What's Your Favorite "Odd" Number To Dig?

[Critterhunter]

For me it's targets that read 170 or 171. Pulltabs don't read that high, it's a tad lower than pennies, and I seem to find some interesting items when I dig those numbers. The other day I dug one of those antique makeup compacts that read 171. Indians and other pennies that are worn, on edge a certain way, in really bad ground, or have degraded somewhat can also read like this. Not to mention that according to the charts a $5 gold piece reads 169 to 172.

While I'm at it, anybody have any opinions as to how degraded old nickles such as Vs or Shields have read for you. Have they read a bit lower because they've degraded a bit, or have they read a bit higher because they've formed a halo around them for you? I noticed that most of the ID charts puts them at (from memory) like 137 to 140 or so on the scale, versus say about 143 to 145 for a new nickle.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Now this is where some experience you will see that you have to go by sound and tone more than meter readings. Pull tabs and some can slaw for me read as high as 175 and even higher, but now I go by how deep it sounds as most time pull tabs don't get that deep, so I dig any repeatable signal or ones I can get that are deeper and can get the tones and numbers trying to climb, but just cant make it. I also find those that are not deep that have broken tones, not to be a coin and those that read in pull tab range and smoother sounding is those you want to dig as this is where some interesting items can be found. This is where i find many very interesting items as I use the tones, how deep it sounds and then how the meter numbers are acting.

Now on nickles they all seem to have that nickle tone and those that are real deep do read lower as you will see on the meter chart, the war nickles can read from 143-151, but sounds the same tones and smoother than any trash item for me. I have seen some war nickles read as high as a IH or new zinc penny and also sound like a IH or zinc too. I found it hard to believe myself until the guy sent it to me and I checked it on my Sovereign, the reason is something in the ground that will leach out the manganese of the nickle and give it a different ID.
As you get more experience you will see that the tones and how the target sounds is the first thing we go by and the meter is used for those items our hearing can not tell the difference in the tones as they are so close to one another.
That one old park I found many older coins at that some say was impossible I got very few numbers that read as they should, but I knew they were deep, tones seem to want to climb and couldn't quite make it and in one case a very deep merc dime the best meter reading I could get was 139, some got as high as 169 on a Wheaties, so with the tones, how big,how smooth it sounds then if the tones and meter reading is trying to climb, but can't quite make it are the ones I find interesting for me. This all comes with actual experience as many that do good with the Sovereign will tell you.

 

[Critterhunter]

Good info. I agree that the quality and smoothness of the audio should be your first and most important clue to dig or not. I was at a house last summer hunting the backyard when I ran acrossed a pulltab signal. It just sounded too smooth, warm, and "round" to be junk. Had a big feeling it was going to be a ring, and it was. A junk ring, but still it really made me think. For me, though, I can't tell the difference in audio pitch between say a 171 or a 176 signal, so I like to go by the meter and dig those odd numbers that are near a penny but not quite reading 173 or 176.

 

[Ism]

When testing deep dimes, I noticed it sounds like a deep nail. Giving the occasional NEG symbol, jumpy, and trying to rise but falling off.
Every time I dug these signals in the past they were nails so I haven't been digging them. Now I'm wondering about a couple signals I ignored on previous hunts.
If I let it bother me I will be in a strait jacket. However, next time I'm digging.

 

[Critterhunter]

At many sites those deep "iffy" coin signals, or ones that only sound good from one direction and null or degrade from others, are the only signals left worth digging. So my view is why not go ahead and dig them? That's when you'll be popping the really deep coins at the fringes or ones on edge or masked by trash. Even the Explorer/Etrac guys say that for the most part past 8" many coins won't have a good perfect ID or sound to them. This of course varies with how good or bad the ground minerals are. I admit I've been passing up a lot of those one way coin signals or iffy ones that probably are iron producing false coin spikes. Well, lately over the past few years I've been passing up those signals more often than not looking for those perfect deep ones, but I'm going to change that this summer and start actually seeking out those suspect signals that nobody else wants to dig. If you pay attention real close to how they sound and act before digging them, then after a while you'll have dug enough of them to see certain traits that real coins in trash or deep exhibit, and other traits the false coin spikes from iron are doing....And then you can get a little more picky down the road armed with that knowledge and avoid the ones that you are 99% sure are iron. With the limited digging of these targets I have done, I've already noticed certain qualities to iron false coin hits versus the real thing. One of those is that iron won't have much rhyme or reason to it's "climb" and will be more random and bounce around the scale as it does that, while a real coin will have more of a subtle climb to 180. If I get a signal that does that, even if it nulls or degrades from other angles, I usually dig it. Also, you can just "tell" by how good the signal sounds from the good angle that it must be a coin.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Critter,I agree with Clive and Rick, and like the smooth steady tone targets these have yielded some very nice rings.Most ID readings between 149-137 gets my attention.My first concentration though is on the tone and use the meter numbers as another aid to ID targets.I don't have a favorite number but do like some combination how much effort to lock, on bounce and the tone.My favorite ID for silver a 173 that will climb to a 180.Favorite wheat ID 170 that climbs to 173.IHs 172 that climbs to a 175 are just a few..HH Ron