Last month i was surprised to pull a V nickel with my Tehon's Disc set at Tab. This was well above the nickel range. Funny thing is, it hit hard and then the signal died once i started digging. Not sure what happened there. I checked the hole for other objects and the nickel was the only item. Any Ideas on what happened? So i would defiantly agree that Tesoro's like nickels.
Probably up-averaging, or that's my theory, anyway.
Around iron or even in just mineralized soil this can happen and the deeper the target the higher the signals can go.
Some brands/units will do this, Keith Southern hunts in Tennessee dirt and he has mentioned this effect has happened to him using many different brands.
My F70 is definitely designed to do this, I love that it does and that helps me find masked items much easier in my red iron oxide mineralized dirt here in Alabama that is also infested with all kinds of extra iron.
A nickel on this thing is usually about a 32 on the VDI numbers and from 1-3" that is usually what I get, starting at about 4" the numbers soar higher.
At 4" nickels get into the 50's to low 60's, past tabs into the can slaw and zincoln range.
Every nickel I have dug here at the 5"+ range, definitely 6" or more has come in at the silver dollar range, low 90's...every one.
Jefferson's, buffs and V nickels.
In the good soil in Kansas this never happened but here it does all the time and not just on nickels but everything.
Check that...on one gold ring in that good dirt I did see it come in 10 numbers higher in the dirt shallow than it did out of the ground because it was sitting between two pieces of iron on either side.
I never noticed this on my Compadre here but that one rarely got much past 3" in this stuff, however a few months ago I did dig a buff at about 4" that came in at high tabs and thinking back using my Vaq I have dug a few modern nickels at about 4" or so that came in too high.
I just chalked that up to nickels being the weirdest coins we find out of all of them because for me they have never been right on as dimes, quarter and all other coins seem to be even the shallow ones.
Now I have been hunting with a Mojave for the last few weeks and can get a few inches deeper than I ever could with my Compadre and I have come to realize that everything is being up-averaged on that one too in this mess I hunt in.
Deeper nickels, small pieces of can slaw even deep sta tabs and beaver tail tabs are coming in high and won't disc out until I am close to max disc....sometimes they won't disc out at all if deep enough.
I now know those deeper nickels found with my Vaq plus probably a lot of other targets I didn't put 2+2 together at the time weren't just acting weird but they were affected by my devil dirt.
NC. soil is not all perfect either, yours might not be as hot as mine but if this spot had even a little bit of mineralization going on, or if there was iron near this coin and especially if it was decently deep, this can and will explain what happened on this one.
If my Compadre, Vaq and Mojave do this it is safe to assume yours probably will too under similar conditions.
A big clue was that iron halo...if such a thing even exists and your experience kinda proved that it does.
Once you stuck your digger in the dirt you broke that halo up somewhat and the nickel then reverted back to a conductivity level that was below your disc point so it went silent.
Once you know and understand this effect it can help you find more if you can wrap your head around the idea that some targets might have the possibility of coming in at higher areas you might not know as normal.
It has helped me find more treasure for sure.
Knowledge is power and for those of us that hunt in the SE. this can be a powerful little nugget of useful information.