Got out for about a half hour on farm where I live and snagged this

[Tony (Michigan)]

Last year I hunted a rental house in Memphis, and got a signal with the Deus that I passed up. It was reading 64-68 - a loud, solid banging signal...and I thought it was an aluminum screwcap. My partner at the time detected the same target with his AT Pro...he also got a "screwcap" indication - but he decides to dig - and out pops a Franklin half!!!

So reading your story on this Merc - it was somehow altered in the ground so that it doesn't "read right". In the case of the Franklin half - it had a purplish patina on the "top" side - the side facing the detector coil, and the other side was normal.

Sometimes on shallow targets it seems they can get skewed for whatever reason, and many deep targets seem to read HIGHER in VDI than they would if they were shallower. Sometimes when the circuitry is "fooled" by a signal - the audio information will give further clues - sometimes not - there's no real definite way to know what you're digging since there's nearly an unlimited number of variables that may or may not surround a coin/pulltab/bottlecap/etc

That's so right on what you stated.
I surmise that the dime most likely was either on edge or the nearby nail was throwing it off. But the strange thing is I LOVE finding silver surrounded by trash be it modern or old square cut nails.
Of course one cannot rely on the fe/co numbers in that scenario so I rely on the sound. The problem with the E-trac is I can't get that real high silver sound like I can with the Eplorers. So I must re-learn my sounds.
Thanks for your post.

 

[Sataro]

Congrats on the merc! Bad sounding or not, your diligence paid off.

 

[kschae4]

Nice find,when in doubt...........

 

[woody]

Electrons! You can't trust them.

 

[mcb613]

Etrac is s silver magnet, but at times bad signals can surprise you.
Usually, the deep ones get ya though. When derp sometimes read. 17 - 43. Usually the sound comes through though.
Good find!

 

[Goldstrike]

Could also be that with the nail degrading/rusting away over the years, it created a halo effect with very fine particles of rusty iron causing your detector to register some weird signals. I'm assuming if you air tested the dime, it would sound and I.D. just like a regular silver signal?

 

[enderman]

Last year I hunted a rental house in Memphis, and got a signal with the Deus that I passed up. It was reading 64-68 - a loud, solid banging signal...and I thought it was an aluminum screwcap. My partner at the time detected the same target with his AT Pro...he also got a "screwcap" indication - but he decides to dig - and out pops a Franklin half!!!

So reading your story on this Merc - it was somehow altered in the ground so that it doesn't "read right". In the case of the Franklin half - it had a purplish patina on the "top" side - the side facing the detector coil, and the other side was normal.

Sometimes on shallow targets it seems they can get skewed for whatever reason, and many deep targets seem to read HIGHER in VDI than they would if they were shallower. Sometimes when the circuitry is "fooled" by a signal - the audio information will give further clues - sometimes not - there's no real definite way to know what you're digging since there's nearly an unlimited number of variables that may or may not surround a coin/pulltab/bottlecap/etc

That's so right on what you stated.
I surmise that the dime most likely was either on edge or the nearby nail was throwing it off. But the strange thing is I LOVE finding silver surrounded by trash be it modern or old square cut nails.
Of course one cannot rely on the fe/co numbers in that scenario so I rely on the sound. The problem with the E-trac is I can't get that real high silver sound like I can with the Eplorers. So I must re-learn my sounds.
Thanks for your post.

You can adjust the pitch and variability settings to make silver sound higher on the Etrac.

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

Electrons! You can't trust them.

And Protons are much better at what they do than amateurtrons.

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

Congrats on the merc! Bad sounding or not, your diligence paid off.

Thanks Sataro. I'm really wet behind the ears with this new E-trac. But I'm really liking it the more I use it!

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

Could also be that with the nail degrading/rusting away over the years, it created a halo effect with very fine particles of rusty iron causing your detector to register some weird signals. I'm assuming if you air tested the dime, it would sound and I.D. just like a regular silver signal?

Yes the dime sounds real nice above ground. This is the second time this has happened in this small area of the farm. I think this area was where they burned trash and threw crap. The other Merc I got earlier this year just a few feet
from this one sounded hideous as well but I dug it on a hunch. It always pays to be inquisitive.
Other areas on the farm the silvers I've found were pretty text book sounding.
But I've dug coins surrounded with all kinds of trash in parks and still could get the silver to sing in the mix with micro sweeps.
Sometimes life just loves to throw you a curve ball every now and then and you have to decide to hit it or not.

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

Etrac is s silver magnet, but at times bad signals can surprise you.
Usually, the deep ones get ya though. When derp sometimes read. 17 - 43. Usually the sound comes through though.
Good find!

I have much more confidence that a deep sounding coin is going to be really good.

 

[timwied]

It would have sounded better, if it had been on my machine with me digging!!! LOL. I LOVE MERCS!!! Great find!!!