sorting nickels wtih a cc-16e...

[carramrod]

So I've had pretty good luck with a cc-16e sorting quarters, which are fed by an igt quarter hopper.

I also have a igt nickel hopper and had pretty good luck with a cc-16e sorting cents with it. My problem lies in nickels. I cannot for the life of me get either of the cc-16e coin comparitors I have to distinguish between a clad nickel and a war nickel. I know these things are only 35% silver, but I would think it would still be able to tell the difference. I've tried with a clad coin as a reference, and 5 different war nickels as a reference. No matter what I do, I cannot get this thing to reliable sort! What am I doing wrong?

 

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War nickels are -designed- to have the same electromagnetic signature as normal nickels. That's why they've got manganese in them (and why they turn green in circulation). In 1942 electricity was being used to detect whether someone really put in a nickel or if they put in a slug of some sort, because of this the Mint needed to create a replacement of nickel in the nickel but it still had to work with these machines.

For the same reason, the Sacajawea/Presidential dollars use manganese to have the same electromagnetic signature as the SBA dollar.

You cannot tell the difference between the two by their electromagnetic signature.

 

[carramrod]

Thanks for the info! Is there any other way to automate the "searching" of these?

 

[50cent]

Nope, its hard to even rim search war nickels, as I've found some pretty clean 'non-darkened' ones. Quickest way is just to open a roll, spread it on the table, look the one's with the obverse and the date, and look at the reverse, for the war nickel mark. As a side note, you cannot truly 'automate' the searching of any coin even with a cc-16e, as the conductivity, or 'electromagnetic signature', between silver and clad (mostly copper) is very difficult for a device to discern. It might get 4/5 AG's, but odds are more than likely, it will spit one out the wrong side. Good for convenience and speed, but bad, for being precise