I use the ID feature of my Fisher CZ-7A only for a "second opinion". The CZ-7As second opinion isn't very good!:) Memorials will many times signal as a dime with more of a "stutter". A penny and a nickle laying together will signal in the dime quarter range! About a month back, I found two 14k gold rings and one sterling silver ring within a half inch of each other. The ID of this machine was totally confused. I almost didn't dig. The ID from my experience indicated trash!

I talked a good friend of mine into burying a $50 dollar gold piece made into a necklace with gold chain about 3" down in a local park. It was buried in a heap and the necklace portion wasn't strung out. I wanted to know what the CZ would signal it as. The signal was not consistent. It first said "large object" with the bell tone. Then it came back and said "aluminum" that was spread out over a six inch area! It goes without saying, that I'm digging a lot more full sized aluminum cans and old pieces of rusted pipes these days!:))

ID requires discriminate mode and slows down sweep speed and that speed is important to me when hunting large grass fields. All metal is my choice unless I'm in trash. Being able to notch out everything but coins helps to pay for my batteries in trashy areas.

In the final analysis, I'd like to have a detector with about twice the ID capability of my Fisher. Reason being, is trashy areas. A real good ID would save digging tabs and bottle caps. "Thars gold in them thar bottle caps." Reliable ID would eliminate a lot of time wasted by digging in trashy parks.

Detecting with the presently available equipment requires a lot of patience and work! Then again, if detectors are developed that can discriminate, without doubt, a tab from a gold ring, a lot of lost jewelry that formerly would only be found with "work" and "experienced ears" will vanish in a hurry when used in the hands of beginners. The increasingly rare old coins would be far too easy to find.