About 2 years ago, I 'planted' a coin garden. Today, I dug it up as we will be moving later this year, and NO ONE is gonna dig my silver! This post is some things I learned from this experience.
I started with a clay-rich area that I dug everything metal out of and then added about a foot of topsoil (acidic as this was a forest for decades) from another area of my property. This new dirt was gone over with a pinpointer to prevent metal contamination. As the dirt was added to the area, I tamped it down after every 2" of new soil. I then buried:
-silver quarters and dimes,
-copper and zinc pennies,
-current nickels,
-pulltabs and screwcaps,
-a 10k gold ring, &
- couple of rusty nails and a bread twist tie.
All coins were planted in 3 orientations: flat, vertical, and 45degrees. Everything was buried at 6 to 8" and a cup of saltwater was poured into the hole prior to filling with dirt. Nothing was planted to interfere with another item's signal. A detailed map was made. (!)
Results:
I recovered everything except a clad dime buried in a horizontal position. And I have no idea how this one still avoids me.
The silver and gold came out of the ground as pristine as the day it went in.
The clad, nickels, and Cu pennies were VERY corroded; easily as tarnished as anything I've dug in a park or schoolyard. (salt no doubt is the culprit)
The Zincs were starting to rot away.
Orientation made no difference in the ease of detecting a given coin.
But the biggest surprise to me was how badly the nickels had tarnished. I guess the salt had a strong effect as I regularly find much less tarnished nickels a couple of inches down (meaning much more than several years in the dirt......?) that aren't nearly this ugly.
My Safari finds silver more readily than it finds anything else. Its like it is built for silver.
If I was doing it all over again, I wouldn't bury everything so deep. Several visiting detectors had a lot of trouble finding the coins at 8", even the silver ones. and even after I would mark the spots with golf tees for them.
Others' results/experiences are welcomed as are any questions.
I started with a clay-rich area that I dug everything metal out of and then added about a foot of topsoil (acidic as this was a forest for decades) from another area of my property. This new dirt was gone over with a pinpointer to prevent metal contamination. As the dirt was added to the area, I tamped it down after every 2" of new soil. I then buried:
-silver quarters and dimes,
-copper and zinc pennies,
-current nickels,
-pulltabs and screwcaps,
-a 10k gold ring, &
- couple of rusty nails and a bread twist tie.
All coins were planted in 3 orientations: flat, vertical, and 45degrees. Everything was buried at 6 to 8" and a cup of saltwater was poured into the hole prior to filling with dirt. Nothing was planted to interfere with another item's signal. A detailed map was made. (!)
Results:
I recovered everything except a clad dime buried in a horizontal position. And I have no idea how this one still avoids me.
The silver and gold came out of the ground as pristine as the day it went in.
The clad, nickels, and Cu pennies were VERY corroded; easily as tarnished as anything I've dug in a park or schoolyard. (salt no doubt is the culprit)
The Zincs were starting to rot away.
Orientation made no difference in the ease of detecting a given coin.
But the biggest surprise to me was how badly the nickels had tarnished. I guess the salt had a strong effect as I regularly find much less tarnished nickels a couple of inches down (meaning much more than several years in the dirt......?) that aren't nearly this ugly.
My Safari finds silver more readily than it finds anything else. Its like it is built for silver.
If I was doing it all over again, I wouldn't bury everything so deep. Several visiting detectors had a lot of trouble finding the coins at 8", even the silver ones. and even after I would mark the spots with golf tees for them.
Others' results/experiences are welcomed as are any questions.
