Equinox and Silver Dimes

[Echoplex]

Just some observations, YMMV - For reference, I am using Field2 almost exclusively and we generally have great soil, ground balanced around 10. I've been digging quite a few silver dimes over the last few weeks and have noticed that they almost always ring 28/29 often touching 30. This includes mercs, barbers, and silver rosies from shallow to deep. This is great because those early VID air tests showed VID's on Barbers and Mercs were much lower at ~25, bleeding together with memorials, wheats, and clad dimes. This seemed to be problematic for cherry picking old small silver from sites without having to dig every modern penny and dime. Rosies were the only silver that gave a higher VID in tests, but barely, at 26. Dozens of real word examples for me show this is not the case and I am having an easy time distinguishing silver dimes from clad dimes and memorial/wheat pennies from site to site. I've called most of the silver dimes over the last few weeks before digging, which is something I value in a detector. I don't like digging modern coins. I have my last tone break set at 29, so when I cross over a silver dime I get a nice telltale double-tone because VID is crossing the 28/29 threshold. This double-tone has been my first audible indication of silver coinage.

I'm curios as to what others have been getting for real world VID on silver and for what modes. I'm guessing modes probably have an impact on VID and there may be a sliding scale for VID that is mode/ground dependent, but I stopped switching between modes and have been addicted to Field2 for coin shooting. IMO, the Nox is really shaping up as a nice coin shooter for me when I want to leisurely coin shoot.

 

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[sgoss66]

In Park 1, I have dug 3 silver dimes so far, so a TINY sample size. And my soil is more mineralized than yours -- in some places, only a little, but in others, quite a bit more. Anyway, with that said, on my 3 silver dimes, one (a Merc) was 25-27 (in very mild soil, for this area), which for me is where they air test (26-27 in Park 1). I dug a Rosie just yesterday that was reading a bit higher in the ground, a lot of 26-28 numbers, and definitely higher once I popped the plug -- up to the 29/30 numbers you mentioned, and even a 31 a time or two. Thought I had a quarter (soil was not quite as mild here). On the other hand, I dug a Barber dime the other day that was low 20s -- with some trash around it -- but never coaxed anything higher than a 23 from it while in the ground (very mild soil, for this area). I am pretty sure (unless Field 1 mode is REALLY different) that you will leave quite a few silver dimes in the ground, if you only dig 28/29 or higher...

For me, in a PERFECT scenario, a dime is 25, a penny 25-26, and a silver dime 26-27. However, in-ground, all bets are off...

Steve

 

[digger460]

10 silver dimes with my 600. Only been using Park 1, with no modification. It supposedly (and I believe it) is set up to hit deep silver hard, and it does. All 10 were from 8 to 12 inches, and at least half were around 10. I'll have to give Park 2 a try. When I tried it before it was alot quieter, but I went back to Park1 because of the success I was having. Will give Park 2 a try on the same area I found the silvers to see if I'm missing anything. Thanks for the post.

 

[Hawks88]

I see that the equinox 600 is getting some great reviews. I might be getting one soon. Just can’t decide yet if I should wait a bit longer and maybe get the 800 instead.

 

[digger460]

I see that the equinox 600 is getting some great reviews. I might be getting one soon. Just can’t decide yet if I should wait a bit longer and maybe get the 800 instead.

I'll be getting an 800 for something that I wish I had on the 600. That's adjusting the tones in each region, and adjusting the volume in each region. Example: 12/13 sounds the same up to 19, so you have to watch the display or you'll miss that nickel! Just don't like to have to keep an eye on it all the time. Miss all the eyeball finds Just my personal opinion though. 600 is a great machine.

 

[ScubaDetector]

I have so far only used park 1. All my dimes have rung up 25 - 29. I have one Barber, 10 merc's and 6 rosey's so far in the last month.

 

[digger460]

I have so far only used park 1. All my dimes have rung up 25 - 29. I have one Barber, 10 merc's and 6 rosey's so far in the last month.

