So you have trouble finding nickels?

grinsebring

Global Moderator
Super Mod
Forum Supporter
Joined
Jan 10, 2006
Messages
6,981
Location
Florida Highlands
Yesterdays hunt yielded nearly 100 coins for each of the three of us. A one acre mowed lot next to a kids swing park.

I use an MXT in relic mode. Nickels ring up at 18-22, Pull tabs ring up at
18-22. also. So whats the difference? I am set at 0 disc. So the tones are high, but the aluminum is sharper. If I can't pick up the difference through the earphones I certainly can with my inline pin pointer. 23 nickels and about 3 -4 pulltabs

It's not fool proof because that phony gold chain rang up at 22.
A high valued piece of jewelry can also ring up at pull tab numbers.
 

Attachments

  • DSCN0834.jpg
    DSCN0834.jpg
    65.8 KB · Views: 439
Nice job with all the clad! The trick I've been using is that nickels tend to have a more solid VDI, whereas the pull tabs tend to bounce around more, at least with my detector (Minelab Vanquish 440). That works pretty well for me when I'm coinshooting. That said, I'll still dig plenty of pull tabs when I'm in the mood for digging lots of mid tones. No way around the pull tabs really if you're after the gold!
 
About 25+ years ago, I had a Whites 5000 DI Pro Coin Master that would not detect nickels unless they were right on the surface.

In order to find nickels, I had to turn off all discrimination and dig all targets. It went back to whites several times for reprograming but it just didn't like nickels.

I found a lot of deep silver with that detector, but nickels were few and far between. Little did I know at the time that for that detector, nickels and gold have same return frequency. I'm sure I walked right over a lot of gold in my early days.
 
I've dug 66 coins, 3 rings, and a bracelet, since I got my V540 in December. I have not dug 1 single nickel yet. Although, I must admit that about half the time I am hunting in very trashy parks and discriminate out everything under 20. For whatever reason nickels have never come easy for me. :?:
 
Here are some photos from a couple of years ago where I had a 1 acre private permission with lots of coins but also stuffed full of beavertail pull tabs. Short of sifting the dirt, the only solution was to get better at telling the two apart, and the equinox made a huge difference. I don't mean pull tabs and nickels a few feet apart from each other. No, this was 10 pull tabs per swing in many areas. I'd get a nickel and pull 4 pull tabs out of the same hole. Many of the tabs in the photos were recovered this way. In some cases this would unmask more coins, and in some spots where the tabs were especially thick I'd dig some tabs just to expose the coins.

An interesting thing about that permission is that I eventually met a guy who knew exactly where the nickel concession stands used to be located in the 1940s and 1950s. Indeed, I had found a lot of older nickels in that area. I went back to those spots, dug out some more pull tabs, and scored a few more old nickels.

I eventually dug 256 nickels, including Vs, Buffalo and war silver, and left thousands of pull tabs. I brought two hunting buddies to that permission and they also dug a handful of nickels including some keepers of their own.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20190402_211324264 copy.jpg
    IMG_20190402_211324264 copy.jpg
    60.1 KB · Views: 228
  • buffalo hunt 3.jpg
    buffalo hunt 3.jpg
    98.8 KB · Views: 235
  • IMG_20190404_215623815.jpg
    IMG_20190404_215623815.jpg
    62.5 KB · Views: 225
  • IMG_20191006_135300046 small.jpg
    IMG_20191006_135300046 small.jpg
    98.4 KB · Views: 231
  • nickels.jpg
    nickels.jpg
    25 KB · Views: 230
Last edited:
That chart shows you collected quite a few war nickels. Very impressive.

Thanks! In fourteen months on that property I dug 16 war, 19 buffalo, and 5 Liberty V nickels. I was glad that the buddies I invited to hunt it a few times were able to find an additional 3 war and 3 buffalo nickels of their own. I spent a lot of days just focused on nickels and going slow between beaver tail signals listening for nickel tones. I developed my own custom audio program on the Equinox 800 to hear good indications of nickels between the pull tab signals. Many other coins were found, but I'll save that write up for another day.
 
Yesterdays hunt yielded nearly 100 coins for each of the three of us. A one acre mowed lot next to a kids swing park.

I use an MXT in relic mode. Nickels ring up at 18-22, Pull tabs ring up at
18-22. also. So whats the difference? I am set at 0 disc. So the tones are high, but the aluminum is sharper. If I can't pick up the difference through the earphones I certainly can with my inline pin pointer. 23 nickels and about 3 -4 pulltabs

It's not fool proof because that phony gold chain rang up at 22.
A high valued piece of jewelry can also ring up at pull tab numbers.

The thing I remember about hunting my first good sized park with the MXT was how many Buffalo nickels I found. The old timers got MOST of the silver but they left Many a Buffalo stranded. I also used Relic mode. The tones are just so much better.

Good Job
 
I'm shocked you went dirt hunting Gil... You usually are in water with your gator friends... I don't know how you can do that... I could never do that lol... I always hunt the way you are hunting same with my MXT relic mode seems to be deeper than C&J...
 
Good thread. One reason you will find few nickels is because the mint produces the least amount compared to 1, 10 and 25 cent coins. A few years ago I compared the proportion of my coins (1, 5, 10, 25) found on the beach (N= 5,200) to US mint figures of coin production and the correlation was near perfect; cents being the most found at about 50% with mint figures of 50% production and nickels the least found (around 10%) and same for mint production. Not sure this hold for ground diggers but would guess it does.
With my Nox 800 I, too, separate nickels from pull tabs by the fact that nickels are very steady at #12 (in Beach 2) and pull tabs are more variable esp if you raise the coil while swinging. But they can still fool you. BTY, I also looked at the NOX ID # for a range of gold rings (N=23) and found that a fair number will "ring-in" between 11 and 13 and ranged from #3 to #22, if I recall correctly. My favorite NOX # for gold rings is #11 and every time I get a target with a #11 ID it puts a smile on my face and I dig like a mad man in anticipation...sometimes the dream comes true as it did the other day (would post the ring but can't figure-out how to add an image to the message?)
 
I've dug 66 coins, 3 rings, and a bracelet, since I got my V540 in December. I have not dug 1 single nickel yet. Although, I must admit that about half the time I am hunting in very trashy parks and discriminate out everything under 20. For whatever reason nickels have never come easy for me. :?:

But I got one today! :laughing: I guess I just had to say it on here first before I would find my first with the V540!
 

Attachments

  • 008 Hunt 540 (2).jpg
    008 Hunt 540 (2).jpg
    60.3 KB · Views: 161
I've dug 66 coins, 3 rings, and a bracelet, since I got my V540 in December. I have not dug 1 single nickel yet. Although, I must admit that about half the time I am hunting in very trashy parks and discriminate out everything under 20. For whatever reason nickels have never come easy for me. :?:

If you're using the Vanquish 540 and discriminating out anything under 20, you won't find any nickels. They show up as 12-13. You can "sometimes" tell the difference between a pull tab and nickel because often a pull tab will bounce between 11-14.

When I hunt parks, unless there is a decent chance for an older nickel, I just ignore that VID range. Just way too many pull tabs. (And I don't really go after gold.)
 
Yeah, I got that nickel by add in the 11-12 notch back into the mix. I know nickels come in anywhere from 11-14 mostly but I was just trying to see if using only 11-12 would get me any nickels without a lot of pulltabs. I didn't dig any pulltabs but I did dig a little more aluminum and foil type stuff, so I know pulltabs will be found as well.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top Bottom