Randy Dee

I phoned my good friend Craig at Crawfords the UK distributor today and paid for my Equinox 15" X 12" coil and I was told that I should see my coil delivered early next week as they are being dispatched from the European central supply depot in Holland today.   I am number one on Crawfords list, I placed my order 13 months ago when the Equinox was first launched at the UK 2017 Detectival, I ordered my Equinox 800 along with the 15" X 12" coil on that day

Andy

Your Victoria Shilling is a forgery and the base would be of poor copper then dipped in silver, the shillings and sixpences of George III were more susceptible to being forged than most other reigning sovereign and here below  is a forged George II Shilling in the first stages of deterioration similar to yours.

Over the years I have found many forged coins especially the Bullhead tanners (Sixpence) of George III he was called Bullhead because of his fat large head.

This is the best shilling example with most of the original silvering remaining. It's very convincing now and would have probably been undetectable without scratching the silvering of in 1819! In comparison with a real one it would seem this coin was either struck in inferior metal with the original (stolen) Royal mint dies or copied by a very very talented engraver. The artistic aspects of this coin are parallel with the original and there are no differences whatsoever with the quality and positioning of the design elements. Well done that forger!

Hello Andy

Your coin is a Half Groat ( Two Pence ) of Charles 1st, it appears to be a strange one as the mint mark looks like it is a Crown over stamped on a Boars Head facing right, at first I thought it was of the Aberystwyth  Mint and Group E but the strange mint marks is the cause for confusion. The Crown Mint mark alone makes it from 1648 - 1649, but the Boars Head mint mark makes it 1643 - 1644 and the Worcester or Shrewsbury mints.

A nice coin.

To simplify the explanation.

Basically to only utilize 3 Tones from the 5 Tones you have to cram in the 2 unwanted Tone Brakes in your "Tone Breaks" of "Low", "Mid" or "High".  If you stick with the same Tone Break VDI values you can insert the unwanted breaks in that range but using identical "Tone Volumes" & "Tone Pitch" to that which you have set in that range.  You will still see 5 Tone Breaks cycling through the breaks but you have only got 3 different Tone Pitches & Tone Volumes of "Low", "Mid" & "High".

47 minutes ago, Andy2640 said:

Hello again Randy,

Just a quick one if i may.

In those days when my coin was in circulation, what would the equivalent value be of that coin today?

So what im asking is ..... Would the chap/chap'ess be grieved about the loss?  Would it have been a big loss, say like us today losing a 10 pound note or ???    I'm just trying to understand what the loss would of meant to our historic brothers, and will lead me to understand if there may be more out there etc.

Side note:  Have to say, i'm very impressed and appreciative of your input over the last few days (on this topic and others) .... and that gold coin of yours!!  WOOOW, just wow.

I defer yet again to your expertise.

 

Thanking you kindly and i promise this is the last question (for this week at least ?)

 

Cheers!

* Here below in bold red print is the nearest conversion which I can find to form an equivalent  valuation of the buying power of your coin but bare in mind that this information data is not of 2018 but from 2007 so there will be a slight difference in the current equivalent valuation meaning more buying power of your coin.  *

On 9/6/2018 at 3:31 AM, sillllvar said:

That's lovely for a first Hammered, It could be a hammered silver Penny of Henry VI 1440's. I mean it could be a half penny rather than a penny (looks clipped) but it's hard to say from here. There are some really talented identifiers of these things ( I'm not one lol) but I think the coin is stylistic of the 1400's. I have the spink coins of England to guide me lol

Thanks for Sharing that one ?

Spot on with your identification for Andy's Hammered Silver it is a Henry VI annulet issue halfpenny of London Mint. Henry VI, 1st reign 1422 - 1430. On the reverse Long cross pattée with three pellets in each angle, annulet in two angles (Dimples).

22 minutes ago, Andy2640 said:

Hi Randy,

It is bloody brilliant that coin! Congrats.  And if i found a Nero edition, i think I would cry with joy, no joke.