Should have just called park1, "Silver". It's finding an awful lot of it!

 

[Echoplex]

Thanks for all the replies! It's interesting to compare everyone's notes. The Nox is proving to be a real truffle pig on silver for me. I have a theory that that both mode 2's in both Park/Field give higher VID's than mode 1's on silver dimes in the wild. That seems to be my experience anyway. Here's the thing that confuses me - you'd think that the low frequency weighting of both mode 1's would favor silver, but I was getting stronger VID's and better depth in both Mode 2's on silver dimes when I was testing my machine in the wild many weeks ago. That's why I stuck with Field2. I suppose this is a matter of local variables, but I would definitely not assume that low frequency weighting equals better silver detection. Definitely test on your own to see what works best in your ground! Unfortunately, it will be another week before I can get back out and detect thanks to a heavy family schedule. Got a good spot waiting for me and I'm already having some serious detecting withdrawals.

 

[digger460]

Thanks for all the replies! It's interesting to compare everyone's notes. The Nox is proving to be a real truffle pig on silver for me. I have a theory that that both mode 2's in both Park/Field give higher VID's than mode 1's on silver dimes in the wild. That seems to be my experience anyway. Here's the thing that confuses me - you'd think that the low frequency weighting of both mode 1's would favor silver, but I was getting stronger VID's and better depth in both Mode 2's on silver dimes when I was testing my machine in the wild many weeks ago. That's why I stuck with Field2. I suppose this is a matter of local variables, but I would definitely not assume that low frequency weighting equals better silver detection. Definitely test on your own to see what works best in your ground! Unfortunately, it will be another week before I can get back out and detect thanks to a heavy family schedule. Got a good spot waiting for me and I'm already having some serious detecting withdrawals.

Will be trying park2 tomorrow. Startin' early and ending late. Will let you know how it went.

 

[Cal_Cobra]

I see that the equinox 600 is getting some great reviews. I might be getting one soon. Just can’t decide yet if I should wait a bit longer and maybe get the 800 instead.

IMO for the small price difference, I'd just go for the EQ800.

There are enough differences between the two that I feel it's really a no brainer, but it also depends on your intended use, and if you're a person that likes to tinker or just use the default settings.

The differences are well laid out in this excellent article on the ML site: https://www.minelab.com/usa/go-minelabbing/treasure-talk/equinox-600-vs-equinox-800

 

[Cal_Cobra]

Just some observations, YMMV - For reference, I am using Field2 almost exclusively and we generally have great soil, ground balanced around 10. I've been digging quite a few silver dimes over the last few weeks and have noticed that they almost always ring 28/29 often touching 30. This includes mercs, barbers, and silver rosies from shallow to deep. This is great because those early VID air tests showed VID's on Barbers and Mercs were much lower at ~25, bleeding together with memorials, wheats, and clad dimes. This seemed to be problematic for cherry picking old small silver from sites without having to dig every modern penny and dime. Rosies were the only silver that gave a higher VID in tests, but barely, at 26. Dozens of real word examples for me show this is not the case and I am having an easy time distinguishing silver dimes from clad dimes and memorial/wheat pennies from site to site. I've called most of the silver dimes over the last few weeks before digging, which is something I value in a detector. I don't like digging modern coins. I have my last tone break set at 29, so when I cross over a silver dime I get a nice telltale double-tone because VID is crossing the 28/29 threshold. This double-tone has been my first audible indication of silver coinage.

I'm curios as to what others have been getting for real world VID on silver and for what modes. I'm guessing modes probably have an impact on VID and there may be a sliding scale for VID that is mode/ground dependent, but I stopped switching between modes and have been addicted to Field2 for coin shooting. IMO, the Nox is really shaping up as a nice coin shooter for me when I want to leisurely coin shoot.

I'm up to about 10 silver dimes now, everything from rosies to barbers, and here's my take on it. I've been mainly using Field2 when in relic sites and Park2 in turf, and the deeper silver has waffled between the high 20's to the low 30's, but has a beautiful tinkly sound to it. These are between the 7"-10"+ range (measured with my carrot top).

