Help ID'ing Memorial cents with the F4

[Boston Metal]

Memorial cents are a problem for me on the F4. They usually ID at 70-73, exactly where dimes come in. I have been avoiding digging those signals unless they are at depth. I am curious, are other F series machines ID'ing memorial cents that high?

If I'm at a park with a ton of clad I don't like digging the memorials. In older spots with less targets I dig em.

I got pretty frustrated yesterday so I took a clad dime I had dug and memorial penny and buried them both at 4 inches. I swung over them and they both behaved identically, jumping between 70 and 73.

Any opinions on deciding to dig or not? I know I SHOULD dig them all, but my MD'ing time is so limited I hate spending half of it on memorial pennies!

Frank

 

[jim tn]

When coin shooting, do you run in multi tones? With my F 75 for coin hunting I usually run in 3 or 4 tones and most of the Memorial cents after 1982 will hit as a mid tone. Most wheat cents and clad and silver hit with a high tone. Not everything is always 100 per cent, but many of the zinc will be eliminated this way. HH jim tn

 

[BH_Landstar_]

The problem with the F4 is that it see's them as dimes and there is no way to change that, he needs to listen to the sound a dime makes and a penny makes, there is a small sound differance, and you need a good pair of headphones to hear the differance. The F4 does not have the option to change the tones like the F5 or F70 or F75, so he's stuck with the tones that he has.

 

[bthom]

I dont know about the US coins, but here in New Zealand our old pennys which I want Id the same as our old 2c which I dont.. yes depth gives a clue as does a slight change in sound, but I use the pinpoint on the f4 to sort them... the coins are different size, so that works fine for me.

 

[tvr]

With the F75, I've found the pre1982 pennies to ID where a dime does, very near 70, but the post 1982 zinc pennies are all around 68 and lower, depending on how fresh or eaten up they are. Dug one zinc penny yesterday that read 51 and only had about 2/3's of the penny left ... was thinking it could be a class ring.

 

[Boston Metal]

Thank you all for the input. It appears I'll need to practice distinguishing between dimes and older memorial cents. I'll put them both down under a rug over the winter and practice until I can hear a difference. Hey it will give me something fun to do on those cold nights!

Frank

 

[tvr]

I'll add another thought as to why I still dig zinc's ... at least most of the time. I have turned up Indian Head pennies where I did not expect to find them ... modern school yards where I did not turn up any history that indicated older development or occupation of the area. The Indian pennies ID where zinc pennies do.

 

[jim tn]

Maybe, but if the spots one hunts have the potential for I H cents, don't pass up those low to mid 60's readings either, as that is where I find them to come in on the F 75's more often then not.Some of the earlier dates even, in the upper 50's. HH jim tn

 

[Roland58]

Like the other responses, I have found the same thing with my F75. I have had memorial cents show up at 70-73 and I have found dimes 64-66. I think the position of the coin, soil content, etc. probably has an influence on the reading as well. I spent a good part of the day digging foil hoping to find a small gold trinket, but, nay.......nothing but foil!!