" from the original sod height.

BTW- That construction project was the best hunting spot I've ever had. I was there every day for the entire duration.... groundbreaking until rebar was laid. Barber dimes, quarters, halves, walkers, buffies, v-nicks, indians and wheats by the dozen. The only 2 types not found by anybody during it all were silver dollars and gold coins, although I'm really shocked no gold came out. I and others dug everything that wasn't iron. If gold was there, it should have been found.
 

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buck8point

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Thats not the soil, its just the nature of the shitty one cent coins produced at the mint.

Yea I realize the Copper coated Zinc Pennies are probably the shittiest coin produced, but youd think we could do better than that.
 

GoDeep

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so you are contending that every time it rains, the entirety of the rained upon soils becomes this purely liquid mud?! Amazing!

No, I never made this claim. I never claimed "every time it rains" nor "the entirety becomes purely liquid mud" I claimed that in adding enough water, a soil may become saturated to the point of being, in effect, a liquid state. Mud was an example used to illustrate over saturation.

So I take it where you live that the entirety of ground becomes liquid and everything sinks every time it rains. Must be the worst place on earth!

No, I never made this claim either. I never claimed the "Entirety of the ground becomes liquid" nor "everything sinks everytime it rains" Again, see my previous posts.

How is that possible in your world where a simple rain turns the ground to a pure liquid through which EVERYTHING more dense than liquid sinks to bedrock?

And again, I NEVER made the claim that a "simple rain" turns the ground to "pure liquid" through which "Everything more dense sinks to bedrock".

To bolster your argument, you literally made up and attributed to me several sweeping statements and words and incorrectly paraphrased ALL of my arguments.

My arguments were clear, used real world examples and even provided links and quotes.

If you want to bolster your argument, provide the science(quotes, links, geology) behind why a coin will not sink in soil. Provide evidence that refutes my claim that heavily saturated soil can't turn to mud. Provide evidence to your claim as to why coins only get deeper due to deposits on top of them, rather then any sinking of the coin.

This will give you a strong argument, but misstating what others have said or claimed, only makes your argument look weaker.
 

Jason in Enid

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Yea I realize the Copper coated Zinc Pennies are probably the shittiest coin produced, but youd think we could do better than that.

Its all about cost. Zinc is the cheapest metal they can use. They have looked at going to a plated iron, but the dies wear out much faster and off-setting any savings. The only way to produce a cheaper penny is to make it out of plastic. They should stop making them all together!
 

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