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I found this lead pendant today at the edge of a civil war camp that I have been hunting for years. It had me stumped for a while because the letters and image are reversed. I used my phone to reverse the image to make it legible and I noticed it said "Warranted Superior" I know Warranted Superior has been making hand saws since the 1840's or even earlier. I wonder if some soldier got bored at camp melted some lead and poured it into The medallion of a saw they had laying around and then decided to make a pendant out of it?

This is a 17th to 18th century tobacco pipe tamper (above a fancy colonial flat button) with a hand grasping a scroll symbology meaning the pipe bearer was likely highly educated.

Found this item at old coal mining camp in southern Colorado. Just think if it could tell all the stories it heard while miners were playing pool.

Nice Glenn.... yeah I love those old makers plates, real stories attached to them. Here is one I unearthed in an old farm site. Coach builder’s plate.

I’m curious to see what unusual relics all you seasoned hunters have recovered over time. This is my favourite oddity..... a late 1800’s brass spike from a Pickelhaube (pith helmet). South Australian police uniform issue.

Heavy cast brass breastplate, era unknown, 3 human figures with some sort of animal cavorting below a bearded head with outstretched hands.

Ha! I made the above response thinking Klunker was the dog, NOT another person. No offense intended!

I'll clean brass to get obvious loose dirt off, if it can bring out more design detail, help with identification and the risk/consequence of damage is low. Otherwise, I've found that leaving something like that as is helps preserve the patina and character of the find, especially if it is uncommon and if I don't want to risk damage. I also tend to not "repair" damaged finds, preferring to leave them as I found them. Here are two examples: a split Eagle Breast Plate and a fractured pure silver shoe/sash buckle. I was just happy in both cases to retrieve all pieces of these relics from the field. BTW I consider some relics unusual not because of what they are but because of where they were found. Here's a Two Cent piece I found in the fill sand on a public beach that certainly did not exist in the mid-1800's (probably was dropped wherever the fill originated from). Was totally unexpected. Here's a First Republic of Mexico 1830 Half Reale I found in an Eastern PA cornfield: Here's a CW Era Navy Button found in a random VA cornfield far from any Navigable body of water (perhaps dropped by a previous landowner who served or a sailor who was participating in the CW engagements in the area). Similar Story with this North Carolina Regimental Coat Button found in Virginia's Northern Neck far from any CW engagement activity. Sometimes I wish these relics could talk so they could tell us how they came to end up in the places where they were found.

White's is long gone as is Tesoro so their models don't matter anymore going forward. All we have left is First Texas (Fisher, Bounty Hunter, Teknetics) and Garrett. In the tech world you either innovate with a constant stream of "new" products, or you get left behind. First Texas seems out of the running at this point. Garrett is doing well with the Axiom, and the Apex fits for what it was intended for, but it is quite obvious their almost their entire VLF lineup needs to be refreshed, and like last year. They simply are not part of any discussion. I will point out that the online world is a bit at odds with reality. Go to any large detector club meeting or hunt here in the U.S. and you will see plenty of Garrett product. But that will change if they don't get with the program soon. GTI 2500 as flagship after over 20 years - embarrassing.

