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A mate who lives nearby plowed one of his paddocks last week - first time since he was a kid. He knew that somewhere on that paddock had been an old house site and sure enough a few bits of porcelain plate, etc, poked its head up. He asked if I would swing the detector over and I obliged for about an hour this morning - thought we might get some coins or something. Took the Gold Monster as I thought I would just have it in non ferrous mode - digging every bit of iron crap didn’t enthuse me much. Found the general bits of lead, bits of metal, a blade off an old butter knife, a spoon handle, etc. Then something special popped up. Thought it was just junk jewelry at first but it had 2 rivets on the back and remnants of leather. Off a saddle?? I went to work, mate took it home to clean and sent me this pic. Turns out it is an English Cavalry Military Breast Plate. Similar to this one but a different pattern. My first genuine, WOW factor relic.

Having a bit of fun with the GM 1000 so thought I might chronicle my finds in the one spot (if that's allowed??). Went out this afternoon with the literal dog, the figurative dog and the 3 hounds (the kids ). Took the GM to a spot where I had been before with the SDC and the Zed and had never found anything but rubbish. Old quartz vein site that had been pretty well smashed by the old boys. Lots and lots of targets with a little bit of sign of previous detectorists but I am assuming they were put off by the rubbish too. Today I strapped on the big coil for a bit of a change. Have almost exclusively used the little fella as I think it's a bit more stable and sensitive - although I have absolutely nothing to back that up with. A few small pieces of lead and a bit of ? tin. And one nice little specie ?? Also had a bit of a noise in the quartz wall but it was hard to get close enough so will be heading back there with the little coil to get a better swipe at it. Only out for about 45 mins so plenty more to this story (hopefully )

I happened upon this toad today. Just under 2 Oz. 59.8 grams!

Jin, I bought a 5000 in 2010 and used it on the beach for nearly two years. It found everything ... well ... not really ... I've got a story about a diamond on a very thin chain I found by accident. I heard another target and found the chain! Don't use a big coil. It will just see too many targets. You have enough timings on the 4500 to find a place for it to be quiet. If you have a beach with a substantial tide then hunt the wet sand on the low tide. There is no real reason to get the coil or the unit wet. One thing you can do to protect it is to put it in a plastic bag. You can still adjust it. You just have to get your headphone cord out of it. I think you will have fun digging everything. It is a good way to learn a beach. You want to know what trash to look for that holds the rings and jewelry. You'll learn the coin sounds. Dig, dig, dig ... it will go deeper than anyone else on the beach. You'll find some good things. Mitchel

Tom(CA) and I have been working a site that we researched that's produced several 1850's - 1860's seated coins, and some rogue early 1900's coins, as well as a variety of period relics. We tried to get one more trip in before Old Man Winter completely shut us down, and it did in fact shut us down, but not before I finally, got something I've been looking for for a long time, and after watching others find them over the years (I saw Tom dig three!!!), I was starting to think it would never happen. Well it finally happened, and it turned out to be a good one, an 1865 San Francisco minted Liberty Half Eagle!! Here she is out of the hole: Here she is rinsed off: Here's a video of the hunt: Less than 100 known, Mintage: 27,612 Although the mintage of the 1865-S is quite a bit higher than the mintages of the S Mint Half Eagles from 1858 to 1864, it compares in overall rarity to the 1858-S, 1860-S and 1863-S and is only slightly less rare than the others. Almost all known examples of this date are well worn with VF and lower being all one can expect to find. The 1865-S ranks second in the entire $5 series according to average grade and I do not know of a specimen that would grade better than EF. The very few specimens that I have seen were rather softly struck and the mintmark was always quite weak. Thanks for looking, hopefully the next one comes easier

Get a sand scoop and an unbreakable shaft i use my Goldscan 5c last week on the beach in Cornwall and i dug massive holes RR

Thanks Phoenix. It is a bit spesh, eh? Not something you think would turn up in a paddock in northeast Vic!

