Equinox and nickels....

[fwcrawford]

My buddy found a war nickel a couple weeks ago with the Equinox 600 and said it read 18.
I checked it with my 800 and it read the same.
About a week later, I also found one, but it read 13 like normal nickels do.
I did not even realize that I had found one until I got home and tumbled it with the rest of my coins found that day and noticed it cleaned up unlike the other nickels.
Yesterday I found another one, but realized it was a war nickel when I saw that it was silver coming out of the hole.. VID.. again 13.
I decided to do some testing this morning and was surprised at the results and thought I'd share them.
I had 10 war nickels that I tested and used the Equinox with stock coil and for comparison, I also used the Sovereign GT with stock 10" coil.
Below are the results:

Equinox - Sovereign GT
18 - 169
13 - 145
13 - 144
14 - 153
22/23 - 176
22/23 - 176
14 - 151
13 - 149
13 - 146
13 - 146
I calibrated the Sovereign meter to read 180 on a clad quarter before testing.
I also remember digging one of those nickels with the Sovereign that read high (176) and being surprised that it was a nickel when I found the target, but soon realized it was a war nickel.
That same day I found a buffalo nickel which read a little lower than 145 on the Sovereign.. later I realized why when I got the mud off everything and saw that it was a buffalo nickel.
I thought it would be interesting to see if other have noticed a difference in VID readings on war nickels.
Feel free to chime in.. I'd like to hear what you have to say about this.

 

[JimmyCT]

As previously discussed I can’t figure out why the huge variance

 

[bootyhoundpa]

Very strange... through the years I have noticed many detectors will sometimes hit on an object that is about the same size as a particular coin but of totally different composition and yet will sometimes ID as coin of similar size.. Or perhaps the composition percentages weren’t strictly followed at the mint...

 

[fwcrawford]

Very strange... through the years I have noticed many detectors will sometimes hit on an object that is about the same size as a particular coin but of totally different composition and yet will sometimes ID as coin of similar size.. Or perhaps the composition percentages weren’t strictly followed at the mint...

I have noticed the same thing. A few weeks ago, I found an old bus token that was the same size and gave the same VID as a nickel.
You may be correct in your guess... Jim up above suggested the same thing... different compostion of the blank or Planchet as I believe they are called.

 

[Jeff in Pa]

I have a war nickel that does the same thing but yet all the others I have read normal.
Dunno what to say other than it must have a different silver content.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Yes I have seen this before on the war nickles, I beleive I ask on the forums before. I had a guy tell me he got 176 on the one he had on his 180 meter, so I had it sent to me to try also and sure enough I got 176 also. A few days latter he got another one read 176 so I ask if others had seen this and Monte replied to me saying he seen this before in some soils as being in the ground the Magnatese in the war nickles leach out in some ground so now the nickle will read more like a new zinc penny or the IH pennies.
On the Sovereign which loves nickles they read around 143-144 on the meter and have the sound of a nickle as it is smoother than a pull-tab. Now the war nickles I have found are mostly in this same area, but seen a few read up to 151, but still sounds like a nickle. Every once in a while you will hear of someone that find one or several in one area they hunt, but only the war nickles as the others don't seem to.
The first target I got on my Equinox 800 was a 13 and was a V nickle that was very deep in our local school that had been hit hard my many detectors and missed. Every 13 after that was small pieces of alum foil or can slaw unlike my Sovereign which was easy to tell the nickles from trash.
Rick

 

[Mark kus]

I’ve found war nickels and they hit 14,
Mark

 

[laplander]

I had a friend try to get one of these oddities graded and NGC wouldn't acknowledge the higher silver content. Greg had the silver content analyzed where he works and it indeed had a much higher silver content.
HH Jeff

 

[fwcrawford]

Apparently, others have experienced this too.
Could be the soil or the percentage of material in the coin sounds like.
Thanks for the replies.... I was curious to see if others had found these nickels that read very high.

 

[Mark kus]

Some come out of the ground corroded a bit maybe thats why they vary??