Hey Guys, Well the good old days, if you want to call it, are long gone. They days that dealers could bundle great deals, which I loved to do, are pretty much done. I'm not saying Manufactures don't back the dealers anymore, or am I? I have been a dealer of many manufactures going back over 20 years and the culture has changed. We now live in a technology age, where it's just a simple click of a "buy now" button and your product is on your doorstep potentially the same day. Many customers, we are a small group here on the forum, just visit Amazon and it's there! I probably talk to a dozen of these type of customers throughout the year and none of them knew about their local dealer, any deals, current promo's or any training/support beyond the initial sale. They just heard from a friend, about a certain detector, jumped on Amazon and ordered. Now you ask why, have you ever been at a UPS store or even the post office and seen the amount of Amazon returns. Heck, purchase anything, use it, you don't like return for a full refund. If I did that on all items that a customer decided they wanted to use over the weekend and return, I would have a wall of returned, opened and used items I could never sell for normal price. The days of walking into storefronts to talk with your favorite dealer are far and few in-between anymore in the lower 48. I remember when I first purchased one of my first detectors, it was a place called "Arizona Al's." You would walk in, a small shop, but there was always other guys in there talking about gold and equipment beyond the people running the counter. Al ever put in a small table, but later realized he couldn't get long winded prospectors out of the shop ..... LOL At some point, business is business and you have to run the non-buyers, long winded prospectors out, the coffee machine is now broken - if you know what I mean 😉 I'm sure if you talked with Dealers like myself, Steve H., Chris G., Gerry M., and many others, you would hear the same theme. It's the days of getting great deals, free promotional items (hats, shirts, ect), yearly conferences and great support are long gone. When you start seeing companies like, for example - Bed, Bath and Beyond - selling metal detectors, you know at that point it's not about support to a dealer anymore, it's all about the dollar and who cares who sells it, as long as the manufacture is getting their money. To be honest, the small dealers are slowing being pinched out and what you will see is more direct sales from the manufactures and only a few big box retailers like Amazon. Those great prices, training and such will only be offered from a few dealers that will continue to not give up, giving their very small profits up in training, customer deals, discounts and everything that will benefit the customer beyond their own lifestyle. This is the absolute truth, many of us dealers are running on a very small profit line trying to keep the ship floating. God Bless the small dealers! Rob

Some time ago I had to make a decision about buying a new coil for my 7000, buying a 6000 or buying an Axiom. I decided to buy a 15" CC X-Coil and it arrived about a month ago. The family is off on a trip so yesterday was my first try with the new coil. The coil was sent by post with a tracking number all the way from Kazakhstan. Here is the coil as I unpackaged it. The coil I've had on for the last few years has been the 15x10 Spirial X-Coil so seemingly there is not that much difference but in actual use I think there is a great difference. I've found lots of nuggets with the Spiral, but I just had this feeling that it could be better based on what Simon has said. Simon was right. My testing ground is a place where I and many others have been for years. When we first started there we were able to find quite a bit of trash and WWII 50 cal and shells. Those are long gone and so are most of the little wires which gave us such good 'potential' among the nuggets and hot rocks. My testing method was to go out with the coil I had on first and then come back and put on the new 15" CC. I marked targets I found but did not dig them. I had three areas/targets marked by the time I made it back to the SUV. I switched the coils by unscrewing the adapter with the chip from the 7000 and screwing in the new coil and replacing that back on the 7000. I didn't change the settings and I tested the new 15" CC on my test gold chips laying on the ground. The sensitivity was at 12. Ground smoothing low, high yield, normal and I use the SP01. The first thing I noticed when going over the test chips was that you had to have the coil directly over the nugget or you couldn't hear it. And furthermore, as Simon had told me the receive coil is smaller than the outer coil so it acted as a smaller coil. I didn't mind because it is a light coil. It seems ligher than the Spiral but I'd have to check it. So off I went to find the 3 marked targets, but I had pretty much of a dead battery in my phone. I put the phone on a charger and took off in search of my 'marks!' Finding the marks proved to be a bit harder than I first imagined. All the pretty flowers and dried bushes looked the same. My first mark was about 15 minutes from the start. I spied it and before I could get there, I got a loud target. It was a little sharp and it could be bullet jackets or the wires. It wasn't very deep so it moved with the light scrapes, but I couldn't see it in the scoop. It got down to a little bit of black sand and then I saw it. A little, flakey nugget! This coil can hunt I said to myself. I had to go back and get my phone so I could take some pictures. I'll have to add I carried it around later and it didn't cause an EMI problem for the coil. When I came back these are the pictures I took. I was impressed by a coil that big finding a nugget that small. The 7000 allows you to mark 'find points' which I have always liked. It asks you the depth which I said was 2" and the weight which I said was .1g. I was on the board and no matter what happened the rest of the day I had a nugget. This was good for me because the last 3 trips I've made to this location I got skunked. I then went to the target I had marked about 10 feet and it was a piece of trash. I went on to check the other marks I had made and could see all of those targets except one. I had dug one target and left it in the hole with the Spiral. It was a wire and the 15"CC did not see it. Another thing the 15 did not see was the hot rocks. That was a good thing. I was learning how to use it as I got into a couple of hours. At first I was worried that I was going to miss things under the bushes because the outer coil would be 'dead' and I couldn't get the center of the coil under the bush. Larger bullet trash and a couple of cans showed me that I could hear targets before the coil got to it. I was digging under bushes. It was time to leave this spot and go to another pounded spot where I wanted to test the new coil for depth. I knew this was deeper and perhaps the main reason why I bought it for $1200. I covered a lot of areas with no joy but I was learning to use the coil. There was one area that held deeper nuggets and that is not something I am good at. I can hear shallow nuggets that scream but deep iffys get the best of me. With that in mind I was looking for a repeatable iffy at this location and I found one. I dug a couple of inches as the first nugget and it was still iffy. I dug more and it brightened a little but not enough to make me think it was a nugget. Now I'm down about 6-7" in some moist desert soil with a lot of iron hanging off the magnet on the pick. I run the coil over the dig out pile and it screams! It is right on top. I scooped it and said YES. I don't remember digging a deeper small nugget than this. The phone was a long way from me so I don't have a picture but once again, this coil can hunt. I'm ready for Rye Patch now. Franconia here I come. Watch out Quartzsite. Here are my results. Notice just to the right of the .06 nugget on the scale a little wire piece. The 15" found that also. The desert revived me and reinvigorated me. For the next few weeks I'll go as much as possible. This was my trash.

