Nails How to ID Before Digging?

[Dwayne2010]

So, up here in Canada we have our coins that have the steel core. I haven't been able to figure out the difference between a nail and a coin. I find that a nail can be 12-40ish and also 35-50? Anyone have any suggestions to help out? I have farted around with using ground coin, ferous coin and even after two months, I still am have a difficult time with the CTX 3030.

 

[foreign object]

Might be easier to get the gov. To stop using steel in their coins.lol

Hope you work it out.

 

[Dwayne2010]

I am thinking about hittinng some old log cabin sites and using the silver setting so maybe I will have fewer isses then searchiing modern sites for our modern clad.

 

[Southwind]

Having not dug a lot of iron based coins, but a lot of nails, I would suggest the key is in the pinpointing.

A nail will give a false signal at the sharp/pointed end where it will pinpoint at the biggest piece which is generally the head. On a small nail it can be tough to tell but on most nails they will pinpoint slightly off from where they signal in motion mode. If you get a signal imagine where that target would be on the ground. Now pinpoint and in most cases a coin, iron or not, will pinpoint in the exact same spot. A nail will pinpoint slightly off to one side or the other.

 

[kittlitz]

Also being in Canada, I have the same problem However, I've found that using ferrous-coin, I can usually identify modern Canadian coins even while discriminating out all FE targets above 21 or so (basically, bottom third or so of the screen is discriminated out). This is what I've noticed:

1) Steel coins usually will produce a target in the 12 FE range, with CO ranging widely from 05 to 20 or so. If you use target trace, the coin will often produce a "smear" over that CO range.

2) Non-steel "clad" coins (e.g. quarters and dimes minted from 1969 to 1999, or loonies and toonies minted before 2012) usually produce a fairly good CO reading in the 30s. FE again will be around 11 or 12.

A target in the 12.40 range is often an iron false if there is a second target at bottom right (35.50 or close to that). One of the members here has a good video on how the CTX reacts when going over a good target near iron: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khtK5wYlGmA>. Usually, the presence of nearby iron drags down the CO reading of the good target to below 40.

I should note that if you are discriminating out high FE signals, sometimes there will be no audio when going over a steel coin. You need to keep an eye on the display to look for the good visual target, which is good practice, anyway.

Also, regarding pinpointing: steel coins will generally not give the strongest pinpoint signal when the middle of the coil is right over them. Instead, they seem to give a strong response at the edges of the coil, similar to a coin that's on edge. So, if a target gives a better pinpoint response at the East and West edges of the coil rather than the center, I usually pinpoint by moving the edge of the coil away from the target until the audio response starts to drop. The target should then be just beside the edge of the coil.

Hope this helps!

-Ken

 

[GKMan]

This is what makes this forum for the CTX so great...

 

[sube]

One other point that was not brought up if you watch the depth gauge for a nail the depth changes from 5 inches to say 10 inches and a coin remains pretty stable on depth reading not with much variation compared to a nail . sube

 

[Dwayne2010]

Okay thanks guys for all the input. I never noticed the depth changes but will keep a close eye on that now.

 

[kittlitz]

One other point that was not brought up if you watch the depth gauge for a nail the depth changes from 5 inches to say 10 inches and a coin remains pretty stable on depth reading not with much variation compared to a nail . sube

Thanks for the tip! I still get fooled by nails quite often; hopefully this will help. Does the depth vary just when pinpointing, or in normal detecting mode as well?

-Ken

 

[sube]

Both if you 90% degree the target your looking at the nail east and west and then north and south which gives you two different depth readings a coin laying flat will be the same both ways . This goes for odd shaped targets too , a coin because it's round gives the same reading both ways . However coins on edge will give a different reading because your only looking at the edge of the coin one way and the side the other way , on edge it will give you a deeper reading than hitting it on the side if you pinpoint the coin on edge the deeper reading of the two and it's where you pinpoint and stays then it's a coin on edge a nail will pinpoint off center . But a bent nail which is similar both ways because of it's shape will give the same depth both ways . sube

 

[kittlitz]

Thanks, Sube. I think this will take some practice.

 

[gabbyhayes]

Great info!
I am finding Canadian clad frustrating. Especially pinpointing.
Though I don't use the CTX for clad per say, loonies are nice to find,especially when they are near the surface.
I have come to the conclusion, that anything that disappears while pinpointing is a quarter or a loonie ($1.00)