War Nickel VDI's

BladeRunner2019

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Location
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Detector(s) used
XP Deus, Equinox 800
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Metal Detecting
It's a cold, rainy day, so I'm stuck inside. I thought I'd use the time to check the different readings of War Nickels to see if there is any pattern to why some read higher than others. I had hypothesized that certain years and/or mints had a higher content of silver. After testing, I see no pattern. :tongue3: Although, my sample size of S and D mints is pretty small.

These results (in parenthesis) are from an XP Deus running 12khz. Lowest was 62 and highest was 84. That's a pretty big spread.

1942 P (62)
1942 P (77)
1942 P (64)

1943 P (84)
1943 P (83)
1943 P (63)
1943 P (63)
1943 P (62)
1943 P (64)
1943 P (75)

1944 P (65)
1944 P (76)

1945 D (84)

1945 S (87)
1945 S (67)

1945 P (64)
1945 P (72)
1945 P (72)
 

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Weird, silver content should all be the same. What do regular nickels read?
 

Since I'm snowed in, I decided to conduct my own test of war nickles I have found. Using the Equinox, my results weren't quite the same as yours. While the VDI's were off a point or two from one to another, they were all still fairly consistent. I suspect this is due to varying degrees of wear or corrosion on them. Another example, a worn flat silver dime will usually read a point or two lower than less worn one with a full rim. This has been my experience anyway, YMMV. Your extreme VDI readings variance is baffling, I agree.
 

17 on the nox for the last couple I’ve dug.
 

good wsy to research
 

Since I'm snowed in, I decided to conduct my own test of war nickles I have found. Using the Equinox, my results weren't quite the same as yours. While the VDI's were off a point or two from one to another, they were all still fairly consistent. I suspect this is due to varying degrees of wear or corrosion on them. Another example, a worn flat silver dime will usually read a point or two lower than less worn one with a full rim. This has been my experience anyway, YMMV. Your extreme VDI readings variance is baffling, I agree.

The Nox has a more condensed VDI, so the spread wouldn't be as noticeable. I have an Equinox 800 I can test with also.

Thanks.
 


Hunting in 12Hz a common nickel reads 64.
A Buffalo, V, or Shield, will also read 64. I have even found Silver nickels that came on at 64. The DEUS will give some wild readings leaving one to wonder why did that gold coin come in at 72?
 

Maybe soil conditions are having an impact on our readings.
 

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Hunting in 12Hz a common nickel reads 64.
A Buffalo, V, or Shield, will also read 64. I have even found Silver nickels that came on at 64. The DEUS will give some wild readings leaving one to wonder why did that gold coin come in at 72?

They are always low 50's for me. Do you have ID Norm on?
 

I WISH! I knew why that gold coin rang in at ____________!!!!! One of these days...

That is strange. You would think you could get different VDI's from regular nickels as well.
 

They are always low 50's for me. Do you have ID Norm on?

I'm sorry, I have my machine set up so that the target will always have the same VDI value regardless of which frequency I am hunting in
That way, I only have to remember one set of numbers instead of 4. One for each frequency.
 

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