First day out with my Platinum, what is this....and how to clean clad coins?

[panchoveeya]

Ok. So I finally had some time today to go out for about 2.5 hours and do my first Mding of the year and first time using my BH Platinum outside of home. I went to a local park and it was totally empty : ) I only hunted an area about 20x20 ft and was pretty tired of digging. A lot of trash but some ok signals. It was really fun. I was wondering why pennies keep giving off all kinds of signals..quarter90plus,or dime,or pulltab? Then the pulltabs jump anywhere from pulltab,zinc,dime to quarter plus? Kind of annoying. Anyways I found $1.86 in clad. A memorial Canadian penny 1867-1967? A 9mm. shell, a fork,lol, and a gazillion pulltabs & bottle caps. The other thing I have no idea what it is? I thought it belonged to a zipper but IDK. Please help identify if possible. Its not magnetic. Another thing I wanted to ask was how to clean up these clad coins. They look very corroted and muddy. So much build up its very hard to take off. Throw some opinions my way. The pinpoint on this machine is deadon by the way! Very satisfied. I do not have a pinponter yet, but I didn't have a lot of trouble finding my targets at all. Very fun, wish I had an MD buddy because I will never be able to detect that whole park by myself! It would take me 6 months. LOL. I even ignored plenty of hits due to high trash area. Anyways I appreciate all feedback. Thanks guys.

 

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[cudamark]

Looks like a solid start for using a new machine. After you get 100 hours under your belt, you'll be able to tell which sounds are good and which aren't. Get yourself a rock tumbler for your clad. Add some aquarium gravel, detergent, and a little vinegar to your clad (keep the cents/copper/brass/bronze separate from the rest) and tumble them for a couple of hours. Wash off the coins and save the gravel for future tumbles. If they're clean enough to go through a Coinstar machine, you're done! If you plan to roll the coins and take them to the bank, you may need to repeat the process until they're clean enough.

 

[panchoveeya]

Thank you sir, I will definitely look into that rock tumbler.

 

[SusanMN]

There is no need to clean clad except for rinsing off the dirt. Even the most discolored,will go,through a coin counting machine just fine. The usual rejects are foreign coins, bent coins and crusty pennies.

 

[panchoveeya]

Thanks Susan, the reason I wanted to clean them up was because I can't even see the front, back or dates on them, just curious to see what year they are. Not to worried about Coinmaster.

 

[locater]

Looks like a good start with your Platinum, I enjoy mine. It is common for pre 1982 pennies to read in the dime range, the post 1982 will read in the zinc area as they are alloyed with zinc. Not sure why you are getting such jumpy readings, the Platinum readings were usually spot on when there was a good target. You may want to check your ground balance and sensitivity setting when getting jumpy numbers. It could also be picking up other targets nearby if the site is trashy.
I'm sure you will enjoy your machine. When you get familiar with it, you may want to consider getting a Fisher F5 11"DD coil for it. (with push connector) I did for mine shortly after getting my Platinum, it really gives it great depth and better coverage than the stock 8" concentric coil. GOOD LUCK and ENJOY!

 

[panchoveeya]

locater: yes I did enjoy the platinum, very fun an easy other than the jumpy signals. it was heavily loaded with trash since it was a picnic spot. that might be why. ill definitely keep the other coil in mind. I see a lot of people with the platinum do the same. I might just invest that into an ATPRO which would be my primary machine and BH backup or for a friend to use.

Looks like a good start with your Platinum, I enjoy mine. It is common for pre 1982 pennies to read in the dime range, the post 1982 will read in the zinc area as they are alloyed with zinc. Not sure why you are getting such jumpy readings, the Platinum readings were usually spot on when there was a good target. You may want to check your ground balance and sensitivity setting when getting jumpy numbers. It could also be picking up other targets nearby if the site is trashy.
I'm sure you will enjoy your machine. When you get familiar with it, you may want to consider getting a Fisher F5 11"DD coil for it. (with push connector) I did for mine shortly after getting my Platinum, it really gives it great depth and better coverage than the stock 8" concentric coil. GOOD LUCK and ENJOY!