Coin depth

[Great Republic]

Does anyone have a theory as to why when one finds,as I have, a merc dime at 2 inches and 4 feet away a clad quarter at 8 inches. Today I found a wheatie at 3 inches and 2 feet away a memorial penny at 7 inches. Do coins go up and down over time?

 

[mattockman]

n/t

 

[digitrich]

and also maybe ground hogs, moles, earthworms, tree roots, frost, expansive clays in the soil, weight of different coins (quarter is heavier than a dime), leaves and grass clippings decaying on top Etc. Also in areas where the ground becomes saturated especially sandy soils, they become almost fluid and the coins sink quicker in those areas, many guys think people like to sit on top of hills more than in in slight depressions because they find more stuff on higher ground, actually the water runs down to the lowest point, that ground most often saturates and things sink faster in it, hence deeper targets again especially in sandy loam type soils.

 

[Great Republic]

Great replies thanks. I keep picturing the ground in time laps photo with the moles constantly churning up the soil and frost heaving things up and down and water pushing things around.
I guess I would move up and down to.

 

[digitrich]

I make a living doing structural reinforcement of the basement walls that soil pushes in.

 

[SNOWY]

GR, I have an old book written by the late, great Glenn Carson,
his theory is that as a coin is dropped, the darkness beneath the soil causes the grass to die off...
Worms then eat this dead grass underneath the coin, and the coin then starts to slowly make its way
downwards until the coin has no more dead vegetation below it.

There it sits, at the grass root level, until we detect it !

I feel this is a very likely theory,
and Glenn H Carson was a well respected author...

 

[mattockman]

n/t

 

[balenim]

One site I've been searching lately, I've been digging both Merc & Rosies from 6-10 inches and one day I'm working an area and got a good signal and it is a Merc 2 inches deep. I couldn't believe that it was that shallow but this yard has several distinct types of soil in the same yard. It ranges from outright sand to very heavy clay. Weather plays a bigger part in how something sinks (or rises) than any single factor given that the soil is all the same density. Frost, freeze, rain and also drought moves soil but you also have to consider that soil can go up as well. Every time you cut the grass or leaves fall muddy water moves across it and leaves silt, the soil builds upwards. So alot of depth of a coin can happen from soil build up as well as sinking.