Question...

[Woodswoman]

Why do I get a dime reading with my Bounty Hunter and end up with a penny sometimes ?

 

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[Charlie P. (NY)]

Detectors don't know metals from one another other than ferric vs. non-ferric. They just go by conductivity and eddy currents generated by the coil field and compare returns to preprogrammed parameters. A pre-1982 cent is pretty close to a clad dime in conductivity.

 

[Woodswoman]

Detectors don't know metals from one another other than ferric vs. non-ferric. They just go by conductivity and eddy currents generated by the coil field and compare returns to preprogrammed parameters. A pre-1982 cent is pretty close to a clad dime in conductivity.

Umm, I understood about half of that which tells me what a beginner I am. Guess I better do some more homework. Thank you so much. And thanks for your patience.

 

[cudamark]

Detectors don't know metals from one another other than ferric vs. non-ferric. They just go by conductivity and eddy currents generated by the coil field and compare returns to preprogrammed parameters. A pre-1982 cent is pretty close to a clad dime in conductivity.

Add to that some oxidation or corrosion to create a halo effect around the target, and you can get all sorts of readings. I just dug a Zincoln that read the same as a nickel/tab/gold ring! Got it out of the ground and it was totally encrusted. If I run it through the tumbler it will probably disappear into a pile of sand!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Charlie is right: pennies (the pre-zinc ones anyhow) read very close to dime. If you have a super refined TID scale, like some machines have, you can see a slight difference in the way they read. But it's very hard to get that difference in the ground. So you can't really cherry-pick clad dimes vs clad pennies.

Sometimes wheat pennies that have been buried a long time, skew a bit lower than clad dimes on the TID though.

 

[Woodswoman]

Charlie is right: pennies (the pre-zinc ones anyhow) read very close to dime. If you have a super refined TID scale, like some machines have, you can see a slight difference in the way they read. But it's very hard to get that difference in the ground. So you can't really cherry-pick clad dimes vs clad pennies.

Sometimes wheat pennies that have been buried a long time, skew a bit lower than clad dimes on the TID though.

Thanks for that info !

 

[luvsdux]

On several of my detectors the indication for a dime shows dime/penny (copper). zinc pennies show just under that. As far as the detector circuits go, the two coins are so close they can't readily separate one from the other.
luvsdux

 

[steve1357]

A clad dime is composed of a 100% copper core with an outer layer that contains 75% copper.

http://www.coinlink.com/CoinGuide/us-type-coins/roosevelt-clad-dime-1964-present/

fwiw

 

[Woodswoman]

A clad dime is composed of a 100% copper core with an outer layer that contains 75% copper.

http://www.coinlink.com/CoinGuide/us-type-coins/roosevelt-clad-dime-1964-present/

fwiw

Ok, thanks for that ! Makes sense now.