More shallow silver, say 6" or less, is a bit more erratic, hitting between 23-23-24-25, but again with nice audio. Could be that they had other small metallic objects co-located next to them to skew the TID a bit. I had one that was a bit bouncy, but once I dug it out and it was in the clod, it was a beautiful rock solid 25 (wish I'd taken a video of it before I broke up the dirt clod).

The next time I get a deeper high conductor, I need to experiment more with the settings and search modes. I've read that Park1 has better TID/audio on deep silver, but haven't tried it. I've been sticking with the 50 tone audio, so if I tried Park1, I'd likely move it from 5 tone to 50 tone as I'm really trying to get used to it.

 

[HighVDI]

Ive dug 6 silver dimes. Majority hover at the 27-28 area but one of the deepies came up 27-35 and a sweet soft tone. Called that one. One of the Barbers was low....like zinc penny low. One of the Mercs I dug yesterday was 8+" and the audio and numbers were locked on 27-28. Park 2. Sens 18. (Power line drooping literally right above my head). Recovery 7. Iron bias 1. I was pretty impressed to say the least !

 

[digger460]

I'm up to about 10 silver dimes now, everything from rosies to barbers, and here's my take on it. I've been mainly using Field2 when in relic sites and Park2 in turf, and the deeper silver has waffled between the high 20's to the low 30's, but has a beautiful tinkly sound to it. These are between the 7"-10"+ range (measured with my carrot top).

More shallow silver, say 6" or less, is a bit more erratic, hitting between 23-23-24-25, but again with nice audio. Could be that they had other small metallic objects co-located next to them to skew the TID a bit. I had one that was a bit bouncy, but once I dug it out and it was in the clod, it was a beautiful rock solid 25 (wish I'd taken a video of it before I broke up the dirt clod).

The next time I get a deeper high conductor, I need to experiment more with the settings and search modes. I've read that Park1 has better TID/audio on deep silver, but haven't tried it. I've been sticking with the 50 tone audio, so if I tried Park1, I'd likely move it from 5 tone to 50 tone as I'm really trying to get used to it.

Ya, try the Park1 on 5 tone, then switch it to 50 tone to see what silver sounds like. 50 is still foreign to me

 

[digger460]

Will be trying park2 tomorrow. Startin' early and ending late. Will let you know how it went.

Ok. Tried a comparison between park1 and park2 yesterday. Located a dime at 27/28 using park1, then I switched to park2. The signal on park1 (5tone by the way) is solid flipping 27/28. Park2 was a little choppy and ranging from 25/28. It also wasn't as loud. Park2 picked it up, but using park1 at 27/28 there's no guessing. It's a silver dime. The wheats, park1, 5 tone 21/22 solid signal. park 2 scratchy, 17/22, and not as loud. Again park 1 was better.

I'm just trying to get in the habit of switching to the other modes to see which one works best for what I'm looking for. But right now my main setting is Park1, NC, GB, Volume to 25(I use the 600 with the headphones for now), Threshold 1, Recovery 3(6 on the 800 I believe). Just got to keep it simple and compare the presets first, and then can monkey with it later. Good Luck!

 

[Jason in Enid]

...... I am using Field2 almost exclusively and we generally have great soil, ground balanced around 10. I've been digging quite a few silver dimes over the last few weeks and have noticed that they almost always ring 28/29 often touching 30. .....

Just a note that I would HIGHLY encourage you to test your detector across all modes on buried targets. P2 and F2 were the worst as far as ability to see deep dimes in my soil, but you should find out whats best in yours.

 

[Cal_Cobra]

There's no doubt that the EQ is deep, this was a hunt a few weekends ago, using P2 and F2:

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/573900-eq800-5th-6th-hunts-field2-park2.html

Next time out will (hopefully) be a relic hunt, for me F2 has been pretty awesome for relic hunting, and the next iffy high tone signal, I'll compare search modes to see what they bring to the table.