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A short window of luck has given me another gold coin . Eleven days ago while on an organized field day with many prospectors i came across an old miners camp site . Being a relic focused detectorist i worked the site hard . The other coins from the site point to occupation between 1870 - 1890 so finding a 1798 gold Spade Guinea created quite a stir ! Minting of this coin stopped in 1799 . In 1798 my state was not populated by the English and was only just being found to be a separate land mass from mainland Australia . I still get a smile on my face when i think of finding this coin ! 25mm diameter , 8.4 grams . Solid 18 on the Nox in ground [5 inches] and out .

I have tested the Nox with the 6” coil, Vanquish 10 x 6” coil against the Deus/ORX 9” coil and Multi Kruzer 11x7 DD, 7” concentric, and 9x5 DD and the Simplex with the 11” coil vs the Nox with 11” coil. Nox has the best target ID accuracy at full depth of detection, 11” for 11” coil and 8” on the 6” coil on wild US coin targets in my area and the Vanquish is right there with the Nox. The Deus comes in second. The Multi Kruzer was a distant third for target ID accuracy on ALL targets, shallow to deep in my area. The Nox vs Simplex was a toss up for overall depth. The Nox had far better target ID accuracy even though the Simplex was as good as the Deus and 9” coil as far as target ID accuracy. I don’t care about raw depth. I care about knowing what I am going to dig, whether it is likely to be a low-mid-high conductor.

Thanks Geof-junk , the Guinea must have been carried as a memento or insurance policy as it has not been circulated . Minted at 8.4 grams and still weighs that . Note though the 4 little centre pop marks on the neck line and one on top of the head that have been done with something like a sharp awl . This coin has been personalized , probably in case of theft . By luck and many hard yards i have now found 4 gold coins in 9 years of detecting , 3 of those in the last 12 months with the wonderful , if leaky , Nox ! Reckon i have used all my luck now .

Fake, click bait

Hey Guys Tom is going to close the deal on buying White’s on October 16 . If ever I’d like to be right this is it . Chuck

I Remember driving to Atlanta for the dealer seminar when they introduced the Fisher 1266x and the CZ 6 . Like most of the dealers that attended we could not wait to get our hands on these two new units ........to say the least they were way ahead of their time ......depth and versatility unlike any unit on the planet made by the oldest Proudest Name in The Metal Detecting World ....... little did I know that that these units like my 1265X would become My new girls Betty and Nadine .....Betty the 1266X and Nadine the CZ6.......Booth were Mean and Dirty....but when they whisper that sweet Roundness in your Ear you knew you were in love and there would be no turning back. Yes the girls humbled many a proud hunter finding rare coins and jewelry at depths that others could not see at all .....nada nothing .....right behind them under their footprints....the girls had a way of teaching My friends a new art of Deep retrieval. To this Day I do not know how many detectors I have . And I really always have room for one or two more as long as they have the Right Stuff......some where lost along the Trail to the shores of Eldorado...Nadine ran off a couple times ....Well now she is Back with a New Name of fondness I will pour a smidge of Rum oN her coil and Christen her Aunt Bee.......let me tell you of Bee she is a Los Banos CZ6A from a little Lady From Tupelo Mississippi that only took her out to play once a year after the church supper on the grounds ......So she has Religion......Bee of coarse ......Need to go thru storage containers for more coils.... Happy Trails jimpugh

Turned out it was a broken teapot . If i find a lot of pieces of a pottery item i sometimes take them home and glue them together . I found i hadn't picked up enough of this one to bother . Maybe the old miner smashed it in temper when he realized he had lost his Guinea ! There is a ring there and it is stamped 18k , but must have only been plated as it's all brass now . May have been tossed when the owner found out he had been duped .

You are mixing up accuracy and stability here. The nox will appear more "stable" because it has less resolution/precision therefore less variation at the edge of ID detection because it can only bounce between a smaller range of IDs. Accuracy is simply whether or not the displayed number is correct for the given target vs. up or down averaged. I personally prefer stability and repeatability to resolution/precision (i.e. the ability to discern between different targets with similar target IDs.) as long as the ID is accurate.

