Average Depths of Coins/How Do Some Get So Deep?

[CoilFisher]

Lyell's Law in application to coin hunting (The oldest things are on the bottom).
Specific depths of coins for their age? Agree or not?

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

assuming you're talking un-disturbed soil, then wouldn't it depend on type of soil, moisture, vegetation in/on spot, etc....

I've dug Spanish reales that "blew my eardrums off" that were only 1/2" deep, in hard-pan soil. And I've dug 1970's memorials 9" deep in lush moist deep turfed parks. Both were un-disturbed soils.

So there's no hard-fast rule.

 

[deepskyal]

I'd agree to a point. Given an isolated area that is undisturbed, over time the older coins would be deeper as dirt accumulates. The pic illistrates how that works. The walkway of a school built in 1920 exposed from under almost a foot of soil that accumulated over 90 years. You know the saying..."Dirt Happens!"

But a lot of places, soil is moved through a variety of ways, frost heave, rototilling, aeration, etc....

Al

 

[baywalker]

There are all kinds of bugs and worms working the soil all the time as they loosen the the soil under the coin the weight of it makes it sink.

Jonnie

 

[Smudge]

That one really depends.

Some are found very deep.

Some other very old coins are found 4" or less.

You would think the looser the soil, the faster and farther they'd sink.

 

[scott565]

In my experience, it has a lot to do with how much water has been present once the item is on the ground. Water seems to really speed up the rate at which objects sink into the ground. I have two locations I hunt where the lawn is so wet that nothing above 5 inches is newer than the last couple of decades - undisturbed soil. I found kids toy guns at 6 inches that I know were dropped less than 40 years ago; I know the kids that dropped them. In a nearby area, I can find wheat pennies at one inch. It's really too bad, the site is one of the oldest homes in that county, and I have not found any silver there - if there is any, it is *very* deep.
-Scott

 

[CoilFisher]

In my experience, it has a lot to do with how much water has been present once the item is on the ground. Water seems to really speed up the rate at which objects sink into the ground. I have two locations I hunt where the lawn is so wet that nothing above 5 inches is newer than the last couple of decades - undisturbed soil. I found kids toy guns at 6 inches that I know were dropped less than 40 years ago; I know the kids that dropped them. In a nearby area, I can find wheat pennies at one inch. It's really too bad, the site is one of the oldest homes in that county, and I have not found any silver there - if there is any, it is *very* deep.
-Scott

Unless the coin in question sinks on top of a large deep rock, then it couldnt really go much deeper. But, what if that rock is mineralized? What a quandry.

 

[Frankn]

OK here comes the controversy. Things don't sink in the ground. Think about it. Those headstones are still sitting in the cemetery on top the ground. The houses are still there. why would you think something as lite as a coin would sink in the ground ? A coin gets covered with dead vegetation,dirt, etc. It gets covered and uncovered by water flowing over it. It gets covered by dust blowing in the wind. I have found things in the desert that were covered with desert varnish laying on top the ground. I have found gold coins on an erroded hillside on the surface. Things sink in water, but that is a different theory. Things get pushed into the sand by traffic or get washed into or out of the sand by moving water.There are rare exceptions like swamps or "quicksand" which follow the theory of a body floating on water etc.
You can tell the age of items in a given area by there dept. I searched a yard this summer in a city. The dept of coins from the 40s was 3"-4". and old ax found at 13" was app 200 years old, the same as the house on the lot. Use the coins you find in an area to gauge the coverage rate for that area. Frank

 

[CoilFisher]

What about weight of the coin in question?

 

[gleaner1]

In the woods where there is no sod layer, the coins stay shallow, in sight even. In the turf, the wind adds a surprising amount of biomass and soil volume every year. The coins do not generally get deeper per se', but the dirt gets thicker, the grass roots get farther away. This is a geological, biological, astrophysical, economical, political, metaphysical, psychological perpendicularical fact, so don't try to argue it. Don't do it.

 

[donj]

those are all good points I often said to my wife if coins sink in soil why are there rocks on the surface? they would sink also. Don.

 

[scott565]

All good points; agreed that in most soils, coins would not "sink"; I think I read a long time ago that here in Ohio the typical vegetation cycle accumulates about 1/16th of an inch per year on top of existing soil, so after 16 years one would expect to find things covered by about an inch of accumulation. At that rate, century-old items would be around 6 inches down and that's fairly typical in many of the areas I have detected. But there are some places, for whatever reason, where the stuff is just deeper. The ball field along the river bottom is one example. This ground has never been turned or dozed in my lifetime(I would be about three inches down ) It floods every year. In springtime, there is a lot of standing water. Maybe the combination of the very wet ground and high traffic work together to let more dense items get to a lower level? I am not a geologist, but I love what they've done with the place

 

[Frankn]

Scott, I only mentioned a few factors. There are many more that must be applied to specific areas. In this area ball fields are limed in the spring. This causes the grass to grow faster, thus more accumulation. In flood areas, grassy areas have a tendisy to hold silt, while sandy areas have a tentency to wash out. In prospecting you will notice the river slows on the inside curve thus dropping gold it carries while the outside curve cuts out. In the desert a wind storm can bury or reveal targets. If you turn on a flashlite in Quartsite in Jan., The beam of light appears brown from dust movement. I basicly go by coin dates to get the dept picture for the area. Frank