Approx how deep are the silver coins?

[Massbaycolonist]

Hi. I found a real nice old site today. I pulled out 2 quarters, five pennies, and one dime in no time at all. All clad. I know this is a real general question, but about how deep are you finding silver coins? The coins I found were about 5 inches deep, or less. One reason why I don't find deeper coins is that I like nice, loud, clear, unambigous signals to dig for. Natch these are the more shallow coins.
Here's another general question: Let's say you go to a nice site that has a fair amount of coins, including some silver ones. About (again, this is generally speaking) what percentage of silver coins might you expect to find vs clads? Or you could just give a to one silver figure, such as 20 clad for every silver one. Thank you, HH, Kevin

 

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[Seamuss]

The older the site, the better chances you have of finding silver. Older abandend farms, buildings and ghost towns are good sites for silver and maybe(?) gold.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Last week I found a 1906 Barber quarter at 5". I've dug silver from 4" to 8". Coincedentally, I've pulled clad from up to 8" and 9" also. This area gets frost heaves to 18" or more deep in the winter, floods in the spring and a lot of the parks are beside rivers and streams on the flood plains. Coins can get silted over or the soil over them washed away, fall in a frost crack or be lifted up in a frost/ice heave so it is impossible to date based on depth alone.

Man, just loving to improve on nature, is always filling and grading soil. A plow can take a coin from 14" deep right up to the surface in one pass.

 

[metalmolly]

The reason you're finding clad is because clad is newer on the ground and much more likely to be shallow. When you find shallow silver its usually because something (a tree root, dense soil, etc.) has stopped it from sinking. Or something has caused it to be churned up. There are exceptions, but usually older coins are deeper coins and if you want to dig more old silver you've got to dig weaker iffy signals.

 

[ivan salis]

normally speaking older silver coins are general deeper than the more modern clad ones -- but things can mix up the "norm"-- plowing . building ,ect --- but as a normal rule for silver gotta clear off the shallow stuff and listen for the "wihspers from the deep silver"

 

[metalmolly]

Here's another general question: Let's say you go to a nice site that has a fair amount of coins, including some silver ones. About (again, this is generally speaking) what percentage of silver coins might you expect to find vs clads? Or you could just give a to one silver figure, such as 20 clad for every silver one. Thank you, HH, Kevin

There's just no way to answer that question without knowing the history of the site. If you are hunting an area that had a lot of traffic 50 or 100 years ago but is now abandoned, your percentage of silver to clad should obviously be high. But known sites like that have usually been hunted hard, so pickings are often slim. But if you are hunting a tot lot, it's obviously the other way around. The odds of finding silver (and gold) in a tot lot is basically in jewelry, not coins. Remember that silver coins were mostly gone from circulation within a couple years of clad starting. So any site that had its activity after the mid-60's is very unlikely to have silver coins.

 

[ivan salis]

yep the old silver coin hunters rule #1 --if silver coins were not lost there , then they are surely are not going to be found there.

gotta hunt where folks hung out at during the age of silver coins -- pre 1965 and before --where folks gathered -- and did stuff --old swimming holes --amusement parks and parks of that time frame--- older schools -- places were carny troupes / rodeos and such used to set up when they visited town -- old farms --fruit stands anywhere folks gathered and money changed hands out in the open --

 

[MD Dog]

The vast majority of silver coins can be found in the top six inches of soil.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Oh gee, let's see: silver coins will always be no less than 4" deep. All coins beyond that are gauranteed to be silver/wheaties, etc.... Seriously now: It depends. I've found Spanish reales and seateds that were only 1/2" deep (could hear them with my probe before I even started digging). And I've dug clad 10" deep! (on the beach, or moist turf, etc...). It just depends.

In undisturbed turf, I usually start off by searching for 6" or more deep signals. If I get clad dimes at 6" deep, then I revamp my thinking to passing anything less than 6" deep. But I've found other turfed parks/schools where the silver/wheatie strata starts at 4" (drier hard-pan for instance). So it all just depends.

 

[deepskyal]

Yep...this is one of those questions you can get a hundred different answers to.

Back in the 80's, I found most of my silver within the top 4 or 5". Even now, mostly 4-5" range.

In an older park, which myself and another fellow detected a few weeks ago, with history going back to the mid 1800's, we found no silver and clad at 6-7 inches. Oldest coins were in the 1965 and up range. Just missed the silver era.

Two conclusions we reached, well one between us, the other my own.

1) We were a couple decades late detecting the site....someone beat us to the old silver. There's a lot of competition around here with detectorists. Heck, back in the early 80's, lots of the common sites had already been cherry picked to death.

2) Years and years of grass cutting, leave the grass clippings to break down into compost slowly adding layers to the soil. What silver is there is really deep. How deep? Don't know...didn't find any.

Another park I hit some weeks back...they had just aerated. Those things pull plugs at 4". Imagine what it does to coin depth!

State to state, town to town, park to park, site to site...just way too many variables to have any real conclusion on how deep some things will go.

Al

 

[Massbaycolonist]

Last week I found a 1906 Barber quarter at 5". I've dug silver from 4" to 8". Coincedentally, I've pulled clad from up to 8" and 9" also. This area gets frost heaves to 18" or more deep in the winter, floods in the spring and a lot of the parks are beside rivers and streams on the flood plains. Coins can get silted over or the soil over them washed away, fall in a frost crack or be lifted up in a frost/ice heave so it is impossible to date based on depth alone.

Congratulations on finding that Barber quarter, Charlie! Keep up the great work! Kevin

 

[Massbaycolonist]

Thanks, everyone! Great answers. (sorry for sounding so clueless). i just started coin shooting. Interesting that silvers can be found five inches or less.

 

[ivan salis]

lots of folks say the coins are up to 6 inchs deep --(because thats as far as their machines reach-- 6 inches in general ) --- thats like fishiing in a 10 foot deep lake with 5 foot of line and saying that all the fish in the lake are 5 foot or less because I've never caught one deeper (duh you only got 5 feet of line!!!)

coins can be at various depths --a lot depends on the soil and weather conditions and the size and weight of the coin and how often the land was tilled / mowed (tilling can bury or bring up stuff -- mowing leaves grass clippings making things deeper over time .

 

[rockhound]

Most silver coins can go as dep as the topsoil. When they hit subsoil, usually they stop. If you are detecting a field that has been plowed, then they can be a lot deeper, depending on what size plow the farmer used. Hope this helps. rockhound