Target ID For US Coins??

[Steve Herschbach]

19 hours ago, Jackpine said:

Steve do you have a variety of IH pennies to test?  Wondering where the fall in relation to zincers.

Tom

One of the weird things for me was spending most of my coin detecting career in Anchorage, Alaska. This placed a limit on my older finds since Anchorage was founded in 1915 and most of it is far newer. Nearly all my coin finds are 30s and newer, with rare older finds. And no Indian Head pennies. Knowing what I do about them I would expect them to spread between zinc penny and copper penny.

[Chase Goldman]

23 hours ago, Cabin Fever said:

Interesting how the Equinox retained 13 for a nickel which is the same conductive number on the CTX and E-Trac, but the copper and silver numbers are quite a bit lower.  Makes me wonder if there will be enough separation from the tab range.  

Bryan

When it comes to tabs (assume you are referring to pull tabs)there is enough variability that I rarely rest on a TID number in that range and will dig those numbers regardless,  hoping for gold, happy if its a nickel, and shrugging my shoulders if its a tab.  Unless I get a really squirely audio tone (indicating a possible bent or damaged tab) I rarely pass up a TID in the nickel range.

[Cabin Fever]

8 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

When it comes to tabs (assume you are referring to pull tabs)there is enough variability that I rarely rest on a TID number in that range and will dig those numbers regardless,  hoping for gold, happy if its a nickel, and shrugging my shoulders if its a tab.  Unless I get a really squirely audio tone (indicating a possible bent or damaged tab) I rarely pass up a TID in the nickel range.

I know what your saying Chase but I’m not a ring hunter.  My primary focus is old coins.  I do dig all non ferrous signals 6” or deeper in my area though.  ID gets tricky at depth and most targets at that depth are old and a lot of times worth the dig..

Bryan

[Chase Goldman]

17 minutes ago, Cabin Fever said:

I know what your saying Chase but I’m not a ring hunter.  My primary focus is old coins.  I do dig all non ferrous signals 6” or deeper in my area though.  ID gets tricky at depth..

Bryan

Thanks, Bryan.  I dry beach hunt and coin shoot in parks and fields.  Mainly only come across old coins when I relic hunt (pretty much digging everything with a repatable TID pulse there).  So when it comes to coin shooting in parks/fields my beach habits (rings) tend to come into play and unfortunately tabs are an annoying fact of life in both venues (not so much relic hunting).  I do trust myself better to ID questionable targets via tone and do not trust myself to make a dig/no dig decision solely based on visual TID (i.e., if something read 15 instead of 13 with no audio differentiation, I would dig it).  I understand the point your are making regarding the possible lower "resolution" of visual TID on the Equinox due to the "compressed" dynamic range affecting your ability to cherry pick amongst the tabs in the nickel "range".  That is a skill as much as it is a detector feature and I definitely do not have that skill (nor trust myself to execute it) so my hat is off to you.  Yes, and reliable Target ID does go out the window with increasing target depth.  I am hoping the Equinox target ID reliability at depth is greater than my current detector, especially in highly mineralized soils.  That is why I am excited about it for relic hunting. 

[Alexander Piskunov]

22 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

You are welcome Alexander. I will add more information to this soon but it may be tomorrow - I have a busy day from here on out.

We are lucky in the U.S. in that not too much trash falls in the same target id numbers as the coins. If I just go after solid targets I can dig coins and very little trash. Most other countries are not so lucky in that regard.

Gold jewelry though is another story - just the opposite really. I dig trash aluminum all day long hoping for a gold item.

Hi, Steve.  I have a request for developers: the identification of a "difficult" ferromagnet. The VDI of the subject depends on the frequency. VDI increases with increasing frequency of non-ferrous metals. VDI decreases with increasing frequency in ferromagnetic metals. For example, the VDI of a beer bottle cap at a frequency of 5 kHz will be 15, and the VDI will be 12 at a frequency of 10 kHz. The color signal on the contrary 5 - 12, 10 - 15. I would like to have the ability to display information about the change of the VDI. This method will cut off any ferromagnetic objects. For some, this is important. Thank you.

[Steve Herschbach]

Alexander, at this extreme late date in the process I do not expect to see any major changes or addition to Equinox functionality but your suggestion may go in the hat for the next generation of Multi-IQ products.

[Guest Tnsharpshooter]

Based on fbs readings on 2nd generation IH coins.  There is a chance using Equinox they may read slightly under zinc penny reading.

[Chase Goldman]

1 hour ago, Alexander Piskunov said:

Hi, Steve.  I have a request for developers: the identification of a "difficult" ferromagnet. The VDI of the subject depends on the frequency. VDI increases with increasing frequency of non-ferrous metals. VDI decreases with increasing frequency in ferromagnetic metals. For example, the VDI of a beer bottle cap at a frequency of 5 kHz will be 15, and the VDI will be 12 at a frequency of 10 kHz. The color signal on the contrary 5 - 12, 10 - 15. I would like to have the ability to display information about the change of the VDI. This method will cut off any ferromagnetic objects. For some, this is important. Thank you.

Steve - I know you already responded to Alexander's post but his inquiry got me thinking (I know, how is that possible with no brain) about some related questions (My apologies but I do not own a Minelab machine with Visual Target ID):

1. Regarding your target ID reference above, I assume that was in Park or Field mode 1.  As long as you are operating in Multi IQ regardless of mode, will the TIDs be the same for the same target?

2.  When operating in single frequency mode, do the non-ferrous target ID's indeed increase with increasing frequency, or does Minelab normalize target ID to a specific frequency (say 15 khz).

3. Finally, if 2 is normalized, is there an expectation that the target IDs in Multi IQ will be the same as in individual frequency mode.

The answers to the questions might obviate the need or utility of Alexander's suggestion.  On the other hand, Alexander can accomplish what he wants by manually interrogating the target with different individual frequencies, if normalization is not used.  This was a technique I used frequently with the Deus early on to ID bottlecaps but have since switched to IDing them solely by tonal signature.  It takes some many swing hours on the machine to recognize the tonal subtleties of bottlecaps on the Deus.  Solely using visual target ID and you will be digging plenty. Lol.

[Steve Herschbach]

Well, I took a bunch of crown caps found with other detectors and bench/air tested the responses and posted with a photo. And although I have not had an issue digging bottle caps with Equinox it was promptly misinterpreted as meaning I am out digging lots of bottle caps with the Equinox. The post and those that followed have therefore been deleted.

Chase, Minelab has tried to normalize target id responses in all frequencies and modes but there may be slight variations. These in turn might be helpful in cross analyzing results in different modes or frequencies, but it will remain for a study of shipping units to determine if there is anything there that is useful.

[Cabin Fever]

I apologize for my part in this. Good information is now lost do to my post..  Time for me to reevaluate the way I respond to forum posts for this is starting to become a pattern for me... Again, I’m sorry..

Bryan