Still waiting for my first silver coin, I am often amazed at how deep some coins from the 1980s can be. Might be a dumb question, but what actually drives a coin deeper and deeper? I can maybe think of a few reasons such as re-sodding the ground or just the years of constant soil being added to the area through blowing dirt/dust.

I'm sure some of the shallow silver being found has not been in the ground long, but is there cases of people finding shallow older silver from say late 1800s or early 1900s?

Just wondering if I'm not focusing on deep signals since I know my hunting area has silver in it being that the housing area was built in 1953. I'm not even finding very much trash, but loads and loads of Memorials. I dig almost all pull tab signals since I find very few of them and they are almost always Jefferson Nickels. In my five hunts pulling loads of Memorials, I have still only pulled three Wheats. I at least expected more Wheats with the age of the housing. I remember Wheats being in common circulation till about the late 70s.

Anyway, I'd love to hear advice from all you experienced silver mavericks.

That questions comes up from time to time.
Personally. I have found seated coins..barbers..mercs..I.H.'s etc..at very shallow depths or even right on the surface.
There are all sorts of variables. What type of ground? Is there alot of foot traffic..livestock..horses..ground squirrels..gophers. Barren? Seasonal vegetation..weeds..plowed land..wet..dry..hard-pan..loamy?

Then there are the sites where you expect or hope there is silver or other older stuff...and there just isn't!
Do some reasearch on your site. Maybe the older areas, where people gathered..played or spent money are in different locations than where you are searching

TominSalinas will be along to explain much better than I can. Thought I'd throw a few things out there to ponder, regarding your question.

"Tom..you out there..pal?"

Bill

Also along with Bill's questions....what settings are you using your SE? You hunt in semi? Conduct? Ferrous? And like Bill said Tom can help ya on most of your questions as far as turf area IE: location, research etc...... let us know your settings ok.....-Rob

So far, I'm still using the factory discrimination setting. I keep my sensitivity at around 25. Conductive sounds. Fast off, deep off. Variability at 10. Limits at 10. Threshold just barely audible.

The area I hunt is vacated military housing front and back lawns. Grass is totally dead which makes pulling plugs a breeze. I don't have to be neat but still fill them in. The whole place is scheduled to be leveled in a few months.

The contractors that are going through the housing area tearing up curbing, asphalt and such get a kick out of watching me. They all think I'm looking for gold. :bonkers:

Thanks for the tips guys.

The majority of my silver coin finds are in the depth of 6-8". Yes, there's always the real shallow silver, which either was a recent drop or was brought closer to the surface by gophers or a turf scrape for resodding or trenching. The real deepies beyond 8" are tougher to locate from turf filled with low conductor trash items, but if you have an Explorer, lots of turf time with your machine, patience, and a good set of headphones, you will find these 9-10" signals. And many are deeper, beyond our detection depth of our machines.

You say you're hunting a housing area built in the early 50's. If you're finding real deep 70's/80's pennies, you can be sure that the silver is even deeper, maybe beyond the depth of 10". Unless you have a lot of experience (turf time) with your machine, it will be very difficult to find those real deep coins.

HH,
CAPTN fi "SE"
Dan

Yeah, some newer clad is deep but most are within a few inches of the surface. When Smitty hunted with me on Monday, he can't remember how deep his silver Rosie was since he didn't realize it was silver till after he sat down and looked over some of his finds.

I think it's just take persistence with the SE. I've only been out three times with it, so I still have lots to learn.

Good luck on your hunts!! May I ask, in general, what part of the state you detect in?

Took me 6 months to get my first silver. Just keep at it, practice, practice.

I made a custom discrim for my exp - using every silver and old coin I have! first time out I got a silver ring.

You can also try ferous mode too sometimes that helps in the tones.

I'm out in the Antelope Valley in California City, just north of Edwards AFB. I plan to hit a few parks near my parents house next time I visit them in the San Gabriel Valley too.

I thought about waiting to use Ferrous sounds when I start using all metal with only a little iron masking. I can't see any sense in using Ferrous while using factory coin discrimination. Am I right?

One thing I noticed today while on a short hunt is when you get a good signal but at the end, it makes a thunk type noise. I've found these to be unreliable coin signals. I think I'm finally figuring out what a good clean repeatable signal sounds like. :iknow:

did you say your in semi or manuel? if in semi you lose dept...maybe thats why? if in ferrous mode and you have iron off or a low negative, iron makes that "thunk" sound....usually..

I've tried semi a few times, but mostly hunt in manual with the sensitivity at 25-27.

I used to keep a silver dime in my pocket and waive it across the coil every once and a while to remind myself what silver sounds like...

I have also found Barber dimes that sound exactly like clad dimes and various depths. So don't pass those dimes up, or you may be passing up silver... :unsure:


Clean repeatable signals are good to dig, but if your in a spot that has been Explorered, you'll be wanting to dig the iffy and non-perfect signals to grab the silver...

In a perfect world each coin would be a clean signal, but the ground density will tilt the coin and mineralization will change the way the coin sounds.

I noticed early on that two copper pennies close together will ring up as a clad dime...

And

Occasionally a zinc penny will ring up on the far right side mid screen or like a nickel... Warted and falling apart at the edges...

Some of my best finds have been strange or odd signals that were deep... :dinnertime:


HH

JW