Food For Thought Could Be Naught

Hi,,,,Okay my inner cranium was working over time this past week....My brain stimulation was at it's peak while I was slowly swinging my coil,trying to unearth some hidden gems in a trash laden area....I was working an old forgotten park about 40 miles from my homestead....Working around to the front of the park I noticed a plaque that said that it was started in 1862 just 12 years after the start of the town....Now this got me thinking how this park is now 153 years old....Okay here's my thought process:::: In 1964 Charles Garrett introduced his first metal detector to the market place.... By 1967, Garrett competes with more than 35 companies who have a standing history of manufacturing and selling metal detectors. He recognizes early on that his detectors must offer some better searching capabilities than those available from his competitors etc. etc....Now here is what I'm thinking and is also your food for thought scenario for the day....In 1964 the metal detectors that were manufactured were very,very limited by design to obtain much depth....So ponder on this thought, if you was detecting in the sixties at this park or any other place like this park, could you or would you have the capabilities to detect any possible coins that were lost when the park first started????...I don't think the odds are in your favor that you would find many or any coins that were lost because of your limited depth capabilities....Keep in mind that the coins that was lost in 1862 had 102 years of time (1964) to sink in the ground and get covered up by trash etc....Now when I hunt this area the coins have had 153 years of time to go even deeper....Am I finding these coins????................
Well>>>>Kinda Sorta But Not Really....I might get lucky and find some of them if the conditions are just right....Of course there is exceptions to every type of scenario like this....Could this topic help reinforce Tom's thoughts on coins being really deep and unattainable with current technology?....I Think So....What's your thoughts on my thoughts and is it good food>>>>Yum-Yum????....JJ


PS: I used Charles Garrett for reference/comparison only (Garrett detectors)......

I think the "covered by trash" (or even outnumbered by trash) is probably more important than the small possible extra sink of items over the 50 year period.
I'm no expert, but I understand those early machines would be limited to 3 inch depth?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2015 04:46PM by Pimento.

I think some of the early machines did go deep. The issue was keeping it in tune and they had little or no discrimination. So they were really beep diggers and probably snagged more than you think. My first machine was a Whites 3900D Coinmaster. Once I found out the faster I swung it the deeper it would go I was getting 8+ inches. In fact I found a 1853- 2 cent coin at least 8 inches deep and 2 Half dollars at 10 inches I buried when I was 11. Can you imagine hunting in 1964 where every dime, quarter, half and dollars were silver! But what is funny is it was just another coin to those hunters. Not a prized find like it is for us now....

Kenny
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JJ,
My 2 cents worth. A site such as the one you mention. First and foremost there is trash/iron/nails probably masking coins. Digging the detectable iron/trash/nails may help you find some coins. Here's the deal though. You could say dig a 3 inch crown cap. The cap could have a deeper coin under it that's well within your detector's range, but disturbing the soil while digging the crown cap may for the time being make the "normally depth detectable coin" a non detectable target. And this phenomenon could be partially the reason folks return to sites and discover coins they thought they had cleaned out.

Also I feel this is a good idea. Find the areas of your site that are more clean ground. Take a deep seeking VLF and a PI unit. In the cleaner ground a target found with PI, check it with the deep seeking vlf detector for gee wiz. Dig the target. If it's a coin its discovered depth could give a clue to depth of other coins. If using the PI detector you could locate 2 or 3 old coins at similar depths I believe you would have a good baseline to judge the depth of many of the remaining older coins.

It's a crap shoot. The smallest particle of metal in the right place can disrupt the ability to detect a deep coin with deep seeking vlf detector. If the site is "all yours" so to speak, I recommend you start digging all nonferrous targets. Eventually you will deplete them, the ground will settle back down, and you may be surprised at what you find-shallower older coins than you might think too.

And digging the lower conductor nonferrous you may find some nice gold jewelry.

I detected as a young eager treasure seeker in the early 70's. My White's Blue box detector sure was heavy to swing and sometimes I used both arms. I didn't have discrimination because my parents just were not going to spend the extra money. But I found my share of old coins. There are some schools and parks that are still overlooked till this day. The key though is private property. There are many virgin sites that are privately owned. And some that the owners will tell you they were hunted before but you are welcome to try. Those are my favorite. I don't hunt local parks or schools anymore because I got tired of people minding my business. And to be honest I never really miss it.

Now heres something to ponder hunted the front of a 100 year plus armory with a hot CZ and Explorer series and felt I could reach a silver dime at about a foot...It was a small area and found several deep mercs and barber dimes and really hunted it hard...fast forward several years later they decided to asphalt the area and dug it up. One lucky fellow caught it just in time before being covered and was granted permission.
Well he left with a pouch full of silver back to barber and many of the coins were right on top or just an inch or two deep. Moral of the story coins sink deeper than we think and well our detectors just don't go deep enough..Even if we mention CZ-Explorer-Deus-Blisstool or Racer to name a few..

Thank you Dan!!!

Hi,,,I guess my main point I was trying to get across is that a lot of people believe that the old timers got all the old coins years ago....I don't think so, BFO detectors did not go that deep at all....I think in the 70's TR detectors made the scene but again they did not go that deep....In the late 80's VLF machines were going pretty deep but you had to swing them really fast to get the best depth....I still think the one I had would go deeper than most of the machines of today....In the 90's the VLF machines did not have to be swung as fast to get depth so you could actually separate targets pretty good....Now it's 2015 so we have a plethora of trash to contend with, not to mention the coins are getting deeper day by day in most cases.....I believe your best machine choice to use nowadays is the one you know how to run/use.....JJ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2015 06:58AM by jimmyjiver.