Depth of old coins.

At the same site - a park I worked near - I had found indian head cents exposed on the surface and a 1996 Roosevelt dime 10" deep. The soil moves, heaves, is disturbed. Roots, rocks, roto-tillers and rodents as well as woRms have their way to keep the topsoil moving.

Good 'ol Carl Linnaeus came up with the theorum that deeper = older but he was thinking in terms of the earth's crust - not the geologocal instant that the last 1,000 years have been in Earth's larger picture.
 

First barber quarter I ever found was near the shore of a popular fishin' lake in a park pounded regularly by coin hunters. it was edge on and the edge was actually sticking out of the ground, naked eye visible! I scanned it and got an iffy double beep both ways. Some folks think "d' beep d' beep" means trash. But I pulled out a 1915 quarter!

In another hunted out park, the oldest park around, I once got a two-toner...a high tone beep one way, mid tone pull tab coming back the other way, (beep, bonk) dug it up and it was a pull tab at one inch and a barber dime at two inches perfectly below it, 1901. How many diggers missed that one over the years? My advice would be to dig the iffys, All us old guys from the 70's and 80's have already gotten the easy ones. Me and my old-time cohorts didn't want to waste time diggin the iffys in trashy places with all the easy ones so plentiful...good luck!
 

I found a 1948 nickel at 8" today. I felt the same as you, where is the old stuff? Then met a detectorist at the park and he told me that there is an old guy who has been hunting my town for the past 30 years. All I can hope is he missed some.
 

I 'am newbie to Metal Detecting. Only been at it for a few months.

The reply's you have received seems right to me. I live in Virginia and still searching in my back yard and have found two Big Cents (One Cent), one dated 1838 and found another one today dated 1799. both at about 4 inches deep. I 'am very close to the river and the soil is very rocky.

Good luck and be sure you work your own back yard.
 

Am I to assume that someone hunted out a whole park fourty years ago?

It's a fair assumption. Practical detectors have been around for about 50 years now. There have been three separate "detecting crazes" BEFORE the one we're in now.

It's unlikely any place is ever completely hunted out... But it can come danged close.
No old coins are being replaced, after all.



Sent from my mobile device using Tapatalk
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top