Fe Co #'s for the Coins

[Beefcake]

Ok, had my first outing with the E-trac. Mind you I have absolutely NO EXPERIENCE with this machine or any Minelab machines. I had plenty of signals, but had no idea what they were and what type of target I might have under my coil. I knew from watching videos that the sweet spot was in the 12 -40's etc, but I was getting alot of signals that I didn't know to dig or not. I know I should be digging everything at this point, but it was a dreary day and I wanted to make the most of my time. I got home and decided to do some homework to familiarize myself with the Fe - Co numbers. I realize that different conditions may make for different results. Either way, as a total novice, I hope this will be helpful to more than just me. I went through every type of keeper coin I could find in my collection and compiled this list. Feel free to offer up suggestions and perhaps we can have a master list for the people of this forum to use. Her goes...

Coin Type Date Fe-Co # Tone

Large Cent 1850 03 - 45 high
12 -46

Flying Eagle cent 1857 11 - 24 low
Indian Head (Fatty) 1860 11 - 25 low
Indian Head 1900 11 - 35 high
Wheat penny (early) 1919 12 - 35 low
Wheat penny (later) 1942 12 - 44 high

Seated Half Dime (silver) 1862 11 - 36 high
Shield Nickel 1867 12 - 12 low
V Nickel 1905 12 - 12 low
War Nickel 1942 12 - 13 low
Modern Nickel Pres 12 - 13 low

Barber Dime 1898 12 - 42 high (steady)
Mercury Dime 1941 12 - 45 high (flutey)
Rosey (silver) 1948 12 - 45 high (flutey)
Modern Dime (clad) Pres 12 - 44 high (steady)

Barber Quarter 1899 12 - 46(~47) high (flutey)
Standing Liberty Quarter 1920 11 - 47 high (steady)
Washington (silver) 1945 11 - 47 high (steady)

Barber Half 1900 (~03) 04 - 47 high (steady)
Walking Liberty Half 1936 06 - 47 high (steady)
Franklin Silver half 1953 03 - 43 high (sporatic)***
Kennedy Silver half 1964 03 - 44 high (sporatic)***

Morgan Dollar 1921 01 - 42 high (sporatic)***
Peace Dollar 1922 01 - 41 medium/high (steady)
Eisenhower Dollar 1976 01 - 42 high (sporatic)***
Susan B. Anthony 1980 11 - 45 high (steady)
Sacagawea 2000 11 - 46 high (steady

*** - These larger coins do not register well at all on factory coin setting!!!!

Hope these help the FeCo challenged like myself...

[Epi-hunter]

Hang in there beefcake... soon you will be hearing those coins well. What settings are you using, by the way? Multitones?

That is a great list! The silver dimes tend to come in just a little higher for me (usually hitting 46-47 CO) although sometimes they will be in the 42-44 range. That seems to be the exception though. Clad dimes tend to come in lower (CO 44-45) but sound distinctly different. And quarters CO 47-48.

I think the FE on silver halves can be around 1 (ask Angel :rolleyes: lol ) and if you use the preset coin program they will be disc'ed out.

[Beefcake]

This was as basic as it gets.. I virtually hunted today straight out of the box, turn on and go coins mode. I am going to need help with the settings, so I will probably PM Angel later for some help. I attempted to put his setup on, but I'm not sure I have it loaded and saved properly. The larger silvers definately are disc'd out in the basic coin program. I need to learn how to adjust what is discriminated out on the screen and such. And then I need to learn how to load the settings and be able to know if they are in effect. I found 4 wheaties today with the oldest being 1919. I was happy to find them!

[Epi-hunter]

If you can tolerate the multitones then I think that is the way to go. It's personal preference, though. I like Angel's disc pattern, which is Andy Sabisch's with a couple of modifications. He has it somewhere on here I think.

[Beefcake]

I haven't got far enough into it to modify my disc patterns yet. I found another list of Fe-Co's on a different forum and it's amazing how different some of the numbers can be. Most are very close. I suppose that even though they are all made from the same place, subtle differences in the machine could give different readings for different people. It's probably not a bad idea to do this for yourself if you have the coins available to do it. I just thought it would be nice for total E-trac novices like me to have a starting spot to guide us on targets. After doing this, I'm kicking myself for not digging some of the targets I had today that could have been nice finds.

[Epi-hunter]

The coins that are 6-8 inches deep just shout out at you, when you know what they sound like. There is no missing them. The ones that are deeper are jumpier, usually the FE number more than the CO number, but they will be repeatable. If you swing over a deep silver for awhile, the numbers that might look like they are jumping all over the place at first, are actually showing a pattern... averaging near the expected numbers, even though any individual reading could be way off. Also the tone will remain high, even if it's broken or scratchy.

Great that you found wheats! You are on your way thumbsup01

[angellionel]

Hang in there, BC! You will get to know your machine. Think of the first time you rode a bike. It must have felt as if you would never be able to do it, but now it just comes naturally. ;) That's a good list of Fe and Co numbers, and they are fairly accurate. They will vary the deeper the coin is though. :yes:

[coinnut]

Hey Beefcake. Most of them numbers are about where they come in on mine, although mine are a bit higher. The large cent should have read 12-46, but I have had them read 06-46 and even 01-48. But those numbers were the exceptions and probably were not only on angle, but most likely located with iron too. A large cent should read close to 12-46 though :confused: As far as the stock coin program, there is a flaw in it (at least to us Americans lol). It's rejection pattern is discriminating out silver dollars, halves and large cents on edge. Also large colonial shoe buckles are gone too :ticked: So don't use that pattern too long lol It seems daunting at first, but this machine is actually easy to use. I think so far it is treating you good. thumbsup01

[cliff490]

This was as basic as it gets.. I virtually hunted today straight out of the box, turn on and go coins mode. I am going to need help with the settings, so I will probably PM Angel later for some help. I attempted to put his setup on, but I'm not sure I have it loaded and saved properly. The larger silvers definately are disc'd out in the basic coin program. I need to learn how to adjust what is discriminated out on the screen and such. And then I need to learn how to load the settings and be able to know if they are in effect. I found 4 wheaties today with the oldest being 1919. I was happy to find them!


Feel free to post out in the open what you learn about settings/patterns as there are a a few new E-Trac users on here including myself :grin:

[deltacornbread]

Looks like you are doing your homework! One thing I can tell you though. I have dug some iffy signals and as I started to dig, numbers would improve. On the other hand, I have dug iffy signals and found junk. Don't have a magic answer, just letting you know that deep coins don't always stand out with solid numbers and tones.

[hoser]

Cool list Brian. I'm hunting right out of the box as well. I want to get past the honeymoon stage with this machine before I start making any adjustments. I will tell you this, most of the signals I have been getting have been deeper coins. And they haven't been whispers either. Good solid tones, and the pinpointing has been spot on for me.

[Spike]

I too am new to the E-trac and learn something every time out . Last week I was hunting in a ton of iron and junk, got iffy sound and kept working around the iron and got down to about a 2x2 repeatable circle and out popped a nice 1861IH. The E-trac is amazing in trash and iron thumbsup01.