This is kinda strange

[Detectorguru]

Finding shallow old silver , wheats and indians from worked out sites with little trash. Has anyone had tis happen???????? No signs of grading or runoff.

 

[dave5710]

Many of my silver coins have come from well hunted sites and been shallow. (3 or 4 inches). I always thought that was strange.

 

[ron_c]

Looking at a school site that was started in 1914 and burned in 1965. Have hunted only 3 times and coins are far and few between. First hunt found a movie token at 3" and a 14K gold plated ring at 2". Second hunt yielded a wheat back that had been shot with a .22 and the bullet is still stuck to the penny and was hit right on the date, found at 2 1/2". Also found a 1919 Mercury and a 1914 Barber dime in the 3 to 3 1/2" range. Last hunt just this last Sunday yielded a 1944D Mercury at 1", a 1950D wheat back also at 1" and a 1962D penny at 1 1/2". A friend that was with me found a 1934D Mercury at 2" with his little Chinese detector. Have only found 1 pull tab but lots of trash (aluminum and iron) is present. The shallow coins are very strange.

 

[Larry (IL)]

It happens all the time, that is why I just chuckle when someone says a place is worked out.

 

[robertk]

Maybe freezing and thawing are pushing them back to the surface? I know the fields often sprout rocks out of nowhere around here, and that's supposedly what does it.

 

[go-rebels]

It depends on your ground conditions. Here in the Upstate of South Carolina, where there is plenty of red clay, old coins rarely get below 4-6". The ground is just too hard all summer for anything to migrate deeper.

 

[ron_c]

Now we know why we are finding very shallow and older coins at a school site. I had ask the owner if the soil had ever been disturbed and he told me that it hadn't. Today I again ask if anything has ever been done at the school site and he told me besides grading the top 3 to 4 inches of soil it has never been disturbed. Seems to him "disturbed" means plowed or having the soil disc. The foundation area of the school had a depression and he needed soil to fill it in and level the ground. This would explain why we are finding coins so shallow. Just today found a 1938 quarter in the 1 to 1 1/2" range and 3 Mercury's (all in the 40's) in the 1 to 2 1/2" range. Out of a total of 23 coins, only 3 penny's have been found and not one Roosevelt. Except for 3 Barber dimes and 1 Washington quarter all the other have been Mercury's. There is an absence of pull tabs, only 3 have been found but lots of melted aluminum and it seems every square yard of area is littered with iron (nails, bolts, etc.) as the school burned in 1965.