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Found this while detecting for coins & relics in old gold mining area that has a long gone mid 1800s-early 1900s townsite nearby. At first I thought it was part of a smoking pipe, but now thinking an old gas lamp fitting. Wider end threaded, other end not. Ornate fish design and with English lettering on end….can only make out “HOFF”. Whatever it is, pretty cool! Thoughts?

So…my second day with the Legend. Decided to go down to a seasonal creek on my property that the 1/4 mile driveway to my residence passes over. I have to set the scene…Now when I purchased this place in 2011, this creek area was in a condition that I would describe as the Wilds of Alabama. One couldn’t actually see the creek on either side due to the overgrowth of vegetation. Nasty place…briars, gotcha-vines, poisonous this and that to include Jake. The one good thing is this area has the best soil on my 35 acres. Over one springtime I cleared it all out, and using decent sized limestone rocks from the property constructed two opposing “levees” about 20’ apart, and a dam approximately 3’ high at the most eastern end. I planted a bunch of ground cover, and some crab apple trees, and put in a bench. The whole babbling brook area is about 100’ in length. So, keeping my find ANY junk settings, I start swinging away. My first find was a nice piece of wire. It looked like a bread wrapper without the plastic covering. Not one to become discouraged so quickly I start swinging away again and I get a hit showing 52 and a nice clear tone. I dig me a hole in some nice soft loamy soil, flip the lid over, and stuff my pinpointer into the abyss. A solid tone with continuous vibration. And there it is…CHA CHING! A beautiful 2017 Frederick Douglas quarter! I snap a pic and send it to Commander in Chief. How does she respond? ‘Wow! Great Job Honey!”, or “Awesome!”. Nope…her motivational response was simply “2017”. Now that’s a ball buster huh? 🤣😂🤣 In one spot I also found several coke cans, a spam can, some glass jars, a piece of nylon rope, and a leather boot. I kinda got concerned for a bit when I found the piece of rope and boot, but I didn’t smell anything rotten. The last item I pulled out of this trash dump was a car shock absorber… I was unable to ascertain make or model. Tomorrow is a new day! Be Safe!

I haven't used the 900 however the 800 is very close to the same for this purpose, The reason I prefer the Nox over the Gold Monster even though the GM has a slightly smaller coil is purely because of features and Multi-IQ, having the ability to change frequencies is very handy especially when it comes to EMI, I use Multi-IQ when I can, under power lines I switch to 40kHz, I find multi-IQ best for gold hunting which the GM lacks. The GM is quite slow at ground balancing, the Nox can be manually ground balanced, or tracked, not having to use tracking like on the GM I think can be an advantage. The Nox 900 has higher sensitivity settings too than the 800 so maybe slightly better if they can be used in some spots. The sensitivity levels on the Nox have a much more defined scale so you can get it just right to get the most out of it. Being able to change the recovery speed can be advantageous too, in my milder soils I can lower it a lot for low and slow detecting to pick out the little bits at depth the GM can miss. Another bonus which may appeal to you is the target ID's and the ability to notch out hot rocks, yes of course notching comes with the risk of missing some gold IF the gold comes up the same Target ID as the hot rock but in a high hot rock content area by notching out the hot rocks can be the difference between finding some gold and being put into a mental asylum. Most hot rocks come up in the iron range but a few come up at about 12 and 13, most small gold comes in well under that with tiny bits 1 and 2 and slowly going up in the numbers as they get bigger. It takes over a gram size bit to get up into the hot rock number and your GPX or GPZ should have found those bits anyway. I think of it a bit like the GPX 6000 and GPZ 7000 with the GM being the GPX and the Nox being the GPZ, one having features and settings, the other being automatic and lacking control. The GM meter is all over the place even in my milder soils, it only locks on with rather large targets, the Nox target ID's are vastly different, on small gold they'll be a 1 or 2 only bouncing into iron if the gold is extremely small or deep, I find the Target ID's much more accurate than the probability meter, especially when using Multi-IQ. As your soil seems quite nasty I'm not sure how well that will stand up but @Jeff McClendon would likely be the person to talk to on that. Multi-IQ does seem to handle bad soil better than single frequency machines and offer more stable ID's than single frequency. I can't see a single reason I'd use my GM over the Nox and other than as a pinpointer I've never used it again once I made the switch to the Nox. At the moment it's so unknown for the Manticore with no small coils, but for the price even if it is better in the end it won't be much better, certainly not the price difference better and I'd not be surprised if I just use my trusty 800 with 6" coil over my Manticore even when it has smaller coils, the Nox 800 is just that good for prospecting. I think Minelab will come out with a multi-IQ Gold Monster at some point and they may take it a bit higher on the frequencies to make it a bit better than the Nox, if they don't do that they may as well discontinue the GM as anyone with an Equinox is unlikely to want to use the GM anymore. If I was you I'd just pick up a second hand Nox 800 with 6" coil from someone "upgrading" to the 900 or Manticore, as a land gold hunter you're not going to care about the risk of leaking and the coil ears on the 6" are robust being a tiny coil so the main negatives of the older model don't really matter to you.