Your welcome, hope you have a few good adventures with them and share the stories with us. Threads on the old detectors is fun, kinda like an old 47 Ford sedan not much for it but everyone smiles when they see em!

Yes I’m so green that this 1977 nickel is special to me since it’s my first non-trash find! Nuggets here I come! Only a matter of time. and no, I’m not willing to sell the Batman keychain I dug. I’ve got to post it in the paper so I don’t get popped for theft.

Hi there, My latest video is online. It's about one of the most experienced and successful gold prospectors of Switzerland. He talks about how he discovered a new gold region in the 90ties and of course about the awesome Nuggets, he found there. Some of them with extraordinary beautiful crystalline structures. I hope you enjoy it...

Congrats on the CZ6A score. I've got two 6A's; one keeps a FZ-12 coil on it for wide open beach work and the other has the 8 inch. All these years later they are still great performers.

Did you notice that the pinpointer change from orange to black on the last nugget, as if you would need one on the size of those fakes.

No Skookum, No reason to keep!😁 Just send it my way! What's the going price!?👍👍

Keep in mind the Nox has only 50 id segments counting the -9 iron range and most other machines have double that so if there is a 4 number jump on a target on most other machines the Nox would have half that so it may appear to be more accurate. I don't dispute that the cross referencing of frequencies can help in many conditions. Some machines have the ability to push the limits and often make the machines inaccurate when gains are set beyond the optimal balance of the machine and it's coil like the Kruzer for instance. The Gold Racer can hit a US clad dime at 10" in mild soil with a spot on ID and it's narrow 5" wide dd with barely a hint of something there. The AT Pro with latest firmware similarly has a descent ID to it's detection depth (older firmware you could hear a fringe target yet have no or low id). One of the reasons I tried to get a larger coil for my Kruzer was so I could get better depth without putting the pedal to the metal and push the machine where ID's are not accurate or the machine becomes noisy in lousy ground.

Hurricane Marie generated some good swells and moved sand at several southern California beaches. I got gold at 2 of the 4 beaches I hunted but not as many targets as I would have expected from the size of some of the cuts. I see that a couple of other forum members also did well from Marie which was an unexpected but welcome surprise. After finding a few dollars in clad and a small, 1.8 gram 14K gold ring at the first beach I hunted, I tried a couple other beaches that didn't yield much before driving to beach #4. This beach had a nice deep cut but, again, not nearly as many targets as a cut that size could have produced. Perhaps someone had beaten me to the punch earlier but I didn't see any signs of digging. Late in the hunt I scooped out a target and was shocked to see half of a bracelet in the mound of wet sand. It had the famous Cartier circles on the perimeter of the bracelet but I have found so many fakes with those same circles before. The bracelet also had a funny color to it so I tried not to get too excited about it even though it felt pretty weighty and was stamped "AU 750". When I got home I realized that the bracelet was rose gold and it acid tested at 18K. On the internet I found out that Cartier jewelry is one of the most copied in the world but the bracelet seemed to pass all the checkpoints that determine its authenticity including its weight which was half of the typical 30 to 37 grams for a complete bracelet. At first I thought that it would be nice to find the other half and have the bracelet repaired. I still would love to find the other piece but it probably won't need to be fixed. The 2 halves are actually screwed together with permanently mounted screws. That's probably why the person that lost it didn't remove it since it is a bit of a hassle to do so. Of course, the downside is that you better make sure that those screws are fastened properly and checked periodically. Sorry for the lengthy post but pretty excited about this one. My hunting friend doesn't think it's likely that I'll find the other half but the way this year is going I wouldn't be totally shocked (well, maybe a little). GL&HH!

