Question on visual ID values on E-Trac

[time4me]

I'm re-reading Andy Sabisch's book while stuck in Michigan for the week (ground is frozen solid under a bunch of snow), picking up some new things to try as soon as I get back home to California.

On page 109 of the book there is a table of targets and corresponding visual ID numbers. For the wheat cent (copper), which I assume should come in the same as a more recent copper (not zinc) penny, the value shown is 42. And for the silver dime, the value shown is a 43.

On my E-Trac, clad dimes as well as silver dimes come in at 45 (silver dimes may bounce between 45 and 46). Copper pennies come in anywhere between 42 to 44, sometimes as high as 45.

So my question is... how many of you are digging silver dimes as readings of 43 or even 44? I dig very few deep silvers, so maybe the deep ones come in at the lower VDI numbers?

Anyways, I've gotten sick of digging copper pennies, even wheat cents, and if I'm trying to cherry pick silvers, I end up skipping over lots of 44 VDIs because they always seem to be copper pennies.

I am hoping others can chime in with their experiences on VDI numbers. Should I dig every 43 and 44 as they could end up being a silver dime?

Thanks,

Jim

 

[pro778]

I was digging eaten up pennies, at the beach last week, that were coming in at 12-15. I only use the numbers as a guide. You can't count on the numbers. They are like the depth, sometimes they're good and sometimes they aren't. As long as I'm making great finds and not digging a lot of iron, I'm happy.

 

[ziphius]

Jim,

I don't think it is practical to cherry-pick for silver coins at the expense of wheats and copper memorials. Maybe the rare person can do it, but I doubt it if the targets are deep. They sound too much alike at depth and the VDI numbers bounce around all over the place on deep coins anyway, whether or not they are silver or copper. I routinely ignore the IDs at depth and dig based on tone. I've dug deep wheaties with the E-Trac that read 01-38, as well as silver dimes. Sometimes they are better-behaved and read 12-43 to 46, but not that often if they are deeper than 7 inches in my parks. The other night, I dug a nice 12-45 deepie that ended up being a mini-spill of a '43 merc and a '45 wheat. Good luck out there.

Jim

 

[ziphius]

Good point pro778. Corroded zinc pennies at the beach come in as lower values and I'm always hopeful when I see a 12-15 at the beach, because this falls into the range of gold and pulltabs. The zincs that haven't been there as long come in more in the neighborhood of 12-36.