question on fe/co numbers.

[pointer80]

Hi all, Let me start by mentioning I'm a newbie, Of course you can probably tell by some of my questions. i was just wondering is there any way to tell a penny signal from a silver dime signal? What I mean is wheats or pre zincolns. They sound the same and the numbers are the same even in bench testing. Is there any secret to telling them apart or do you just dig them all(I mean the zincolns).

 

[Goes4ever]

zinc pennies should come in way lower than a clad OR silver dime!

on my etrac a zinc will come in at 12-34 or 35

a clad OR silver dime will come in at 12-44 or 45

not even close! the sound is much higher pitched too! but another thing is if you skip zinc penny signals your also passing up all indian pennies as they come in almost EXACTLY like zinc pennies

and wheat pennies will come in right in the middle between a zinc and a dime, on mine almost everytime a wheat is around 12-40, 41, 42

 

[DAN03USMC]

What Terry said.

Tim, I will always do sample on a new site. dig every signal for the first few and see what developes. If you notice that you are getting a lot of zincs or trash you can not dig those #'s or you can set yourself a depth limit. You always take a chance by not digging. I guess it depends on how much time you have. Remember a clad coin or trash can hide a deeper better coin under it. My best advice to you at this point since you are new to the E-trac is dig everything. ( which I believe is good advice with any new machine) After a while I think your brain and ears will be able to dope-out the targets better than the vis ID good luck HH, Dan

 

[DiggininPa]

I have dug zinc pennys at 5 to 6 inches deep coming in at 12-43 to 12-44 thinking it was going to be a dime.
I had deep wheaties come in at 12-37 to 12-40

 

[Goes4ever]

if zinc pennies come in at 12-43, 44 something is wrong

 

[NebTrac]

For me I'll dig most of those signals anyway, relevant to the site. My experience has been zincs do like Terry said, they'll sound like IH's. The older memorials (pre-82) can, at times, sound like silver sometimes to me. This depends on variouse conditions with moisture, depth and coin orientation. What I have noticed is that the CO numbers have too much change to them to be a dime (they might be a 44, 45, 46 one way and then all of a sudden be 40 or 41 on the 90 degree). Wheats tend to stay true, depending on depth and moisture to the 41-42 Co number. More moisture though and I've had them bang around the 43 and 44 numbers.

What I've concluded, strictly for myself , is I'm going to dig it...pure and simple. I can tell now about 90% of the time if I've got a true silver dime or suspicion clad. Same way about 70% with the wheats. Usually, but certainly not always, depth is usually the tell-tell givaway.

If at a park or "still" used fairground and the I get that 38 number close to the surface (or you hear that 3 to 4 way hit) I usually skip it after 2 or 3 retreivals confirming its a modern penny.

NebTrac

 

[Cladiator (OR)]

I'm fairly new to the E-Trac but for me, in my area, I've noticed pre-zincolns (i.e. pre-'82) most of time come in at a solid 12-44 just like a clad dime and just like the one (and only, so far) silver dime I've found. I don't have quite enough experience yet to be able to discern any sound differences between the three. Then again, with my hearing, I may never be able to hear a difference. Zincolns (mid-'82 and newer) for me come in considerably lower--anywhere from 12-29 to 12-37, depending on how much of the coin is still intact (as evidenced by my avatar). I dig them all--and have a lot of fun in the process. Good luck.