I raced on dirt tracks in Northern California in the early 80s before "Desert Storm" my on track name was "Stormin Norman" A very fun and exciting time in my life! Norm

What better place than to dump a SDC?! 😉

Anyone who spends much time comparing targets with a Equinox and a Vanquish knows that a Vanquish will hit most targets an Equinox will hit. The performance is closer than people may want to imagine for most normal metal detecting, making Vanquish a genuine value. Vanquish came out with a different set of coils than the Equinox, to the chagrin of many Equinox owners, since they are not compatible. What is interesting is that the Vanquish coils are quite a bit less expensive, even in cases where they are physically larger than the Equinox coils. Part of this may be the windings and tolerances possibly being different. Vanquish coils seem thinner and lighter, and being able to keep the price down on them is critical to keeping the price of the detector down also. However, it is a mistake to think retail price has anything more than a loose connection to manufacturing cost. The rule is charge what the market will bear. And true story for anyone that wants to bother with the research - accessory items for expensive detectors often cost a lot more than the same accessories for lower price detectors. This is because most people who spend a lot on a detector are willing to spend more on accessories. Just ask any car dealer who sells both inexpensive and expensive cars. So while I do not know the exact details, the fact is Vanquish coils sell for les because they have to. Nobody is going to buy an accessory coil if it sells for as much as the detector itself. This adds to the value proposition however. Not only does a Vanquish get very close to Equinox performance for a lot lower price, but the accessory coils can be had for quite a bit less. I kind of get now why Minelab did not make a set of these coils for Equinox. Would Equinox owners be willing to pay about $100 more for the same coils across the board (even though they would be different coils)? People will say, no, just sell me the coils for the Equinox at the same price. But Minelab can't do that - it undermines the Equinox detector and accessory price structure. If that seems unfair, let me remind people the 11" round coil for the CTX 3030 sells for $349, a good $120 more than the 11" coil for Equinox! Minelab may have decided to simply avoid that can of worms by keeping the lines completely separate and distinct as far as the coils go.

Last week my battery conked out. The Nox ran on the charger..... but not the battery. I called Keith Leppert my dealer out of Fort Bedford Metal Detectors, where by the way ML repair is, and asked him what i needed to do. He gave me a phone number and they gave me an RMA to send the machine in. When i took the machine apart ... i noticed stress cracks in the plastic mounts that holds the bolts in on the pod. She added that to my battery issue. They received it on Friday and i got a message from John who said they would get right on it, but because of the Virus there could be a delay but to please be patient and they would let me know. 3 more Emails on Monday from different people lol. Thanking me for choosing ML, my machine was repaired and heres the tracking number. Never said what they did....... so i contacted Kieth late in the evening. Next morning he said they replaced the pod. Thats a high five to ML in my book. They have just been awesome to me on this machine. Keith as a dealer ...... great to deal with, id highly recommend him any day. He will spend the time talking to you about hunting as well as a machine if you have the time ...... he takes the time. Plus..... the ML repair shop is right there. I happened to check those bolt mounts because two friends had they pods break completely off the shaft. Keith said the after market shafts maybe the issue. Apparently the OD on some maybe to small. So people are over tightening them. Also if its to small it wears the CF enough they get re-tightened. Keiths word of caution .... take care in tightening those bolts.

I did a set of Tony's for one of the AQ owners.. put a M-8 5 pin connector on the set...., very clean audio....(over the stockers) but they still don't have the range and DB's to pull the super faints. If I remember correct the Db rating on a target 4 inch's from the coil using Tony's was 91db....... same as the stock head phones (90db). Skullies... which I make.... Db rating on the same targets was 105/106db. I think the Gold Master would be around the same. The Gold Masters have more of bass tone, the Skullies very high pitch which I favor more. Only problem with a louder audio.. the AQ can drive you insane...if you don't have a audio cut n I off. Last picture of the unconventional design of the Skullies, more of a horn to direct the audio into the ear..less restriction on the piezo allows it to flex more then any other made...I use a skin to cover the piezo, no silicon... 3M Tegaderm, used to cover wounds on your body. Tough stuff. And I no longer sell them.

