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Does one really need to dig deep and deeper for older coins and jewelry???? :confused:

Z

zeekeys

New member
I have been detecting for 3 years and these are the older coins, foreign coins and jewelry that I have dug. I would say almost all of them are in the 0-4" range. I keep telling people you don't need to dig really deep to get silver and older coins. Here is why I say this. I know many of you have much bigger and better collections of older coins and jewelry. Again I find them by accident.... Thanks for looking....Z
By the way I don't have any of the jewelry. Cashed it in.
 
Site and its particular qualities determine depth. There are no hard fast rules regarding age of coin vs depth. Any long term detectorist will acknowledge this.
 
I have been in areas where I dug down to pull out a target, retrieved the old coin, put the small coil in the hole, got another signal, dug deeper, pulled out another yet older coin, put the coil in the deep hole and again another older coin. These were from the early to mid 1800's coins. The hole ended up being over 18" deep and shaped like a upside down mushroom by the time I finished. It has happened three times like that. That tells me many coins are out of range. I was lucky in those instances that the coins were some what under or to the side of that particular spot. Just the other day dug a 1724 Britania 2" deep and once found a civil war token 1/2" deep.

I will agree with TerraDigger about the sites particulars. How can we know what completely took place at a certain site over the past 200/300 years. When and was it ever ploughed?, was there a homestead there that's not on any old maps?, was it ever filled?, was it filled from another old homestead's demo?, was it a.....on and on. We can't make any hard rules that I can think of, if ya can I'm all ears.

And zeekeys, those finds are no accidents, you were after them and put in the time and effort, well done sir.
 
I've been hunting my area for around a year now, and have yet to find a single old coin, have found clad as deep as 6in before though.
 
Yes Mezrein I also have found clad much deeper than 6". I have found old coins sitting on top of the ground. I have found old coins in tot lots. I just found a 1937 wheat penny on the beach today will be posting it next. Mezrein just go out and have fun detecting. Those old coins will come. Thanks for reply....Z
 
n/t
 
Knowing the area is a big help,
A ball field that is known to date back to only 1980 or so isn't likely to produce much 1920 stuff unless the area had some other use before that.
There is a local city park where I live and the history can be researched, the area around 1919 or before was just wooded land with no real use, so the land was donated to the city for a park in 1920. The park is right at 150 acres and at one time a nice size man made lake or a very large pond (it was referred to as a lake) The lake was drained in 1929 due to a child drowning, the lake bed is still there.

Depth of the coins there?
Okay, by more research I found that the beaver tail pull rings (pull and toss tabs) were introduced in 1965 and ran through 1975 when the newer stay-tabs came out. In the park there is a heavy blanket of the pull & toss tabs at the 3" to 5" depth range, with the stay tabs above that. So knowing this how deep on average am I'm going to have to go to get a fairly fresh dropped (lost close to its minted dated) 1925 quarter? I would have to dig at lest through the pull ring bed.

Coins can end up deeper in some places if someone moved dirt around or hauled in fill dirt to level or flatten out an area. So, many times you just have to sample an area to see what comes up and try to gauge the depth by the finds that come out of the ground. Now the above park is gauged, but there is a closed down golf course and in one area below the caddy bench we were finding pull and toss tabs still laying on top of the ground, silver and wheat pennies were less than 3" deep. The golf course was also opened in the early 20's. Now on the same golf course but over next to the 9th hole there wasn't any junk, no tabs but they're was some coins, nothing older than 1930 but they were 4" to 5".

Area or location is everything and each is different, but most has a way to date the area and can be judge by sampling it, dig some pull tabs, what depth are they on average?
Is the clad coming out at unreal depths like 6" or deeper then your not likely to reach the older coins.

So, there isn't a rule, but they're some guild lines that can be followed to help in the hunt.

Mark
 
I know you guys are right. I did not make the post to say that everyone is wrong. I only made the post because it seems all that guys are interested in is HOW DEEP DOES IT GO when looking at a detector. There is so much more to getting a good detector. I just wanted to show that even digging 1"-4" a guy can find old coins, gold and silver jewelry. Even people that know nothing about detecting are asking that question. How deep does it go? Like if you can detect a deep signal that is all you need for a magic detector? That's all I wanted to do is show that you don't have to dig 10" or more to find good stuff. There is good stuff 4" or less. That was the main purpose of my post. Thanks for replies. Happy Trails......Z
 
zeekeys said:
I know you guys are right. I did not make the post to say that everyone is wrong. I only made the post because it seems all that guys are interested in is HOW DEEP DOES IT GO when looking at a detector. There is so much more to getting a good detector. I just wanted to show that even digging 1"-4" a guy can find old coins, gold and silver jewelry. Even people that know nothing about detecting are asking that question. How deep does it go? Like if you can detect a deep signal that is all you need for a magic detector? That's all I wanted to do is show that you don't have to dig 10" or more to find good stuff. There is good stuff 4" or less. That was the main purpose of my post. Thanks for replies. Happy Trails......Z
Click to expand...

Well, if my detector will not reach anything beyond 5" then I have a detector that has limited depth and so if I go into an area that the good stuff is 7" to 8" deep (my local park) then I might as well stay home! Case in point, I've had two BH Landstar's and where I live 4" to 5" was it! (many people love that detector) but I know enough about my area that I have to have something that will hit the 6" to 7" range anyway.

But on the other hand, if a detector has the ability (capability) to reach the deeper stuff in my area then I wouldn't feel like I had lost anything on finding the shallow stuff.

So, before I buy a detector I need to have some idea about its depth capability and that cannot be done by looking at the manufacturing advertising (which is many times more hype than fact).
The BH Landstar would have been okay to hunt my local soccer fields for surface finds but using it in my local park and being successful for finding the old stuff was just a fantasy!

A shallow search machine for a good number of people would limit them more than a deeper searching machine would. If my detector will hit a penny or dime at a REAL 7" or so then at lest I feel like I can get down to the depth I need.

From Title Post said:
[size=large]Does one really need to dig deep and deeper for older coins and jewelry????[/size]
Click to expand...

Yep! in many area's like where I live less than 5" will leave a lot of the good (old) stuff!:thumbdown:

Mark
 
LOTS of super deep stuff around here. Last year I dug a measured 11" deep SLQ and the park dates to the 1860's. At the same park a couple of weeks ago, I was testing out the 15" DD and got a 8" deep buffalo nickle.

Imagine how deep the 1800's stuff must be :drool:
 
For sure, there are some sites where depth is important for the really old stuff. As the norm, a lot of good recoveries can be made down to 7." but on old sites there are some good ones down deeper, as well. And frequently, they are the more stellar of recoveries. HH jim tn
 
Nice finds Z........All my big $$$$$ finds, over the years also have been in the 0-4'' range
 
Not really, I have found a roman silver coin 4 inches down in the woods. It dated to around 114 A.D.
 
n/t
 
Thanks for replies and I do agree. My friend found a 100 year old coin under a fallen tree trunk on top of the ground.
Cyan that is a great find. Did you have to let the government know about your find? How does that work? How long does the whole process take?
Metal detecting can't be put in a neat little theory that fits all. Theories have to be loose when considering metal detecting. We just don't understand?
Thanks and Happy Trails....Z
 
I have reported all my ancient find's to the local goverment archaeologist per the law, through e-mail with photo's and were I found them. He has never responded once lol. I just collect them on my shelf and never do plan on selling them so I do not think it is any problem.
 
Very nice collection Zeekeys :thumbup:

I think it's just site specific, as I've made nice finds 10" deep, and other nice finds that where 4" or less, you just never know unless you get out there and dig :detecting:

HH,
Brian
 
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