I Cant resist another question,  hope you dont mind ? 

In your experience, what depths do you find the roman's at (depending on location, i.e fields, pasture etc).  My oldest coin was found a few days ago in a ploughed field (1500 give or take a century).  The farmer said - "good luck, its been detected on a good few times" LOL. I had to explain that the ploughing brings em back up and vice versa. But he was a nice guy this farmer, and i like him (rare for farmers).

 

Thanks, its always nice to talk with a UK detectorist as well as our other world brothers.

 

Andy.

 

There is quite a few governing factors for what you can get a signal from regarding detection depth and first of all is what type of detector used (ie) Pulse Induction, Single Frequency, Multi Frequency Etc. Etc. Etc.

Then the land or sand conditions (ie) Mineralisation, Iron Infestation, Wet or Dry soil Etc. Etc.

Then Detectorists usage and settings of his / hers settings and most of all equipment knowledge.

So as you can see there is no definable conclusion to detection depth for not just Roman Coins but also any metalic object buried.

There is no more potential to find Roman coins as there is to finding any other object under the right conditions.

1 hour ago, Andy2640 said:

I see, thanks Randy.

 

One last question if i may,   did you actually find that gold coin in your picture?  That's a dream coin right there ? 

Yes my avatar photo is one of my own finds it is a Roman Gold Aureus of ( Domitian ) Caesar Domitianus Augustus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96 AD.

I have also found another Roman Gold Aureus of ( Nero )  Nero Claudius Caesar 37 - 68AD.

.

3 hours ago, Andy2640 said:

Hello there randy,

Very nice finds!.  Can i ask, how do you identify that you have a very old piece in your hands?  Is it a case of knowing what your looking for, or are there tell tale signs that a piece is indeed centuries old?

 

Cheers

Andy.

It all comes naturally as you expand you finds knowledge and spend loads of hours reading reference books and the hobby magazines.

Here's a video showing the recovery of a hoard of Bronze age axes. they date to around 1000BC. There are 47 axes (17 Palstave and 30 socketed) and 5 fragments of an ingot.Gordon using his Equinox 800 The hoard has been report to PAS, and we hope to return and film any excavations on-site in the future

