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Have to start digging those zinc pennies?

I

Ism

Well-known member
Here's my story and I'm sticking to it...

I have the Deus-2 for a year now, moving up from the Deus-1. I had been doing mostly a farm fields and occasionally a rural park until this past week. I decided to go to a sports field and hunt for jewelry. So I modified the park program for shallow targets and ran with it.
I ignored the signals that were in the range of zinc penny 82-85. I was digging enough pull tabs and pieces of foil to fill my pouch so I didn't need the added frustration of zinc pennies.

I came across target that sounded like a coin spill. Target responses were 85-94 so I knew I probably had a quarter and zinc penny. What I dug was a coin ring made from a quarter next to a .925 medium sized silver chain (pictured in the bag because it's broken).
I didn't think much of it and continued on. Over the next couple hours, I dug what I thought was a small costume jewelry ring. When I got home and cleaned it up, the ring turned out to be a diamond wedding band in 18k white gold (pictured with the chain).

I returned the next day to look for the possibility of a matching engagement ring. At that time I decided to dig every shallow target including the zinc pennies. Long story short, I was digging a zinc penny signal but pulled a .925 solid silver pendant out of the hole (pictured).
Now I'm seeing a pattern. All other targets were on the money TID wise. Copper pennies 90, clad dimes 90 and quarters 94, nickels 62, etc. But in my experience (~10 years) using the D1 on 18khz, all TID being equal, the .925 should ring up with a TID over 90.

I won't be ignoring zinc penny signals from now on. Anybody else have that experience with .925 silver using the D2?
 

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Don't rely on TIDs. Here in Europe a typical foil TID can foil you and be a thin medieval silver coin.
Just like a massive 95 must not be the big aluminium trash but can also be (rarely) a big silver coin.
And if you talk about jewelery - the TID much depends from material, mass, form and position in the ground.
Best greetings from Germany
Olaf
 

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Ism said:
Here's my story and I'm sticking to it...

I have the Deus-2 for a year now, moving up from the Deus-1. I had been doing mostly a farm fields and occasionally a rural park until this past week. I decided to go to a sports field and hunt for jewelry. So I modified the park program for shallow targets and ran with it.
I ignored the signals that were in the range of zinc penny 82-85. I was digging enough pull tabs and pieces of foil to fill my pouch so I didn't need the added frustration of zinc pennies.

I came across target that sounded like a coin spill. Target responses were 85-94 so I knew I probably had a quarter and zinc penny. What I dug was a coin ring made from a quarter next to a .925 medium sized silver chain (pictured in the bag because it's broken).
I didn't think much of it and continued on. Over the next couple hours, I dug what I thought was a small costume jewelry ring. When I got home and cleaned it up, the ring turned out to be a diamond wedding band in 18k white gold (pictured with the chain).

I returned the next day to look for the possibility of a matching engagement ring. At that time I decided to dig every shallow target including the zinc pennies. Long story short, I was digging a zinc penny signal but pulled a .925 solid silver pendant out of the hole (pictured).
Now I'm seeing a pattern. All other targets were on the money TID wise. Copper pennies 90, clad dimes 90 and quarters 94, nickels 62, etc. But in my experience (~10 years) using the D1 on 18khz, all TID being equal, the .925 should ring up with a TID over 90.

I won't be ignoring zinc penny signals from now on. Anybody else have that experience with .925 silver using the D2?
Click to expand...

Yes, same experience with D1, D2 and a lot of other machines. All depends on the size and shape of the silver items. Small kids silver rings will often read in the zinc penny range. Silver charms , earrings, bracelets, chains, toe rings... they all read different. I found a nice silver bracelet a while back that gave me a solid nickel reading. .
 
One of the positive points of getting old and developing physical limitations is that you start being a bit more selective about your recoveries. Some 20 years ago if there was a tone, I dug a hole. Now I spend more time analyzing each target. What I have learned is, despite what a lot of people will say, more often than not you can tell foil from something more solid like jewelry. Especially with a Deus. I use the Deus 1. I had a Deus 2 and loved it, but on social security, I just couldn't sit on an expensive detector when a good old Deus 1 does just as well for my needs. I still recover 99% 0f the signals I get because you just never know. Even at a 50% odds it could be a nice gold pendant or chain. But spending more time analyzing each signal has taught me you can tell a difference.

