green 1910 wheat

[hatpin]

Found a 1910 wheat cent today with the Vaquero. It was only about 5 inches deep and did not give a strong signal. It discriminated out a little past tab. Thats the way all my old coins have been lately. They must be on their sides and others are passing over them.

I set my ground balance to neutral. I hit an area that had my unit going nuts. Lots of signals that would not disc out but in all metal they would go quiet and then get loud again after the coil was past them. I tried to dig a couple to see what it was , I figured hot rocks but could find nothing. I checked the ground balance and the ground had changed to a little negative. When I reset it to neutral I no longer got the signals there. I thought that was strange that a little negative would act that way.

 

[Coin$triking Michigan]

That's the issue I had with the Vaquero. It would give you a signal that sounded like a 10 inch coin on coins that were actually about 5-6 inches deep. Also, I would get a signal that I couldn't disc out and dig deep pull tabs one after another. I may have had a did because my Cibola was a much better detector.

 

[ToneTime]

That is a nice patina on that 1910 wheat, the year after they started making them. I found a one that looks similar last year in a park underneath and old pine tree. It was memorable because of how deep it was buried. Those pine needles must really add up. I have had no problems with my vaquero other than occasionally with iron. I mostly use the outlaw now but the vaquero is my go to detector for the little extra depth when needed.

 

[tabman]

It sounds like you might have some mineralization and using a little too much negative GB is causing you to get false signals. I've chased some ghost signals before.

Nice looking wheat penny. The ones that I found today look really bad. I have found some in the woods that look great though.

tabman

 

[Rainyday101]

Nice looking wheatie! I get that lower disc issue when they are slightly on edge.

 

[CZconnoisseur]

The early Wheat pennies differed in composition so much that occasionally they can register BELOW (less conductive than) zinc cents!!! Supposedly the composition of all Wheat and Indian cents is 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc but I believe sometimes the tin content was way higher than indicated. You can see this with some uncirculated early Wheats that actually look brassy as opposed to the regular copper color.

The is no other US coin I know of except war nickels that have such a VDI spread besides those early Wheat cents!

 

[mudpuppy]

I've experienced that phenomenon as well...not with a Tesoro rig, but while putting in a lot of time water hunting and scooping everything, those wheats are all over the board...the Canadian pennys on the other hand hit super hard, makes a guy think he's on a silver dime or ring...
Thats a nice score there Hatpin!
Mud

 

[Monte]

Form the US Mint we can read about the mixture used in a cent.

The composition was pure copper from 1793 to 1837.
• From 1837 to 1857, the cent was made of bronze (95 percent copper, and five percent tin and zinc).
• From 1857, the cent was 88 percent copper and 12 percent nickel, giving the coin a whitish appearance.
• The cent was again bronze (95 percent copper, and five percent tin and zinc) from 1864 to 1962.
(Note: In 1943, the coin's composition was changed to zinc-coated steel. This change was only for the year 1943 and was due to the critical use of copper for the war effort. However, a limited number of copper pennies were minted that year. You can read more about the rare, collectible 1943 copper penny in "What's So Special about the 1943 Copper Penny.")
• In 1962, the cent's tin content, which was quite small, was removed. That made the metal composition of the cent 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc.
• The alloy remained 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc until 1982, when the composition was changed to 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper (copper-plated zinc). Cents of both compositions appeared in that year.

Note that all cents from 1864 [size=small](actually some since that year it was a transition from the 'fatty' variety to the popular thinner version)[/size] were 95% Copper and 5% Tin & Zinc. Later they state that the 'Tin' portion was so small it was eliminated.

Many, like the vast majority, of the Indian Head cents I have found or sampled from the 1864 thin version to 1909, and many of the Lincoln cents from 1909 through about 1920 will produce a lower VDI numeric read-out that is often in the Screw Cap to Zinc Cent range. The only contributing factor that explains this, since it has also been done using collectors circulation coins that were not dug coins, has to be the Copper content. The source of the Copper and/or the refining and purity of the Copper.

That's why, whenever I am searching any old-coin potential site, I recover ALL targets that respond higher than iron nail rejection. Just too many variables, to include alloy content, size, shape, depth, position, condition, and presence of any nearby masking targets.

Nice looking 1910! I hope you keep uncovering more oldies.

Monte