Well over a million ounces https://westernmininghistory.com/mine-detail/10310409/

Well surf was calm this morning and I finally got back out Nice change from getting knocked over and beat up in the surf of the Atlantic. Did end up to my neck getting a pair of sunglasses out 😆. Darn things rang up like a gold ring. Hotter than @#%$ down here so nice to be in the water up to waist maybe a lil deeper at times. Actually did not want to get out or leave, but my list of things to do today was a little long. Wife met me when I stepped out of the water. She did good with coins so it helped pay the gas for the day 😊. Only bad thing was I lost the 925 opal ring I dug in the surf to her waiting hands😆 😛. First target of day was the cheap gold plated sun earring that I barely could make out in the dark, but saw the color. Translation = junker, but it got the heart pumping. Beaches long and flat but I did have an area that had a trough running along the beach and a few deeper holes. Wife did score a brand new Samsung Galaxy S23 1ft down in wet sand and we were able to get it back to a visitor from St Augustine. Meet the young guy at a local park — yep he said he just bought it. He tried handing me money, but I refused to take. Told him take his wife to dinner instead. Used D2 dive program and it worked great (smooth). Beach Sense when out of the surf and on the beach/wet. Mainly looking for fresh drops that’s why the pulse is taking a break and I need to figure this XP out. Hopefully I get some time to read other posts tonight. Just been busy.

These two hunts aren't the first i have used the 900 but are the for July. On Friday 7th i went to the beach alone and searched between the tides and i the water. I started at around 5.45am and stayed till after 10am. My finds for that hunt were £5.47p , a Silver chain , a Silver ring and 2 junk rings. On Saturday 8th i went with a mate and started a lot further alone the beach we started at 9pm and after a while my mate gave up due to the finds rate being pretty poor. Thats due to cashless. As i had to carry on to get to the bus stop for home i started to search between the tide marks again and this time i came up trumps. I had a number 56 i think it was and around 4 inches down i found a 5.6g 9k Gold ring . I phoned my mate and i think he may have regretted leaving early. After that i carried on a few feet and about 12 feet from the last target i got a number 32 on the screen and again after digging down about 4 or 5 inches i found another Gold ring which is 2.6g of 9k. Other finds for the evening were £9.20p and a foreign coin and a junk chain. I find the 900 quite a good machine. Far better than the 800 . My next hunt will be next weekend , not sure which machine , maybe the Legend or maybe the E.Trac. My Terra Pro is in its box for now. Thats done alright so far after finding a 22k Gold ring last Month. Might be the E.Trac's turn if the weather stays dry.