Jin, I've posted elsewhere about beaches and energy. When there is no energy the valuable objects are not moved into the tidal areas on my beaches here in Southern California. When we had the El Nino a couple of years ago there were many areas with lots of rings and valuables that were washed up because of the short interval waves for many weeks. What if you had a lake or ocean level for a few hundred thousand years doing the same thing with natural gold and then that sea dropped away. You could have both deep gold that stopped at the shoreline and you could have other gold pay streaks that were brought back up by the energy in the waves at the time. We have been told that one area where we hunt in Rye Patch, Nevada had an ancient lake and that shoreline held enough gold for us to target it as a pattern. It has been hunted extensively below the source gold at the ancient lake level at that elevation and I think the pattern produced. Mitchel

I`m with TK, mark each find using GPS, it will help you see a trend, whether it is altitude or on a particular side of slopes, usually a relationship to a particular feature is revealed by this. Particularly when you can view and compare finds on topo and geo maps and now days Google earth as well, but remember this is only an indicator and there may be those patches that are "rogues", that send you back to the drawing board. Maybe with more saves you`ll realize you just missed a relationship with a feature, maybe you never will. I am very fortunate that I started doing such religiously when the hand-held GPS first become available. That databank of find waypoints down the track is invaluable, thus I recommend to all young fellows getting started in this game, always save those waypoints, pondering over maps with a lot of waypoints can help you avoid cabin fever at the least but in time lead you to more of that magic yellow.

There is lots of confusion on the subject of air travel and batteries. The TSA/FFA chart above is a good start for one to research before travel. So many TSA agents and airline employees are confused. I travel with a group of shallow water treasure hunters and for years we have never had problems taking batteries. But things seem different today... throw in the confusion and one could run into problems traveling with any batteries. I have always packed my detectors and spare batteries in checked luggage. Since I travel with 2 or 3 machines, carry on has not been an option and fortunately for the most part my equipment has survived- other than some TSA/Customs agents go through your bag like a thief in the night! The mess they make of my stuff makes me angry, as there is no excuse for not caring for the property of others! When our group has come into problems traveling is with spare detector batteries in carry on and specifically upon return flights. Foreign security has gotten bent out of shape when they discover these odd batteries several times and to the point where some in my group almost missed their flights! Yet on my last Caribbean trip, I had no choice but to place all my batteries in my carry on. I did my research and wanted to follow battery rules and did not want to discover my batteries were confiscated from checked baggage upon my Island arrival. Besides the FFA chart Steve posted, there are airline rules too. Which brings more confusion because each airline has their own battery rules! A few months back I flew Air Canada and was told "No batteries whatsoever were allowed in checked bags" on the first leg of my first flight out of Seattle ... but the size of my carry on bag was restricted and had to be checked at the gate, which meant I had to remove all batteries from my carry on and hand carry them onto the flight! What a pain and when I went through Security in Seattle, they wanted to know why I was bringing so many batteries in my carry on? I explained Air Canada rules/showed an email I received from the airline and was delayed as TSA actually tested all my detector batteries on some sort of device. Not sure what it tested for but I was concerned for my batteries. Seriously, I placed everything with batteries in my carry on, including flashlights, scales, loupe, diamond tester... all because Air Canada told me over the phone and email no batteries in checked luggage. I used electrical tape to seal battery ends and packaged all batteries individually in bubble wrap bags. I also secured a sign on my checked luggage: NO BATTERIES IN THIS BAG, in hopes TSA would not fish around much seeing my detectors. At some point the FAA/TSA and airlines will get together on this battery stuff. All we need are a few more batteries bursting in The Mile High Club and there will be more restrictions. Regarding the Equinox with built in battery... for now TSA and airline staff will most likely not even have a clue a battery is in the machine. But if at some point all batteries are restricted in checked bags, which I believe will happen, one will have to pack the Equinox as carry on. Fortunately that looks possible with the Equinox design. In my mind traveling with an Equinox should be easier all the way around. Just remember to check with your airline for their battery rules. This is long because I became frustrated spending hours on the phone with TSA and airline, trying to learn how to do the right and safe thing and thus relating here. Funny... On this last trip a few in my group just packed their batteries wherever with no problems whatsoever! But at some point being clueless could result in confiscated batteries?