 

[GeorgeinSC]

I found a war nickel that rang up as silver on my Sovereign GT. It rang up a little lower once I got it out of the dirt. There was nothing else in the area. Was shocked when the nickel came out of the dirt. I then took a bunch of old war nickels that I had put away back in the 60's and every one of them rang up in the nickel range. I have no explanation.

My buddy found a war nickel a couple weeks ago with the Equinox 600 and said it read 18.
I checked it with my 800 and it read the same.
About a week later, I also found one, but it read 13 like normal nickels do.
I did not even realize that I had found one until I got home and tumbled it with the rest of my coins found that day and noticed it cleaned up unlike the other nickels.
Yesterday I found another one, but realized it was a war nickel when I saw that it was silver coming out of the hole.. VID.. again 13.
I decided to do some testing this morning and was surprised at the results and thought I'd share them.
I had 10 war nickels that I tested and used the Equinox with stock coil and for comparison, I also used the Sovereign GT with stock 10" coil.
Below are the results:

Equinox - Sovereign GT
18 - 169
13 - 145
13 - 144
14 - 153
22/23 - 176
22/23 - 176
14 - 151
13 - 149
13 - 146
13 - 146
I calibrated the Sovereign meter to read 180 on a clad quarter before testing.
I also remember digging one of those nickels with the Sovereign that read high (176) and being surprised that it was a nickel when I found the target, but soon realized it was a war nickel.
That same day I found a buffalo nickel which read a little lower than 145 on the Sovereign.. later I realized why when I got the mud off everything and saw that it was a buffalo nickel.
I thought it would be interesting to see if other have noticed a difference in VID readings on war nickels.
Feel free to chime in.. I'd like to hear what you have to say about this.

 

[fwcrawford]

One thing I would like to note is that these coin VIDs are out of the ground and cleaned.
Some were dug with beep dig detectors, so at the time, I would not have questioned the VID reading.
As George mentioned above, I too have been surprised to find some of these nickels in the hole after expecting something else based on the VID it gave.

 

[Smalltowndetectorist98]

I dug one today at 6 1/2 inches in a ball field and it rang up a solid 13 and every 3 swings or so it would hit 12.

 

[fwcrawford]

I dug one today at 6 1/2 inches in a ball field and it rang up a solid 13 and every 3 swings or so it would hit 12.

I have experienced that also on the ones that read like a normal nickel.

 

[Happa54]

My buddy found a war nickel a couple weeks ago with the Equinox 600 and said it read 18.
I checked it with my 800 and it read the same.
About a week later, I also found one, but it read 13 like normal nickels do.
I did not even realize that I had found one until I got home and tumbled it with the rest of my coins found that day and noticed it cleaned up unlike the other nickels.
Yesterday I found another one, but realized it was a war nickel when I saw that it was silver coming out of the hole.. VID.. again 13.
I decided to do some testing this morning and was surprised at the results and thought I'd share them.
I had 10 war nickels that I tested and used the Equinox with stock coil and for comparison, I also used the Sovereign GT with stock 10" coil.
Below are the results:

Equinox - Sovereign GT
18 - 169
13 - 145
13 - 144
14 - 153
22/23 - 176
22/23 - 176
14 - 151
13 - 149
13 - 146
13 - 146
I calibrated the Sovereign meter to read 180 on a clad quarter before testing.
I also remember digging one of those nickels with the Sovereign that read high (176) and being surprised that it was a nickel when I found the target, but soon realized it was a war nickel.
That same day I found a buffalo nickel which read a little lower than 145 on the Sovereign.. later I realized why when I got the mud off everything and saw that it was a buffalo nickel.
I thought it would be interesting to see if other have noticed a difference in VID readings on war nickels.
Feel free to chime in.. I'd like to hear what you have to say about this.

War nickels come in at both mid and high CO. I have several of both. Me and my buddies often dig these at our old local parks.

Silver contents in some of these were slightly higher, and was minted this way at the discretion of the mint.

There is a detailed info on this in the internet.

 

[fwcrawford]

War nickels come in at both mid and high CO. I have several of both. Me and my buddies often dig these at our old local parks.

Silver contents in some of these were slightly higher, and was minted this way at the discretion of the mint.

There is a detailed info on this in the internet.

Thanks for the information!!