The zed and sdc have great software but coils, housing, chargers are not designed perfectly. The minelab design team should do better. Having said that, there are many husband/wife teams with zed and sdc doing really well in the aussie deserts. We have a sdc between 2 of us. Its fired up solely to speed up recovery time when a dense patch of micro nuggets is found. And these patches are relatively common in west oz. If you detect alot with gold flowing regularly the cost of the detectors is just not an issue and its just pays in efficiency and as backup to have all the tools handy, a zed, gpx machine and a sdc in the truck. Also a big fencing crowbar and a set of 5 kg scales

Can't help wondering what a set of Tony E's would do this machine has such an interesting faint range. cjc

Tom if you do I’ll beg borrow are steal to buy the first detector from you. Chuck PS I’ll be like the guy I seen with a big sign saying Why lie I need a beer.

I have a strong faith to believe it...👍

Walt, people generally hunt the odd land sections at the majuba placers, as the mineral rights are held by a big mining company- Newmont I believe. The even land sections are mostly claimed- old claims. I once paid the guy at the pizza joint to hunt his land there. But Im not sure what the latest status is.

They were very well made. What part of the state are you in? I am looking for some gear if that lady is in the Tucson area she could make some money from me.

CZ epic beach machine still have mine and run it all the time. Phones jack went this year--broke my heart its in TX now. This was my first real high performance machine--the world opened up and gold and silver poured out! cjc

Fantastic finds wish you more luck on your next hunt!

Thanks o.g., I believe the other half is there too! I've been back twice already and even though I didn't find it yet I did find a couple of nice rings that I will post about some time later.

Last night I went to a beach that yielded a lot of targets. On my 6 hour hunt from 8 PM to 2 AM I got 51 quarters, 40 dimes and nickels, 54 pennies (one wheat), 2 silver rings and one 10k gold ring. There should have been more rings! The trash was another 50 pieces or so. When you figure it is 4-5 scoops per target (1000 total) then it adds up to a stiff back in the morning. I found the gold ring 2/3rds of the way through the session about the time the fog started rolling in which made for an enjoyable sight as it covered up the normal lights but there was still a mostly full moon above. I was using the 15 inch coil and when I started I was down a couple of notches from full power. I thought there would not be much on the beach but I was wrong and kept pushing along finding some high cuts. Near the end of the session the detector was nearly out of power and I could hear a lessening in my headphones. Something I've wanted to say about the 3.0 update is that it really makes the quarters crackle. I don't think I remember them like that before and I wish they would be a little more 'solid' but perhaps it is because of the sandwich metals.

Nice assortment of finds! That gold ring sure is special with all the hallmarks inside. I like It!

Incredible find, congrats!

The reason why I don't care about the way signals sound is because I dig a ton of crappy signals from targets that are often at the very edge of detection. I usually run my detectors very hot to get as much depth as possible which on many machines makes the target ID unreliable. Just the other day relic hunting, I dug an 1835 Capped Bust Half Dime that sounded like junk. All I knew was that it was very likely non-ferrous.

Badger, Much depends on what you are looking for! Sometimes the trash and ferrous targets will tell you much about what you are look for, and in which direction to continue! There are many examples, but a few that come to mind are relic hunting, and fleet treasure hunting! If you can picture a ship breaking up on a reef, or a battalion of soldiers fighting or retreating in a battle, and the potential trail of objects that is left behind! Then you begin to understand how the "junk" targets fit into the picture!👍👍

Personally, I always use a cover on the beach. Why? 1. Beach Sand acts like sand paper on anything it touches. The cover provides protection against those scratches. Just look at your cover after a few hunts and you’ll see what the sand does. 2. Covers don’t degrade performance. 3. Yes, it requires you to remove it to clean the coil but the protection benefits far outweigh the small hassle of a little cleaning time. For me, why wouldn’t I use a cover? Just the view from my sandy foxhole...

