Is it true aluminum foil will foil a metal detector?

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Some of my hard-earned cash is in the form of change, to say nothing of the metal strips in currency.

If I wrap the stuff in aluminum foil, will it be immune to metal detectors?

Thanks!

-- peg (peg@futureandahope.com), December 01, 1999

Answers

No. Aluminum is a metal and is easily detected.

-- anonymous (anonymous@anonymous.com), December 01, 1999.

I remember hearing that the state of the art of detection is that they can not only locate metal but can tell the difference between metals ie silver vs. gold etc.

-- Leslie (***@***.net), December 01, 1999.

Aluminum will be picked up by even the cheapy metal detectors sold for $50 in a store...trust me. I had one. The more advanced ones do have the capability of determining what kind of metal it is detecting by the frequency of the waves returned to the coil.

Best bet...lead. or burying deeply in a ferrous type soil that throw the coils input/output off.

-- Satanta (satanta@zdnetmail.com), December 01, 1999.


Who is going to have time to sweep around your house looking for money. The average American home has so much metal in the yard already (rebar stubs left over from pooring the foundation, nails, sprinkler pipe, etc.) that metal detectors are useless. Back when I had silver coins, I rolled them up and put them in lengths of pipe that looked like they were part of the house plumbing. If you have a gas water heater, and the stuff your are hiding is not bothered by heat, put them inside the floor of the water heater. If you have cinder block walls, pull off the capstones and drop stuff down in the blocks. A metal detector will think it is rebar. It usually takes only 4 screws to remove your bathroom medicine cabinet. Put stuff in the wall behind it.

Get the book "How to Hide anything" for more ideas

-- woody (woody11420@aol.com), December 02, 1999.


peg - I've spent many hours behind expensive metal detectors. If I were trying to discourage someone, here's what I'd do: Dig a hole maybe 2.5 feet deep and perhaps 1 foot in diameter. Scoop out another couple of inches from the bottom and place your coins in a cluster. Cover with about 6 inches of dirt (water it down and pack it). Now add about 1 foot of typical camping trash (crushed and/or burned aluminum cans, broken glass, metal ring from a Jiffy Pop popper, etc.) mixed with dirt. Make sure to mix both ferrous (like nails) and non-ferrous (like aluminum) metals. Water down and fill the last several inches and pack. It's very unlikely anybody would continue digging after seeing the screwy readings these interspersed mixed metals will give and then finding camping trash. A few clusters of aluminum cans and nails buried shallow near by would be even more discouraging.

tank

-- tank (tank@micronet.net), December 02, 1999.



After burying it uder the trash, alum. cans, etc., move the dog's kennel over it too. (assuming you have a dog.) Or, bury it in some other site that is distasteful to dig in.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), December 02, 1999.

Many thanks for the info - I think what I heard had to do with alum. foil and scanners . . . ? - I don't really know. Anyway, I appreciate the ideas. I like the idea of sprinkling metal trash in the ground above whatever I bury, or putting it in pipes that look like the plumbing.

-- peg (peg@futureandahope.com), December 02, 1999.

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