Finally got around to loading the update (painlessly, thanks in part to Mark Dayton's -- aka 'Brass Medic' -- YouTube video). My sole goal was to compare in my soil how the update performance compared to the original software. First some background which should help in understanding the result: 1) My soil here at home in my test garden pretty well matches the conditions in nearby parks and schools I've been detecting for the past 5 years with the Equinox. The Fe3O4 mineralization meters on the Fisher F75 and Gold Bug Pro (not quite the same scale) both show 2-3 bars depending upon exact location. I interpret that as 'moderate' ferrous mineralization. Regarding my in-field results at my 100+ year old sites (at least five of them I've hunted hard), I've only found two coins at 9" depth (Jefferson nickel and Wheat cent) and none deeper. I've found a few 95% copper cents and silver dimes at 8" -- by "a few" I mean on the order of 10 or so. Silver quarters have been few and the low statistics dominate -- 7" about the deepest. Ages go back to Barbers (dimes and quarters) and 95% copper Indian Head cents. I bring all this up as evidence that my 2-3 bar dirt likely *does* cause loss of depth compared to pristine, dry white beach sand, although I can't say with 100% certainty that other factors (coins just aren't any deeper or detectorist skill level) aren't the contributing or even the primary cause. 2) My testing in this case had one goal -- to see if the update affected the depth in my test garden. I have three buried USA coins to check -- 5 inch deep 95% copper Memorial 1 cent, 6 inch deep 25% nickel, 75% copper Jefferson 5 cent, and 8.5 inch deep clad (outer layers same composition as above Jefferson nickel; inner layer pure copper) 25 cent coin. I used the Equinox 800 with 11" coil as the control. Neither it nor the Manticore has any trouble signalling strong and stable with those three targets with 'reasonable' settings (see more below). As such I do a hybrid (ground + air) enhancement to get to the detection edge. I stack wood blocks / shims of size 1/2", 1", and (multiple) 1.5" thickness to measure coil height above the ground in 1/2 inch increments and add them until I reach what I consider the largest distance which gives a diggable signal. 3) Back in mid-May I did some tests with the Equinox 800 and 11" coil (for baseline/control) and the Manticore with 11" coil, the latter in different searchmodes. So far I'm withholding reporting absolute results as I need more experience with different settings before I'm confident they are representative. However, today I repeated a subset of those tests with the Mcore's update installed. Here are my corresponding, relevant settings both in May and today: Equinox 800: Park 1, five custom tones (customized in volume, pitch, and breaks), sensitivity = 21, recovery speed = 4, Iron Bias F2=0, no notching (aka Minelab "all metal" so all VDI hits correspond to actual tones transmitted), ground balanced and noise canceled. Manticore: All-Terrain High Conductors, five customized fixed tones, sensitivity = 21, recovery speed = 4, iron mask upper 8, lower 3, no notching (aka "all metal"), ground balanced and noise canceled. Headphones were used in both cases (Sunray Pro Golds with WM08 for the Eqx and ML 105's for the Manticore). For the updated Manticore I turned off the new (iron) stability features (NOTE: there are two new settings options as seen in the new manual on page 51 -- 'Stabilizer' which is a number 0-12 where '0' indicates OFF, and 'stabilizer filter' which is a supplementary feature which only applies if the Stabilizer value is non-zero.) My screen showed Stabilizer value of 0 and the stabilizer filter OFF. Bottom line is that even with possible changed ground conditions (due to soil moisture changes between mid-May and early July), both detectors showed similar performance, (hybrid) depthwise, today as they did back in May for all three buried test targets. I didn't try doing measurements with the Stabilizer turned on. In the future I will do more tests where I actually vary a coin's depth (my setup can go down to 14" which is way deeper than either detector will be able to sense a USA 25 cent piece in my ground). I plan on varying the Manticore's sensitivity and search mode in particular as well as experimenting with the Stabilizer settings. But for now, based upon my limited testing so far, I feel the update hasn't degraded the Manticore's core (i.e. Stability OFF) depth performance. One last note about my update procedure: I did not do any factory resets, either before or after installing the new update. It's nice not to have to hand record and then redo all the many customization settings I've made. (It seems all those are preserved during the update, something that has been mentioned here in this thread as well as in Mark Dayton's videos.) I know some feel factory resets are safer in terms of getting the desired result of a smooth, properly operating detector but for now I'm going this easier route until I see/hear reliable reports that it's necessary in the case of the Manticore.

Daniel... there is a simple modification of the XLT... by inserting a capacitor where you can also use coils for DFX/MXT... A colleague has an XLT modified like this... and so he can use both types of coils.... if I manage to find the modification scheme... I will post it here... XLT modification.. The basis of the modification is to place one 0.1 microF capacitor between the green and white cable of the coil connector and activate it with a switch..... So by activating the switch .. you activate the circuit with the capacitor and you can use MXT/DFX coils... And vice versa. with the switch off, you use basic coils for XLT...

