What Target I.D, Numbers Are You Getting For Nickels ?

[E-Trac-Ohio]

I agree with those of you that say the E-Trac is a great Nickel finding machine.
I've gotten much better at telling Nickels from Pop Tops this season - after digging more than (130) Nickels this year and it seems like 75% + of the targets I decide to dig these days - actually turn out to be Nickels ! I wanted to see what target I.D. numbers you guy's were getting - this is what I've seen this year ...

Almost every Nickel I dig is coming in FE ( can be any number - usually 5 to 15 range - really jumps all over on deeper coins) and CON - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - and every once in a while 15.
After digging a wide range of Nickel target numbers - I've found that once the CO number goes to 10 or below or 16 or above - it's not a Nickel.

Heres the strange part ... a lot of the time - if I don't get a target ID bounce on the CO side - say like a 11 & 12 one way and then like a 12 & 14 when crossed - 90% of the time - it's not a Nickel.
If I get a solid - no change in numbers --- CO - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - , 90 % of the time it's a pop top or other junk.

With all other good targets - we always like to see good solid target I.D. numbers - but with Nickels - for me anyway - most of the time - I like to see a little two or three number CO bounce.

What's your opinion ?

Happy New Year ! --- Mark

 

[Dr.Bill]

Hi Mark
When I dig a target that I think is a nickel. I like to analyze the target with various sweeping motions and the minelab wiggle. Most nickels will read 10-13 to 12-13 about 75-80 percent of the time . I have seen the some "mostly Buffalos " go slightly higher on the conductivity scale up to 14 and some war nickels go as low as 08 on the ferrous scale .

Yesterday at lunch I went to a local heavily hunted park and pulled out three nickels a dime and a penny . The first sweep on two of the nickels was 13-13 and they quickly settled down to 12-13s with one nickel that was deeper in the ground reading 10-13 almost consistently .

The soil conditions was black and loamy and very saturated with water from melting snow . I was also using the SEF 10x 12 coil on the Etrac.

HH all

 

[Jason in Enid]

I find that nickels come in mostly in the 12-12 to 12-13. Any higher CO and its likely a pull tab. Lower and it's usually small aluminum scrap.

 

[jbow]

12-15 can be either a squaretab or a brass CW era cuff button.

J

 

[UtahRich]

My nickels are coming in a pretty tight little group, even though I still dig close targets. (I like finding old nickels)

Ferrous is 11-13
Conductive is 12-14

I dig up quite a few 'beaver tails' that come into that range, but they seem to have a slightly different tonal quality to the sound, almost a little hollow. I'm not sufficiently confident to pass on those sounds yet, I just started using the E-trac this year.

I went through several smaller gold items that I've found over the years and conductively they ran from 4 up through the mid-20's. Looks like I need to start investigating more LOW LOW number.


Rich

 

[Goes4ever]

I agree MOSTare in the 12-12 range, however I have dug quite a few this season, that were WAY lower, the oddest one I remember was 06-08 and it was a sheild nickel, and a buffalo came in at 08-08. I had found a lot this year in 10-10 range, and several war nickels came in higher as high as 20-30 on CO side.

 

[tippyhound]

Most of my nickles come in FE 11-12 CO 12-13. Found one silver nickle that came in FE11-CO15 and a V nickle that came in FE10- CO18, but it was 5 inch's deep so I would have dug it any way.

I have a lot of very small round tabs with beaver tails reading FE10 CO13. I always dig CO #'s that are 13 but it seems if that FE # is 10 or lower I get a lot of small tabs. All in All this is still the best nickle machine I've ever owned. Rick "IL"

 

[banditicey]

Just found a nickel with the e trac, it came in 12-12 just like expected
it was the first nickel i found while a using the e trac
it was great knowing what the coin was based on the numbers
im a newbie at the e trac and if it is solid sound than i generally dig at this point for learning purposes

 

[EZrider]

12-12 to 12-13.

 

[EtracTom-AdirondacksNY]

I got a buffalo nickel shallow 3-4inches at 11 on the cond and nickels range like said earlier from 11, 12, 13, up to 14 on the cond side. I generally don't even pay attention to the ferr on anything when I detect as I think the iron and rust around and on or near the coins in the ground matrix can make anything read lower than the ferr 12 line so it doesn't matter to me what the ferr no. is. I go by sounds and cond no's. If I get cruddy sounding signal breaking up in "coins" mode I switch to wide open "iron mask" screen and see what it reads now. If the cond no. remains about the same but the ferr may go down even lower I'll dig the target. If the cond no. changes by a lot from what it originally read as well as the ferr no.then I may pass on target unless it's fairly deep then who knows??

 

[Goes4ever]

I will agree that MOST nickels come in at the 12 mark, but if you ignoring the 06, 08, 10's etc....you ARE missing some deeper nickels.

 

[onemore]

n/t

 

[Barry NY]

Nickels are usually CO 10-15 - but can be as low as 06 as stated above...
$1 gold coins are CO 10-12
$2.50 gold coins CO 21-23
$5 gold coins CO 30-32
$10 gold coins CO 37-39
Celtic gold 1/4 stater CO 6-8
Gold jewelry (depending on k) CO 2-33
All the above have FE of 10-13

Moral of story: If you're not digging everything with a FE reading of 17 or under you may be missing the find of a lifetime.

Using two tone FE:
High tone - 17 or under: dig.
Low tone - over 17: pass.

The odds of passing up something good that has a FE over 17 are less than passing up something good with FE 17 or under - no matter what the CO tells you. Time is valuable and it is limited. It may be more efficient and make more sense to at least clean out all the high tone FE items first then when you have the time going back and "thinking" about digging an iffy 18-22 FE reading.

JMHO.
Barry