schoolofhardNox

Maybe Gerry needs another one? Or maybe I can expand his business to MA? 🤔. How are the fairgrounds treating you? I miss digging in the dirt! But silver was like a new found girlfriend, very attentive from the start. Why did she have to just up and dump me like that? 😭 I like gravy..... but I guess mashed potatoes are fine every once in a while. Seriously though, It was a longer and well appreciated silver run. It also makes the next hunt more relaxing knowing I can't do worse. 😏

I like the expanded scale, coming from a White's before owning a Minelab, but I don't like the fact that the new machines expanded both the pull tab range and the gold range, so they blend a lot more than previously. On the CTX, a large number of women's gold rings came in at 6 or 9. I never found a pull tab at 6 or 9 on the CTX, so I would get excited to see those numbers knowing it isn't going to be a pull tab. I guess I'm saying that previous technology seemed to better group targets, but now you can dig a zinc cent from anywhere 65 different numbers. I've had them read as low as foil and as high as just above an Indian. I may pull out the CTX if a lot of sand is removed or if I want better odds in cherry picking small rings in a field. I'm all for more numbers, but a better classification of targets would help.

It's amazing how cruel a beach can be 😅 But generous as well at times 😋 It is an awesome potato masher. 😍 I'm renting it out if anyone is interested. If there are no takers, them I may have to move to Idaho where it should get some good usage. 🥔

Beach hunt # 27 is history, but the pain will linger forever. 😨 So, after many generous hunts in a row, reality can strike you hard. This was to be the lowest tide probably until fall, so I have to pick the correct beach. I waffled between my area beaches and NH beaches and finally picked NH. I must admit, nothing can reset your expectations better than a day spent digging this. 😅 So here it is, in all its glory – my stellar hunt. Spoiler alert……….. My best find was a potato masher. I kid you not. 😵

Thanks. It is getting sparse but nothing prepared me for this next hunt 🤣 I know, that beach mistakenly though I said lead, when I clearly asked for gold. 🙄 I hope you had a chance to get out during that low tide. You would have beat my next hunt just by stepping out on a beach. 😅

Beach hunt # 26 is at a new beach. This is beach #1. I had high hopes for this small beach. Research shows this beach may go back to the early to mid-1800’s. I was a bit leery since there is a limited number of parking spaces and houses are very close by. I arrived and parking was tight. The beach is even smaller than I thought. People were already eyeballing me, so I opted to go light with the Manticore. Not my primary choice, but I figured that I should be able to at least see if any coins show up. I really didn’t feel comfortable at this beach right from the start, but I decided to just concentrate on getting a solid target and see what comes up. If I get kicked out, I can get to another beach in 15 minutes. I must admit, the Manticore struggled there. It has a lot of iron and bigger exposed rocks, but I was able to get depth to about 6”. Raising the coil to get above the rocks greatly altered the response, especially the target ID’s. Luckily, coins were rather shallow, in the 3-5” range. Realistically, even with the great amount of iron there, my GPX with a smaller coil would have been ideal. But the Manticore did produce a lot of coins, so I’m thinking this place has not been detected since the 80’s at least. For silver, I found 2 Washington quarters, a mangled older style ring, and some kind of small teardrop shaped piece. Most copper cents were Memorials with a couple of Wheats thrown in. A lot of lead at this place too. Beach #2 was another small beach that I had previously done ok at. I used the GPX for this one. Time was now limited and unfortunately, they had already repaired the damage to this beach. That can be a good or bad thing. I was able to get a silver Roosevelt dime and what’s left of a silver thimble. Judging from the things I dug, prior to them repairing the beach, it would have produced a good number of older coins. Looking over at the water line on the concrete wall, about 1-2 feet of sand was removed. That is a huge amount for this beach. I’m sure someone was able to get some shallow old silver from there. Good for them. 🙂 So not a bad day at the beach, and I did get some more silver, so all is good. I may get a chance to do one more beach on Monday. It is going to be a really low tide. Now I just have to pick the right beach. I won't even tell you about the crazy people I was approached by at the first beach. Scary. 😵😵😵

Thanks. I know PI's are definitely not for everyone, but for me, I could not do beach hunting without one. I'm still amazed on how many old coins come up. I talk with others there and there are beaches that turn up large cents and Spanish. The ring can be cleaned up by electrolysis, but I would imagine it won't reveal a smooth surface underneath. If you can figure out how to turn that ring into a SLQ, then I am all ears. 😮 One of the nicest coin designs. Hard to find them, especially with any meat left on them. I hope the quarter is a '13S, but around here if you want an S, you have to magic marker it on them. 😄

I would do a visual search. In the house I grew up in, the attic floorboards were a good idea. Try and find one board that is really short in length. We found ours contained and old cobalt blue syringe (in a wooden case) and some odds and ends. But it could have held cash previously. Cellars (as mentioned) are good, especially if they have dirt floors. There was a guy locally that found a cash box for some people that they knew existed, but their father died before he disclosed where. He used a very small coil, low sensitivity and was looking for a decent size metal box. He did find it for them. Either way, just looking around in any area that may have a loose board or a ledge or hidden pocket. I would do cellar and attic first, barn second, and if there is a chicken coop, under that. Good luck.