Some time ago I have started adventure with Atrex and I have to say it is an exelent detector for places detected to dead. Atrex bring new live and new discovery. On such a field I manage to make discovery of a year a little gold weding band with latin inscription inside. It is dated 16 cent. Few day later on same place about 50 meters away next tiny gold weding band.... also an old one.

That's how we got the term "hard ass". All sorts of cool relics, tokens, etc, but I was hoping the following find was an authentic alien artifact 😉 It turned out to be a newspaper ad printing plate for a vintage radio 🙄 Similar to this:

I have been on the forum for a year now more or less and thought that I would share a few finds from a couple of sites.One is a recently discovery where I dug the little bank and toy pistol and the other earlier items came from a site that I have been poking around for awhile now. The Bank Will Hold Five Dollars Of Dimes And Unfortunately It Was Empty. The Pistol Has Patent Date But I Cannot Quite Make It Out? Site Two Eagle I With A Push. # 28 Phoenix Never Get Tired Of Those! Roseette And What Maybe Is Tack Related Item? Wreath. Cryer Mission Era? The Experts Out There Will Know. I Call These Perforators. A Fairly Common Trade Item Are The Iron Bits For The So Called Spanish Pump Drill Used By The Native Peoples For Drilling Shell Beads Etcetera. The Pocket Watch Or Compact Lid Was Pounded Flat A Then Perforated To Be Worn As A Gorget IMO. And A Couple Of Iron Relics And Some Of The Usual Stuff That Always Turns UP.

That must be why it is bent.

Another Manticore nickel from yesterday, 1884 V. Gave a solid two way 25 amongst the iron in ATG one region all tones. - Dave

June 2 2002 Part Three I sat in a good hiding spot up near where the pump was placed. There was a clear view of the little trail we used heading southeast down the mountain towards the dig site. It was around 11:00 PM when I heard some voices kind of muttering. They sounded like they were coming from higher up the mountain. Sure enough, three men slowly came into view. They were carrying flashlights and looking around the area. One of them was laughing and I heard him say something like wait until they come up here tomorrow and see what happened to their pump and water line. That was all I needed to hear. I was hidden behind a big pine tree just 30 feet or so from the pump they were looking at. I jumped out of my hiding place and confronted them. They jumped back with surprise and it was obvious that they weren’t expecting to encounter a night watchman out here in the remote area of the mountain. I hollered out and demanded to know what they were up to. Without one word the cowards turned tail and ran up the mountain. I had a walkie talkie with me and immediately radioed camp to let them know what had just happened. Vern said he was going to hide just outside of camp and watch it just in case they came down that way. Then I found myself a new spot to sit and wait to see if they were stupid enough to come back. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

