Do You Also Search/Dig Pennies When Out Metal Detecting?:shrug:

[John-Edmonton]

I finished rolling 22 rolls of pennies ($11.00) last night and will put that towards my annual gold coin.. I remember seeing some posts, stating that the person discs out pennies and wont waste time digging them.silver I know from experience that if you disc out copper pennies, you miss rings and some other collectible items in that conductivity rage?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

If I'm a beach hunt, or relic hunting environment (ghost towns, cellar holes, ruins, old-town urban demolition), then no, I don't pass penny signals.

But if I'm on turf hunting for old coins, then Yes: I pass all shallow pennies. Depending on the park (and normal depths of coins in certain parks) this depth cut-off for skipping can be 4" to 6".

I know that some md'rs *bristle* at that. They will say: a) "Sometimes an old coin might be shallow", or b) "a big fat man's gold ring could read up high into the zinc or penny range" or c) " Why skip pennies ? They add up after all"

However, if you hunt with those persons long enough, the proof starts to be evident: They end up with scads of clad, and very few oldies/silver.

 

[D&P-OR]

Good answer Tom!-----I'd just add---I ain't got that kinda energy anymore, I only got only so many get 'em down & get 'em ups in me!-----On turf hunting, anything below 4" is "a go" for me--even then fill dirt is a problem a lot of times.------As to the old sites like you mentioned--they get dug.---------Del

If I'm a beach hunt, or relic hunting environment (ghost towns, cellar holes, ruins, old-town urban demolition), then no, I don't pass penny signals.

But if I'm on turf hunting for old coins, then Yes: I pass all shallow pennies. Depending on the park (and normal depths of coins in certain parks) this depth cut-off for skipping can be 4" to 6".

I know that some md'rs *bristle* at that. They will say: a) "Sometimes an old coin might be shallow", or b) "a big fat man's gold ring could read up high into the zinc or penny range" or c) " Why skip pennies ? They add up after all"

However, if you hunt with those persons long enough, the proof starts to be evident: They end up with scads of clad, and very few oldies/silver.

 

[still looking 52]

I disc out zinc pennies but not copper pennies, they fall real close to silver. Copper pennies come in around 70 and a silver dime comes in around 75.
I'm starting to skip those shallow targets that come in around 70, like Tom says there is the percentage game you need to think about and those targets just take away from the silver finds overall.
If I'm in a new area that I've never detected then I'll dig more shallow until I learn the area and see how things are going.

 

[HanoverDigger]

I don't specifically go looking to dig pennies but I'll dig'em up, throw'em in the pouch just to get'em outta the way.

 

[mrwilburino]

What Tom in CA said. The exception to that is when I'm finding nothing at all, then I dig them out of desperation.

 

[GeorgeinSC]

At the beach I disc out iron and steel and dig Everything else. Even dig some items just because they don't completely disc out. On the dirt I leave the zinc pennies in the dirt. I dig copper pennies and my hearing is not acute enough to be able to tell them from a dime.

I enjoy digging coins but those corroded zinc pennies are worthless. At nearly 77 years of age I prefer using what energy I have digging something other than zinc pennies.

 

[jim tn]

I don't like pennies, but I dig them. A lot of wheat cents and early Memorials read the same. Also, just in the last few years two cent readings turned out to be big gold class rings. Further, just the other day I dug a bouncy cent reading, recovered it, rescanned the hole and about 2 inches deeper recovered a 1927 S L quarter. So, yeah, I dig pennies and also find silver. HH jim tn

 

[Tom Slick]

I'd never disc Zincs at the beach or at ghost town or home sites. At local parks, sure if I'm just digging fresh drops of clad and silver jewelry. I don't ever disc copper cents.

 

[dfmike]

Zinc pennies are not an issue here (Canada) but digging copper penny signals is a must since they can come so close and even equal silver dimes on the VDI (on some detectors anyway).

 

[sprchng]

I'll dig zincs depending on the site so I don't have to contend with them at a later date but some sites are so corrupted with them by people leaving them behind that the sites are undetectable. I see people who try those sites with small coils and fast recovery machines and have little success because the masking is nearly complete. Unlike iron masking , zincs corrupt signals on the conductive side , much more difficult to sift through than a beep and dig iron infestation relic site. I have some luck digging just the corrupted odd ball signals but usually go to greener fields. After 30 or 40 minutes of digging the zincs I begin to weary and become lazy like some of the other posters here but I don't try to blow smoke up others a$$e$ by saying that I do it out of some superior strategy and just admit I'm lazy and it's below me.

 

[Dancer]

Funny. At the time, around 2004, I snagged my oldest coin. It was a Indian Head in very nice shape. The best part is, it was laying on top of fresh bark mulch in a tot lot. Honestly can't say if I eye balled first or not. Go figure.
Dancer

 

[MarkCZ]

I don't like DIGGING corroded zinc's but I'll take them as fresh drops as long as they're
spendable.
Coppers and any other pennies are on my menu as a side dish.
Many of days if I had not brought home the pennies my coin count for the day would have dropped
from 8 to 10 to 1 to 3

Mark

 

[budster]

I dig them, but I now have about 18 pounds of corroded zink. Even the scrap yard won't take them.

Bud

 

[sprchng]

I dig them, but I now have about 18 pounds of corroded zink. Even the scrap yard won't take them.

Bud

Tumbler the dirty ones with the coppers just like any other coin. I save the copper for some reason but when I get about a three pound coffee can of zincs I take them over to the Coinstar at Wally World and dump them in. I usually leave the return full to overflowing with rejects and someone will think they have struck it rich. It usually nets around 25 bucks after the Coinstar kickback , so it pays for some ammo , jerky or Confederate flags.

 

[TC-NM]

This may sound kinda of crazy to you guys, but digging zinc pennies (specifically), I snagged gold rings... 3 to be exact! One heavy ladies white gold w/diamond; thin ladies yellow gold band w/diamond and another ladies white and gold ring w/cross motif. The VDI ranges from 45 to 49. Men's rings on the other hand (heavy gold bands) fall in at 53-55 on the VDI. So I'm really looking out for the those numbers.

Sure I hate digging zincs as much as you but on the flip-side, I'm rewarded with the gold too! Now a day's, copper pennies are harder to come by.

TC-NM

 

[UtahRich]

What Tom in CA said. The exception to that is when I'm finding nothing at all, then I dig them out of desperation.

Good advise from Tom.

I will usually dig copper pennies. But overall for me, it really depends on where I'm hunting and if I'm finding anything. When arriving at a site, I do like to get familiar with common objects to be found and where they are reading on my TID/Audio. I've been doing this long enough that removing a cent, whether zinc or copper, is a quick process. Still, when I'm trying to focus on those deeper targets, bypassing what appears to be obvious junk or shallow targets makes sense.

I do have times when I will section off an area and start removing all targets until they're gone. If you have a favorite area that is promising and has a bit a trash, give this method a shot ON OCCASION. It is interesting to experiment with detectors, coils and settings over a section of ground. I usually mark off an area no bigger than maybe 20' long on any given side and start removing targets. Go up and back, left and right, criss cross, cover in as many directions as is reasonable. If you're using discrimination, keep lowering it as you go.

It's an interesting experiment that has yielded good results for me.


Rich