I have a question about the max and nickle vdi

[SeekerProB]

I have found a 1943 nickle. I have read that they were made from silver and copper with some manganese. What would that ring up on the max. Wouldn't it have a higher vdi than a regular nickle? This one rings in on the max at 52- 53. Any ideas? .

 

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[smokeythecat]

I would think so. Good question.

 

[Jamie1993]

SeekerProB,
I also Have the AT Max & AT Pro. The nickle signal is about the same on both machines. VDI-52/53. Sometimes if your ground balance is off a little bit they can run as low as VDI-51.
It is also the range of a lot of gold rings I have found. If it's a steady VDI number dig it.
Have a great day.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

On my CTX and ATP...they always read the same for me...12-13 & 51-52 There are alot of factors thou, but they dont really read up higher like I would have imagined either.

 

[Clad2Silver]

I've found Wartime nickels with my AT Pro and also with my White's detectors and they ring up at the same numbers as regular nickels...…...52-53 on the Pro and 18-20 on the White's. One reason is that the silver in wartime nickels is only 35% unlike other silver coins that are 90% silver. Also it's possible the Manganese brings the signal strength lower.

 

[gunsil]

Metal detectors do NOT have any idea of what type of metal is down there. They only measure the electrical conductivity of the earth and look for anomalies which are caused by metallic items in the dirt. They do not really see any kind of metal, only a change in conductivity. If a regular nickle has the same conductivity as a war nickle it will read the same since the machine is not measuring any kind of silver or nickel content, only how well it conducts electricity. This is also why no detector can tell a gold ring from an aluminum pull tab, they conduct electricity in similar fashion.

 

[smokeythecat]

For what it's worth, on my Deus it rings in the mid 50's also.

 

[xr7ator]

With thousands of hours in on the AT series I can tell you that looking at the VDI for a nickel will trick you into passing up a good target. I have found many many nickels that didn't go any higher than 40 on the VDI. The longer they have been in the dirt and type of dirt, corrosion, etc. will have a big impact on the VDI.

 

[dute]

I’ve always found nickels when the VDI came in as a solid 52, Sometimes 53. I have not noticed a difference in the VDI values between buffalo and war nickels. I don’t chase a 52 unless it’s solid, simply because I don’t want to pull a lot of pop tabs.