question regarding war nickels / VDI

[Argentium]

Greetings all ! Seems i'm the only one who hasn't found a war nickel as yet. I was curious to

know if they VDI a little higher due to the silver content ? Also why do the variety 3 Indian Head

cents seem to ring in lower on the VDI than the Lincoln cent (pre 1982) the composition is identical

Thanks ! Gregory, Santa Fe.

 

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[allen]

ive not found one of the war nickles with my ace250 yet...
i hope someone can help you out..

 

[Silver Fox]

Greetings all ! Seems i'm the only one who hasn't found a war nickel as yet. I was curious to

know if they VDI a little higher due to the silver content ? Also why do the variety 3 Indian Head

cents seem to ring in lower on the VDI than the Lincoln cent (pre 1982) the composition is identical

Thanks ! Gregory, Santa Fe.

I don't think that due to the "silver content" a war nickel reads higher than a regular nickel. I say this because when I had my Tek. Mk I Ltd I would notch for nickels and if my coil went over a nickel it would indicate so on the meter and on the lower sound, whether war or not. Where the VDI might read higher is in clad versus silver dimes. I always knew when it was a silver dime rather than a clad cause my meter needle would move just a hair higher on the scale and the sound was more definite.

The instructions for my B.H. Disc. 3300 includes VDI numbers for various targets and for the nickels it has from 30 to 39. That's a hell of a wide difference. I can see depth
and halo being factors but am I really going to find a nickel at 30 or at 39? We'll see.

 

[BuckleBoy]

Gregory,

What kind of machine do you have?

In my experience, they DO read higher. On a White's XLT a normal nickel should read 18-22 or so. The war nickel will be higher. On my Fisher, they read closer to the pulltab range.


Regards,


Buckleboy

 

[Captn SE]

In my experience, war nickels can read anywhere from a regular nickel reading all the way up to a clad dime. I believe this is due to their interraction in the ground with other minerals. Some war nickels come out of the ground with a black tar on them. I found 15 or so last year. Most of them ring up like a penny/dime, but a few sound like regular nickels.

As for your Indian Head composition/conductivity question: I have found that early wheats/indian heads do sound like zinc pennies, while newer wheats late 30's, 40's, 50's, in addition to pre '82 memorials will sound have a higher conductivity. I've heard that it has to do with the purity of the copper that was used when minting the coins.

HH,
CAPTN SE
Dan

 

[poppa19]

I found a war nickel yesterday with my dfx and it was a solid 24 but this coin was also only about 3 inches deep and the ground was wet and also kinda or " rocky" but the few war nickels i have found all seem to be in the nickel range maybe a little higher

 

[bigrig43]

on my mxt my war nickels have been in the 24-32 reading peace,bigrig

 

[Frodov]

And a "War nickel" would be what dates? World War Two? 1941 through 1945 ? I've found a couple of those, but I have no clue as to what he "VDI" would be as my White's Prizm IV doesn't indicate VDI numbers. It's dumbed down I suppose for novices and dummies like me. <grin> the two that I've found, if those dates apply, indicated on my detector as.. well.. nickels.


Happy Hunting !


Frodov

 

[I_Dig_NYC]

I FOUND A 1942P WAR NICKEL RECENTLY AND IT RANG UP AS A SOLID NICKEL SIGNAL..
THAT WAS ON MY VERY SIMPLE TO USE PRIZM II WITH NO VDI...

 

[FlatCat]

I got two War nickels in change in the last three weeks...

Never dug one.

FC

 

[LI Tom]

I use a Whites M6.I.ve dug 4 war nickles the last year and they have all VDI'ed in the penny/dime range.These were found in trashy parks,where I don't dig the nickel signals so I would not of found them if they did'nt ID higher.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I just checked my notes. A regular Jefferson nickel reads 29 to 31 on my VDI (goes up to 99) but a war nickel read 28. The composition is 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese. You would think it would read in the 60's.

One of life's mysteries.