Before I start I must declare that I am speaking from a platform of 42 years of metal detecting experience not a fly by night.
Well, over the past 3 months here in the UK my normally very productive Roman fields permissions have not produced finds of any significant numbers or depth most stuff found has been either on the surface or no more than 3 inches deep no matter of the size of the find and this has been borne out with not just myself but friends David Hopper, Kevin Hopper and Pistol Pete on my very sandy soil permissions, and I know that my fields show an abundance of Roman finds but like all sites with past Roman occupation there is stacks of iron junk and iron slag and this ferrous crap was always showing good signals when the soil conditions were dry.
Between the four of us we have used a wide selection of detectors but providing the same result.
We have used 3 Equinox 800, 2 Minelab CTX-3030, 2 XP Deus, 1 Makro Racer 2, 1 Golden Mask 5+ and 1 Golden Mask 1. so plenty of tackle to get the correct conclusion to the dry soil effect.
Yesterday Sunday 2nd September I took Pistol Pete with me to one of my Roman permissions where one of the fields was in wheat stubble and which I have not detected on before and on this field there is three active springs so the damp soil is more conductive, Pete started with his CTX and using the 6" coil and I decided to use my Deus and the 9" black coil with the normal settings which I have used for the past 8 years, Pete said he was getting too much chattering so switched to his Golden Mask 1 but again heavy chattering but this was nothing to what I was getting with the Deus the noise was a constant rapid rattling like a machine gun I tried everything to attempt to quieten it down but to no avail the whole field was covered in Roman iron slag and through it being wet was highly conductive the lowering of the "Sensitivity" and "Ground Balancing" didn't have any effect so before I threw the towel in I changed to my 9" White HF Coil and used my own program but what I had achieved was to find broken plough share after plough share six in total and masses of rusted iron bars in the 30 - 45 VDI range but nothing non-ferrous very weird.
We decided to move on to a close by field away from this annoyance, and between us we had brought some test pieces so as to carryout some testing to see why we have seen the terrible loss of detection depth during this extremely dry spell my gold gents ring on a cord and a hammered silver and some Roman bronzies, Pete buried my gold ring 5" inches deep his hammered silver 4" deep and a thick Roman bronze at 3" deep, well we were left gob smacked when these items couldn't be found by the CTX, the Deus, the Equinox or the Golden Mask remember this soil is like flour and all test pieces had been shoved into the un-disturbed side wall of the hole, with one detector at a time switched on to test and it was during the testing and altering the functions that we became aware of what was influencing the detection depth results and to get to the point it was because the soil is bone dry and with a pathetic conductive response for non-ferrous objects but just the opposite for ferrous objects so it was a case of getting the "Noise Cancel" & "Ground Balance" & "Sensitivity" right, the main culprit for loss of detection depth was proved to be having the "Sensitivity" set too high even what we would normally set mid range the effect was that the Sensitivity was amplifying the mineralisation feedback for the Ground Balance and the Sensitivity was now desensitizing the Non-Ferrous signals, now armed with this info we gradually reduced the "Sensitivity" and witnessed the signals slowly becoming audible and eventually loud.
We spent some considerable time adjusting the "Noise Cancel" & "Ground Balance" & "Sensitivity" levels on all of our detectors we even dropped the test pieces deeper to find the best results and comparisons between detectors by the time we had completed the testing the Equinox 800's were the top results with "Sensitivity 16" the "Ground Balance 51" the "Reactivity 2" and the "Iron Bias 4", be mindful that these settings were applicable to my dry soil only and may differ on other detectorists land conditions but gives food for thought, by this time the temperatures were in the high 20's and mid day so detecting was a slow laborious endurance but we both had a massive improvement in detection depth for non-ferrous.
Hope this conclusion gives a wee bit of guidance help to others.
Good Hunting
Randy

53 minutes ago, midalake said:

Hi Randy

Neither my sun rays or black widows would work with the waterproof cable and flipping the mono/stereo switch on both phones made no difference. 

 

That is weird, my Sunray Pro Golds works perfect one thing that I did find was if the volume wasn't turned up the phones appeared to be dead, try the "Mono / Stereo" switch both ways whilst turning the "Volume" knob in both directions so as to ensure that it isn't the "Volume" knob at fault.

Translated for you Luis.

I would like to know if a partner has tried Equinox in the park or 
in the field mode on the beach. 
In those modes, it is the best way to take the chains and it 
would be interesting if you behave well on the beach. 
Until next week I will not be able to go to the beach to try it. 
If someone has tried, I would like to know your experience. 
THANK YOU

23 hours ago, midalake said:

 

I have since tried my Sun Ray Pro Golds and there is no sound either. and toggled both phones.  This sucks I leave tomorrow. Leave it up to minelab to make a cord that will not work. 

Your Sunray Pro Gold headphones has a "Mono / Stereo" switch it is the one on the right hand side of the "Volume Knob" I use a cheap Stereo to Mono adapter lead off Ebay about $3 / £2 and using it with my Sunray Pro Golds and the WM08 all I need do is ensure that the Mono - Stereo switch on the Sunrays is in the down position and the "Volume Knob is turned to full volume.

.

A glass mirror is manufactured by coating silver and two layers of protective paint on the back surface of glass.

Looks like your mirror find has been coated with extra thick silver, it is the silver coating which makes the glass reflective.

On 6/25/2018 at 7:39 AM, Randy Dee said:

I have now sorted out my problem after gaining help from a local friend with the Equinox 800 he could carryout selective signal discriminations as per Equinox manual so it was a simple matter for myself to carryout (Twice) a full "Factory Reset" this procedure not only cured my problem of being able to create a discrimination pattern but I had previously lost my " User Profile Selections" on the User Profile Button when switching the machine off even though I had switched away to another Detect Mode. Now my "User Profile Button" is now very active once more and spot on.

