Pennies, to dig or not to dig

[OldJerseyGirl]

I can't tell you how many pennies I have found in the few months I have had my detector. It is tempting to not dig them sometimes. However, you cannot be sure if they a nice old ones, like the indian heads or even some other coin. The detector is not always sure. I hunted at an old school over the weekend and found clad like crazy. At least 20 quarters alone. And the pennies, I have not counted. However, it is an old, old school. It has been hunted like crazy for years. Not lately though. Guess they think they got all the good stuff. But, you never know.

Do some of you get tired of digging pennies? I just can't not dig them.

 

[Beeps in my sleep]

Dig those cent signals! I have found some neat things that showed up as a cent signal oldest cent I found was 1925. Plus you never know what else might be there

 

[Alan Applegate]

You dig them!

I can usually tell if the penny is a copper one, or plated zinc one. I got fooled recently, and turned up 1943 steely, and two 1945 coppers wrapped in foil. Why the steely was in such good shape, I'll never know. Several years ago, I turned up a pinkie ring that I thought was a copper penny.

I still have every penny I ever dug from day one. The total is about 200 pounds worth. Out of the whole mess, I have only a dozen or so that are worth any significant amount. That being over say $15 to $20. You might get luckier.

 

[metaljunkie]

I have been thinking about skipping pennies too. Just too much time is wasted on them. I was almost going to go this route. Then yesterday after work, I hit an Ottawa park. My very first signal, I got a solid 82-83, only 3 inches deep. Figured it was a penny, but it pinpointed slightly larger. Out pops a 1820 Harp coin, my first! So now I HAVE to dig'em all.... So just keep on digging those pennies, you never know....

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

I can't tell you how many pennies I have found in the few months I have had my detector. It is tempting to not dig them sometimes. However, you cannot be sure if they a nice old ones, like the indian heads or even some other coin. The detector is not always sure. I hunted at an old school over the weekend and found clad like crazy. At least 20 quarters alone. And the pennies, I have not counted. However, it is an old, old school. It has been hunted like crazy for years. Not lately though. Guess they think they got all the good stuff. But, you never know.

Do some of you get tired of digging pennies? I just can't not dig them.

If I'm in turfed urban parks, where depth and age is normally statified/correlated, then I routinely skip surface pennies. I will pass them (any clad for that matter), if less than a certain depth. But this is only for stratified turf obviously. Not beach or disturbed ground or relicky type hunts (ghost towns, old town demolitions, ruins, etc...)

Might that mean you'll miss a fluke old coin that is shallow? SURE! Might that mean you'll miss a giant men's gold class ring that read up in the penny range and was shallow? SURE! But as your experience shows, the vast majority of times, in urban park turf, a shallow penny reading will be .... guess what?

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

I totally know how you feel...I just recently started digging Zinc pennies....which i havent for the last 3 years...But as others say...it might read as a penny..but might be something else.

A hunting buddy of mine found his first gold ring digging a penny/dime signal...there just happen to be some coins in the same hole....I would dig everything at an older place thou.

if you really want to get burned out....Start digging ALL nickels..lol

 

[LifeNRA]

I would dig them, without a doubt!

 

[myfantasia1]

I don't mind pennies, I put all the change I find in a big water jug, and when I go. All the change will go to two of my Grandkids.

 

[enamel7]

A friend and I were searching an area a local club had hit hard for over 2 years. They were too good to dig cent signals. We dig everything! He got a cent signal beside an old sidewalk. Dug it and checked the hole again. 6 inches deep he finds a Walking liberty! Dig everything!

 

[uglymailman]

Dig em all. Save em for battery or gas money. Or better yet, cold beer!

 

[skateandcreate]

Dig everything !!!

 

[gleaner1]

You can't not dig them or you wont find much. There are three hundred zillion quadrillion cents out there waiting to be found. Some are copper. Copper cents must and will be dug as a matter of coin-shooting necessity. A shallow copper cent should not be not dug. As a matter of course. Zincolns sound shallow and crappy and can be easily avoided. ID numbers can help decide. I hates diggin zinc peneez I dig a hundred pull tabs for every zinky.

 

[skateandcreate]

Dig everything!

 

[Nice Person]

I enjoy picking up pennies off the sidewalks.