Had an outing to Reef Hills State Park near Benalla in northeast Victoria today. My first time there and also met up with prospectingaustralia forum member XIV for the first time. He was interested in learning a bit about the GPZ. He swung the Z and I swung the GM. Lots of lead and rubbish and only 1 bit of yellow - scored by the GM Not great GM ground as it is very mineralized with 4 buzzilion hot rocks. But lowered the sensitivity to 4, all metal mode and it was purring along OK. Not massive but yellow!!

This topic split from a previous thread. Hi Brian, nice to see you back. I follow a lot of your posts elsewhere - great stuff! The reality is I have been and am part of the Equinox development team in my own small way. I therefore have access to information and knowledge that few do. Yes, I do have an Equinox 800. I have to tread carefully but my goal is to bury you guys with Equinox info to the best of my ability. I have a pretty good idea of what I can and can’t say yet, and I am sure Minelab will pull me quickly within bounds if I stray. That is one reason why I only post on this forum now - the original content must remain under my control. Please do not copy and paste elsewhere! Other testers to watch... There is Brandon Neice, who appeared in the Detectival announcement videos, and who is based in Idaho. Brandon goes by Dr. Tones on YouTube There are Derek & Sharon McLennan plus Neil Jones of the DUG THAT OFFICIAL MINELAB EQUINOX 800-600 GROUP who are based in the U.K. At Minelabowners.com, the gentleman posting as ironhearted_gog is Gordon Heritage, one of the members of the U.K. Equinox Test Team.

In the United Kingdom instead of outlawing metal detecting for antiquities laws are designed to encourage and make use of proper metal detecting practices. More than 900,000 historically important items have been reported since the new law was instituted in 1997, including 8,500 designated as treasure. The law has "revolutionized archaeology" in the UK. News article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25748576 Basic explanation of law http://www.dutp.org.uk/laws-on-detecting More details http://finds.org.uk/treasure/

Prospecting & Mining Reference Materials Check out the University of North Texas Digital Library website https://digital.library.unt.edu Use the search engine at the very top of the UNT page to search the library. The library has loads of various documents regarding “gold” including mining/milling, mineral deposits, tertiary channels, geology throughout the Western United States and Alaska. For those of you interested in the California Southern Mother Lode check out the minerals industries surveys of the California Mother Lode including Calaveras County (part 1) and Tuolumne and Mariposa Counties (part 2) by Julihn & Horton 1938/1940: Mineral Industries Survey of the United States: California, Calaveras County, Mother Lode District (South). Mines of the Southern Mother Lode Region. Part 1 -- Calaveras County Mineral Industries Survey of the United States, California: Tuolumne and Mariposa Counties, Mother Lode District (South). Mines of the Southern Mother Lode Region, Part 2 -- Tuolumne and Mariposa Counties Hardpack

Most of us Prospectors are avid outdoorsman! You can find us with the same smile on our faces be it fishing or hunting. This Deer Season my old Buddy NuggetSlayer (Jeff), headed up to the hills to hunt some Deer. Well early into the hunt on opening day, he took carful aim at a 2x2 Blacktail Buck. One well placed shot, Jeff let the Deer run over the top of the ridge to bleed out as he hike to find the blood trail to track it down. It ran a little further than he expected, but the woods opened up and was easy hiking following the Deers trail. Called his hunting partner on the radio for some help, he had it field dressed ready for the hump back to the truck, when he arrived. With all the excitement of the hunt, he was dreading dodging all the pine trees and brush on the other side of the hill and down to the truck. Then it hit him, he was smack in the middle of and old Hydraulic Pit. He quickly changed from his hunting hat (even though it’s the same dirty one) to his prospecting hat! Deer hanging at camp and rested up he hiked back to the Hydro Pit and scouted it, he sent me pictures of both Deer and Hydro Pit. I told him it looks like a no-brainer, just a matter of getting it under the coil and dig it! We waited well after hunting season to finally get there with our GPZ’s. Chilly start with the trucks temperature gauge saying 25 degrees. But the little hike over the ridge made it feel a few degrees warmer, lol. As any Hydro Pit, plenty of trash...Relics to some, but the wrong color for today’s hunt. I finally, found a dink and called Jeff on the radio. Didn’t take him long to find one several yards from me. Jeff, made a big circle and came back to his spot and heard another possible target at the edge of his dig hole...yep another nugget! Well to make a long story short, he found a little spot that didn’t get washed away back in the day. We messed around making his hole bigger and 14 of them 15 nuggets came out of that pay material. Well this spot is to far for a day trip and it’s way to chilly, until after next Springs snow melt to finish this spot off and to explore the entire Hydraulic Pit. Now, Jeff can afford some Potato Salad with his Deer Steaks! Until the next hunt LuckyLundy

Steady as jw.... He is probably out digging gold instead of posting....

