Why No Nickels?

[grumpyolman]

Been out with my SE about 10 times now. Starting to learn what it is telling me, but I haven't dug one nickel with it. I have pulled up pull tabs and screw tops but no nickels. With my Fisher CZ7A Pro, I would clean up on nickels as it seems every other detector that went through there before I did, didn't see nickels either. I am finding pennies, dimes, quarters like I'd expect. Why no nickels? That worries me as I have read that gold rings sometimes hit like nickels. Regards...Jim.

 

[Larry (IL)]

You didn't say how you had the SE set up Jim, but I would test a pocket nickel to make sure you don't have it discriminated out. Note the location/numbers on the screen and you should find lots of them.

Gold rings could be anywhere from foil to bottlecaps depending on Karat and size, not just around the nic's.

 

[scars]

I did not hunt nickels for quite a while with my EX II so i decided to go to one of my better spots and check for nickels. The very first 10/05 was a shield with rays and the fourth 10/05 was a 14 kt wedding band. I now hunt the low tone's while waiting for the 00/29's.

 

[DFX-Gregg]

n/t

 

[Magicman]

I definitely hunt for nickels it has paid off. I would check first with a nickel or two to see if you are in the zone (or you have discriminated them out) It is weird with nickels I sometimes get several and then other times none. I am doing a stat report for my class (Business degree) on the ratio of coins. Are smaller coins lost because they are small and you can't see them, but nickels on up are larger so they are spotted easily when you drop them? Just a couple angles I am looking at.

Back to the nickels, I look for them I got a nice 18k gold diamond ring and five other rings.

 

[cliff490]

Are smaller coins lost because they are small and you can't see them, but nickels on up are larger so they are spotted easily when you drop them?

Another reason for fewer nickels is when you break a dollar you can get back 4 pennies 3 quarters 2 dimes but only 1 nickel
So fewer are being lost.

 

[Jeff (IL)]

Cliff,

Good stuff, never even thought of that being a possible reason!

 

[Magicman]

Cliff I am actually doing some stats on that for a class - great point. I guess a way to check that out is look in your change bowl, in fact you have less nickels. Thanks.

 

[Steve(MS)]

Sounds plausible. I have the same opinion having cherry picked sites for high conductors and then go back over them looking for nickels. Another thing is the nickel is right close to the pulltab range as well as other types of trash, foil, shredded foil, etc. Nickels generally over time have corrosion along with their being low in conductivity make for a harder time to find as well. I have found that I have to be willing to dig more trash ratio than for other coins so in part it causes me to look for them lastly compared to the clad coins but don't forget them in your hunts, from foil up to the nickel is a good area to find gold rings. For the ones using conduct sounds, if you place a dug nickel in one of your shoes, you can compare the tone to a signal in the ground, that way you can go for an exact tone match and maybe not dig as many pulltabs. I have found most nickels measure at 5 on the conduct scale and 6 is in the area of some pulltabs so that will give an idea of how I go about hunting them but the exact tone is mainly what I go by and yes I am sure using that method I will leave some nickels in the ground.

 

[dewcon4414]

I tryed a little different approach. I used a LEARN reject pattern on the nickel and expanded it a bit. Then saved it and pulled it up to add to my normal hunting disc. I had to watch the screen at first, but it helped me learn where the nickel fell on the smartscreen and increased my finds.

 

[grumpyolman]

Thanks for all the ideas and thoughts. I really like the idea of putting a nickel in my shoe. Easy to do! To answer some of the questions asked of me...I hunt in smart find most of the time. Sometimes in auto and sometimes in manual. Also tried AM with a bit of Iron Mask. Every so often when I get a signal I'll switch to digital just to get another 'read' on what is happening. I have a long, long way to go on this machine. It is a little frustrating to hear all the good finds and find myself digging pennies from 8" and not finding any silver. At this one school I hunt, been there 20 times or so, I found 2 silver quarters but that was with my Fisher. I learned that the gym next to the school was originally the one room school that people used way back when. I ought to be finding more. I was thinking that there must have been lots of other stuff I missed and now that I use and Explorer, at least some of the stuff should be showing. Oh well! The big find is the icing on the cake. Just being out and doing the hunting is the best part. Regards...Jim

 

[grumpyolman]

Went out to the old school again last night. Did the nickel in my shoe thing every now and then and guess I got the sound of a nickel slightly embedded. I found and dug a nickel. Thanks all.

 

[Magicman]

Don't forget the nickel is in your shoe or you might be going around in circles looking fot the target.

 

[gates21]

I scanned in a buffalo, jefferson, and Shield nickel and then opened the disc all the way to the left side of the screen following the where the nickel showed up (hope u understand what im saying). Ive found that an coin that is close to iron often will be nulled out unless the disc is open all the way to the left (same for coins at the top of the screen)...So I have a thin little line running across the entire bottem and I get nickels quite often. You will still get pull tabs, but the sound is more chopped off (like half the sound is disc'd out). Nickels will be a solid clear ringing noise like the other coins.


Hope that helps.
Aaron

 

[Steve(MS)]

Good tip, that is the way I use the disc also.