Coin Depth

[m bryan]

What is the average depth of older coins you have dug?

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

The only time you can get an "average" depth, is 1) assuming an undisturbed site, (therefore, not furroughed fields, beaches subject to erosion and re-fill, places where gophers routinely turn over fields, etc...) and 2) comparison only within each site. Because once you move to another site, each soil type is completely different. So whatever answer someone gives here, for just one site, has absolutely no bearing on anywhere else, and is not an "average depth", except for just where he happened to be, at that moment.

I've gotten spanish reales and early seateds an inch deep before (hard pan dirt, demolition sites, furroughed fields, beaches after storms, etc...) And I've gotten zinc pennies 6" to a foot down (turfed lawns in moister sections, beaches on the spongy wet sand, dry sand, etc...)

 

[Old Town]

Tom has this pretty much correct. But here in Key West we have very course coral/limestone soil with very little organic topsoil. It's either very loose and fluffy or stomped down and hard as concrete.

When it's loose and fluffy, I almost always have to get under 6 inches to get coins older than 1950. The only exception to this is when there is a ledge or shelf of solid coral or limestone under the looser topsoil. In many places this is the case and you can find almost all the older coins stopped dead at this hard rock layer. The layer can be at 2" or 12". Past 12" I can't detect to any worthwhile degree.

One of my favorite parks has a top layer of 6 inches over solid rock and coral. Everything stops at 6 inches. For years I've vacuumed this park. When I first started 20 years ago, it was nothing to take 20-25 silver coins a day along with many wheat pennies. Today I still find silver almost every time there along with wheat pennies. Not like in the old days but still plenty enough to make it interesting.

Thanks to the rock strata I find everything at 5-6 inches. Including some early pulltabs. Stuff settles quickly in my kind of course soil. If it were not for the underlying rock layer I suspect most older coins would be out of reach by now.


Old Town

 

[TerryC]

Average? 4", which of course means nothing since some were "on top" and as deep as 7". TTC

 

[nova]

Don't come to Utah unless your detector can get a depth of 10in or better. That is excluding construction sites where dirt has been disturbed

 

[NGE]

In our floodplain parks......9 - 10 inches . In my yard (sandy soil) I have not found anything deeper than 8 inches. When I visited my nephew in Tenn. 6 inches max, due to red clay soil with rock base at 6 inches. Depends on where you're hunting, what kind of geological strata is involved......NGE

 

[Swartzie]

I have six coins from the 1800's. The deepest was probably five inches. Most were 1-3 inches. Had an 1808 spanish reale about two inches deep. But, these were dug in the woods. Around here stuff doesn't go very deep in the woods. Several flat buttons have also been found within five inches. In grassy areas stuff for me is deeper. Deepest (in a park) was a mercury dime around eight inches. Of the 18 mercury dimes I have dug (in a park), most were in the 4-5 inch range. Well within reach of the Ace 250 used to find them. I need to take the Tejon to the same park and see if there are deeper coins. My problem is I just can't seem to get my butt out of the woods.

-Swartzie

 

[SirJoey]

My problem is I just can't seem to get my butt out of the woods.

I'm totally surrounded by woods here. Maybe I'll start checkin' some of 'em out when my next MD arrives. Doesn't seem to me like a very good place to hunt, but who knows...









The Lord Is My Shepherd!

 

[Swartzie]

My problem is I just can't seem to get my butt out of the woods.

I'm totally surrounded by woods here. Maybe I'll start checkin' some of 'em out when my next MD arrives. Doesn't seem to me like a very good place to hunt, but who knows...

Old house foundations in the woods.
-Swartzie








The Lord Is My Shepherd!

 

[treasurehound]

the type of soil the coins are in make a huge impact on how deep they can be. Earlier this year I went back to Kansas to hunt and found an 1874 IH about 8" deep and mercury dimes about 4" deep in same area. Soil was soft dark rich and near a stream. I went to an old school where the dirt was more hard packed and found an IH about an inch deep. Here in Tennessee I have found clad quarters 8" deep in very soft soil and mercs and wheats about 4" in other areas. I really pay attention to the type of soil. If I am hunting a park and the clad is near the surface and the silver and wheats are much deeper I really concentrate on those deeper targets. Also you must hunt slower on the deeper targets. I have seen people swinging so fast there is no way they are going to find the deeper targets. So soil type is going to impact your coin depth.