 

On Monday 9th July I invited my good friend David Hopper to accompany me on one of my festival field permission and it was quite pleasurable in the cooler weather, we spent 8 hours filling our pockets.
We were both using the Minelab Equinox 800 with my "Coin Shooting Program" which was discriminating 10,000's ring pulls, we never got a single signal from them and although we had crown caps discriminated out we both had the odd twisted and misshaped caps showing through.
I had discriminated out all copper coins as there would be 100's of them as in the past using the CTX-3030 I didn't want to dig hundreds of holes for a couple of quid so there will be a hell of a lot left in the ground and as the small 5p coins were rejected due to falling into the same conductive range as the rejected pull tabs but all of the 5p and copper coins that I got were eyes only with them laid on the surface.
Along with the coins I also had a iPad power bank, a iPad charging plug, a iPad power adapter cable, 6 ear rings, a couple of pairs of sunglasses, 4 new discarded folding chairs, a full roll of Duck Tape. David also had some extra amusing finds.
The dark coloured coins are all what I have missed in the past using the CTX & Deus.
These coins below are what I found yesterday David had a similar amount using the same coin shooting program.

Here below is a link to where this procedure to check out for a signal being of a iron nature.   In fact Steve has already put a link to Gordon Heritages suggestion way back in May.  Gordon was one of our UK Equinox testers.

http://www.minelabowners.com/forum/showthread.php?32553-Ghost-program-for-the-Equinox&highlight=Checking+10khz

.

50 minutes ago, filternozzle said:

I am pretty sure you will reject some hammered with 10-11, 13-14 and possibly 18.

Yes Richard this pattern isn't to search for hammered coins I need it for a Music Festival site where I don't even want to spend any precious time digging for small change I will be searching for 100's of £2 & £1 coins, Gold & Silver rings and the Gold Necklaces lost by the younguns jumping about, as Steve would say "Cherry Picking".

I will be taking the CTX-3030 with me just in case I have Equinox problems, I already have a coin shooting program in it and over the past few years of this annual music festival the ££££££££+£££££££ finds have more than paid for the CTX.  I have tried all of rejection and the wanted accepted items with the Equinox and it is spot on and I am thinking it might be much better than the CTX with it being lighter and allowing me to whiz about.

I have now sorted out my problem after gaining help from a local friend with the Equinox 800 he could carryout selective signal discriminations as per Equinox manual so it was a simple matter for myself to carryout (Twice) a full "Factory Reset" this procedure not only cured my problem of being able to create a discrimination pattern but I had previously lost my " User Profile Selections" on the User Profile Button when switching the machine off even though I had switched away to another Detect Mode. Now my "User Profile Button" is now very active once more and spot on.

15 hours ago, Rivers rat said:

Wow 3 hours at detecknicks they weren't too busy i guess?????it is always cool to spend time in a MD shop i havebt done that for ages

 

 

RR

Hello RR

Are you still detecting the Thames foreshore, a photograph of that Roman Brothel Token which you found would be well appreciated on this forum.

Good Hunting   Randy Dee

1 hour ago, Sinclair said:

Randy!

You must be kidding ... that "KIEL" thing seems to come ~2km from where I live.. crazy!

Google Maps Link

Hello Sinclair

Here in the UK we find many different flour bag seals from various country's but most originate from Germany and the Kiel one's date as far back as the mid 1600's.  I have posted a photograph of the front and back of the one I found on Sunday, over the years I have found many "Flour Bag Seals"   also here below is an article about the same seal which I found, you might be able to relate the location of the flour millers.

http://www.bagseals.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=31&g2_page=65

German, Flour Bag Seal, Baltische Mühlehn Gesellschaft

One side has a raised circular border with NEW PROCESS curved around the top inside of the border and FLOUR straight across the centre and a diamond at the bottom.
The other side can be found on other seals and consists of a continuous raised line circular border with the following German words around the inner edge: BALTISCHE MUHLEHN GESELLSCHAFT . with NEUMüHLEN curved above a dash dot dash centre piece and KIEL straight across below it.