Seeing nobody has answered and you're chasing gold nuggets at the moment I would say the Equinox 900 purely as it has the 6" coil and Coiltek 10x5" coil available for it, ask me again "if" the smaller coil comes out for the Manticore and "if" Coiltek make coils for the Manticore and my opinion may change. Seeing the stock small coil for the Manticore is going to be bigger at 8x5.5" over the Nox 6" coil I would not hedge my bets on the Manticore being more sensitive than the Nox 900, although it's entirely possible it will be, they have recently improved small gold sensitivity on the Manticore and in my testing 11" coil on the Nox 800 vs the 11" coil on the Manticore they're very close now, prior to the update the Nox won. In saying that my testing wasn't done in a remote area where I could wind up the Manticore sensitivity, it has higher sensitivity settings than the Nox 900 and in remote gold locations running these higher sesntivity settings may well be possible, at least here I can run in maximum sensitivity on my Manticore with the 11" coil and it be perfectly stable. So in summary, too soon to know, if you're desperate to buy now the Nox 900 is the safe bet, if you're willing to wait and see I wouldn't be surprised if the Manticore wins. When it comes to coins/jewellery and so on they're all so close, including the Nox 800, yes the Manticore has advantages and also disadvantages (poor target ID compared to the Equinox 800, the 900 is similar to the Manticore with more unstable ID's) Realistically you could buy a Nox 800, 900 or Manticore and end up happy. I think the Manticore is very over-priced given it's benefits or lack thereof over the others.

I guess they'll name that little section of the highway Zincolnville!!

Usually I’m out playing with the Gold Monster up here near my cabin, but decided to do something different on a beautiful day. A particular decomposed granite bedrock area amongst some old timer handstackings had been productive with the Monster, so I decided to take some buckets of material down to the nearby creek to sluice. Probably 8 or 9 partial buckets with some pretty nice results! Enjoyed the scenery, the sounds, and the solitude…will have to try this more often!

June 21 2002 Part One Hot and dry weather again. Over 100 degrees and the ground is parched. Jacob says this will likely be the case until sometime in September. Jim is healing up nicely and able to pull guard duty while Vern and I shovel gravels into the tom. Jacob never seems to mind the heat much and keeps a bandana tied around his head along with a brimmed hat to block out the sun. He cleaned up the gold by early afternoon and showed us the jar containing 4.1 ounces. This seems to be extremely rich ground we have stumbled upon. It’s almost as if Jacob can somehow smell the gold in the gravels. Jacob came over to the tom after the weigh and helped us shovel until dusk. We processed 38 yards by dark. At supper we all had hash and beans and washed it down with cold beer. It never tasted better after such a long, hot, and dusty day. After the sun set the temperature was quickly down into the 60’s and we got relief. After several rounds of beer the crew retired for the night and I took the first watch. TO BE CONTINUED .................

6.59khz coils - Blue Max 4x6DD... Concetric - Bullseye 5.3 (5"), Royal 800 (8"), Stock 9.5, Blue Max, Maxima 1500 15" My 2 choices for CW relic hunting is the Stock 9.5 and the 15" Maxima, As for the small coils, the Bullseye 5.3 is the better performer hands down, but with the right tweaks the 9.5 can perform well on sites where a smaller coil is in need. Have fun with it, I sure do.

Out on an old local pasture in the UK, that's off the beaten track and has been heavily detected by myself and others. I had the Manticore on All Terrain General - Low Conductors, sens 27, stabliser 3, the ferrous limits opened up a bit top and bottom. I hit a scratchy but repeatable 35, not a belter of a signal but enough to make me dig, so glad I did, as at the bottom of a pinpointer deep hole this beautiful gold ring appeared! There are no date or makers marks on the ring so I'm unsure of it's age, it has a nice weight to it. I've had a look through UK National Antiquities database but can't find anything that matches it. The British Museum in London is currently looking at pictures of it to ascertain what age it is to see if it should be taken under the Treasure Act. One specialist has indicated he thinks it's medieval and a couple of people have suggested it may have had Niello inlayed into it. Still a bit of a mystery, but if anyone could help with an ID i'd be very grateful. Kind regards Stuart

