Deep Old Nickel With Legend

rayoh

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Joined
Jan 13, 2017
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Location
northeast Ohio
Detector(s) used
Minelab Etrac-Notka Legend
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
The more I use the Legend the more impressed with it's deep nickel finding ability. A little history on today's hunting spot. Not a real old site with the oldest coin being a 1917 dime. Loads of 40's and 50's coins. All of these era coins are in the 7-8 inch deep range. This is a public park with a large fair once a year so there is always a fresh supply of clad.

Today I started out with a couple of clad coins and an eight inch deep wheatie. When I find a wheat penny, it peaks my concentration and I slow down. About ten feet from the wheatie, I got a faint 24-25 with deep gauge pegged. I knew it would be a nickel from that depth and I was hoping for a Buffalo. Sure enough, from 9 inches I see a reddish colored nickel. First thing I saw was it was not a Buffalo or Jefferson. It was in good shape for an old nickel and and I almost stroked out when I saw a shield. I have found loads of Buffalos and V nickels, but this is only my fourth Shield in 27 years of detecting. It is in great shape, but I have not checked it out yet. Will do that tomorrow.

The Legend is proving to be an excellent coin detector with all the depth and speed I need. I will say, it is the best nickel detector I have ever used.
 

Nice deep coin finds! Is 24-25 where nickels ID on the legend? If so that's pretty cool it accurately IDed that deep.
 

I have found some at 25 27, but 24, 5 and six is about it. I have found that most all of the time, many of the nickels will show alittle of the iron indication on the screen.
 

The more I use the Legend the more impressed with it's deep nickel finding ability. A little history on today's hunting spot. Not a real old site with the oldest coin being a 1917 dime. Loads of 40's and 50's coins. All of these era coins are in the 7-8 inch deep range. This is a public park with a large fair once a year so there is always a fresh supply of clad.

Today I started out with a couple of clad coins and an eight inch deep wheatie. When I find a wheat penny, it peaks my concentration and I slow down. About ten feet from the wheatie, I got a faint 24-25 with deep gauge pegged. I knew it would be a nickel from that depth and I was hoping for a Buffalo. Sure enough, from 9 inches I see a reddish colored nickel. First thing I saw was it was not a Buffalo or Jefferson. It was in good shape for an old nickel and and I almost stroked out when I saw a shield. I have found loads of Buffalos and V nickels, but this is only my fourth Shield in 27 years of detecting. It is in great shape, but I have not checked it out yet. Will do that tomorrow.

The Legend is proving to be an excellent coin detector with all the depth and speed I need. I will say, it is the best nickel detector I have ever used.
Only recovered two shield nickels in seventeen years detecting…..
 

They're usually 27-29 in my soil, outliers can be as low as 26. I've noticed that an unstable VDI that swings from 27 to mid 30's with a good mid-tone is almost always a nickel. It might be because the coin is on edge.
 

They're usually 27-29 in my soil, outliers can be as low as 26. I've noticed that an unstable VDI that swings from 27 to mid 30's with a good mid-tone is almost always a nickel. It might be because the coin is on edge.

Goes to show you how much local soil conditions matter!

Here, ground mineralization is fairly low, and I've never pulled a nickel on a signal registering above a 27. 24-26 is the sweet spot, and I'll still dig if the signal is in that zone and has a high hit at 27 or a low hit at 23. On those endpoints, however, I'm maybe 10% on it being a nickel, especially if the signal predominates on those values.

Caveat here being I'm talking strictly modern Jeffersons. The single Buffalo I've pulled was a solid 25, and unfortunately I haven't been lucky enough to run across any shield or V nickels. While there are plenty of nice parks to hunt locally, the city parks department has renovated these parks extensively over several recent decades, and I haven't found much original high-traffic ground that isn't fill from within the last 30 years.

Sidenote: The thing that fools me the most here is the little metal band on a pencil eraser. Those hit as a weak 24-25, and the weakness/disappearing of the signal is the clue it's a very small target and not a nickel.
 

Yep...those pesky metal bands from pencils, I have dug a number of those in school yards. Nature of the beast.
 

Goes to show you how much local soil conditions matter!

Here, ground mineralization is fairly low, and I've never pulled a nickel on a signal registering above a 27. 24-26 is the sweet spot, and I'll still dig if the signal is in that zone and has a high hit at 27 or a low hit at 23. On those endpoints, however, I'm maybe 10% on it being a nickel, especially if the signal predominates on those values.

Caveat here being I'm talking strictly modern Jeffersons. The single Buffalo I've pulled was a solid 25, and unfortunately I haven't been lucky enough to run across any shield or V nickels. While there are plenty of nice parks to hunt locally, the city parks department has renovated these parks extensively over several recent decades, and I haven't found much original high-traffic ground that isn't fill from within the last 30 years.

Sidenote: The thing that fools me the most here is the little metal band on a pencil eraser. Those hit as a weak 24-25, and the weakness/disappearing of the signal is the clue it's a very small target and not a nickel.
It must be my ground, but beaver tails pencil eraser ends come in at 22-23. Too much to lose by passing them bye. At any rate, once learned, the Legend is deadly on the mid conducters.
 

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