A flour bag seal from Neumühlen (= New mills), a suburb of Kiel in Northern Germany.

I had another full session out detecting on Sunday 17th June I used the Equinox

I had a decent session with some nice finds but the best was an eyes only it is a Neolithic Flint Arrowhead I also had a hammered silver cut half penny a spindle whorl a bit of Saxon chip carving, a flour bag seal and a poor woman's brooch which when I first saw it I thought it was gold. The Neolithic British Isles refers to the period of British history that spanned from circa 4000 BC to circa 2,500 BC, I also had a lead Spindle Whorl these were used for hand spinning wool and can date as far back as Roman times, I also had a Edward II Hammered Silver Cut Half Penny Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327)

On 6/15/2018 at 9:33 AM, Jackpine said:

Hi Randy

I have not made use of accept/reject so I had to give the manual a once over and what first popped in my head was confirmed there.  You cannot accept a rejected target while in detect mode it needs to be done in the accept/reject settings mode. Knowing the ID numbers of the wanted coins before hand you can then setup up your discrimination program.

Switch to all metal to bypass your rejected screen and note the number of the coins. Then go to Accept/reject in settings and using the +/- buttons navigate to the wanted numbers and hit the button to notch them back in.

Tom

Hello Tom

The "All Metal" selection is is as it states and will accept all metals signals and to negotiate to the Accept / Reject segment of a £2, £1, 50 & 20 Pence coins also some gold and silver rings using the  +/- buttons makes no difference as these signal VDI's are already accepted.  What I was looking to do is have a full signal VDI spectrum in "Reject" then have the wanted signals "Accepted" using the \//X button but now I think I am barking up the wrong tree after further digesting on page 49 of the Equinox Manual which states " Accepting a rejected Target ID is not possible directly from the DETECT SCREEN" .                To do this on the CTX3030 is very simple to carryout so it now looks like I will have to stick with the CTX on the "Music Festival Field"

Well guys it isn't often that I can't figure out and find a solution to a metal detector problem myself but this time I must admit defeat.

I have a permission where there is an annual outdoors 3 days music festival and over the past five years I have used my CTX-3030 with my home made "Coin Shooting" program whereby on the CTX VDU I blacked out (Discriminated) the whole screen then I took the signals from our £2, £1, 50 & 20 Pence coins also some gold and silver rings and accepted them on the VDU the reason I did this was because this festival field was covered in thousands of ring pulls, crown caps and wine bottle tops and when I used my coin shooting program I wouldn't find a single one of these discriminated junk finds but I would end up with £100's & £100's as all of the good losses were in the top grass and I used a small hand rake.

Now here is my problem and although there is a vague guidance in the Equinox Manual I just cannot achieve a similar program with the Equinox 800, I have rejected the whole signal spectrum using "One & Two Tone Break"  then tried to get a signal from my selected coins and rings but it is a case of nothing happening on the screen when I press the Accept / Reject (\//+) button, I know how to reject a find on the open default Equinox  VDU screen but I need to operate the other way around I need to accept the good find signals on a fully rejected screen as the only other method is I would have to take hundreds of different types and twisted /bent pull tabs and crown caps and twist caps off wine bottles and carryout individual rejections.  Another thing which I must consider is that these ring pulls can show up as different conductive numbers for similar pull tabs when on edge. If I can't find a remedy to do the same with my Equinox 800 I will revert back to using the CTX which is much heavier on this festival field with thousands of fresh losses.

Your thoughts on this matter would be gratefully received.

Good Hunting     Randy Dee  ( IN UK )

Out detecting on Sunday 10th June in roasting hot weather making it very uncomfortable and on the way home a horrendous thunderstorm.
I had plenty of finds some very deep but only two or three of interest the best find was a Charles II of Scotland 1677 Bawbee ( Sixpence ) these are roughly the size of a pre decimal halfpenny and are quite rare.