Last Hunt Before Retirement?

[GB_Amateur]

No, not my retirement -- that happened three years ago.  I'm talking about the Minelab Equinox 800, and it's not going on mothballs since it will at least be my IB/VLF backup and probably take the lead when I need a small(er) coil -- Western ghost towning and nugget hunting.

My 2022 year was good, relative to previous years, in terms of normalized finds (finds per hour of detecting) but I didn't get out park, school, and permission detecting nearly as much as previously -- only 106.5 hours compared to over 200 hours in each of the previous five (288 hours and 311 hours being my best years for sheer hours in the local 'fields').  I don't count my Western ghost town and nugget hunting in these totals.  I've done a bit better this year and expect the rate to pick up considerably....

Since early January I've been preparing for the Manticore arrival by checking out some of my previously detected sites and in some cases varying coils and settings to start "thinking outside the box".  My last two hunts are good examples of that.  For both I dropped the recovery speed to 3 (based upon some things abenson posted regarding his Manticore).  Yesterday I switched from my stock 11" coil (what I use 90% of the time) to the Coiltek Nox 5"x10" and chose a particularly aluminum trashy site to work on my separation skills.  Other search settings are Park 1, 5 tones, Iron Bias F2=0, all VDI channels open ("all metal" in Minelab parlance).  I use two other modes for target investigation.  For possible USA 5 cent 'nickel' coins that aren't too weak signalwise I use Field 2, full tones, recovery speed = 6.  For iffy possible deep coins (which might be falsing iron) I investigate with Gold 1, recovery speed = 5.

A mental change I decided to make for both of these hunts was to investigate VDI 19 partial tones -- i.e. if the target hits 19 at all, even if that's not the centroid, I'm digging.  As you'll see that made a huge difference.  Typically I require 20 or above for most coins and 12-13 for specifically nickels.

During the first hunt I thought I was detecting an area I had previously hunted, but afterwards was unsure of that.  In the first 5 minutes I dug a clad quarter and a 95% copper Memorial cent, neither a recent drop so I should have found these earlier IF I had gotten my coil over them.  Moving forward in the direction I should have hunted before I got an odd signal with VDI varrying between 16 and 19, mostly in those lower VDI channels.  I checked with Field 2 out of curiosity and saw consistent 16-17 (in only one direction; the Park 1 signals were from multiple directions).  The strength indicator in Park 1 was 3 bars -- that's typically about 5 inches deep for a small coin in my local sites.

My expectation was a badly deteriorated Zinc Memorial (aka 'Stinkin Zincoln') since although those start out fresh at 21, as the galvanic action takes its course it will drop without limit, given enough years in the ground.  At the expected 4-5 inch depth I recovered what looked like a cent, but it was a full disk and I could see some green coloring.  Could it be?  A few squirts from the water bottle revealed not what I had expected but what I had hoped -- an Indian Head Cent.  But why such a low VDI?  I set it on the plug before replacing that and ran the coil over it, getting a consistent 20.   Hmmm.  After replacing the plug I swung over that and got a soft but noticeable iron tone.  Likely a small nail was quite close to the IHC and pulled down the VDI in the process.  If the coin was on edge, or nearly so, that also might have contributed to the low VDI.

Now for a report on yesterday's session.  As mentioned I decided to give the Coiltek Nox 5"x10" a workout in a picnic area with lots of aluminum trash.  As you'll see I didn't restrict all of my hunting to the trashiest spots, but I figured the 5x10 would be better at separation, and it did seem to be quite good at that.  Even with my restriction to 12-13 VDI's for nickel hunting I still dug a lot of pulltabs, especially the (broken off) beavertails.  Some larger pulltabs were dug in the corroded Zincoln zone.

When I was making my way between picnic tables I got a strong 12-13 in Park 1 and verified a solid 12 in Field 2.  Park 1 showed 2 bars so I was thinking a fairly modern, shallow nickel.  Well, I was partly right -- it was a shallow nickel -- about 3" depth.  But in trying to ID it with careful water bathing I couldn't get any indication of Thomas Jefferson, his monument, nor even an Indian nor Buffalo.  It was well worn and finally I saw Lady Liberty's head.  Now that's a good find and a good sign.

Not more than 1 meter away I heard a mostly 19 VDI with only about 2 bar strength, indicating likely a ~2-3 inch deep Zincoln.  Note I was again in an area I thought I had deteted previously.  I didn't notice any extremely nearby trash targets, either, but out came the nicest IHC I've ever found!  And this one kept its VDI of 19 even out of the ground.  I recalled finding an IHC about 10-15 meters from here in late 2020, also about 3 inches deep, with the Tesoro Vaquero and its 5"x9" DD coil (stock on the Super Trac).  I now realize this is a hot spot I need to return to.

It's become typical here for people to show their trash, and although I'm not promising to do that in the future, here is yesterday's collection:

Everything on the right is aluminum; the Stinkin Zincolns are in the middle and to the left of that are the other metals.  (OK, one recent drop clad dime and three 95% copper Memorial cents aren't really trash.)