 

[Rawhide]

I look at where I am hunting. Since all hunts are not equal, there is no right answer here. Pennys are keepers, but not what I go after. Now I used to know a girl named Penny, but I dont think that is what your talking about. If you are around a high traffic area say like the swings at the park. I would dig every signal, I found a diamond setting in the same hole with a dime. I am still looking for the ring it came off of. Pennys are like anything, either dig it, or you get to detect it twice.

 

[discn]

I dig every beep I get, and i've found treasure when it reads as trash but you have to dig a lot to get it. Pennies are better than trash if you dig enough of them lol HH.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

ok then, for those of you who say "dig all" and/or "yes dig all the modern pennies", then what do you do with a case example like this?

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/g...g-all-lest-you-miss-gold-ring-philosophy.html

Although the title says "gold ring", yet it's applicable to the "penny" question, as you will see within the text.

 

[jcCALIF]

Tom in CA is right. VDI readings between 45-55 will be usually be Michelob beer caps, pennies and unfortunately mens' heavy gold rings. I got shock when I tested a 20 gram mens' gold and got a VDI reading of 47. All of my previous gold rings that I have found read anywhere from the mid-teens to high 30s. I now wonder how many of those Michelob caps and pennies might of been something else.

 

[lookindown]

Zinc pennies read 76 on the AT pro. Ive dug tokens, a 1911Canadian large cent, a 1901 silver Hong Kong dime and a 8.6 gram 10k gold ring that all read 76....and Ive dug a ton of zincolns.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

...... I now wonder how many of those Michelob caps and pennies might of been something else.

jcCALIF, it would depend on the demographics (people/usage/habits/junkiness, etc..) of the place. But there are certainly some places where you'd go psycho trying to dig all the wino screw caps, zincs, and pennies "just because some gold rings read that high".

Some buddies and I had the unique opportunity in 2006, to get in on a park scrape in San Francisco. The city went in to an 1870/80s park, and scraped off the top 6 to 12", to make way for artificial turf, for a soccer field. At first, when they were down a uniform 6" and more, it was ALL old coins (the clad was scraped away in that top 6"+ ) It was heaven for a night or two, where every single penny/dime/quarter signals was no less than a wheatie, silver, IH, V's, buffalos, etc... However, by the 3rd night, the workers had begun to fill back in low spots, and doze dirt back and forth This was so that they can get their ultimate grade/level. That re-introduced tons of the modern junk from the stock-piles. But NO PROBLEM, eh? Since "holes" were a non-issue (it was all tumbled dirt everywhere), we could continue to treat the place in "relic mindset" (dig all, except iron). And for a week, that's what I did. To the tune of many hundreds of targets per night, as fast as I could dig at times This was a very blighted neighborhood, and a very junky park (that md'rs had previous avoided d/t it was just an ocean of tabs, screwcaps, and clad).

For that week of "digging all" in this disturbed landscape, I saved every single item, so that I could do a final analysis. At the end of the week, I had an entire box of junk. And yes, lots of silver, wheaties, IH's, seateds, barbers, clad, etc... And yes, I had some gold items: About 7 or 8 as I recall. A few rings, a charm, a watch-back, etc... I don't think any were the monster big men's sized you describe. But even if there HAD been one of those "big college rings" like that, here's the deal: even for the 7 or 8 gold items I had found in this relic-mindset at this junky urban blighted park, each of those gold items had a ratio of several hundred-to-one. It would simply not have been worth it, for someone to have gone to this turfed park, to angle for gold. He would simply have been much better off to simply go to a swimming beach, if jewelry were his goal. He'd have been kicked out of the park d/t too many holes, if trying to dig that many holes. And certainly if his angle, as you say, was to seek the big men's rings that read in the square tab, or wino cap, or zinc range, then that would have been folly indeed (because, as I say, even of the gold I got, I don't recall any that were the monster size like that. Perhaps tab TID's for a couple at best).

So as you can see, it depends on the site. Perhaps an athletic field in a non-blighted area, which has no eating/picnicking, and is strictly athletics in an upscale neighborhood, then yeah, the ratios aren't as punishing. Or beaches for sure (but then, go figure, you're not playing the odds anyhow, so it's a mute-point, since beach hunters just dig all conductors).