It has been 5 years now since I got into this hobby and despite reading forums for 6 years it was a resent trip to the USA that exposed my ignorance concerning US coins vs Canadian coins eh.
My wife and I collected 3 lbs of US change for our trip south this winter but this year before packing it I pulled out my magnet to remove all the steel based coins and what would be left would be the silver, or so I thought , as this is what I do to find the silver in the steel based Canadian coins but to my shock the whole mound of coins never stuck to the magnet.
Were they all silver? A quick search on the net revealed that US coins, or clad, are made of a non magnetic alloy.
This vast difference in coin composition makes for unique experiences for Canadians wishing to have the same outcomes using detectors and techniques suited for US clad.
Gold and Silver are still the same along with the trash but when my Tesoro Vaquero starts to sing like a crushed aluminum can, I am a digging as it is usually a Canadian $1 or $2 coin known locally as a Loonie $1 or toonie $2 and they do add up.
I will say that my Tesoro Vaquero works well with Canadian coins in the discrimination mode but I do most of my hunting in AM (all metal) mode by pressing the pin point button then switching quickly to discrimination mode by releasing the button. Using this technique increased my find considerably.
I now am the proud owner of a Minelab Sovereign sx-pro2a that I bought to compliment my Vaquero and am in the process of learning it.
I would say I just lucked out when I bought the Vaquero for use here in Canada as I did not know of the major differences in US and Canadian coins.
Thanks for taking the time and greetings from the Canadian North East.
Minas man
My wife and I collected 3 lbs of US change for our trip south this winter but this year before packing it I pulled out my magnet to remove all the steel based coins and what would be left would be the silver, or so I thought , as this is what I do to find the silver in the steel based Canadian coins but to my shock the whole mound of coins never stuck to the magnet.
Were they all silver? A quick search on the net revealed that US coins, or clad, are made of a non magnetic alloy.
This vast difference in coin composition makes for unique experiences for Canadians wishing to have the same outcomes using detectors and techniques suited for US clad.
Gold and Silver are still the same along with the trash but when my Tesoro Vaquero starts to sing like a crushed aluminum can, I am a digging as it is usually a Canadian $1 or $2 coin known locally as a Loonie $1 or toonie $2 and they do add up.
I will say that my Tesoro Vaquero works well with Canadian coins in the discrimination mode but I do most of my hunting in AM (all metal) mode by pressing the pin point button then switching quickly to discrimination mode by releasing the button. Using this technique increased my find considerably.
I now am the proud owner of a Minelab Sovereign sx-pro2a that I bought to compliment my Vaquero and am in the process of learning it.
I would say I just lucked out when I bought the Vaquero for use here in Canada as I did not know of the major differences in US and Canadian coins.
Thanks for taking the time and greetings from the Canadian North East.
Minas man
