A discussion came up recently and i'd like your input. How deep have you found a dime? Please be honest :)

[ChuckDiggin it in Florida]

A discussion came up recently and i'd like your input. How deep have you found a dime? For me it would be about 8" where I knew for sure about the depth and that it had not fallen back into a hole. I'm only talking about hits that your detector is identifying to you, to be a high coin-not digging ghost signals and getting lucky! I have one at a measured 9" in my 7 year old test garden [ I have a few gardens ] and because I know where it is, I can get a reading on it, that's digable, with some detectors and some coils. If I didn't know it was there, in most cases, i'd get a bad reading at first, or bad sound, and pass it by. If for instance, I read an id meter on a Sovereign, Deleon, Cortes, MXT and the many others that I have used on it, the id will be inaccurate, until I go over it a number of times and then it jumps from a positive id to other numbers. Using a non id detector, like the Tejon, Vaquero, White's Classic III with Mr Bill Mods, DMC IIb, and on and on [i've had them all-really! ] if you set disc to only allow dimes on up, I get a tick on the 9" dime with some, but only unsure stuff. Same goes for tone id-unsure. My ground reads a steady 83 with my MXT in prospecting mode.I can airtest them at much more, but not in the ground.
I have been overly explanitory, for the sake of newbees, to gather information from your replies.
Thanks, maybe we can all gain something from this?

 

[Rick(ND)]

Now on my Sovereign XS2 with the Sun Sun Ray meter and the S1 probe I have dug dimes at 12 inches. The meter ID is not correct and the tones was trying to climb, but enough to let me know it was a good target, but like I say the meter didn't ID it, but the numbers were trying to climb. I also had to go slower then normal in order to get a signal and used the S1 probe to locate them being so deep.
Now on a non ID detector I found the Shadow X5 got me 2 mercs one day at 10 inches that locked right on,but being this deep they were small signals. I used the Uniprobe to find these with the X5 after I dug out a plug and went in the hole to try to find them as I had to dig deeper than what I had dug.

 

[John in Florida]

Merc dimes in Missouri at a measured 9", not including the grass. Used Explorer for one and a Troy Shadow X5 for the other.

 

[BuckeyeBrad]

measured 13" using my X-5. It gave a very weak but repeatable signal when toggled into the zinc target check.

 

[Art (NWOH)]

8-10 inches. Very dry dirt. Sov XS2a. 14" Detech. Coil was about 5" off ground (grass was tall).
Didn't look at meter, but hit was nice clean silver sound on the first pass.

HH

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Everyone knows I am basically a CZ guy and have used one or the other models since the first CZ6 circa 92..So experience also comes into play, but I frequently dig silver dimes 6-10 inches and now and then especially in the spring when the ground is wet have dug them in the vicinity of a foot...I run my volume at 10( max) so the signals are always loud and clear, have to admit I dig more wheaties at extreme depth because of the halo and easily grabbed some large cents at extreme depth as I would imagine their halo may be the size of a tennis ball.
Although not an avid 1266 user also have dug several at a foot. I know this one is going to surprise the heck out of many also dug a Barber dime deeper than a foot with a GTI-2500 in the all metal that ID's...yep it had an ID of a dime... We must remember in my area silver coins drop deep and in some areas 6-8 inchers are deepies....Do I dig a whole bunch of extreme deepies heck no but at least several each year and they are always Barber or Seated...
For those doubters they do not fall from the side of the hole as when I initially pin point that low growl lets me know its deep digging time..I hope you all understand depth isn't everything but it sure gets the ones in those pounded areas...

 

[Richard@BackwoodsDetectors]

over the years, I would say that the deepest dime was probably 7-8 inches.... The deepest coin-like target (25 cent size token) was found by a CZ-3D, 8" coil, at approximately 11 inches... RichardnTn

 

[ChuckDiggin it in Florida]

Expertise at finding old deep stuff means more than detector models. Expertise with a particular machine { The CZ's in your case, makes a machine tell them more than an average user would gain from the same hit. So, apparantly, there are circumstances, where people do hit dimes at over 9" and know what the target is! What would you say the deepest dimes are that positive id would be there for any detectorist to recognize? Not just an old pro like you? { I don't mean that in jest! I have read and learned much from your posts through the years! You are as pro as a detectorist gets I believe! }

 

[waterhunter]

Man you guys get some deep ones - I have been hunting for 25 years and have used a lot of different machines, and honestly cant say Ive dug a dime at much over 6 inches. I have measured depth in sand between the Minelay soverign, Tesore Tejon, Tesoro Lobo Super traq and Tesoro Tiger Shark. The Tejon got a clear signal at about 11 1/2; the Minelab at 10", super traq at 9" and tiger at about 7 1/2 - this was the same on a gold ring. This was a controlled test with a plastic ruler at measured depths - I have also used the Fisher CZ series, and while some things have been dug at incrediable depths, coins just werent some of them. Possibly some of my trouble is with my hearing.