Next are the good finds from these two hunts, all but the lower left hand Indian is from yesterday:

Centered is the Liberty Head ('V-') nickel with date 1908.  Lower left is a 1900 IHC in not very good shape.  Lower right is my best ever IHC, conditionwise -- an 1899.  Upper left is a toasty 1917 with mintmark, but I can't tell if it's -D or -S.  And upper right is a seriously acid degraded 1931 plain (so Philadelphia mint) Lincoln.  Coincidentally I mentioned in a thread of CPT_Ghostlight's (when he showed a 1932-D Lincoln in nice condition) that those three early great depression years of 1931-33 show low mintages or no mintages in all denomination USA coins.  This 1931 plain is the highest mintage of any USA coin in that three year time period -- 19.4 million.  Starting in 1934 and forward to today, only two Lincoln Cents date+mm minted for circulation have lower mintages than this 1931 -- 1938-S (15.2 million) and 1939-D (also 15.2 million).  The 1938-D is close at 20.0 million.  Even in nice condition this 1931 would not be worth more than about $1.  None of the other four coins in the photo are low mintage dates (relative to their peers).

So what led to me finding these coins in previously detected sites.  1) You've got to get the coil over 'em.  In most cases above I doubt I did.  2) Sometimes my mental discrimination of VDI's is too strict.  I may have been over either or both of these IHC's but blew them off from the combination of low VDI and strong signal (implying shallow depth).  I hate digging Zincolns and they are usually shallow and can easily fall into the high teen VDI's.  Glad I didn't avoid digging these two faux Zincolns.

Oh, bonus image 👍 :

 

[Compass]

Great finds! Liberty nickels and IH pennies only 3" deep sounds like my kind of hunting. When I hunt the dirt the older stuff is usually much much deeper.

[Zincoln]

Thats a very nice hunt.  Like how 3 bottom coins were tightly grouped in year.  I always get a special kick out of V nickels...not sure why!

[JCR]

A very good hunt & the trash count is not bad at, especially for a public park.

[strick]

Over here Indian’s typically read 18-19 with the Nox at old home sites. Your gonna love that M-Core...it’s a real coin killer.

Strick  

[Rick N. MI]

Great relic hunt and nice coins. 

[F350Platinum]

Cool hunt GB. 👍 I can see why you added some suspense. 🙂

I hope the M-core works out for you, after using that 10x5 I'm surprised you didn't opt for the 900. 🤔 A friend of mine is using it with success, but it takes some getting used to, especially the expanded range.

Sad but puzzling story, a few days ago I went hunting and dug two toasted IHPs, this one really gets me, the other shows no real details at all:

Here's the reverse:

And a microscope shot:

1909 Indian head? 🤔

It would have to be an "S", right?

🤪

[Zincoln]

14 Million no-S Philadelphia IHP's minted in 1909.  Odds aren't in your favor, but the uncertainty is the killer!

[GB_Amateur]

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

I hope the M-core works out for you, after using that 10x5 I'm surprised you didn't opt for the 900. 🤔 A friend of mine is using it with success, but it takes some getting used to, especially the expanded range.

The 2-d screen is what sets the Manticore apart from the Equinox 900 for me. 

I'm not as high on the Coiltek Nox 5"x10" as a lot of you (particularly you).  In my limited use it's not as deep as the 11", and that matters here -- when I've cross-checked between the two that difference is noticeable at the depth I find coins in most of my sites.  It's excellent (i.e. better) at separation, IMO, which does matter at particularly trashy sites.  So out West in ghost towns it wins in that comparison.  However I also have the 6" round DD which for those conditions has its advantages, too.  Does the 6" win for the tiny gold?  I haven't heard otherwise....  Bottom line for me is that the 5"x10" is a tweener coil.  You could re-write that as "a Goldilocks coil", too, I guess.  As always -- choose the right tool for the job.

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

Sad but puzzling story, a few days ago I went hunting and dug two toasted IHPs, this one really gets me, the other shows no real details at all....

Soil chemistry (including unnatural additives as has recently been discussed on the forum) matters so much in the recovered condition of coins containing high copper content.  Looks like that one is in the 'bad' tail of the distribution.  Is this from a farm field where fertilizer is commonly used?  Yes, it's especially tough when there's enough info there (1909 date in this case) to tease you but not enough info (mintmark??) to answer the question.  The optimistic side (🤔) is this: do you really want to know that your roasty-toasty ruined coin would have been worth $1000 if only the soil chemicals had left it alone?

[F350Platinum]

56 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Is this from a farm field where fertilizer is commonly used? 

Yep. Big farm close to my house. Chase and I ran into the farmer yesterday, they're bringing lime for the fields this week. 😵 Not much more time to hunt, but it saves stuff for the future. One limed field we called "The Moon" was limed weeks ago, every step was a puff of dust.

56 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

I'm not as high on the Coiltek Nox 5"x10" as a lot of you (particularly you). 

I'm not as high on it either anymore since I've been using the Deus 2, and find I like the 13" elliptical over the 11"  and even the highly touted 9" 😀 of course were the fields more full of stalks I might not be so happy. I've gone over places I've run with the Deus and found nothing else with the Equinox.

56 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

The optimistic side (🤔) is this: do you really want to know that your roasty-toasty ruined coin would have been worth $1000 if only the soil chemicals had left it alone?

It would make the difference of me attempting to halt the bronze disease at the very least, and put it in an air-tite case, but that's about it. Even if it were valuable, I couldn't imagine selling it. 🙂