Some questions from a newbie

[pepperdawg]

Couple of Newbie questions/observations….probably dumb questions, but here goes…

Clad - Guessing that means silver/gold clad (coated?) - When talking about coins how is it used? Pre-mid-1960’s?

All these older (using the term older lightly) coins - wheat pennies, merc dimes etc…..seems like they are commonly found - almost daily - Did all the people in the first half of the 20th century walk around with holes in their pockets?

After reading some of the reviews of entry level detectors - looks like being able to filter out iron/ferrous alerts is desirable……why wouldn’t one want to dig up iron items?

Thanks all in advance. I’ll keep on reading for now…such a great board!

 

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[Slingshot]

Clad coins are the coins minted after the last silver coins in 1964, they have a nickel layer on the outsides with a copper layer in the middle, 10c, 25c, with half dollars having their outer layers of silver through 1969, after which they were minted with the same cupro-nickel exterior as the dimes and quarters.
People have lost coins since they were first minted thousands of years ago, the 20th century had more prolific minting and people had more - so lost more. It doesn't take a hole in a pocket to manage to loose some coins.
Iron items can sometimes be desirable finds, but the amount of ferrous trash, such as nails, built up in the ground from a civilization built on cheap steel can be overwhelming to try and dig all the iron signals.
I hope you find some nice things and good luck!

 

[digger27]

Couple of Newbie questions/observations….probably dumb questions, but here goes…

Clad - Guessing that means silver/gold clad (coated?) - When talking about coins how is it used? Pre-mid-1960’s?

All these older (using the term older lightly) coins - wheat pennies, merc dimes etc…..seems like they are commonly found - almost daily - Did all the people in the first half of the 20th century walk around with holes in their pockets?

After reading some of the reviews of entry level detectors - looks like being able to filter out iron/ferrous alerts is desirable……why wouldn’t one want to dig up iron items?

Thanks all in advance. I’ll keep on reading for now…such a great board!

Clad is used for coins only, a general term used when talking about modern coins that are not silver, post 1965.
Jewelry that is made this way, base metals with a thin coating of precious metal we call "heartbreakers"...or at least I do.

All those coins you mentioned are not commonly found at all, you just see them posted here daily because that is one thing that this forum is for and because so many hunters all over the country are out there hunting and are reporting back.
Some find these things every day because they live in areas where they are found semi consistently, others aren't so lucky.
There are some that have hunted for years and never found a merc, for instance.

Discing out iron sometimes is desirable, the units that can do this well and still find good targets in the vicinity are considered very desirable...but not one out there is perfect at doing this.
Something called masking can be a huge problem at heavy iron sites, the iron signals cover up the higher tone good ones and different detectors handle this problem with different degrees of success.

Sometime iron is good.
Relic hunters dig a bunch, ammunition,, knives, wagon and gun parts and all kinds of vintage iron objects are keepers for many.

The reason we want the abilility to disc out iron is because of how much iron is actually out there in the ground.
From large pieces at farms and relic sites to at least a few nails mostly everywhere to tiny pieces of wire and other bits infused into the soil at all depths the amount of iron signals you hear and see at almost any site can be surprising.

This country is young and still we have a lot to deal with.
Imagine what those hunting in England and the rest of Europe have to contend with considering iron has been deposited and buried in their soils for thousands of years.

 

[villagenut]

When wheats and mercs and silver washingtons were in circulation, times were different. In the years that followed we began to see credit and debit cards and most people rarely carry coins.People for the most part do not spend the amount of time outside that they did back then probably due to technology. Families spent time at parks and picnics, young ones ran from home to the dime store to buy comics, and clothes were hung out to dry on a clothesline. These are just a few examples of how old coins end up in our pouches today.....yes we spend time outside.

ps some detectorists choose to hunt only coins and are not into relic or artifact hunting, some prefer jewelry at the beach.The filtering (discriminating) out iron is up to you according to what you are looking for and what type of site you are digging....and how sore your back might be at the time.