safari question

[smokingunz]

have owned the safari for2 months now ,just started to have the penny problem myself,sounds and numbers are coming up the same as dimes or quarters,what i think it is is the damp or wet soil,i hope,you think you have a good hit and its a penny,last three days ive pulled 30 of them gettin pretty old already,find anything out on it let me know please-------disturbed!!!!!

 

[lafatlife]

smokingunz, I am glad that I am not the only one noticing this. It is very frustrating when you think you have a dime or quarter based on the sound and the number and dig up a zinc penny.

I don't understand that. I can see the older copper pennies ringing up as dimes but not the zinc ones and certainly they should not be ringing up as quarters.

 

[Onus]

What is a clad dime made of? is it copper or zinc with a nickel coating? That may explain part of it? Onus

 

[lafatlife]

Modern clad dimes are a typical mix is 75% copper, 25% nickel, and a trace amount of manganese.

Zinc pennies are zinc blanks which are electroplated with copper.

The electroplating should not be enough for a zinc penny to ring up as a dime. The older pennies being made of mostly copper I can understand as the dime is the very similar.