OK-A Quarter Is Dropped In A Field With Yearly Frost. What Will Happen To It?

John-Edmonton

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Will sink at a constant rate, say to about 3" after 5 years, will it sink to a depth and remain at that depth, or stay shallow an up to 1"?

lake 2 small.webp
 

No, I will come and pick it up :laughing7:
 

But it won't be there on the surface......:flag_blue::flag_blue:
 

As plant life grows dies decays into dirt, each year covers it a bit deeper. Gravity pulls it a bit lower. Too many variables to give any depth per year estimates. Some parks coins from the 80's are as deep as other areas yield coins from 1800's. I'm just glad they fell out of sight for me to discover!
 

Yeah, so many variables, including coin size.... I found Barber Halves on top the ground and I found them at 6".....
 

This a research topic of mine and a few others on this forum. There are many unknowns to guess the sink rate,
 

Yeah, different factors will dictate the depth. Plowed field vs grazing field, swampy land vs hard dirt, woods vs field, etc. My oldest coin to date is a 1738 KG II halfpenny and it was found maybe 6" down in a cattle grazing field. If it had been wooded, it probably would've been deeper. On the other hand, I found an old tombac button from the late 1700s in the same type of field about 12-14" deep. The button was far lighter in weight than the halfpenny. Go figure.
 

I've dug plenty of targets sitting on top of clay right at the bottom of the top soil. I've seen top soil range from 1" to 16".
 

sometimes we have soil then a gravel layer at about 8". Coins sink to the gravel layer and then stop or sink very slowly
 

In the areas in the US that have heavy vegetation and trees That drop a lot of leaves and needles, the rate of cover can be as much as a couple inches per year. This depends on the ambient temperature and moisture that controls the degree of rot. The freeze rate during the winter should have little or no effect on a metal piece of material laying on the surface that was covered up by a couple inches of decaying wet leaves. These are areas where the new Equinox will shine.:thumb_up:
 

The XP Deus already shines in these areas lol... I can have my freq... from 4Khz up to 78Khz with the same machine.
 

Great Question, John, and you are absolutely right. The quarter will fall and RISE with all the natural and, possibly, manmade forces on it so the answer is "who knows" because unless it hits a hard clay or bedrock layer, it is likely not going to have a final position. This is one of the reasons why you find targets in supposedly hunted out sites (I maintain that there is likely no such animal, regardless how hard the site has been pounded).
 

I have found an 1831 Coronet Liberty Head Large Cents in a hardwood forest in what once was a school yard. The school was taken down and removed in 1863. The coin had no ware on it what so ever. The rim on these coins was not made high enough to prevent ware on the face when in circulation so no ware indicated when it was dropped in was new. The coin was only about 5 to 6 inches down. Most of the cover over the coin was forest duff and hardwood leaves. This means that the coin sank very little and was covered over.

I run 3/4" black waterlines above ground to water tanks for my cows. After about three years these water lines will be completely covered by grass to the point that they are very hard to find. They do not sink into the ground they are covered up by vegetation. The same may not happen in parks but also do not think coins sink unless stepped on or they are in very soft ground.
 

I also found a 1831 US Large Cent yesterday in a wooded area and it was on the surface covered by some leaves. I found 2 others near the same spot earlier this year and they were up to 2 inches deep. The buried ones were more toasted. My personal opinion is it depends on the soil, moisture, and if the ground has been disturbed over the years. I find most of my coins less than 5 inches deep and I've dug deeper trash as well. There's no exact science to it but it is a fun topic to debate.
 

I also found a 1831 US Large Cent yesterday in a wooded area and it was on the surface covered by some leaves. I found 2 others near the same spot earlier this year and they were up to 2 inches deep. The buried ones were more toasted. My personal opinion is it depends on the soil, moisture, and if the ground has been disturbed over the years. I find most of my coins less than 5 inches deep and I've dug deeper trash as well. There's no exact science to it but it is a fun topic to debate.

I too have experienced similar results. It's really weird! Oh.......I like your avatar!

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