How deep was the coin?.....

[JB(MS)]

This afternoon I dropped a load of stuff off at the local Salvation Army store and on the way home stopped at a likely looking site to detect for a few minutes. The first signal was a flattened bottlecap, then a moderately weak high tone that's almost always a dime or pre zinc penny around 5 inches down. I cut about a four inch deep plug and checked it, but whatever gave the signal was still in hole and gave a louder response when I swung the coil over it. I used the trowel to take out a couple more inches of dirt and checked again, target was still in the hole but gave a weaker response. I kept digging with the trowel and scraping the sides of the hole until I got almost as deep as the trowel is long, but the signal kept getting weaker until it was completely lost.

I was hot, soaked with sweat and disgusted by that time so I put the dirt back in the hole, replaced the plug, stepped on it to level it and headed home, but when I got to my truck I decided I wasn't gonna let whatever it was beat me. I went back, took the dirt back out of the hole, scraped around in the hole a few more times and got the coin, a 1952 wheatie at almost a foot deep. At least it was almost that far from the top of the ground when I recovered it, but no more than five inches or so down when I started digging. The hole was as deep as from the tip of the trowel to the hole in the handle, 10 to 10.5 inches according to the tape measure. That it wasn't over half that deep when I started digging doesn't detract from the fact it was 10+ inches deep does it?

[attachment 137868 howdeep.jpg]

 

[Hombre]

Howdy JB

At least the coin was a wheaty, I dug a stinkin lincoln at about that depth one time, looked at the back and it had that dadgum building on the back of it. Go figure.

 

[JB(MS)]

How's it going Hombre. Still using the CZ? Actually, it's not that uncommon for a coin to slide down the side of the hole when it's being dug. I've had it happen several times over the years and have seen it happen to guys I was hunting with many times. Not too long ago I was hunting an old football field with a long time hunting buddy, Jim, and noticed he had been digging in the same place for awhile. I walked over to see what was going on and he said he had got a really strong signal, like a coin on top of the ground, but the deeper he dug the weaker the signal got until it completely disappeared. He had dug a hole about 6 inches in diameter and over a foot deep and asked me to see if I could get a signal, but instead of seeing if I could get a signal I scraped the sides of the hole, dipped the dirt out and it was a shiny, new 2009 zinc penny with the mint luster still on it. That's without doubt the biggest reason we see posts about coins that were found at unbelievable depths. The coin I got out that hole did the same, it kept sliding down as I dug. No way would the detector I was using, or any other detector I've ever used, find a wheatie that deep with a 5.5 inch coil like I was using, but since it was almost a foot deep when I finally corralled it I guess I can claim it was.

 

[JHM]

That's the reason I use a Garrett propointer. I don't like to hunt without it.

 

[tvr]

This evening with the Compadre, I had a target I couldn't find in the hole. Made the hole a lot bigger and deeper than I wanted to and finally found the target with the pinpointer about 4 inches down and still in the side of the hole. It was a broken off bottle neck with the ring part of the removed screw cap still attached to the neck. The metal was presented to the detector like a ring standing on edge. I had located what I thought was center on it with the detector about 5 inches from where the target actually was.

Glad you got the wheatie.
tvr

 

[Hombre]

Howdy JB

Ya. I still have the CZ plus some Tesoros. I found an honest to goodness 9 or 10 inch deep memorial penny. must have fell down a crack in the soil we get here during a drought. I swear the cracks get wide enough to lose a chiuaua in.

 

[dahut]

Ive done that with a Golden, too, JB. 'Dead solid, but weak signal, indicating high tone. You dig and dig and dig, and before long you have this big pile of dirt, with the tone still in the hole. Mine was a quarter, the last time it happened.

 

[Brokensignal]

Hi JB(MS),i have had this same thing happen so many times.Now when a good signal disappears i almost know for sure it is a coin trying to elude me.I found out real quick if it is a junk target it will stay near the top of the hole,but if it is a coin it will keep sliding and hiding because of the coin being flat.Now if i lose a signal i take my hand and clean out the hole and sides with my hand with the glove on it.I just let no loose dirt stay in the hole and 95% of the time i get that coin! i really do want a pinpointer,i have to get one,a good one.