This Battery musical chairs .....was a big thorn in my side ..... This Pack is all black and well balanced it looks like the rest of the machine was built to compliment the battery pack ....I chose the M12 connector from my old 3030 headphones gray ghost when they made good stuff my daughter bought me a set for my simplex last Christmas never worked I called left a message never called back new In box .....still dead ....guess they went out of business...anyway .... you can shift this a little up or down to balance it out a little more on coil control.. Good Job Big Joe...... please remember ole Jim hunts year round And on a good day 16 hours and Thirty Lashes....for insubordination Host the Jolly Roger ye sully sods... In the queen’s English ....Gonna need pack number Two ?.... Happy Trails me Bucko’s

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of side buttons. If my thumb can't reach it, it's in the wrong place.

Not trying to put the boot in Reg as I see there been a few responses to your post but some of the things you’ve said are just plain wrong and need correcting. The GPZ housing is based on the CTX 3030 which is a unique original design, no military carry over there and as has been said, the SDC although using the same housing as the F3 Compact, has unique electronics that were built from the ground up for a specific purpose. I know all this because I was on the ground floor during its development. I agree about the battery contacts of the SDC which was somewhat corrected in the later times with the supply of NiMh C cells with bigger contact points and just lately the inclusion of a slip in Lithium battery (due to world demand and shortages ML cannot supply at present so have reverted back to the NiMh for the time being). The SDC was developed to compete with the Garret ATX which has very good sensitivity to small nuggets, the SDC has proven to be an all time favourite for people who detect occasionally and do not want to get all bedazzled with complex menu and switch systems, its a perfect newbie detector that has amazing sensitivity even in the worst of environs. Reg I did some of the first prototype testing with the SDC in Victoria out the back of Tarnagulla on Italian lead, there is some pretty nasty highly variable high X ground in the upper part of the lead especially in and amongst the surfacing areas, I was gob smacked at the amount of missed targets I found all over those diggings with many many small nuggets just sitting for the taking. It was on those diggings that I helped ML perfect the MPF timings for the SDC, I’ll never forget the work because it was early in the season and the March flies were prolific, huge big blood sucking monsters in their millions. Lastly the complaint about the slow response of the GPZ 7000, I find this comment amazing because anyone worth their salt (pun intended) both in the coin and relic world and also the serious prospecting world knows a fast response equals less depth! On the ML coin machines its called recovery, on the GPX machines its called Motion and on the GPZ its called Ground Smoothing. All are filters that allow the faster movement of the coil relative to a target which is handy if two targets are side by side on a coin machine, on something like the Equinox it is also handy to help handle conductive/Salt ground because of the higher frequencies of the Multi IQ tech. Salt signal is directly proportional to coil swing speed, so the worse it is the slower you should swing the coil, applying a Ground Smoothing filter like “patch or Salty” on the GPZ helps cut back on the salt signal but kills depth. Test beds have their place but entirely too much time is spent fretting about a non-gold target buried in a bank of a creek somewhere. So much can depend on the operator and the settings used and more especially their understanding of the best way to actually swing the coil of the detector being tested, so many people do not fully gasp the importance of the correct ‘Range of Motion” relative to a deep target on the GPZ, its not so much about speed as getting the actual coil movement distance correct to get the target signal to fully manifest and become recognisable from background noise. Hope this helps someone out there JP

Ah, more controls implies sophistication does it? And simplicity of operation must reflect on the mental capabilities of the operator? Just simple folks really, not nearly so smart as you, are they Reg? You first post in this thread said anyone who bought an SDC 2300 is a sucker. I deleted it, so you came back with this instead. It’s a poor forum member that constantly insults anyone that uses anything that does not meet with their approval. You want respect, but show none for others. Critique detectors all you want Reg, but either change your tone when it comes to other forum members, or leave.