Beautiful knee buckle. You can tell just from the finds there was money at that house. Engraved Tombacs, a masonic cuff link, plus other nicer design cuff links, and some of the best coppers I have seen come out of the woods. Beautiful soil where you are at. Must have great drainage. Congrats on some stellar hunting.

Beach hunt # 25 is back at that same small beach. Although the low tide was average, I was surprised to see so much lower beach exposed in the area that I found those Barber coins last time out. So, I headed there instead of doing a different section that I had planned on doing. It turned out well, as I still found silver but at the expense of a lot of iron and pull tabs. I was torn between just digging high conductors or hoping for that gold ring. No gold ring showed up, so the pull tabs won that fight. I detected a good chunk of new ground just after where all the coins were coming from, but I did not get anything of value. I still don’t know why all these silvers were found in such a small area. It’s a very accessible area (not complaining) 😄. We have some really low tides coming up, so I’m going to try and get at least 2 hunts in. It will be a toss up between the GPX, Manticore or AQ, depending on the circumstances. It’s always a gamble I don’t like doing, to pick a beach to do at low tide. Pick wrong and you get to hear all about the guys that got multiple gold rings. 😪 We shall see how it turns out. One good thing though, a friend printed me out a couple of pin pointer caps for the Garrett carrot. Now I don’t have to duct tape the tip, so I don’t wear it out. Get out and dig if you can!!!

Wow, that's a nice surprise.😄 Sterling turning up everywhere (including that spoon 😉) Sure it's nice to find 1600's coins, but sometimes silver jewelry can be a lot of fun as well. That would make a nice small display. Great hunt.

Melt them down 😅 Skim the copper, keep the zinc. Might as well get something out of the deal. 🤔 I find a lot of coins still here on the New England coast and even the non zinc ones would still have to be tumbled to be readable and spendable.

Thanks. If you want to see a real wanted poster.... I have some way better coins I would love to find and post. 😄 But that will never happen 😭. I doubt the pliers are salvageable since it looks like it has lost a lot of steel already. Would probably snap if cutting something 🤭. I'm already itchin' to get out again 😬

We used to find those back in the 80's or 90's. I think the little cans of Mott's apple juice had that style, but I could be wrong.

Well...... you can't see the white nickel because someone forgot to post that picture. 😵 Here it the picture of the clad stuff. I put the arrow under it and at first glance it may appear to be a Jefferson reverse side, but in hand it doesn't quite match up. But you never know, could just be a Jefferson. Yes, the pull tabs on the lower left are the older ones. I once had a nice dated chart showing all the different types, but I can't find it. Here is another source. Just scroll down until you see the picture. Supposed to be the first style around 1963. https://pulltabarchaeology.com/2021/10/22/new-shipment-from-the-nelsons/

Beach hunt # 24 is done. I decided to hit a small beach for half a day and then return to my silver beach if things didn’t go well at that beach. So, this small beach has previously given up a decent number of coins, some junk jewelry, but occasionally I get a silver ring or some silver coins. I think the most silver in one trip previously was 2 silver coins. I was expecting this beach to be a bit more roughed up from previous storms, but after talking with a friend that lives nearby, I was told the storms usually push sand up on the beach. OK, 🙄 not what I wanted, but maybe there are some good coins pushed up from the ocean depths. It took a while, but I found a coin line and after a couple hours, I managed a silver Washington, a Mercury dime, a silver cross, and part of a silver ring. I also found 2 more war nickels which read 56 and 68 on the Manticore. Well, already that’s more silver than my usual haul when things quiet down, so I was happy with that. 2 Buffalo nickels also showed up, so I am always happy to see those. It tells me I am in the right time frame for silver. But I think it’s time to move on to the other beach. I was almost ready to leave when I started to dig those very old style pull tabs. If you get them, more silver is possible. So, I stayed and continued to the end of the beach where I started to see some nice erosion. This section was very different from the rest of the beach and was only exposed because of the low tide. I never really thought about this section much because it’s hard to get to unless the tides recede enough. My first target sounded very loud (as shallow targets often do on the GPX). I removed a couple of small rocks and down about 2 inches pops out a quarter. Clad sometimes gets tumbled a lot and comes out shiny, but I quickly noticed the eagle back of a Barber quarter. OK then. 🥰 Next target might be an old nickel, but completely wiped clean. 3rd target was a Barber dime. 🤔 What the heck is going one here? 😅 Not a lot of targets there, and I’m now fighting the tide coming back in, but I managed some more silver dimes and another Barber quarter. Talk about changing my day. Needless to say, I spent the whole day there, and did not go to the other beach. One of my best outings on this beach and I plan to return there the next time we have a decent low tide. You never know what the day will bring.