Hey all, Went detecting this past Saturday at a school that has seen many detectors and managed to pull a few silver coins. Strangely, all three of the coins last digits are a four. A 1934 Washington Quarter, 1944 Mercury Dime, and a 1954 Rosie. The Rosie was down about six inches and completely on edge. It still provided a great sound. How any one missed a Silver quarter is beyond me. I was cherry picking due to time constraints. Happy hunting, John

Short outing 3hr-ish evening hunt. Need to spread out in hopes of finding another yard size area I can walk in circles for years worth of trips. I got out in the woods,it's thick already. It'll be unswingable very soon (some odd fern looking stuff cover the floor,many other undergrowth too) so I got in it. Saw briars be damned,they got me a few times! Found a 50's or 60's bottle dump,messed around to long in it! Salvaged 3 milk jars(glass),2 coke bottles but killed a 1hr. 🙃 damn trash pile and I'm prowling in it! I do think I meandered on what potentially was some soldier housing. Found cuff button,cap,2 bullets (1 burnside) and deteriorated sheet metal(period). Loaded with iron and the rotten metal with these few finds in a tight spot. Not far from access road of that period(just thick woods now road is opposite side of land now! I'll take it and honestly I am excited about it! Who knows when or how much time I'll have to chase it. 1 certainty, good lord leaves me here I will chase it sooner or later any chance I get! My kids are almost big enough to chase with me and they already practice a bit in the yard in va! I hope to bring them to the al field o dreams one day! Yall be safe, best of luck too!

Complete early-mid 1800's Pod Auger in very good condition. Found at a inland riverport townsite.

I have used alot of detectors, and over the last 20 years i have found more rings and money with the MXT than any other detector i have used. I have two MXTs now and if i find a good deal on a used one i will buy it. The last ones i am trying now is the Anfibio, Vanquish 450, I had a F75 and sold it before i used it. Now i am looking to get another one. As long as i detector i will always have a MXT. I do alot of treading and selling, that is fun for me.

Great commentary Rob. Yes, the day of the small dealer is coming to an end. However, a big reason is that people like you and Gerry are not the norm. Most small dealers are just order takers selling at discount. No actual store. No real inventory, just drop shipping. Maybe just a guy selling stuff on the internet, his “store” nothing more than a corner of the garage. His main strategy selling quietly at under MAP price to gain sales from those that honor MAP price. There are the coin shops that stock a few detectors, and really know nothing about them. There are lots of dealers like this, that sell a dozen or two detectors at most a year. They service nothing, any problems, they say “call the manufacturer.” They take up valuable time and resources the manufacturers can ill afford for minimal returns. Imagine trying to supply and deal with 50 small dealers, or just making one deal with a Cabelas type operation. And if a dealer is just a drop shipper, why are they needed at all. Companies can go factory direct, as some are already doing with Amazon. It’s really just Business 101. Small dealers are only needed as long as having them provides a real benefit to the manufacturer. They are not in business for the benefit of dealers, but for themselves. The real nail in the coffin however is the simple reality that most of us have no small dealer nearby. We are not going to drive to the next state or two to find a dealer. No matter who it is, we are getting online and shopping. So if it’s just get on my iPad or computer and order a detector to be mailed to me, how much does it matter who I order from? People are going to shop for the best deal, and it matters little where it’s at or who it’s from. That’s just the way it is now, and it’s a really good thing you and Gerry are about ready to retire, because there is no future in being a small metal detector dealer.

Glad we are getting good lighter options and I appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. Hopefully the next new version of GPZ-7000 will have lighter coils. Well they might as well make the complete detector lighter as well.

My name is Borja and I am delighted to belong to this forum. I own a ctx3030. I usually look for relics and I also go out to the beach a lot

Carbon fiber is just about indestructible and zero flex. Steve now has a replacement. http://www.stevesdetectorrods.com/list.php?Brand=1 BEFORE Steve had the replacement made, he helped me put together a shaft with my own custom mount that I built!

He would have pinned their ears back & parted their hair...... with lead.

