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Nickels Vs Tabs


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With my CTX I was 90% sure it was a bottle cap. with the EQ I am 75% sure on the new ones except the dang Coronas as they still get me now and then but the deep rusty ones have no TELL. I have seen them as low as 12 on the TID..

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Guest Tnsharpshooter
49 minutes ago, Toddbbq said:

With my CTX I was 90% sure it was a bottle cap. with the EQ I am 75% sure on the new ones except the dang Coronas as they still get me now and then but the deep rusty ones have no TELL. I have seen them as low as 12 on the TID..

Try the following (you can practice if you have a corona cap).

Hit those targets with 5khz and watch what happens to ID in meter.  Severe jump.

Tell Tell sign of bottlecap.

Should sniff most out even the rusty.

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Lou's Theorem: For every VDI # (or range of #'s) you wish to dig, there will be an infinite number of misshapen (or not) pieces of aluminum to produce it exactly.

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I am sure a person with the screen name "canslawhero" no doubt has plenty of insight on the issue! :smile:

Might as well call it Lou's Law as far as I am concerned. Nugget hunters have exactly the same issue with gold and lead bullets/bullet fragments.

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I firmly believe that in our hobby there are just some things you cannot get away from as targets with the technology at hand. like pull/pop tabs, can slaw , bottle caps, aluminum foil and small lead. It is what it is. Happy hunting :laugh:

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And it is getting worse, not better. Some evil engineer sits somewhere all day long trying to design a new aluminum closure or wrapper that people can toss on the ground. What I really love is people who keep tearing the attached square tabs off cans for no other reason but to toss them on the ground. What the heck is up with that? :angry:

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There are a lot of great posts on this site, and some weren't even done by Steve. :biggrin:  But the post that started this threat is, IMO, one of the four or five best I've seen.  I wanted to quote some parts of it but there were so many tidbits I didn't think it was worth trying to cut-and-paste sections, there were just too many jewels.  This topic is actually a part of a subfield of statistics.  Here's a Wikipedia post on the subject:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_positives_and_false_negatives

I got out today for 3 hours with my F75.  I'm first, second, and foremost an old-coin hunter (yes, I'm also an old coin-hunter :biggrin:) but I don't throw back any keepers no matter where they fall in the metal detecting spectrum.  I'm going to make a 'finds' thread on this, but here's a quiz question pertinent to this thread (which applies to today's hunt):

Zinc pennies hit around 60 (plus or minus) on the F75.  Copper pennies and clad dimes (and silver dimes if you're lucky enough!) are around 70.  There are 19th Century coins all over the spectrum.

I was hunting a municipal park established in the late 40's but which previously was an industrial site dating back to the late 1800's and was a popular swimming and fishing spot all through the first half of the 20th century.  There's a lot of trash scattered throughout, although not uniformly.  I was in a section I've never hunted before because I surmised it was re-landscaped sometime in the last 30 years, but that is really just wild speculation on my part.  I've gone back-and-forth as to whether this site has been searched previously but now am pretty sure that occurred, probably in the late 90's or early 00's.  My old coins finds have been few and far between, but I have one Indian Head that I can remember.  I"ve found a few Wheaties, but could probably count them on one hand.  I've pulled out tons of ring-and-beavertail pulltabs and quite a few very rusty bottlecaps ("crown caps").  I've found lots of non-ferrous 'relics' such as copper/brass/bronze clock parts and zinc canning jar lids.  I've also found two gold rings.  I've hunted what I consider the most promising part of the park (for old coins -- my goal) but still only about 20% of the entire acreage.

Using the 7x11 in^2 DD coil, gain of 60 (out of 99), and DE (default) discrimation process (minimum disc threshold) I get a rather strong but highly variable TID signal in the mid-60's (halfway between zinc and copper pennies), which is typically the region for large aluminum canslaw.  Do you dig or pass over for a sweeter TID?

Hint:  you better dig, but I suspect many cherry-picking park coin hunters would have rejected the chance, looking for greener pastures.  I'll post the 'answer' tomorrow morning in the coin-and-relics section of this site.

Here's a link to the quiz answer:

 

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Yes I admit it sometimes I go to a couple spots and cherry pick a few coins. These spots have been used extensively since the 80s. As I mentioned before I do some fairly quick coin stabbing. I do not dig every nonferrous signal in areas like this. Yes I am aware that there is some possible good target for every number on the ID scale. I am buying a detector with discrimination because sometimes I discriminate. Yes sometimes when I'm in a sea of zinc pennies I skip them. Obviously if I were in a site with any kind of history this is not how I would hunt. I'm not promoting cherry picking just asking a simple question about nickel (tells). Thanks

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That was one fine statement Steve....... very well said.   Also take a look at your coin books...... a lot of coins change composition over the years.   The nickel has been pretty consistent.... except for the war nickel.   BUT....... watch nickels on the smartscreen of an Explorer shallow then deep....... they may go from mid screen all the way to the right hand bottom.   TID screens are great if you want to cherry pick so are programs that disc out targets....... but when im looking for gold with its varied composition, size, shape..... and on and on......i dont need a reason to NOT dig.   At certain depths...... most targets get read as iron even.   Ive dug many a deep bottle cap....... that turned out to be nice pieces of gold.   Im not a dig it all ..... dont get me wrong........ but you have to understand like Steve said..... its a numbers game.   Some like to pass on pennies, pull tabs, broken signals...... we have people that if it falls thru the scoop leave it........ or to grid or not grid to cover more beach.   Where you hunt and for what makes a difference too.   I see a lot of snow birds every year..... whose ears are tuned to high tones picking up the change for me.  Numbers game..... and sometimes, just plan blind squirrel luck.

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14 hours ago, strick said:

I have noticed this...most of the gold rings I have found are below the nickel range...I'm still waiting for that 12.13-12.15 Gold ring so I keep digging nickels....Wonderful post...and I hate the guy with the lawn mower. :biggrin:

strick  

You are exactly right a very high comparison number of my gold rings fall below a nickel, maybe 9 out of 10.  I never pass up a nickel.  I did a few test using the rings I've found and some even fall as low as 2 in the VID scale.

 

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