Thanks, appreciate the positive sentiments! I was using the Nokta Impact, running @ 20kHz, Di3 mode (my preferred relic hunting mode) with the factory 11" DD.

Good deal at Sam's Club: https://www.samsclub.com/sams/24in-protective-case-member-s-mark/prod21372505.ip?xid=plp:product:1:1 Apparently not carried in all brick-and-mortar Sam's Club stores but mine has them on sale for $40. Below is a picture showing it next to my ($150 from Amazon) smaller Pelican case. Note the long lower shaft from a White's TDI (26.75 inch length) which fits diagonally in this larger case. I had to improvise when travelling with my TDI and the Pelican. (Despite what my cat thinks, these are not qualified as a cat carriers!) The Pelican shown is allowed as carry-on although I haven't used it as such. The main value to me is that most cases can be damaged by rough (human) baggage handlers of checked luggage. Both of these came filled with polyfoam blocks. The retractable handle on the Sam's Club case seems a lot cheesier than the one on the Pelican. The Pelican wheel housings are more recessed (so less likely to break off with rough treatment). Other than those they appear to be of similar quality. NOTE: I don't think it is as well made as a Pelican case in the fine details, but I think it would do the job of transporting metal detectors, for example, just as well. I've travelled with both the White's TDI/SPP and Gold Bug Pro simultaneously packed in the Pelican, with two coils each, extra batteries, Lesche hand spade, etc. (Exception being the long lower rod section of the TDI as mentioned above.) I'm thinking I may be able to get three detectors into this larger case. ("How many detectors do you need??" I'll answer that when I have enough!)

Jin, You are a young man. Don't be scared by trash. The man I know who finds more than all of the rest of us combined month after month after month has a Surfmaster PI. Sure he has a big pile of trash at the end of the year also but he is greatly rewarded. He goes to the deep 'holes' in the surf beaches and doesn't wait for the wave energy to bring it back to the shore. You will have fun. Once you find a patch treat it just like gold. As Steve has said the beaches are just like a big pan. Once it is shaken around for a few years/months/weeks the fines and the heavies sort themselves out. Look for the lead fishing weights! Look online for a video about the beach you are going to and see what they have found. Mitchel

Wes, I strongly agree that a smaller coil would be very useful for creek hunting, brushy, and rocky areas, but will i pay upwards of what could be a $1,000.00 coil, probably not. In these environments, for me, i will dust off the 5000 and use my $240.00 Nugget Finder Sadie coil. Brian.

Nice Find Northeast Some finds just have no business being found where you find them, Take this one, dug out of a very early colonial cottage site on the Shoalhaven River in NSW. This cottage was burnt down in the late 1880's and this was found in the burnt rubble, and is it self burnt Yet this symbol should not appear until the 1900's how it got to be where it was found is a mystery.

Brian Congratulations on your first gold coin. That it is a rare one makes it that more exciting for you I am sure.

That`s a fantastic find mate. Well done

beautiful!!!

So its puzzled me why panning classifiers are solely made for gold prospecting.Surely the manufacturers must be going out of business to make these items solely for the prospecting industry.Well this is not the case.I did some in depth investigation and spoke to a friend of mine in the plastics industry in China and showed him a pic of a classifier.What he came back to me with was quite interesting. Classifiers are actually made for the pyrotechnic/firework industry hence there manufacture origin in China.Kaboom and off it goes.They are used for milling black powder and other pyro ingredients.So if you want a set of classifiers and don't want to pay $24 a piece, then check out a pyro supplies store on the internet and you will be pretty surprised when the exact same classifiers /screens we purchase for prospecting cost around $12 a piece or cheaper.