It's not 66 g (2 1/3 oz = 1/7 of a lb) at the center of mass (i.e. near the handle) but rather the torque (think 'leverage') generated a meter away. DSMITH explicitly said "toe heavy" and you even quoted that.

In the IB/VLF space you need to make a competitive multifrequency detector to get much notice. (The Garrett Apex didn't seem to make the 'competitive' grade.) There's still hope for Garrett anyway, but as time ticks by others like Quest (their MF entries still vaporware as far as consumers are concerned, though, so TBD) are beating them to the punch. At least Garrett arrived in time with their Axiom dry-land PI, giving Minelab enough concern to drastically drop the price here in the USA on their GPX6000.

You didn't learn much from Jed and Sarge lol.

The only two dealers I’ve had dealings with over the years has been Rob and Gerry . You buy a gold detector from Rob he will give you extra items you should need in the field detecting. He will also give you one day training in the field on how to use your detector. You buy from Gerry he may not give you extra items to go with your detector but in turn he gives you 3 days in the field training with your detector. Both dealers are happy to give you the 15% off if you are a vet and will ask if you are one. Now if I go to the big stores they could care less if I ever learn anything about that detector I bought from them because they don’t know even less about it than you do. I’m not even sure if you are a vet if they will give you the 15 % off and it will be a cold day in hell if they ask. I was told by a Minelab dealer that if he didn’t sale a certain number of detectors Minelab would cut him off as a dealer. He’s not one now because of that. In my opinion any company that sales to the big stores could care less about you the little guy the small dealer but it was you that made them big. When you want something for less less is what you get. Chuck

Yes that mxt was my favorite whites machine. And being a machine no longer made......it can hang with some of the big dogs. I had some good times with the one I had. A very good relic and coin unit. Never tried it on the gold as I do not live anywhere near gold foelds.

A good hunt on heavy iron infested field.

...or the seemingly newer trend of not wearing gold or diamonds, but wearing no jewelry, or alternatives / replicas that look just as good, at a fraction of the cost. Then the fact that circulating silver coins haven't been in production for about the last 60 years, get more and more out of detection range, and most people now carry little to no pocket change. When all of that is taken into context, as well as Xp, Nokta, and Minelab completely saturating and dominating the coin / relic / jewelry market, then perhaps Garrett realizes that unless they come out with a game changing detector for that market, then forget about it. By "game changing", I mean something like the ability to distinguish between gold and aluminum (which won't happen with IB technology), or some sort of true imaging detector.

Agree. It may really be too late for the US manufacturers to get back in the game. There are also niche players in the US with interesting and different approaches to detector design such as Tarsacci. But they are small and niche so difficult to gain any significant market share or make a splash except for a few dedicated fans.

I have always wanted to try one of these. They seem to be very good from what i have watched on YouTube

Brands out of Europe often get forgotten such as Rutus, they've made detectors far beyond any US manufacturer and they rarely get talked about, that indeed shows how far the US manufacturers are behind the ball when brands in other parts of the world although far superior aren't even mentioned. If Garrett came out with the Rutus Atrex people would be super impressed. This towers over anything a US manufacturer has released in the VLF space lately. It really does demonstrate how far behind US manufacturers are though when a detector this good is not even on many peoples radar in the US.

I bet a 10x5" coil would be great in the water (as long as it's waterproof, of course)! 😏

Carbon fiber is the way to go for zero flex. I have a Steve's Rod on order, but in the mean time I got a nokta simplex CF lower shaft and sanded it down a bit to fit the D2 coil and it works great.

This is my drawing except someone has added pin 6 as pos. 4 & 5 are pos. and neg. for bone phones square tone only. 1 & 2 are pos.and neg. for speaker phones square and PWM tones. I do not know what pin 6 does.

Klunker is the best detectorist that I know. (Because he is the only detectorist that I know) Anyways, over the years I have become a much more proficient at detecting. Partly because of his misguided teaching. I'm very competitive and always want to beat him for the day on nuggets found. Recently I've been getting close to him and occasionally tie or beat him for the day. Doesn't happen often. But I think Klunker is feeling threatened by my rise in awesome detecting skills. So he has moved on to more serious tactics to keep my nugget count down. He has now trained his dog to come lay down in my dig hole. I now have to carry a bag of sliced salami to get him out. 🤣 Things are getting serious now. I'm strategizing my next counter moves.

