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Krugerrand Target ID Number


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That's a pretty obscure request. A bit of background info might help. Are you actually intending to locate one of these coins, that's been hidden in a garden and then the burial-spot 'forgotten' ? Or are you just testing out your new machine on random coins in your collection, and thought the ID of the Kruger was low, and wondered if you had a fake ?
We could probably work out a ballpark ID range, by comparing it with other more common coins.

They are 22 carat gold/copper alloy, the same as British Sovereigns, and they are slightly lighter than the 5 Pound 'quintuple sovereign', which weighs almost exactly 40 grams.

Quote:
"The Krugerrand's actual weight is 1 1⁄11 troy ounces (34 g). It is minted from gold alloy that is 91.67% pure (22 karats), so the coin contains one troy ounce (31.1035 g) of gold. The remaining 8.33% of the coin's weight of 1⁄11 ozt (2.828 g) is copper. This is an alloy which has long been used for British gold sovereigns."

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2 hours ago, PimentoUK said:

That's a pretty obscure request. A bit of background info might help. Are you actually intending to locate one of these coins, that's been hidden in a garden and then the burial-spot 'forgotten' ? Or are you just testing out your new machine on random coins in your collection, and thought the ID of the Kruger was low, and wondered if you had a fake ?
We could probably work out a ballpark ID range, by comparing it with other more common coins.

Trying to help a mate locate 10 Krugers that his (now deceased) father buried under the family home in a glass jar with metal/ferrous lid many years ago. His father did not trust banks and had lived thru the Great Depression. The home has now been sold with the new owners arriving on Fri so time is of the essence for my mate. I hope this helps as background to my request.

My plan was to set the V540 discrimination segment range to approx the target ID number for a Krugerrand gold coin and do a sweep using the V12 coil in the COIN search mode.  Does this sound like a good strategy?

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Never used a Vanquish,so cannot give a specific reply,but irrespective of what ever machine i use i would never solely make a decision to dig just by what a TID on a screen tells me.Audio is so much more reliable and also at greater depth as well.If a detector gives some sort of a audio signal even if i am not sure about it has to come out that way i wont miss anything decent.

Unless its for a specific project then i would dig everything and certainly never rely on a screen.

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Thx for this good advice RickUK but as a V540 newbie and with only 1 day available to crawl under a house with only 1m clearance (floor to trashy ferrous, copper & aluminum ground I am trying to be smart about how I attack the task - if I had weeks then I agree with your approach.

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I'm here to tell you your approach won't work if they are buried in a jar with a metallic lid.  You can pretty much throw out target IDs because of 1) the mixed metal nature of your desired target and 2) the large amount of metal in the jar will likely simply overload the machine depending on the depth so it really doesn't matter what composition it is.  You would actually do better with another detector because the modulation of the tones is small with the Vanquish.  Anyway you are where you are.  Practice with a jar full of any coinage and see what you get in an air test and in a buried configuration if you have the time to do so and remember that number, it will likely register high near the high 30's or 40,  Try the different modes to see which one gives you the best or most distinctive signal.  Then increase the the rejection settings to attempt to bracket that most distinctive signal (basically reject everything up a couple points below the lowest number you register). Scan the crawl space and look for any similar sounding and registering target signal and try for those first.  If everything sounds loud, then lower the sensitivity setting of the detector as necessary such that you get some differentiation in the target signal intensity.  Good luck, you are going to need it because it is going to really be a guessing game as to how that target will actually sound off and how you will be able to differentiate it against the other junk down there.

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Glad I asked, I knew it would be much more involved than it originally seemed.

The jar will be some 'preserving' jar, like a Kilner Jar / Mason Jar, so it will have a steel lid, I guess. Or maybe just a small 1 pound jam jar, steel lid again. It might be worth getting an empty jam jar, filling it with 30 copper coins, put the lid on, and try out some air tests, to get a handle on how big a signal it gives.
Depending on how hard/sandy/dusty etc the dirt is under the house, you may be able to investigate targets by probing with a mechanical probe. A small screwdriver may work. If your engineering skills are up to it, spring steel rod, or a bicycle spoke, could also be made into probes. You'll be feeling/listening for the clink of the lid, or the squeek of the glass.

And if there's two of you, make good use of both pairs of hands. One can find targets, mark them with something non-metallic ( cutout plastic/cardboard circles, gardeners plant labels etc etc ) and the other digs any likely hits.

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Before you begin, try and put yourself in the cache hider's head.  He was planning on returning and likely thought of a 'landmark' to remind him of the location.  Was he energetic or lazy?  That could indicate how far from the crawl space entrance he hid it.  Rather than burying the jar, could he have hid it in the floor joists or on a sill?

Too bad the seller didn't think of this before this tight deadline.  Keep calm (that goes for anyone who goes under there with you).  There might even be some ground disturbance hints, but if people have been crawling around down there since it was buried those may have already been erased.

Good luck!!

 

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I must add to counter the pessimistic tone of my previous post (really just more realistic than pessimistic) - your task is not impossible but difficult and if it IS there and you manage to get the Vanquish coil over it, the Vanquish SHOULD sound off on it.  Just not clear what tone or target ID will show due to the numerous variables involved, but I am betting it will be high just due to large pure metal mass.  Good luck and let us know if you find the treasure.  Rooting for your success.  You have been given some good advice above.

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I’ve run my whites SST over 1 ounce gold eagles should be about the same as Kruger I would think? Because of the mass and alloy it had high ID numbers in the low 90’s on the whites in an air test. Depending on the area you need to cover you could first mark and dig all the big target signals starting with fence lines and around any thing that stands out for you as as a monument, then if you don’t find it dig everything you get a hit on. I don’t know what part of the country you live in if there’s a time crunch put out the word I would imagine you could get a lot of help be a fun hunt to be a part of helping someone retrieve a lost family treasure.
 

 

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