No show stoppers here that's for sure but enough to keep me out there poking around and from getting jaded.The detecting is real tuff in my neck of the woods this summer do to the wet winter and over abundance of ground cover.Small coils and working the bare spots underneath trees and where the deer and other critters have been bedding down and feeding.A couple of buttons to show and a cheapo what I call a trade era ring and some what are probably Hudson Bay Venetian trade beads and a few other pieces of history. This Is The Third Infantry Button That I Have Pulled From This Site. No Back Mark. A Nice Quarter Sized Bow Wow Button Iron Tinned Back The Trade Ring So Called No Stone Or Glass Setting I have found a fair amount of these types of rings through the decades and some had glass and a others had garnets as their settings.Just so that I would not have to second guess myself I brought out my XP # 5 gold classifier that I keep on hand for these kind of sites a dug all around and screened the dirt where I dug it.No luck on the setting but I did get into a pretty good bunch of trade beads.I will be returning with my real 1/4 inch mesh sifter soon and move some serious dirt. Beads After A Soaking And Cleaned Up The Broken Ones Are Called White Hearts And They Seldom Come Out Of The Ground Intact Around Here. Some Early Glass Shards Circa 1850's Early 1860's The Piece In The Center Has Clearly Knapped On I Have Found A Number Of These Also Through The Years At Different Locations And They All Made From The Bases Of Early Black Glass Bottles And Are Crecent Shaped. Thats All For Now Thanks.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2023/07/06/armored-truck-flips-over-on-michigan-freeway-spilling-money-everywhere/70389533007/#:~:text=An armored truck dropped bags of money along,before losing control and overturning into a ditch.

There’s an old ww2 POW camp in the town I live in in Oklahoma. German prisoners were housed here on what is now the county fairgrounds. I’ve been going over this place for about three months now, found quite a few 1941-45 wheaties and an American coat button with the eagle. I found this last week and just got it cleaned up enough to see it. Can anyone tell me more about these things? Thanks for any information!

Personally I think the Nox hands down beats the Gold Monster for general purpose nugget detecting. The Monster may have an edge on the smallest bits, but frankly that's about it. The ferrous discrimination, as Simon notes, is far better on the Nox, as is the ability to notch out hot rocks, something you can't do with Monster. The focus tends to be on small gold, but the larger the nuggets get, the more the Nox shines over the Monster. If I was to hunt any sort of trash laden tailings looking for discarded larger gold, the Nox with 12x15 coil would be my go to detector without hesitation. I wish I had it back in my Alaska tailing pile heyday, perfect machine for the task. There is no large coil option for the Monster. Long story short I ditched my Monster not long after I started prototype testing the Equinox, and have never regretted it. https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/7468-my-tips-on-nugget-detecting-with-the-minelab-equinox/

I apologize guys. I’ve been experimenting with a new add on for the forum which is supposed to block new members from posting links. To stop the spammers. But it’s glitched and although the vendor has been responsive, still glitched it seems. I’m going to try one more thing before giving up and disabling it. Bummer though. New member links are spam 98% of the time and this would stop it dead.

Yes, the 10x5" if it was cheaper than the 8.5x5" would be worth looking into, if it's more expensive it's only 1.5" bigger so very close to the same size to me when it comes to ground coverage as with the 10x5" I have to overlap my swings by about 2/3rds of the coil size anyway looking for small gold as different parts of the coil have different strengths, the tip and toe are hot on small gold but shallow on deeper bits, the middle is deeper but very weak on very small gold. I can see that people that look for different targets especially larger targets would potentially see a slightly different sized coil beneficial but to me the smallest size is the better size so the stock is the one I'd want, if Coiltek wanted to veer off making a coil almost the same as the stock and went with the 5" or 6" round size I'd be so very happy and instantly buying it regardless of if I had just bought the 8.5x5". If they went even better and made a 6.5x3.5" I'd be smiling from ear to ear 🙂 They have a pattern of making the same 3 coils, CTX, Nox and now I hope for the Manticore they change the sizing. I thought they took a little step backwards with the 10x5" Nox over the 10x5" CTX, I preferred the CTX's solid design better, so hopefully they offer the Manticore coil with a solid design, even if they do both to keep everyone happy. It even has much better ears than the Nox version.

Not pointless if it's less expensive than the ML offering (which price previews indicate may be the case) and the slightly extra coverage is useful for me. It's the ideal coil form factor for my needs and the weight is on par with other coil manufacturers' of similar size. I understand how the slight hit in sensitivity would make the M8 more attractive for gold hunters. The weight issue on the Coiltek mid-size Nox coil was an intentional attempt by Coiltek to create a negative buoyancy coil for water hunters, so it made for a terrible land coil because of its ridiculously high weight to footprint area ratio not because Coiltek can't make weight efficient coils. The 15" Nox coil provided little depth performance benefit vs. the lighter ML elliptical offering. An elliptical mid-size M-core coil as an alternative every day coil to the:11" stock would also be an attractive offering provided price and weight were reasonable. I like the LG30 coil that Nokta is now providing as a stock coil alternative package for the physically upgraded Legend. At the end of the day, h0owever, if ML does come out with the M8 coil at a reasonable price point and there is no imminent movement by Coiltek to provide M-core coils, I'm definitely in.

