Pennies

[tcp]

I have been hunting in a park that has quite a bit of trash and doing well with the finds. I usually only dig a few pennies that are not wheats because they ring 12 42 or below. On my last trip to the park I dug about twenty pennies that would jump between 41 and 43 and occasionally they would reach 44. I did not want to pass up readings that were between 41 and 44 because they were also reading +4" in depth. I was surprised at finding so many penny readings that high. I was using the small coil and manual sensitivity set at +1. The detector sensitivity was running at 14 most of the time. I have run manual at 26 in this park without much trouble and did not have trouble with penny readings jumping past 42. I was just wondering if others have occasionally experienced the same situation. Great machine...I am up to 21 silver dimes in this park. Unfortunately the park only dates to the late 30's.

 

[scrapologist]

I dig pennies at the 12:37 level all day long. sometimes lower if these are corroded. Sometimes as low as 12:33

 

[KinTN]

Like scrapologist, I see zincs at 37 with them showing up lower as they corrode. Coppers can sometimes overlap with clad dimes depending on environment/orientation/etc...

 

[JackalopeZL1]

High relief coppers can even bring a 12-45 depending on what setting you are using..

 

[ChicagoJohn]

I found Indianhead cents at 12-32 and 12-34 also old zinc pennies! If its shallow around 2 to 3 inch deep and I expect zinc and if deeper than 6 inch.... oh boy possible Indianhead cent! I dig all anyway and never know! Most of my old wheat cents is 12-41.

 

[Beyonder]

I have had these types of numbers:

Indians 25-28
zincs 30-35
copper post 1960 42-43 sometimes 44 and a few times 46
copper pre 1960 37-42

 

[coondog]

I'm wondering if you have recently had a good soaking rain of late. Maybe the moist conditions have improved your signal reception.

I have noticed that in the past that some days just seem like the machine is on steroids and all pennies ( except zinc) sound like possible silver.

I didn't get much time on the machine this year to confirm the reason why but I am suspecting moisture conditions being just right.

 

[tcp]

Good point Coondog. I know I had been over several of the pennies before because I have detected the area several times. They must have been reading lower because I did not dig them in the past. Your point about the moisture is interesting. The ground was starting to become dry when the pennies were reading high. We had rain that night and I went back to the same park yesterday. The soil was very wet. I only dug one penny in three hours of hunting. I did get several 39-41 readings but after checking the depth and seeing that they were under six inches I decided not to dig. I know that seems contrary to what most of us think about wet soil and good conductivity. Perhaps the machines are a little more accurate when the ground is really wet.

 

[glenn3-88]

I use to have my coin tones set at 12/29 - 12/50. I would occassionally pick up a coin
at 29 but most of the time it would be a pull tab that was shiny. Old pull tabs were made
with better material than they are today. I have since raised up the tone to 12/30 on the
lower end. I do not dig all 12/30's unless I get a good round red icon regardless of depth.
Yesterday at the location of an old house where only the chimney remained I dug 2 wheats,
One 1950 and one 1953. One of them was at 7" and the other at 3". The soil here is generally
sandy and neutral. I was running manual sensitivity at 18 and the machine was at 15 to 16.

At 12/30 I do get a lot of hits but most have a lot of scatter. I do a 90degree turn and if they are still
that way I keep walking. While not being the most valuable find, I dig good signals whether pennies
or not. I also found a 1966 dime at 5" on a 12/43 hit.

I read this forum every day. I am convinced that the vid numbers of these detectors are definitely affected
by how much mineralization there is in the ground and how much moisture affects the machines ability to
reach targets at a deeper level. There are several sand plants around my home within 10 miles that
absolutely dig more than 30' deep and still have white sand when the water table runs the machines and
trucks out of the dig. That is the same exact sand you see at Myrtle Beach when they do a beach re-nourishment
of the dunes. At the same time, there are locations you can reach red clay at 4".