I'm hoping for a speedy recovery. 🙂 Best of wishes and prayers to you Cpt Ghostlight.

That's a lot of coins. I have had a couple of days recently of high coin counts, so I know the feeling. You just can't stop digging them. I guess one of the reasons to dig like that, is the fact that nature can bury that location within a matter of days. So time is of the essence. Also, you never know when someone else can stumble onto that location. Congratulations on your hard work. It looks like it payed off!

I agree with you and GB, that the manganese has to be the culprit. We can account for the higher readings but the low one must mean that copper or silver was leached out without the manganese loosing much. I guess under the right conditions, you could find a chemical way to do just the copper or silver. But it must be rare, since I didn't get many that read low.

Draped bust silver 😍. Those are incredibly hard to find!!! Forget about the rest of the stuff 😅 That coin is sweet!!!

All fantastic posts and observations. So.....is it a leaching issue or is it an out of spec issue or is there something in addition to those, like our machines are so much more capable of analyzing the coins, or all of the above? Could there even be some sort of anomaly in new technology that has more than the usual problems with mixed metal identification? Kind of the way nails false high and hit in many non ferrous numbers? Are we getting a true ID or is some of it skewed by the processing of the signal? Kind of like harmonics when dealing with frequencies. So far the manganese factor seems to be the most probable to have something to do with it. Most of our silver coins read pretty reliable, only changing due too wear. Our Cu/Ni coinage usually reads solid, but when you add manganese into the mix, you get what we have now. I wish I still had my DFX. I would love to see what they read on older technology.

(edited my original response) I'm assuming you are digging in dirt. If that's the case then the consistency of our coinage is in question.

So I have been posting my beach detecting series mostly using a GPX, but sometimes the Manticore. Recently discussions got around to trying out the war nickels on the Manticore, doing an air test to see if they read the same as a non dug (clean) war nickel and also how that compares to a CU-Ni modern nickel. This is a continuation of those discussions now posted in a more appropriate forum. I was running the Manticore in Goldfield (but ran it in every other mode) with just about the same results. Sensitivity was set to 13 as I was in my house. It ran very quiet and all targets were solid, non bleeding and on the line targets, on the screen. Nice round blobs. For this test I ran a bunch of war nickels that were from the same beach, over a span of around 6-8 years. The first test was done with them uncleaned. I separated them into 3 general categories: black toned/black encrusted, green encrusted, white/ mostly white. Here are the Target ID's (Black toned - 23, 15, 23, 21, 16, 16, 20--- Black encrusted - 80), /// (Green encrusted - 23, 25, 49, 31, 44, 38, 70, 45, 32, 11, 43, 52, 46, 68, 35, 56) /// (White or mostly white - 25, 27, 34, 24, 26, 45) As a reference, I scanned a non beach clean war nickel and it came in at - 28. Also a modern clean (CU NI) one that came in at - 26. I then took one of the black nickels that read 16 and cleaned it until all the black toned color was removed. It still read 16 - no change. So I took the black encrusted nickle that read 80 and cracked off the black coating and brass brushed it and baking soda steel wooled it, but could not get it completely silver, but almost. It now read 80 - no change. I have absolutely no idea why these nickels read all over the place. I first thought that the green crusted was more copper based - copper oxide, so it should read higher. I also thought the black crusted ones would probably be a silver oxide and would read even higher. At first it looked like that, but now it seems the coating has no repeatable effect on the target id. Any thought on this? This picture is one of the first experiment I did on the issue with just 4 nickels (not included in the list above).

I'm going to start a discussion on this issue on the Manticore forum, so maybe other beach Manticore owners can try this as well. I ran some more tests and I'm more confused now than ever. 😳 Steve or anyone who can move some of the posts from here to there, it would be appreciated.

I'm wondering if the copper oxide crust is raising that number considerably. If I get some time this weekend, I'll try a normal non oxidized war nickel and see if it reads closer to 26. It seems the more refined detectors become, the more number variability they take on. Bring back the E Trac set to maximum spread. 😅 There was just enough difference to mostly tell silver from clad (even Wheats from Memorials). Ok, I couldn't wait 🙄. So I tried a war nickel that was clean and it read 28. So far so good, just 2 numbers higher that a Cu-Ni one. But then I started to think maybe the copper oxide is raising the numbers to be more and average of copper and nickel. So then I thought what if the black encrusted ones I find are silver oxide on the top making it black.They should read even higher. But the findings surprised even me. These four new nickels are from the same beach different year's hunt. both the top left and bottom left are black, the only difference is one is clean and toned black (corrosion cracked off), the other is raw thick black (not having the corrosion cracked off). The top right and bottom right are different levels of the green corrosion. What is going on here??? I think I was in goldfield mode.