Not finding many nickels

[z118]

No, nickels are not being lost less than other coins, people are just not digging them as much as they require more junk type signals/digging. I go on sounds only. So far this year I have dug 919 of them. Lower the disc and dig more, Steve in so az

Steve... any idea what percent that is of the total coins you've found? I'm at 16% nickels for the year so far.

Interestingly enough, only about 6% of the coins the mints produced in 2008 were nickels.

http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_min...roduction_figures&allCoinsYear=2008#starthere

 

[steve in so la]

Z - I'm just over 10,000 coins so 919 is what - 10 - 11 % ? Steve

 

[RelicHound]

I find quite a few nickles..more than quarters. I don't really keep a log when I hunt places that hold clad so I have no real numbers. I can usually tell if a place has been hunted a lot by the amount of nickels I find compared to other coins...alot of folks disc them out since they fall in the "common" pull tab range but large gold will ring in that range as well. on my XLT with my custom program shallow{1-3"} nickels will almost always read as a 21 on the VDI and deeper ones will range from 18 up to mid 20s as will the newer style pull tabs....the pull tabs with the tails will range in the lower 30s if intact and high 20s if bent or broken.
im not sure if the DFX has it{im sure it does} but the graph helps alot as well..if ya get a VDI in the high teens-high 20s and ya only get one bar its most likely a nickel....and another thing ive noticed is that rings will often give a pyramid shape with the graph..3 bars,center high and each side low..not sure why and its not always 100% but I always dig when I get that.

 

[Bearharold]

I don't use a DFX but I do use a Ace 250 and today I was detecting in the park and about every other coin I dug was a nickel more than usual for me .
I ended up digging 2 dimes and 12 nickels and 5 Pennies I was digging in a area in front of a swimming pool and had hit the same area before , but sure was finding alot of nickels for some reason . Not sure if the dirt conditions changed or what , it was real dry where I was digging them . HH Harold

 

[Zincolndigr]

A great way to find nickels with the DFX is to try the following:

Put your DFX on 15KHz NON normalized. The nickels will hit between 46-48 depending on the coil you use. VERY FEW tabs will come in on these numbers. Tabs will usually start coming in around 50. Zincs will be around 79-81. Copper pennies and dimes 88. Quarters 91. Avoiding the 50-61 area will knock out a great majority of pulltabs. Putting your DFX on non normalized will stretch out the lower VDI area, making identifying nickels a snap!

 

[Texaspast]

I have been using a 20-year-old Compass XP-Pro that has the best - THE BEST - discrimination 'notch' settings - it cancels out almost all pulltabs but accepts nickels. It works magnificently. Over the years, I've found a whole lot of buffaloes, V nickels and one shield nickel in places that were well-hunted by others using other machines. If the meter says it's a nickel and it sounds 'round', it IS a nickel. Too bad it maxxes out depth-wise at about 5". I wish some other company had bought Compass' discrimination technology and coupled it with their deeper-detecting machines. I've found a lot of silver nickels that were obviously passed over by others, too.

 

[Mister7]

With the MXT,I usually average about 3 nickles to every ten coins I dig. I was digging more pulltabs than nickles till I really started paying close attention to VDI#'s. With my machine modern clad nickles ring in fairly consistently with numbers in the 14-18 range,rarely a 20 will come in for a modern clad nickle. Silver alloy (war time nickles)are the exception and tend to have a bit higher VDI # (22 on my machine).Older pull tabs will sometimes ring in at the 16-18 range while newer pull rings usually come in at about 26 or higher.There are no hard and fast rules as to dig or not to dig just by reading VDI#s and these numbers may vary even with other MXT's but using these numbers as a guideline has definitely got me digging more nickles.

 

[rascal]

And remember that your coil has to pass over them. rascal

 

[nwohio]

Interesting article on the topic. Maybe helpful to some.

http://www.detectorbase.com/index.p...ab-Explorer-SE/fuseaction/articles.detail.htm