Will coins ever stop sinking??

[Mark7]

I've dug coins from flat ground that has not been mowed nor does our ground freeze in n.w Florida on my own property at 7"-8" ... 1983 zinc sunk fast.
Grass clippings will never turn into dirt,,just organic matter.

I agree.Coins and all objects will sink,there are many variables like Gravity.Ever find a coin on edge,how do you think it got on edge.

 

[supertraq]

Coin sinking on Pensacola Beach is a fast version of what happens in dirt.. Our sand area where folks lay is about 5'-6' above the water,we have about 6"-9" tides so it has no effect on items up high on the beach.. If we have a tropical storm or the "H" word Spanish coins can still be found but plenty of jewelry and coins.

 

[JimGilmore]

And yet here in Ca. the grass is 4-6 inches above the concrete paths though they started off level.

 

[chuck ky]

Since the yards build up then technically the coins aren't sinking the ground is growing higher around them

 

[After-1-]

The one find that really puzzles me the most is ---last year detecting a playground -There has not been any changes to the ground in 50+ yrs-------6'' down out comes a Coke can -the whole can flatten- One farm I hunt I find a lot of ground termites and the target together------------after1---------

 

[supertraq]

Ground does not create matter and build up. Grass or trees use the organic material to form themselves,no magic. And when the grass is cut or a tree dies it's recycled back into the next living plant. It's this process that gets coins,depending on your climate,down the first few inches and from there on when the soil get soaked the coins sink a little more each time.
The softer and heavily rained on soils like in the Southeast the coins sink fast so depth is more important than someone in the West.. Monte frequently mentions where he hunts in arid ghost towns the dry dead ground keeps the coin near the surface.
Lay a coin on concrete and see how deep it goes,??

 

[Mark7]

Ground does not create matter and build up. Grass or trees use the organic material to form themselves,no magic. And when the grass is cut or a tree dies it's recycled back into the next living plant. It's this process that gets coins,depending on your climate,down the first few inches and from there on when the soil get soaked the coins sink a little more each time.
The softer and heavily rained on soils like in the Southeast the coins sink fast so depth is more important than someone in the West.. Monte frequently mentions where he hunts in arid ghost towns the dry dead ground keeps the coin near the surface.
Lay a coin on concrete and see how deep it goes,??

Well said! Like I stated before I totally agree. Like the pop cans at 6" or more in the ground,how did they get that deep?Same with coins. Sure was not grass clippings.

 

[Timelord2]

Darwin did a study on this and it all has to do with worms.....

 

[supertraq]

Actually worms would contribute significantly to coins sinking because their digging in moist organic soil keeps the soil soft and loamy.

 

[ijraptor]

I wonder if there has been any testing done with different coins and soils for specific areas. Obviously temperature and moisture would skew the results but I think someone that has the equipment and knowledge could run some specific gravity testing for the coins/soils Obviously a coin is denser than soil, and a lab cannot control all variables like rocks, sticks, etc. It would be interesting to test a soil with a coin to see if it actually does drop any.

 

[supertraq]

Well if you put a coin on top a bucket of soil in a house where the environment has no influence then unless is sugar sand like Pensacola/Panama city Beach sand it will never move appreciably.. It takes an active climate to create the grass,soft soil,worms,cold freezing and thawing etc.
Again the well known Monte,hope you don't mind Monte,has brought it up many times where he prefers to hunt in the arid West and deepth is not the issue it target separation that's important.
Even here where coin sink fast,if you hunt a place that has seen a lot of weight on the soil via foot traffic or even cattle can pack the ground enough to cause coins to be shallow... Old dirt parking lots are like concrete with maybe 1/2" " sandy dusty soil on top.
I found a 1945 wheatback under the dust about 6 weeks ago in a downtown p'cola dirt pack parking lot.

 

[RHG]

-- moved topic --

 

[Woodstock]

I read it a old treasure mag years back that coins are slowly covered by nature plant decay at about 1 / 16" of a inch a year so it take 10 years to be a inch down . But factors like heavy rain can have them bury faster and deeper . Then a lot of areas have things like clay or rocks that compact the dirt so the coins depth range begins to slow down the closer it gets to those natural obstructions the more the soil is compressed from the weight of the soil above and that seems to make sense to me . My question is if that was the case then why don't coins and other stuff out in the southwest say nearer to the surface ? Woodstock

 

[GeorgeinSC]

Lots of good information in this article He is an engineer so I will tend to believe what has to say.

http://www.dankowskidetectors.com/loveisdeep.htm

 

[timwied]

Ok, here is a strange thing that happened to me last weekend. I was hunting at an old church site, church is long gone now. I hit a very strong 59 on my Fisher F4, switched to pinpoint and it said 0 inches. Well I thought it was a piece of can slaw, but I looked and on top of the grass was laying a 1904 Indian Head Cent!!! Now how did that Indian get on top of the grass? I would have thought it would have been at least a couple inches deep. This grass hasn't been turned as long as I can remember, and I'm 56 years old!?! Any ideas?

 

[GeorgeinSC]

A possibility is some youngster got hold of Grandpa'a coin collection and took it out to play. It was lost very recently.

 

[chuck ky]

Were there any bare spots close by? If there were the rain may have washed it out of the ground.