All I can think of is that a day detecting with both klunker and Sourdough Scott must be like going detecting with the Marx Brothers.

Translated: "Several colleagues and I have them since they were recommended in the forum and no problem, both in the 600 and in the 800 and I also use them for the GPX 5000" 🙂

I hope nobody has had a nerve struck. I don't own an X-Terra Pro. I do own a Nox 800 and a Nox 900 which appear to operate very similarly using them in 5, 10 and 15 kHz single frequency. Like bigtim1973 said, the X-Terra Pro "doesn't break the bank and it will find targets". Wondering about target ID stability on a $269 selectable single frequency detector is one thing. Wondering about it on an $1099 or $1599 detector from the same manufacturer with similar target ID scale and a lot more advanced technology is another. If I lived in an area with very low mineralization or was mostly a lake/beach hunter and needed a backup/loaner detector, I would definitely be looking seriously at getting a fun detector like the X-Terra Pro. A selectable single frequency waterproof detector with a working saltwater beach mode, wireless, great coil selection and very lightweight for less than even $600 would be a good deal. Less than $300, amazing. Anyone just starting out detecting with very mild soil/beach conditions has to at least consider the X-Terra Pro. It might still be a little early in the game for good find reports. Nothing wrong with talking about tendencies, characteristics and impressions of this new detector.

The Garrett Pro Pointer AT (aka the “Carrot”) is a fine water-resistant, general purpose PP and a popular choice.

Did you ever put the 12X15 Equinox coil in the water??? Yup, quite a treat. The stock rod for the Deus2 is inadequate for any water hunting in my opinion. I replaced my stock rod with a custom CF rod. I was not wild of water hunting with a 9" coil. My past opinion was a coil that size was too small on a salt beach. After the last three months of working the Deus 9" , I have no plans of changing to a larger coil to hunt in the water. If I had a choice, it would be for a 10" coil for in the water.

66 grams is 2.3 ounces. Add in the lighter weight upper shaft and arm cuff included with the LG 30 eventually, that will be around 5 ounces lighter. Right now my stock Legend with LG 28 coil weighs 52.6 ounces or around 3 lbs 4 ounces. These mods will get the Legend under 3 lbs and very close to the weight of the original Equinox 800 and Manticore.

I'll admit being wrong now, additional scratching at the edge with a pen knife revealed the copper at last. I didn't want to damage the coin in the way you suggested, so I did it my way by picking at it. Consider me humbled.

I'm with you Dave. We hunt in vastly different environments so we are going to have different perspectives on D2 machine behavior. So I don't dispute yor observations on fringe targets in saturated salt sand with black sand mineralization. I have similar concerns in heavy soil mineralization but overall ID depth suffers to the point that nuances in mode IDs are a moot point - I usually go with a PI at that point. In mild soil, and full tones, in my experience, a high conductor tone can ring through even if visual TID is getting depressed from co-located iron. I really just wanted to point out regarding your comment that the video showed poor D2 tonal performance because the on-camera operator was struggling because of dependence on iffy visual TID to attempt to discern the nature (conductivity) of two different non-ferrous targets at depth - which is purely a drawback to using PITCH which has no tone ID capability other than ferrous vs. non-ferrous. Again, not disputing whether D2 reliably indicates ferrous vs. non-ferrous tones at fringe depths in deep wet salt sand. You have vastly more experiencece than me in that situation.

Thanks Captain! A Few More Of Those Pesky Iron Targets That Annoy Some Detectorist.

Never ever believe anything S.S. tells you. He is a gold miner and we all know the truth and gold mining don't mix. The truth of his story is he knows that if he skunks me I will feed his dog sardines for lunch and he will have to smell fishy dog farts all the way home --- which smell even worse than me. Mr. Dorado Please refer to a post from late June of last year titled "A True Story".