goldbrick

It had been a year since I had a chance to hunt with my friend Strick. We finally were able to get together for 4 days of relic/coin/ring detecting. On day 1 we went to an old standby location (ghost town) we had visited many times in the past. Strick found 2 silver coins, an 1876 and 1877 Seated Liberty dimes in the space of 1 hour. I found a few buttons. Day 2 we took his boat up the Delta to a party beach where I hunted in the water for the first time ever. I had a blast using my CTX 3030 just wading up to my waist. I found 2 silver rings which beat the costume jewelry Strick got so I was the king that day. On day 3 of my visit with him, we were off to a private property in the low Sierra foothills of California to meet up with Strick's friend, the ranch owner, and detect an early gold camp. We have been hunting this area for a few years when our schedules will allow. The last time I was here with Strick he had found a Quarter Eagle and some seated coins while I had only found buttons. On this day things were not looking so great for me as I had only found one nice button and the usual assortment of period trash while Strick had scored a nice cast buckle wreath. We had just taken a break and had compared finds with the ranch owner, discussing the "whatizits" we had found. It was getting later in the day so we went back to detecting. I had earlier got into an area with quite a bit of scattered iron which developed into a nail bed which was obviously the remains of an old structure. So I returned to the heaviest area of nails which was about 250' away from the location of Strick's gold coin, and was carefully searching through the machine gun iron signals when I hear a definite signal but scratchy signal on my Deus. It was jumping around depending on which direction I swung but was repeatable. Just another bullet or cartridge I think as I pop the plug. Then I see about a quarter of a gold coin sticking out of the plug as it crumbles. I didn't stop to savor the moment or reflect on my find like you hear so many times. I started screaming like a 14 year old Valley Girl, " I found a gold coin" and waving my arms at my friends who were a short distance away. The coin was an 1849 Half Eagle. It has been my fondest detecting desire to find a gold coin and now I had realized it. On the journey back to Stricks I looked up the value of the coin as people always ask. I didn't much care as I did not plan to sell it but that is usually the first question from family and friends. I had not cleaned it well or looked at it too closely but I knew it had some wear so I figured a ball park figure of $500? It wasn't until we returned to Strick's place that he was looking at it through a low power microscope and he says" Her headband doesn't say liberty it says Moffat". I had never in a million years ever dreamed I may find a Territorial coin but I knew in an instant that I had just scored the find of my life. On Day 4 we went to a location of an old military base. Strick has taken buckets of military paraphernalia from there and he scored again. I found 2 pieces but they were severely corroded. I would say this has been the best detecting trip I have ever been on due to finding the Territorial Half Eagle. All the thanks go to my buddy, Strick and the ranch owner for getting me on that location. I will ask Strick to post his pics of his finds.

That is interesting. Some detectorists have come down with Equinox derangement syndrome, much to their detriment I think (hint,hint,Strick. LOL). That elliptical coil on the Deus is deadly in pitch mode in relic scenarios.

It looks to use way less water than a sluice which may have some utility in certain scenarios.

I like the Utah tag. I find it interesting that it has the Beehive which was the state symbol and a Seagull which is the state bird but other than that it is very plain with only the embellishments on the corners. Maybe it is home made rather than mass produced? I tried to research this tag but so far failed miserably.

Maybe Mr.Ed.........

Great find. Thanks for posting.

Looks like a fun hunt. The chauffeur's badge is awesome. Congrats to the lady.

I enjoy finding unusual items such as this. Thanks for posting it.

That is a primo button. What an excellent find.

An interesting story. Thanks for posting.

Cool find.

Thanks for these videos. I rarely fail to learn something from them.

I am glad to see the weather has moderated and you are back to filming. I appreciate you posting on this forum as I don't view many others unless it is Tom's forum. I have had a similar experience with the Tarsacci. I was hunting behind a friend who was running a Deus with the elliptical coil. I detected a number of targets with the Tarsacci that my buddy who is a seasoned detectorist did not hear with the Deus. The shocking part was almost all the targets were shallow. I bought the Tarsacci for depth but there is something going on with this detector I have not got a handle on yet. I am not making any claims as I just don't have enough hours on it but I have been surprised at its apparent performance at times.

Hi Paul. Congratulations on your Tarsacci purchase. My limited experience with this detector closely mirrors your own. While not my number one choice for either relic or gold nugget hunting I think this detector will be used on a regular basis by me in scenarios that utilize the strong points of the Tarsacci. I don't have enough experience in iron infested relic scenarios to have a definitive opinion about it's performance there. I do think it has much better separation than many may think but depth wise in iron no detector does well so I think I will stick with my Deus in the nail beds. Near the end of May I hope to have the Tarsacci in that hell hole of mineralization, Plumas County, LOL. It will be interesting to see how the Tarsacci performs on steep, blasting cap infested tailings. The ones a GPX will work you to death on. Also in hydraulic mines and in areas hot rocks may be bothersome.

Chuck, you have really been tearing it up lately. My only thought is what magnificent finds you may have produced if you had only been swinging the best detector, the Deus? Signed, Deus fan boy