I spent my first 30 some years hunting old coins and relics. I got interested in targeting jewelry some 20 years ago and have never really found anything as satisfying to me as pulling a piece of gold or bling from the ground. Over time I have really improved my odds of jewelry find. Of course, the secret is LOCATION. But even LOCATION has its own bit of logic to increase the odds.

I've sold most of my gold & silver rings over the years to buy new detectors. But here is just an example of what is there if you dig those penny signals. Many of these rang up in the penny range, and all from the dirt.

rings-12-8-2023.jpg
 
RichW said:
I hear you Southwind. Age is a big factor. I only "dig it all" at the beach.
Click to expand...
No beaches here in southwest Kansas, but I treat my tot lots like I would a beach. I recover it all. My requirements are a bit higher in parks & playgrounds. Apparently, my luck runs pretty well for a dirt fisher. Generally, I'll find at least a piece of jewelry every other hunt. If I go 4 hunts with no rings, I begin to think I'm not hunting well. Generally, my gold/silver to bling ratio is pretty high, but here lately my gold count isn't up to par.
 
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Hauptmann aD said:
Don't rely on TIDs. Here in Europe a typical foil TID can foil you and be a thin medieval silver coin.
Just like a massive 95 must not be the big aluminium trash but can also be (rarely) a big silver coin.
And if you talk about jewelery - the TID much depends from material, mass, form and position in the ground.
Best greetings from Germany
Olaf
Click to expand...
TID mostly depends on conductivity and the effect of nearby objects. Conductivity can be altered by mass, shape, and alloy, .925 is a specific alloy so that variable can be removed from the equation.
Position rarely affects TID on shallow targets in my experience. For instance, a silver dime on edge still rings up 90-91, it's just a fainter signal. If it's on an angle in the ground, still 90-91, but will pinpoint off center.

Normally I will dig a lower TID because it might be silver jewelry, but it almost always sounds different (due to shape and size) than a zinc penny.
When I detected the chain, I ignored the fact that it came in at 85, because of the style, but the .925 pendant should have easily come in at 90-95.
Of course, there's so much fake jewelry and coins in circulation, it's quite possible the pendant isn't actually .925 silver.

My post was not to get an education on how a metal detector works, but to see if anybody else was experiencing the lower TID on .925 silver with the D2.
10 years with the D1 and I've never dug .925 silver that was less than 88 using 18khz. Maybe multi-frequency has something to do with the outcome?
 
I guess it depends on the location. Tot lot I'm probably not digging zinc signals. On a older site or in the woods I'm digging everything.

The YT digger in Vermont just posted a video of him and a buddy pulling a full 8 reale and it rang up 89 on the d2. Which is crazy because it is a huge hunk of silver. Not a slick either, full detail so full weight and thickness.
 
Another 85 TID at the sports field (.925 necklace and pendent). The pendent is about the diameter of a nickel and fairly thick.

I checked another XP forum that had a link to a person's notes on the D2. Although he only has one listing for a .925 silver ring without a size description, he got a TID of 83.
The only other .925 he lists is a large silver band at 90. This is where mass and size make a difference in TID. Much the same for gold rings.

His American silver coins rang up in the 90's where they should. Possibly the higher percentage of copper in the coins vs .925 silver making them more conductive.
His numbers are a couple points off from my findings in many categories, but close enough to confirm what I see with the D2.

like I previously noted, my D1 never went below 88 TID on .925 silver at 18KHz. Depending on dia. and mass, .925 silver rings were always between 90-95.
Also, with the D1, corroded zinc pennies would bounce all over the range of 81-85 and sounded scratchy making it easy to ignore them.
The TID of D2 is extremely stable on corroded zinc pennies making it a little more difficult to be sure of what's under the coil.

While I'm often right guessing a zinc penny under the coil of the D2 based on the audio response, I can no longer take the chance in a sports field where zinc pennies abound.
In my reading of forum posts, I've not come across this observation on .925 silver. Just hope this info is useful to others searching sports fields with the D2.
 

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