 

[UK Brian]

Waterhunter I've got three large test beds that have been establised many, many years. Three beds as over an acre the ground goes from almost no mineralisation to very high.
No one, and no machine has ever managed to locate coins/rings at the depths they feel they do regularly in the field. Reason I think is that not many pinpoint or recover as well as they think they do so many so called deep finds have in fact been dug past and have then slipped down to the bottom of the hole.

 

[RingProfessional]

Hearing ability definetely affects how deep you will find stuff Poor hearing = poor depth. .
I once pulled a small farthing from a mimimum 9 inches with the xlt in mixed mode and thats a coin that is thinner but about the same the size as a dime. My hearing is less than perfect but not too bad.

 

[Neil in West Jersey]

My first metal detecting experience was an accidental find. I was looking for a property stake with a Whites PRL-1 industrial MD with no ID features, and found my first merc at about 8.5 to 9 inches! I was hooked! I used that simple detector for 5 years before upgrading. And let me tell you, I learned just from listening to the single pitched tone what type of coin I was going to dig, and approximately how deep the target was! Meters are over rated!! I just use them to confirm what I already know!

 

[John in Florida]

No one here said that they *regularly* find Dimes at those depths.

We all know that these are exceptional circumstances.

 

[Dave Z]

Probably a 1916 Barber dime I found a few weeks ago.It was about 9=10".Brandon was with me and I let him check it on his DFX before I dug it.There was no trash around it and the ground was very wet.Didn't really pay much attention to the vdi,the tone id and strength of the signal was fairly strong.

 

[Dave Z]

I had the Cz6.6a,7 and 7apro.All with 10.5"coils.Never got a dime past 7-8".At 8" I would get the coin/iron bounce.Dave

 

[John in Florida]

He didn't say he had a perfect coin tone/signal with the CZ, just that he dug them at extreme depths.

 

[UK Brian]

The question should have been how deep have you detected a dime.

 

[ChuckDiggin it in Florida]

can not id a dime at past 9" if even at that! Meters are off by that depth and so is tone id, especially on CZ's they drop a tone easily.
So, after reading the majority of posts, under this subject, it seems that overall, most detectorists, have found there to be a 9" max identifiable hit. In fact, a number of seasoned detectorists, suggest even less.
I was wondering, if others had come to the same conclusion, through the years that I have. A dime 9" or deeper, usually will not ID properly and those extravagant depth finds, of a foot and more, are most likely "fell back in the hole" deepies.
I can find them deeper too and do all the time, but it's not because the detector plainly shows it to be a dime, it's because it fluctuated id up into coin range some and because in all metal, I "GUESS" that it's a deep dime or copper penny.
The average detectorist, would think it junk, from the id tones and meters. I'm not saying i'm as good as many here are, but I think i'm above average, perhaps?

 

[Neil in West Jersey]

You can't ID any dime at 9 inches. Being someone with no ID feature on my first MD, I learned to dig EVERYTHING that gave any tone. The fact of the matter is I dug a merc at about 8.5 inches in a manicured flower bed. May have been higher in conductive soils from mulch and who knows what else. You will get different read outs in clay than you will in sand, you will get deeper signals in damp soil than dry soil. The point is there is no definitive answer to "how deep".

 

[UK Brian]

The point is that I have all the U.S. and European detectors come through my hands and in many cases either the owners or even the designers of the machines to show how its done and on medium and higher mineralisation there is no signal to identify.
A one inch pure copper coin can just be heard with minimum discrimination (just to knock out small nails) at the eight inch mark. Heard, not identified. (9-10 inch coils used both concentic and double D).
Then consider my discussion on the P.I. Technology forum a few weeks back with Dave Emery (designer/manufacturer of the Pulse Devil) re the Nexus. Dave considered there is little mineralisation in the U.K. compared to the States yet all the so called deep seekers fail. And we don't rely on tones or meters.
I always like to finish off by taking visitors to the nearest beach to try to locate a gold ring on a string marked in inches. Ask what depth their W.O.T., Penetrator etc will hit on a large gold ring. Bury it. No signal, so gradually drag it up towards the surface. The result is that the actual depth is always at least one third less.