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Is it possible with the right detector? I have always wondered this. Some of the sweet metal detectors seem like they are really good at discriminating between different metals. If you spread out a bunch of bank wrapped rolls of half dollars, can you pick out which ones have silver and which ones do not? This would speed up the process and also allow lots of rolls to be returned as rolls, rather than as loose. Anyone ever tried this?

I plan on buying a metal detector this summer. You can bet I'll try it.. :)

reddirtcoins wrote:I plan on buying a metal detector this summer. You can bet I'll try it.. :)

Keep us updated. Very interesting theory. Hmmmmmm.

It should work on the higher-end metal detectors that can distinguish different kinds of metal by making different sounds etc when listening with your headphones.

Cool, all I ask is for a 5% cut of all silver found employing this method. PM for ship to address

I think it will work if you lay the rolls horitzontally so it doesnt have to look "through" 20 coins at once.

Where are our metal decting guys... have them roll up some 1/2 s and lets find out!!!

I have a minelab explorer.. I m not sure if it will tell the difference between the copper and the silver.. they are both on the upper end of conductivity.. I'll try... ifmy batteries are alive..
edit... I dont have any clad halves... Ill go looking for some tomorrow...

Ill order a box of halves tomorrow.. it will take a week to get them and Ill try it...

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well guy`s I hate to tell you, but if you do one coin at a time it will work, but if you try a roll it will not work unless you have the coins spread out where you have about a 12 inch circle for each coin.
I have a pin pointer that will work in small places after you find the coin with the big detector, but it will not tell you what you have found.
in metal detecting you can not get by with out the Pin Pointer, or you will miss a lot of stuff.

I used to be a Dealer for Whites Metal Detectors.
I have the highest priced detector and the second to the highest priced detector sold by whites now, and I have owned lots of others.

GOOD LUCK Beau


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A decent digital scale is cheaper. Not foolproof or definitive by any means (you can have some misses due to variables of wear and other factors), but if you're looking for a quick method to tell if rolls are silver-heavy, it can give you a hint. Still doesn't beat busting them open and using your peepers, though.

Don't think so. Say you had 19 clad and 1 silver...the detector would pick up the 19...and on mine...the difference between a silver half and a clad half isn't too much on the ears.

Now gold would be much different...but from a higher quality($$$$$) gold machine!

I have a nice metal detector and will try tomorrow with my half boxes.

You guys ever heard the over load sound of a detector going off, just crack the rolls and keep searching.

A metal detector will barely if at all distinguish between a silver half dollar and a clad half dollar. I do a lot of metal detecting and I know that even in the ground there is not really any difference in tone on a clad or silver coin. My biggest ally for making an educated guess it what depth my detector is telling me the coin is at. I have had a silver dime sound like a zinc penny. I only dug the target because it was deep.

If you read up on how a metal detector works, you will answer your own question. I sends out an electromagnetic field and the returned signal is checked to see how it was affected by the environment around it. It picks up on how conductive a target is and whether it is ferrous or not. When you take a group of targets and lump them together then the sum of the targets is what is interpreted. Not the content of each individual target.

When you scan over a roll of coins it takes the entire roll into consideration. It cannot scan each coin individually. Your best bet is to weigh the rolls. But this really only works for 90%. Even then it is not a fool proof method. Your best bet is to just open the rolls. Maybe you can write Brinks a letter and ask them to start wrapping the Halves in plastic rolls like the pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters.

Tried last night and I couldn't tell the difference.

Yeah, that would be sweet if they wrapped the halves in plastic!!

NHsorter wrote:Is it possible with the right detector? I have always wondered this. Some of the sweet metal detectors seem like they are really good at discriminating between different metals. If you spread out a bunch of bank wrapped rolls of half dollars, can you pick out which ones have silver and which ones do not? This would speed up the process and also allow lots of rolls to be returned as rolls, rather than as loose. Anyone ever tried this?

If it works... I think I'll order about $50,000 in halves... walk into the bank with a detector... scan the boxes... and say "I only want THAT one!"...