I'm not a Garrett owner at this point in time other than the Pro-Pointer but! I've had my questions about nickles. Here is what I've found with a number of other detectors, now the why is still a question, but the knowing is helpful, here goes.
I have posted before about my findings on nickles, I called them the,
"Elusive" and "Evasive" coin!
I have a coin test garden, well a couple of them and in them is of course some nickles, the gardens has been buried for well over a year now.
The more nickles I planted the more curious I became with them. The other coins, Copper Pennies, older Clad dimes, Silver Quarter, 1800's Large Cent, Indian Cent, and Nickles.
So in and about the other coins I have nickles buried @
3"
4"
5"
and two different ones @ 6"
The other coins are @
3"
6" and
8"
All the non nickle targets holds VID numbers really well at the different depths, not perfect but close enough to pretty much call them, BUT! not the nickles.
Nickles down to 3" is well pretty much nickles, but beyond that and the numbers starts going up.
4" is starting to climb to the upper side of the nickle range.
5" is way above nickles and more in the junk range, I might add that @ this depth they also start to get jumpy numbers.
6" the numbers start to be more in the penny range but really jumpy (wide spread)
Now I've done this test with a pretty wide range of detectors,
Whites 5900 Di/Pro sl
Fisher Coinstrike (two different ones)
Whites XLT
Fisher ID Edge
Teknetics Omega 8000
Fisher F2
and this one was the first I discovered this with, a Fisher 1266x (no meter) I could discriminate the 3" nickle completely out and still hit the 4", Disc the 4" out and still hit the 5".
All the coins change VID numbers a little @ depth and all of them the numbers start to jump a bit, but nothing like the nickles.
So, a surface hunter (less than 3") can get the nickles pretty easy with the right machine, but the same method just doesn't work on nickles beyond the 3" range.
So, then you have the 4" to 5" range that the beep an diggers will also get the nickles, but @ 6" and beyond the nickles start to allude even them.
So, I call Nickles "Elusive" and "Evasive"
And then to add to that in other threads in other forums nickles have been declared as "Odd" in any one time if you pull out a pocket full of change nickles will most times if not always be the low numbered handed out coin, many people have wrote their short number of nickle finds to just that, less of them get lost as compared to pennies or even dimes or quarters, because less are handed out in change. So, now not only are nickles elusive, evasive, but also the shorter of the straws in handed out change.
Mark