My first set of AQ phones were like Joe’s, two 35mm drivers per cup. I had an issue with one cup. One of the two drivers in the same cup would cut on and off intermittently. The on and off lower volume was annoying to say the least. You could still hear the threshold, but it was much like when flying and your ears stop up and then pop only in one ear. Fisher was very fast with their response over nighting a new pair and providing a shipping label to return the original. My next pair came with one 35mm and one 28mm driver in each cup. Picture below. I have since acquired a second AQ and those head sets have the same. I have a set for sale should anyone want them. I also have a new never used stock battery for sale.

Soon a new V3i will be a thing of the past. This guy has three for cheap, save $400 http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/treasure-related-stuff-sale/641822-nib-white-s-spectra-v3i-d2-coil-warranty.html

Ethics. That which guides some folks - even in the absence of legal sanctions.

Funny stuff, I hadn't seen a hint of an sdc for sale on any forums for awhile, and was hoping for a quick sale. Then the day I posted my add, three more suddenly show up for sale! Darn this is a conspiracy! haha But I do have a few buyers in line, so all is well.

JCR, Welcome once more and I find that this is the best forum on the internet. The people here is always nice and has answers for almost anything, except how to make perfect chocolate chip cookies. Other than that you have everything you could ever want from a forum.

Thanks Joe D & Steve. Other than as an 8yr old kid trying to use my Dad's D Tex BFO about 1970, I have been active since 1992 on & off. My area has history in the ground going back to the Spanish passing thru late 17th century. Locally I hunt some properties that had mid 1830's activity but it is very scarce. I mostly dig Relics, a few old coins and some bottles now & then off old house sites and forgotten activity areas. I stay in the woods a good bit. I am not very computer savy so I may not try any photos for a while. As for rain; Send it, my garden needs it! ( I still have the old D Tex! )

Funny you mention that Rob. I always liked the Walking Pick, especially in Alaska where I worked on a lot of very steep slopes. I have one Hodan pick that is already on it's second handle, and I decided to convert it from a shortie to a walking pick. All you need is an Ames 2036200 handle.....

This is a very unique looking ring. Obviously it is hand made. Tightly wrapped silver wire with 14K gold wire securing the 4 amethyst stones. Not for everyone but it was for someone. LOL It rang up 23-25 on the Equinox. I am not sure what the core material is but it appears to be dark in color and has a piece on both sides. Anyway, just wanted to share this one. Pretty cool. Also dug a couple of 10K pendants and a really nice .925 ring with CZs all around it and a large center stone. Thanks for looking!

I have 3 of them........cars that is! 😄

Is this the biggest gold find in the United States, so far in 2020? I’ve been patiently waiting for the time to share this magnificent recent discovery. It's funny because I actually had a conversation with some newer prospectors this last winter and they wondered if there was still any mammoth gold finds to be made. Once again I share some Success Pics of my customer and his 3 pound golden rock. Ron from Idaho purchased an SDC-2300 from me, but what was more important, he took the 3 days Field Training class my staff and I offer. Guess I don’t need to tell you, but I think he has it figured out. This Arizona gold discovery recently is said to be the largest piece of Au found in the United States this year with a metal detector. I can only confirm what I have heard and seen posted on other sites and so far I think it is. Here are the details. The golden rock weighs in at 3 pounds and after numerous Specific Gravity Test’s it shows over a pound of gold. It was even sent to a specialist and professionally tested again with authentication paperwork and came back at 16.973 ozt of gold. The rock was approx. 16” deep and he was about to dismiss it as huge trash, but since he’d already found a few smaller bits in the area, he decided to keep digging. Those who know the SDC-2300 realize Big Gold is not it’s specialty and most owners of the 2300 don’t dig beyond 10 to 12” at most. I wonder how most folks would react if they just dug up something like this? I’d immediately go back to the truck, change my shorts, grab a GPZ-7000 with Super Deep heavy boat anchor 19” coil and head right back there. And since I already have a bad back, I'd have to get Lunk to do the digging. So glad you did not give up Ron and I hope you do find a buyer for that beauty. Thanks for allowing me to share.