Solid Zinc Signal Producing Gold?

[Silver Slayer]

Has anyone dug a solid Zinc signal and actually came up with a Gold ring?

 

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[bazinga]

Zinc?

I'm not sure I'm familiar with the term. Could you elaborate further?

 

[Frankn]

The metal zinc or any symbol for an item made from it does not appear on detectors. Did you test the detector on a piece of zinc to get it's id #? Zinc is the metal used in galvanizing steel. Frank

 

[fishbone3d]

Zinc does come on detectors. It is under Zinc pennies. I understand what you are saying. Maybe if the item was really large. Usually it comes under foil, nickle, or pull tabs for most common sizes.

 

[Frankn]

Right off hand I would say you were standing in a bank with a married armed guard beside you. If that's gold it looks like early retirement. Frank

 

[fishbone3d]

Naa- Just loaded the picture for an extreme example. Had to chuckle a little bit. It would have to be a piece of gold of large size to get a zinc signal, because of it's conductivity.

 

[Silver Slayer]

Naa- Just loaded the picture for an extreme example. Had to chuckle a little bit. It would have to be a piece of gold of large size to get a zinc signal, because of it's conductivity.

Thanks fishbone , that answered my question. Just wanted to make sure I was not passing up any gold by not digging zinc penny signals. I still dig copper pennies they show up as dimes on my F2.

 

[Gold&SilverSlasher]

Has anyone dug a solid Zinc signal and actually came up with a Gold ring?

Let's see, Zinc as in zinc penny usually tests a higher ID number than gold, I would think it would have to be a pretty big gold ring to pull a zinc type target ID. Very very possible!

In regards to zinc, I've dug zinc pennies 8" down in highly mineralized soil, the penny was twice its own thickness because of servere corrosion and it target ID'd as if it were a nickel.

 

[fishbone3d]

I would call Fisher, and see what is up with that. Your detector may need calibrated or something. Pennies should be pretty close to the penny range, not dime. It just doesn't seem right.

 

[fishbone3d]

Also, remember. Indian Heads usually come up under zinc. They are made of a different metal composition than Lincolns.

 

[Cool Hand Fluke]

This is a rare event, but it will happen. Last year my hunting partner and I were hunting an old baseball field. My partner got a zinc penny hit at 4 inches. I hate digging zinc signals, but he will dig many of them. He pulled out a 1973 St. Marys men's college class ring! It was either 10k or 14k, I don't remember, but it was definitely gold.

Another guy I know dug out a beautiful men's star sapphire gold ring that read zinc on his meter.

Actually, gold rings will read all over the the scale on all metal detectors. You'll get them at foil, round pulltab, square pulltab, nickel, and zinc. Last year I dug a men's 24K wedding band that read 50 cent piece on my Teknetics T2 analog meter. On my Fisher it came up as a silver/copper coin. So you never know.

 

[Dano Sverige]

One of these days you stubborn yanks (and Reb's) will learn to stop depending on what your machines screen tells you and just dig ANYTHING that gives a good sounding tone on both swings!!!
You'll know exactly what it is once you dig it up. If it's gold then well done and congrat's. If it's crap...then welcome to the joys of metal detecting!

 

[bazinga]

One of these days you stubborn yanks (and Reb's) will learn to stop depending on what your machines screen tells you and just dig ANYTHING that gives a good sounding tone on both swings!!!
You'll know exactly what it is once you dig it up. If it's gold then well done and congrat's. If it's crap...then welcome to the joys of metal detecting!

Can't do that in the states. The parks would have no grass left if we were to do that.

 

[ivan salis]

got a problem with older (pre 1983 ) real copper type cents ( pennys as many folks wrongly call em * ) ringing up as dimes ?-- heres why that occurs --its due to the fact that they are made of copper---- clad dimes ( 1965 and later) have a "copper core" in them thus your detector reading both of them as the same item ---basically a clad dime due to the copper core has the same electrical conductivity signature as a pre 1982 to 1909 lincon copper cent -- to your machine.

note * 1909 and earlier indain head cents tend to run in the zinc range --so if your in a area where you think there was people 1909 or around that era you might not want to notch out modern ( 1983 and newer ) zinc cents. because if you do you most likely will lose the indain head cents as well.

