Beach Gold & Your Nickel Count

[bigscoop]

A few months ago, while unloading the day’s clad from my pocket, I noticed something very suspect, “Where were the nickels?” Scattered in front of me were dimes, quarters and pennies, but only one nickel, and that nickel had been found very shallow, maybe a couple of inches down. Many of the other coins in front of me were various colors of reds and greens and many were badly tarnished, most of the pennies were badly crusted over. But that lone nickel, it was shiny and clean, a recent drop for sure. So where were all the deeper nickels and why wasn’t I finding any? It made me start wondering if I was, perhaps, also missing deeper gold. If I wasn’t reading deeper nickels then I most certainly wasn’t reading deeper gold. Clearly, there was a problem I needed to sort out.

Now maybe one of the tech guys on this site can explain all this in greater/better detail, but the one thing I discovered is that if my swing speed is too fast I’ll miss a lot of the deeper nickels, and likewise, also some gold. The same is true if my swing speed is too slow. The best I can figure is that the heavy mineralization of the salt beach somehow impairs the Excal’s ability to read these deeper nickels. Not sure why, not having the issue with other items, but I can tell you that my nickel count has significantly increased by simply slowing down and controlling the speed of my coil. Not too fast, not too slow, but just a nice steady pace and sweeping motion, and if I hear so much as a “blip” I always spend some time trying to get a better fix on that target. The result….my nickel count is going up and I’m also finding more gold. Watch your nickel count, it just might be telling you something obvious? If you're not finding those deeper nickels..........?

 

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[herb n surf]

Also watch your discrimination settings when you lose nickels your going to lose a lot of gold .Back it off. Hope this helps . A tip before I ever start detecting I always bury a nickle to see if the the signal is load and clear, if not something is not right.

 

[bigscoop]

Also watch your discrimination settings when you lose nickels your going to lose a lot of gold .Back it off. Hope this helps . A tip before I ever start detecting I always bury a nickle to see if the the signal is load and clear, if not something is not right.

I hunt the Excal on 1....and the sensitivity as high as I can without becoming too unstable. For a while I'd carry a few nickels in my pocket, drop one in a hole where I'd uncovered a deeper dime or quarter, fill the hole back in. Could hardly read the nickel a lot of the time, just a faint blip. Sometimes I failed to get a hit at all when the hole was too deep. I think this is why the PI's guys swear by their machines, because they can read this deeper gold much better. And by deep, it's not really all that deep......maybe 8 - 10 inches down and I start having issues reading nickels, even with the WOT, especially true if that nickel isn't flat.

 

[hamiddetecting]

Congratulation!

 

[Produce Guy]

I have a jar that I keep all of my coins that I find on the ground,parking lots,etc. and nickles are the least of the coins I find.I 've always wonder why I find more quarters and dimes than nickles.

 

[lorraine]

I remember some time ago, I was so sure that I was hearing a nickel tone with the GT so I dug, and dug, and kept digging..only to find a 10 K ring deep down about 10".

L

 

[lookindown]

I find less nickels than any other coin...I think there are less nickels to find.

 

[bigscoop]

I find less nickels than any other coin...I think there are less nickels to find.

I think that's probably true, that there's less of them out there, but I am finding more of them now that I'm actually looking for them. I find a lot of deep quarters, dimes, pennies,.....but "very, very few" deep nickels. Next time you go to the beach take a handful of change with you and play around with it in the wet sand. See how deep you can read nickels compared to these other coins. It's pretty interesting.

 

[bigscoop]

Don't trust the reported nickel test......then you really need to read the info on the following link....."A Must Read" if you want to start finding more beach gold.

CZ owners - Salt training 101

If you've not been finding a fair number of nickels, and especially deeper nickels......then you're simply not going to find deeper gold or small gold. "Period!"

Read it all....every post.

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

You answered you own question! Slow down! If your swinging an Excalibur or Minelab GT these are both slow motion detectors. You should be the slowest hunter on the beach others should wizz by you. Don't feel compelled to catch up! If your not finding nickels then the hunters before you are. If you are finding nickels than your in the gold zone slow down even more!

 

[bigscoop]

You answered you own question! Slow down! If your swinging an Excalibur or Minelab GT these are both slow motion detectors. You should be the slowest hunter on the beach others should wizz by you. Don't feel compelled to catch up! If your not finding nickels then the hunters before you are. If you are finding nickels than your in the gold zone slow down even more!

I can crawl over fairly deep nickels in the saturated sand and with the Excal running just stable, it has no idea the nickel even exist most of the time. It reads them just fine in the damp sand and dry sand, but saturated sand & surf.....that nickel had better be laying flat and not too deep.

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

I know where I hunt I find more nickels than quarters, probally for several reasons the 8 to 10 hunters out on the beach can cover a mile or so before I get a 250 feet some pass me by 2 or 3 times.And the others are discriminating out pulltabs. Its nice to have them clear up those coins! A couple of years ago we waited our turn at a cut this guy was working. He had dug 100+ targets after he left we jumped in and we found was 50+ nickles together and gold rings and pendants left behind. All were at pretty desent depths! That's surly one great part of the Excalibur or Minelab GT they let you know what the coin is before you dig with that great low tone on gold and that great nickel tone that's unmatched by any other target!

 

[ron lord]

Aprils count,80 Quarters,150 Dimes,1126 Pennies and 80 Nickels also 35 Pounds of lead,and only 2 gold rings. Most of the Nickel were 10" deep or deeper. I use an Infinium LS with 8" coil.

 

[davehky]

Question guys?? Few weeks ago i had a nickel signal on my garrett ace 250. When i dig those nickel signals, i usualy get a nickel or a pulltab.BUT this time it was jewlery(a buterfly jewlery) Did notlook like gold ,but looked like silver. No 925 or sterlin on it either. I was told that a nickel signal will get you a nickel,pulltab or gold. Now im confused!!! Please help...

 

[bigscoop]

That piece of jewelry is probably nickel plated.

 

[ron lord]

Can't help you with your 250,it's like bigscoop said or there was a another coin in the hole in which you didn't dig up.The Infinium LS is a hole different ball game than your little 250.

 

[lookindown]

Don't trust the reported nickel test......then you really need to read the info on the following link....."A Must Read" if you want to start finding more beach gold.

CZ owners - Salt training 101

If you've not been finding a fair number of nickels, and especially deeper nickels......then you're simply not going to find deeper gold or small gold. "Period!"

Read it all....every post.

My CZ 21 with 10 inch coil, picks up a 1.5 gram 14k charm at 3 inches. Airtest, 0 gb. It measures a quarter inch by half inch.

 

[bigscoop]

I just counted my last bunch of quarters, dimes, nickels (already took one bunch to the bank). I have 134 nickels, 139 dimes, and 52 quarters. Noway am I counting pennies! Ever! They all get tossed into a little blue bucket until later. So far I've gotten 16 gold and 9 silver pieces. Don't know how many hours I've put in this year but quite a bit the last six weeks or so. Nothing too grand in the gold department, mostly plain men's bands and small women's rings and none of them were too deep, maybe 6 - 8 inches at the most. Nearly all of them were found on the upper half of the slope after periods of heavier then normal surf.

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

We hit a little lake this week and found it to be cherry picked of pennies dimes and quarters. My buddy dug 120 pulltabs and one ring 1 nickel and I dug countless trash aluminum and found 3 nikels one was silver the ring turned out to be junk but was clearly a 157 pulltab! So its nice to have someone clear out the loud coins so as to work the low tones!