My thoughts on Nickels

[capt.]

I know that we, as detectorists, don't dig as many nickels(in the states) as other coins. We rationalize this by the similarity of their magnetic signature to pull tabs and can slaw and so they get over looked. I can believe some of that. However, on my last hunt before I caught the boat, I found 5 quarters, 6 dimes, 17 copper pennies without ONE SINGLE NICKEL/PULL TAB TONE. This was in an area in a local park that is just open land. Maybe 8 acres or so. They keep it cut down and there are some old, falling apart backstops in one area. I have been wanting to try it out just because...it is no where near any active part of the park today. My point, which is pretty obvious, is that I think I should have dug some nickels there also because there was no trash to confuse with nickels, thus making me miss or pass up a potential find. Where the heck are they? Why weren't a representative amount of nickels lost along with the other coins?

Even on the days that we, as detectorists, challenge ourselves to dig only the solid 57, 58 TIN and not fool around with questionable signals, the ratio of nickels to can slaw for me depending on the location, is still in the favor of can slaw. Why are there so FEW nickels dropped? Here is another senario with my water detector, which has one tone and no target identification numbers. The disc is set to block out iron. I dig every solid repeatable signal. In 2 outings in knee deep water I dug 38 coins. Of these 38 there was 1 nickel. This is not including all the trash targets that were solid hits...probably close to 200 "other" things that I dug up during those 2 hunts. I see a pattern developing here. Could it be that nickels are carried less often than other coins because of their monetary denomination of 5 cents? I don't know either but I am beginning to think that there are NOT as many nickels in the ground as other coins. That's my 2 cents... how about yours?

Thanks for humoring me and I am looking forward to what y'all have to say on the subject.

capt.

 

[digginLa]

I sort of wonder the same thing capt, I may have found one or two nickels at the park I've been hunting (doesn't help that 99% of the time I have the disc maxed out tho) and even most of the elem schools that I've been hunting have very few nickels compared to other coins, the one exception being the school I re hunted this afternoon, I found a total of 41 coins and 9 of those were nickels, if I remember correctly it was the same way the first time I hunted the place a couple of yrs ago.

 

[cowtownkid]

I have been wondering the same thing on my nickel finds...Just one (1)! I have dug over 3 gallons of canslaw the past month...Lots of Quarters, dimes & pennies but only one nickle??? And it was almost a surface target.

 

[digginLa]

Its starting to look like in my soil that nickels are going to come in at 56-57, I dug a couple solid 57's, one was a bent pull tab the other was a wierd shaped piece of metal, if it drops to 55-57 its been a pull tab or small piece of metal 55-59 is usually pencil eraser ends or parts of pull tabs and I even had one 56-57 that was a pull tab so even with that reading I'm not sure that I'll always get a nickel. Jimmie

 

[jabbo]

When I separate my coins for the tumbler I have lots of nickles to clean. All found with my Tesoro searching for gold jewelry. Now I am searching for old coins with my ID Edge and dig a lot less nickles. When I use the Edge I dig mostly high tones only ( silver dimes and quarters, copper pennies, large pennies) and IH penny signals. When I search in the woods, nickles and shotgun shell signals are very similar so I don't dig.

 

[kai_gold]

Aside from lower conductivity, I think that nickels are not used as much and so less are lost. For example, if you were to receive 99 cents in change back, you would likely get 3 quarters, two dimes and four pennies. No Nickels. You won't get nickels for .99, .98, .97, .96, .95 cents. From .90-.94 you will get 1 nickel, still get a dime, 3 quarters and except for .90 you will get at least one penny. So for this range of change alone you have a 10/10 chance of getting quarters, 10/10 chance getting one or more dimes, 9/10 chance getting one or more pennies and 5/10 chance of getting a nickel and only one nickel. (Other change ranges will show differences but will be close)

Throw in low conductivity, which when close to iron may shift the vdi toward iron range as well as its proximity to other trash and it seems reasonable that these will be harder to find. Unless you were strictly looking for nickels, I think that your finds ratio seems about right.

 

[mr.thumb]

Well Capt. I think that idea is interesting, in the tot lots that I have been to recently I have been finding about a ratio of nickles to other coins of about one nickle to about twenty or so other coins. It just may be that not as much change is given out with nickles, it just may be one of those strange things that just are. Weird. That's my nickle.

Mike

 

[BH_Landstar_]

I dug 19 nickels today at a sports field along with $8.50 in quarters.

Oh, and I used the Gold Bug Pro with the Fisher F5 10" coil on it for this hunt.

 

[jim tn]

I think it depends on the site. School yards for me produce the most nickels. My wife and I were out of town this weekend and I hunted a school yard in Nashville. When we got home earlier this afternoon, I hit another school yard that is also used for soccer and baseball. In total from both schools with the Omega, I got 27 quarters, 38 dimes, 15 nickels and 18 Memorial cents. I did dig some square tabs. They pretty much read 57 and lock on pretty good. Can slaw does seem to bounce a bit more, but some hits are to good to pass up, so some does get dug, just in case. As has been mentioned, I think fewer nickels get lost over all, but I find pretty good numbers of them. My nickels to all other coins runs 15-16% whenever I keep counts of all coins found. HH jim tn

 

[Ken in Georgia]

Site and area. I was in a gas station and the attendant kept giving everyone a rounded up change back or return. For those who paid by money. Now he kept giving out nickels. But went to south Georgia and they kept the prices like $0.99 or $0.98 and $0.97. I hope this helps.

 

[pull tab mel]

I find a lot of pennies and dimes but seldom a nickel......pennies are small and blend with the ground where as nickels might be more visible when dropped.

 

[Monte]

Jim TN said he recovered 98 coins from 2 schools, and 15 of those were a US 5

 

[jim tn]

n/t

 

[BH_Landstar_]

No change / coins in my pocket, use my card all the time.

So, with that said, I dug 32 coins today, 10 dimes, 7 nickels and the rest in quarters.

 

[all iron]

The other day i went out and turned up the discrimination all the way up and notched back in nickles.
I found six nickles on a beach at a local swimming hole and 12 pull tabs

Pull tabs still break through and a good Nickle is 57 in my dirt with the Omega

By discriminating out all but nickles and dimes and quarters and concentrating on nickles , it was easier to find nickles for me.

I did this also today and dug 3 pull tabs and 1 gold wedding band

 

[MickTwin]

My 1st thought on Nickels is what a great man Thomas Jefferson was - second only to Lincoln... (the copper Lincoln, not the zinc one)