Cache Masking- I wonder

[eddiecurrent]

Suppose you walk over a buried, upright mason jar full of old coins, about a foot down, and the detection field first encounters the jar lid, a ferrous, round, iron segment target. Would the jar lid mask the coins underneath? I'd like to test that one day. Or see someone do the experiment.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

Mason jar lids are not iron. They are conductive metal (albeit a poor conductor chintzy brittle metal). Thus no, the lid would not mask anything.


I dig mason jar lids all the time when in relic hunting environments. And they come up conductive, not non-conductive.

 

[Deft Tones]

A jar at 12" and full of old coins almost any metal detector is going to scream.

I too find lids. So if anything they help.

 

[BeenFishin]

I found a mason jar lid that sounded pretty darn nice the other day. Unfortunately there was no jar full of coins...

 

[Jason in Enid]

You should test your detector on the scenario. A large amount of coins like that could easily cause you detector to give you an overload signal. Some detector are factory set to block all overload signals, so that pile of silver could be ignored without you knowing it.

 

[BeenFishin]

You should test your detector on the scenario. A large amount of coins like that could easily cause you detector to give you an overload signal. Some detector are factory set to block all overload signals, so that pile of silver could be ignored without you knowing it.

I didnt even think of that! I just figured they were hubcaps! Im gonna have to go back over some properties. Thanks Jason!

 

[Jason in Enid]

I didnt even think of that! I just figured they were hubcaps! Im gonna have to go back over some properties. Thanks Jason!

One thing to keep in mind is that caches like that are very rare. It's probably 99% chance that every one of those big signals is a big piece of junk, but if you never dig them, you will NEVER find a cache.

 

[eddiecurrent]

Mason jar lids are not iron. They are conductive metal (albeit a poor conductor chintzy brittle metal). Thus no, the lid would not mask anything.


I dig mason jar lids all the time when in relic hunting environments. And they come up conductive, not non-conductive.

I was actually differentiating between ferrous and non-ferrous...I call all ferrous steel "iron", like all colas are "coke".
Detectors give a different signal of course tween ferrous and non-f...I tend to ignore iron grunts, my style of hunting, so if the jar lid donald trumps the coins beneath, I will do a dionne warwick and walk on by.
But / maybe the roundness and signal strength will give a higher tone, or maybe the more conductive coins will bleed thru the masking.
I did find a pile of coins once (none rare but all before 1933) deep in an old abandoned yard, but there was no lid, just a reddish smear of dirt and broken glass. I almost didn't dig it cuz the signal was large in area, like a tin can.