 

[Dwight S]

One of these days you stubborn yanks (and Reb's) will learn to stop depending on what your machines screen tells you and just dig ANYTHING that gives a good sounding tone on both swings!!!
You'll know exactly what it is once you dig it up. If it's gold then well done and congrat's. If it's crap...then welcome to the joys of metal detecting!

Thats exactly what I do... A good repeatable signal, will give you something worthwhile most of the time. Gold will hit from just above iron up to and through penny readings on most detectors. To be sure you're not missing anything, dig it all.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

cool hand fluke brings up a good point, that 24k gold will read up high, into various penny / dime / quarter ranges (depending on the size of the gold item). The reason for this is, gold (in pure form) is actually a very high conductor. The reason we md'rs always refer to gold as a low conductor, is that it's the ALLOYS put into gold (to make them 18k, 14k, and 10k) that end up making them lower conductors. But pure gold, without any alloys, is a very high conductor. Trouble is, very few gold jewelry items are ever made in pure gold, because it's too soft and pliable to be used for every-day wearing as jewelry. Some Asian cultures have and do make 24k rings. And some amulets are made in 24k ... provided they have a bezzle that's a lower carot gold to protect it.

I found a small 24k ring once, that read up around zinc or copper penny if I recall. At first, I figured I'd found some sort of other metal, since obviously, given its size, it was way to small to read high on the TID scale. But there was some sort of asian letters/characters on there. So I got it translated, and learned I had 24k It was soft enough that I bet I could have left a finger-nail gouge in there, or could simply smunch it sideways with my fingers, if I'd wanted. Thus the reaon why not many jewelers would ever work in pure gold, for every-day wear.

As far as regular gold (10k, 14k, and 18k) it's possible that rings could read up as high as zinc pennies too. Because remember, the size of the object plays into the TID too, not just the metal composition. For example: a pull-tab reads low, right? But the entire aluminum can, reads up at dime or quarter, right? But in each case, the composition was exactly the same (aluminum) right? Thus size plays into it. Same is true for gold. So very enormous gold rings (like those big fat Navy or men's college class, or super-bowl type rings) at 10k (or even 14k?) could read up higher than square tab and even into the zinc penny range.

 

[zincmaster]

I would call Fisher, and see what is up with that. Your detector may need calibrated or something. Pennies should be pretty close to the penny range, not dime. It just doesn't seem right.

( i have an at pro and copper pennys "pre 1982" come up as dimes, zinc pennys ring from 75/79. so i dont think his detector needs recalibrated. but i do believe someone in here did say they got some gold that rang like a zinc penny.)

hh zinc

 

[fishbone3d]

I would call Fisher, and see what is up with that. Your detector may need calibrated or something. Pennies should be pretty close to the penny range, not dime. It just doesn't seem right.

( i have an at pro and copper pennys "pre 1982" come up as dimes, zinc pennys ring from 75/79. so i dont think his detector needs recalibrated. but i do believe someone in here did say they got some gold that rang like a zinc penny.)

hh zinc

I was just saying to call Fisher, because of that. I have a Teknetics T2 SE that is made now by Fisher, and it usually always rings true on Pennys. True on the gold and penny reading though. I would guess, that if it was like 10k or so; that the reading would be higher because of the other metals in the gold. All the gold that I have found though, has been lower. You never know though. Good luck on your Fisher. You have a hot little machine there!

 

[lookindown]

I would call Fisher, and see what is up with that. Your detector may need calibrated or something. Pennies should be pretty close to the penny range, not dime. It just doesn't seem right.

( i have an at pro and copper pennys "pre 1982" come up as dimes, zinc pennys ring from 75/79. so i dont think his detector needs recalibrated. but i do believe someone in here did say they got some gold that rang like a zinc penny.)

hh zinc

Your right, there is nothing wrong with his machine. The Ace 250 reads copper pennies and dimes on the same notch also.

 

[luvsdux]

A year or two ago I read that some smaller gold jewelry IDs as a zinc penny. I had been passing zincs by because so many are very cruddy. After reading the above, I began digging zincs to be sure and the second one turned out to be a small gold ring. I've dug another that ID'ed as zinc since so I now often dig zincs just to be sure.
luvsdux