Got a website address? Not that I need yet another screen but I kinda do to fit into a 2 gallon white bucket. I can't handle 5 gallon buckets anymore, too darn heavy when full. http://www.pyrodirect.com/Item/027-2004, and this place is here in USA in Pennsylvania. Yes, they are 12 bucks each, thanks for the money saving info. -Tom

I assure you that there are multitudes of placers on very rough hills, mountains and cliff type structures...Desert areas in Az, Nevada and California are relatively flat in spots. Much of Oz that I have been in is very easy walking... But, I have climbed many a rocky mountain, turned to look back and said...what the H am I doing way up here...gold is where you find it-sometimes easy, sometimes not so much! fred

Mate congratulations. What a fantastic find

Wow....awesome awesome find.....I only dug one of those 1898...Digging gold coins gives me a rush!

Stunning find of a lifetime, wow!

Incredible find no doubt! Congratulations!

Congrats on getting a good one.

Wow that's incredible! Congrats to you! ?

Hi Rivers rat , Great name , when I spent most of my recreation time fishing my mates called me river rat . Have read some of your post's , must be physically a tough sport fossicking in the Thames mud . Cheers goldrat

That’s why it’s very important to accurately mark all finds in my opinion. There is one area in WA where after mapping for 2 years we worked out basically all nugget patches where between 600 and 650m elevation. Most other areas are more line of strike over here, and not altitude. But it did work very well in that one area. I have heard lots of theories over the years, there was one dude who always went to the south west side of ridges, his theory was that was the way the glaciers retreated. Each to their own, it’s whatever works I reckon.

Very nice indeed.

I door knock occasionally when I go on a silver dry streak and I can muster the courage to do it.. It goes against my personality in every way. I don’t like people bugging me and I don’t want to bug people... It is surprising how many people give permission and do so happily though... old home yards are easy pickings for the most part although quite a few have been hit. You can usually tell within the first 5 or 10 minuets.. I look for the limiddle to lower class neighborhoods.. Most of the higher end neighborhoods with fancy looking homes usually have been re- landscaped or hit before. Yards are fun because you find lots more interesting things like old toys, tokens and other odd ball relics compared to parks that have been pretty much cleaned out.. Got my first silver dime trifecta working a very small front yard of an early 1900s home for less then an hour a couple years ago... Bryan

Much has to do with location.. And by that I mean older established communities that remain quite the way they were 60 years ago as opposed to geographical locations.. Towns like that are just, well, friendlier -- even in the deep south.. However, regardless of location, the #1 and most important thing that gets you on to other people's lawns / property is initial impression.. You have anywhere from zero to maybeee 10 seconds after 'they' open their door to present yourself as: friendly, non-threatening, not selling anything, not wanting money either as a donation or for a service to be performed, 'fitting-in' both appearance-wise and language-wise, etc. and so forth.. Ezy-pzy, right..? Uh, no.. Welll, if it isn't an easy matter being able to affect an easy manner, what's the best way to begin the process of getting the pendulem of access success swinging in your favor..? Research.. There is simply no easy way around not knowing.. Not knowing what..? Not knowing why you're knocking on that person's door.. Knowledge of why you're knocking on this door, beyond the general catch-all of requesting permission to metal detect a person's property, is the best way to meet the initial impression requirements.. And guess what..? It's contageous.. In a good way.. If you're excited about wanting to detect a particular location because of what might await based on historical references, this excitement transfers to him-from-whom-you-seek-permission.. Disarming, isn't it..? Knowledge trumps BS every time.. So, if you want to come off as disarmingly charming every time, all you need to do is know what you're talking about.. This alone will get you through and beyond those all-important first ten seconds.. How things go from there is up to you.. Usually a fair percentage offer and a promise of leaving the property in at least the same if not better shape than initially found will result in access.. GL & HH.. Swamp

It just proves control of the detecting population is far more important than getting historical items out of the ground before they are destroyed water, rust and other elements.

Wouldn't we love to see some common sense on public land when it comes to antiquities laws. I'm guessing that 90% of the folks detecting would be happy to document finds if they were were not punished for making those finds. As it stands now historic sites slowly get pilfered with no useful record and so our history gets pilfered also. Yes- I'm probably guilty with the rest of us. I do however work with the local museum.