Mixed Mode is the setting your looking for, it's a hybrid All Metal/Disc mode and can give you the high tones you want while still achieving max depth of all metal mode. Standard MM is dual tone, accepted vdi's are high tone and rejected are low tone, or you could reverse that tone scenario. Runs much like a GPX, I call my XLT the GPX Jr 😀. You can also turn on Tone ID while in MM to get out of dual tone, and set accept and reject to your liking, while still remaining in an all metal mode. Simple start would be to just select Relic program and turn on Mixed mode, it will run 2 tone all metal. Enjoy.

Some Interesting Finds From Last Fall And The Long Wet Winter. Pictured Above And Below Is A Very Delicate And Translucent Obsidian Curved Knife Blade. Below Is Another Blade Much More Stout And Serrated Notice How Some Of The Artifacts Take On An Almost Chameleon Effect. Below After A Wash. Next A Very Large Blade. Below Are Bird Point (So Called) And A Very Small Micro Blade (Scalpel) The Next One Is One Of My Favorite Forms.I've Found A Handful Through The Years. The Final Piece Is A Real Crier A Damaged Bird Adornment Or Charm Carved From Slate. Thanks For Looking.

Thanks Steve! That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. All I could find was previous forum topics on coils but no chart or list on what was compatible. Looks like the DFX got the best coil options compared to the XLT. XLT seems to only have that one bigger coil for it. That's a shame...it has a very smooth all metal mode. If it had a 10x12 size coil, it would be killer. It's actually better than most modern machines in my test garden area the way it is now. I'm holding onto it. Honestly, it does better than my MXT *IF* the MXT has the 950 concentric coil on it. Once you put a 6x10 DD coil on it, the MXT is slightly better.

NEL has some XLT compatible coils…. http://nelcoil.com/index.php?route=product/manufacturer/product&manufacturer_id=12

White's Metal Detector Search Coil Guide There was also a Blue Max 600 which might be same coil as the 5.3 Bullseye. There was some duplication with White’s where same coil was marketed with different colors and decals.

When I started out dredging in the late 1970s my mentor used to weigh some the gold he found on meat scales. I guess I was spoiled.

The Rye Patch Recreation Area exit is one of a few exits off of I-80 where you can find patches of gold. Rye Patch State Recreation Area | State Parks (nv.gov) The burn barrel about 12 miles from the exit is considered to be the quintessential location for many finds and many stories over the years. It has been Gerry's training ground as well and the site of many pushes. My first time there was in 2010 and people were saying it was hunted out then but I had a new 5000 and there have been several detector revivals of the gold since then with the 6000/Axioms being the latest. Locals found many pounds off the area but most of it was not commercially viable but there are a few small gold locations where the ground was processed as dry wash. Across the lake and freeway from the burn barrel is a massive heap leach formation. I'd be curious to know how many ounces that has produced from microscopic gold. Here is the website for Florida Canyon. Assets - Operations - Florida Canyon, Argonaut Gold Inc.

Also be aware that when in the water, any sudden change of your coil depth or angle will cause falsing. Keep the coil at the same height off the bottom (about 1/2"-1/4")and same straight/flat angle throughout your entire swing width. Tilting the coil at the end of each swing will cause a false. It takes patience to be so aware of the coil position when hunting in the water. If you hear a false, it's usually caused by you tilting or raising the coil abruptly. When in very shallow water like a foot or two, waves can cause falsing due to the change in water height above the coil. It's tough to hunt really shallow water when there are waves.

Awesome finds, Mongo! The Nazi wound badge would be a very rare find at a POW camp site because it had a large pin on the back. Most of the prisoners' medals and badges were confiscated so they couldn't use them as weapons. Many of them were hidden by the prisoners and later traded to guards for things like cigarettes and food.

The first photo is a WW2 German/Nazi Wound Badge, it's the equivalent of the USA Purple Heart. https://www.militarytrader.com/militaria-collectibles/german-wound-badges https://www.icollector.com/BLACK-NAZI-WOUND-BADGE-HELMET-SWASTIKA-CROSSED-SWORDS_i11346704 https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30078864

Over the past two weeks I've bought an MXT, V3i, and Spectrum XLT. There's just something I like about those big box detectors. I swear, somebody better not post a 6000 XL. It's one I've always wanted to try. That MXT is a beast with DD coils on it. I wish I could have found the Pro model just for the ground grab button but for no more than what I have in this regular MXT, I'm not complaining. The V3i is one complex dude. It is going to take some time to figure it all out. I've not received the XLT yet but I know a few guys from Georgia that used to hunt with them in all metal and would wear me out in red dirt on Civil War relics. I always wanted one...took me nearly 30 years to get one. Side note: In playing with the V3i, it may very well have one of, if not the deepest, most customizable all metal mode of any VLF machine I have used. In my test garden I am wooed. Whether or not that setting will be usable in actual hunting conditions, is yet to be determined.

Well if you can find a Jimmy Sierra 12" Hot Shot coil for sale, it's a great coil and folks rarely let them go. I know longer own one but ran them for years. Similar performance to the Super 12 with MXT.

Best of luck Peg😊 you will catch on in no time. Ladies make some of the best hunters make sure to look at anything suspicious and out of the ordinary that catches your eye.Hope to see some of your discoveries.

Dear Chase, I saw this a post a while back, not sure the timing of the Coiltek Manticore coils release yet. Ron

My review on the Minelab Xterra Pro. I rate this machine a 5 out of 5 but it does have a couple problems that I have noticed. The VDI is all over the place and not at all stable. BUT., With a little tinkering, I was able to make the machine quite stable. One thing for sure, this is a very sensitive machine. What I have discovered is to turn the sensitivity down, but not so far down that you are loosing deep targets. I find that in most cases I run mine at around 14 to 17. The second thing to do to get the VDI more stable is to Check and set the (AU) Freq now and then or anytime you make a change. Also, do a manual ground balance even with ground tracking now and then. If the VDI starts to jump around then experiment with these menu items. The other thing I do not like about the exterra pro is that there is little or no bottle cap rejection. This is where you really need to pay close attention to your tones. One thing to do is swing the detector over the object and back it off so the target is at the edge of the coil. A bottle cap will start to sound trashy. Move the coil swing in cross way, try both directions. I really love this machine... Its perfect for beginners and pros alike. My second day at the beach, I found a $2400.00 dollar 18K Cuban gold chain. The day after, a 10k gold ring. Just a small one but it was gold. Get to know this machine. I have it down fairly well but I think in about 300 more hours, I should have it mastered. So over all... I give the Minelab Xterra Pro 5 stars out of 5 100% The build quality is great and well balanced. May you all find great treasures. Sincerely., Digging 4 Gold!

Thanks fellas for the information. I have changed the unit I bought from V 1.0 back to V 7.1 and also the WS6 to V 7.1 . However, before I changed it I checked the WS6 that was on V 1.1 at the time and it will work with the V 1.0 unit I bought. Thanks, again.

BTW - You don't have to buy another WS6. You can get a pair of WSA II wireless puck/phones. Sort of the "dumb" version of the WS6 with wireless audio only (but also with the auto on feature when you power up the remote). They are considerably less expensive than the WS6. Note for others lurking: The WSA II approach can also allow you to have the remote at ver 1.1 (or 0.71) and the WS6 in Master Mode at 0.71 (or 1.1). The WSA II could have potentially been shared between them or you could have picked up a second WSA II or a WSA II XL and a second coil/shaft/stem to give you two independent Deus 2 setups (Deus 2 Remote + WSA II and Deus 2 WS6 Master + 2nd WSA II or WSA XL). Which is stil a few hundred dollars cheaper than two Full Up Deus 2 detectors. FWIW Cost Comparison (List): Full Up Deus 2 = $1449 Deus 2 Remote = $749 WS6 = $349 WSA II XL = $199 WSA II = $149 Deus 2 Coil + Rod = $399 (same price regardless of Coil Size) Deus 2 Stem = $189 Deus Stem = $149 Orx "Lite" Stem = $99 WSA II + Stem + Coil/Rod = $149 + $99 + $399 = $647 (utilize WS6 Master from Original Deus 2) and you have two Deus 2 detectors for about $2247 vice $3000. Other combos for reference: WS6 Master Rig (WS6 + Stem and Coil and charging components) =$799 WS6 Master Rig with WSA II Phones = $948 Used D2 Remote + WSA II XL Phones + Coil/Rod/Stem = $800 Gary Black posted that its "good housekeeping" to keep the headphones at the same version level as the remote although there was anecdotal evidence that version 1.0 phones connected to a remote that was at ver 1.1. So I can't honestly say whether ver 1.1 phones can be paired with a remote that is at less than ver 1.0. It is worth noting that there must be more to the Update for the WS6 that applies beyond just the Master Mode changes as the WSA II and WSA II XL phones (which are basically like a dumb WS6 locked in slave mode) also have ver 1.1 updates.

Haha! Believe me, I’ve hit quite few 1965s!

I find that when I am water hunting, I am constantly ground balancing because of hot rocks, black sand, and the ground changing all the time. To compensate for this I turn down the sense and work from there. I do lose some depth, but I can detect with less noise and less falsing . I found that one has to take the good with the bad when detecting creeks and streams, but the rewards are great if you just keep working at it.

I like reading stories about peoples finds no matter how good someone else thinks they are. What would a forum be without people posting their finds, although I stopped posting mine some time ago as I lost the drive to do so. I commend everyone willing to take the time to post their finds and the story to go with them and I thank them for doing so regardless of how "good' their finds are.

Xterra pro has many more features than the simplex ultra and can always buy a transmitter for headphones.

more info about the key: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-cray-research-supercomputer-1843247985

I helped rebuild a Cray 1 supercomputer in 1999 for the Computer Museum. We found it in a dump in New York and it took nearly three years to restore it. The hard part was finding an operating system. I think today it's the only working example of a Cray 1. I know when we did the project it was the only one It originally cost 8.8 million dollars and weighed five and one half tons. It required 115KW of 400 volt power. We were pretty thrilled when we saw it boot up after all those years of work. Some of the Cray models had a key slot for the power supply and wiring boxes that went around the base of the computer. These boxes were called benches and served the bench purpose well. Each Cray was individually built to order. If the buyers wanted keys they got keys. The keys I've seen were your standard office file cabinet key. I seriously doubt the key shown was designed to fit a lock. Cray was originally a research and development company established by Seymour Cray. Seymour designed many of the early supercomputers including several of the UNIVACs. Cray was a major contributor to the biggest and most powerful computers in the 50's and 60's. Cray Computer was founded in in 1972 because Seymour got tired of business managers getting in the middle of his computer designs. Cray computer still exists today and is still building the most powerful computers on earth. Seymour passed away in 1996. HP bought Cray out in 2019 but the name and the company were left unchanged.

Looks like a good hunt no matter how you feel about it. The button is really nice and the ring was a bonus. Was the ring silver or just metal? Good luck on your next outing.

Thanks Bfod, it's going to my nearest Finds Liason Officer on Wednesday to see if it falls under the treasure act, if so It'll get handed in and will probably be bought by my local museum. Needless to say I'll be gridding that field to see what else might be in it!

I was hoping the MX Sport would be an MXT in a new, waterproof wrapper, but it wasn't to be. Interface and written instructions were non-intuitive compared to the MXT (I like analog knobs), sensitivity had to be cranked down so low on salt beaches for stability I could never really take advantage of its waterproofness (MXT is basically rain resistant, which is fine for relic detecting, never pretended it was a beach detector), and there were performance issues upon release, which necessitated shipment back to Whites. Finally, the plastic battery compartment screw mounts simply cracked when exposed to cold such that I had to send it back across the country AGAIN to Whites (on my dime) to get it fixed under warranty. That was the last straw. Sold it shortly after that. Never had any such issues with my metal clad MXT. So, yeah, there is something to be said for those detectors that are built like a tank and just get the job done.

The color screen on the V3i and the ability to analyze individual frequencies, while using simultaneous multifrequency mode, are still unrivaled by anything on the market today. Further, all these years later, the MXT ground tracking system remains best in class. Two of White’s best machines and well ahead of their time.

Good for you. The older units can still get it done. Just as important, they can re teach us about how to set up and run on more difficult sites. You have to think instead of just going with the built in whizz bang.

I got the 15 inch concentric X-coil onto a patch today and 6-7 hours later I had a new personal nugget record at 14 for a day. My previous high was 12. Those were a bit bigger found with the stock 7000 coil. The depths ranged up to 6 inches or so but most of the small ones were easy to hear at 3 inches. The sizes from left to right are .44 (far left), then 2 x .2+, 6 x .1+ and finally 5 nuggets less than .1 g with the small one at .03 grams. It was also a nice sunset.