schoolofhardNox

Yep, things are drying up a bit. But I can't complain, it's been a good streak for silver with a couple gold thrown in. Now back to reality 😓 The old button is probably just after WW II, when beaches were a great source of relief. I get a lot of coins in the 40's / 50's layer. The door knob is probably from some previous storms that took down cottages that were waterside. Either before the state took over the beach or from adjacent areas that were later purchased by them. I get a decent amount of house items, and yes, them cork fuses show up sometimes. Thanks. Single digits are fine (unless it's just 1) 😅. I'm shocked the silver stuck around this long. I'm sure there is probably another beach somewhere where the conditions were similar. I should have tried to get to some NH beaches. I saw some videos where the GPX would have done very well on those rocky areas. Unfortunately, I couldn't spare anymore time than I already did. On the Manticore, I ran some numbers for you. I was inside, so sensitivity was at 13. I had discrimination, but it would not affect the readings as the signals were pure with no bleeding into the disc zone. I did not reset the machine, as I didn't want to lose my settings. So not a standardized test by any means. I tried both nickels, so the first number you see is the less corroded one and the second number is the more corroded one. AT Gen - 46/49, AT Fast- 46/49, AT LC - 47/50, AT HC - 48/50, AT Trash Reject - 46/49, Beach General - 46/49, Beach LC - 46/49, Beach Deep - 46/49, Beach Surf & Seawater - 45/48, Goldfield - 45/48. Numbers jumped sometimes with the low number at 45 and the high number at 50 (occasionally jumping to 53).

GPX 5000. Now, I usually bring the AQ and the Manticore in case my 2 batteries die on the 5000. These recent hunts seem to draw down each of my batteries after 4 hours hunting. My machine of choice for beaches is the GPX. But the beach takes a toll on the machine. I'm surprised it survives what I do to it 😅

Thank. The 37 Merc is in nice shape. Usually they are fairly worn. I have that charm backwards. I think it's supposed to read - # 1. On the side I showed you can just read the "ng" from sterling to the right of the bottom of the 1. God I hate spoons 😫

Beach hunt # 23 is over. I started by hunting another beach I had done well on recently and was lucky enough to get a Walking Liberty half dollar. 🥰 I spent about 4 hours there and the only other good find was a military cuff button. So, it was time to move on. Beach #2 however was the beach I have been hunting for the last couple of times, so I didn’t take much for me to head there. It was slow going at first, finally scoring a worn-out Mercury dime. I was pretty sure my day would end with just 2 silvers for the day. I did get a lot of coins, mostly clad, along with less trash than the other beach. Finally, I hit a spot that gave me a small silver ring along with an odd silver pendant. I was almost ready to go, as the sun sets fast these days. I procrastinate a lot at the end of a hunt, and I was bitchin’ to myself that I spent too much time at the first beach. 😔 But as luck has it, I hit 3 targets in a row that were silver dimes. That helped a lot. I did get my obligatory Buffalo nickel, as I feel lonely without one. 🙄 The biggest surprise came at home when I started to look over the nickels, checking on the dates. I usually use nickels to see what era I was hunting in. I would have never imagined I had 2 silver war nickels, as they were green encrusted, as opposed to the normal black beach encrusted ones. After thinking about it, I barely recall finding one green war nickel before. I only spent 3 hours at beach 2, but the finds outdid beach one (time spent). A decent hunt and I’m struggling to see where I want to go next. I may have to again do a 2-beach hunt, starting at a new beach and then ending up at silver beach.

You have some stellar sites to hunt. It just shows how different a hunt can be when you are in an area that possibly has never been hunted before. It also shows how nature can expose layers that we did not think existed anymore. Great hunt!

Welcome aboard from western MA. Those coastal beaches can be very nice and produce some silver and gold. Good luck with the Manticore.

Sure does look like it. Funny, when you enlarge it, the date looks like 1971 😂

Take full advantage of that lowered lake. I missed a huge opportunity to hit one that was that way for a year, enough time for vegetation to grow back. A very healthy amount of gold you got there 🥰. Sweet finds! I hope you can get out there again.

How true. The reason I left there was because of the relentless attack on a forum member (I did not know him). The forum shifted from a great bunch of knowledgeable people, to a gang of old timers that ruled it for their amusement. I was embarrassed after sending the archaeologists that I work with on projects, to that site to ask members if they could ID some of their finds. They never posted anything there after seeing that drama. I felt like an idiot for recommending that site. I always felt I lost some credibility with them over that. I have no reason to ever go back there.

I belong to a gold refining forum, as I have a small recycling business. There are a lot of ways to get gold from components on a circuit board or from plated pins. There are ways to bleach or hydrogen peroxide to put metals into solution, but aqua regia is the fastest and most effective method. There are other more dangerous methods out there. I would strongly recommend that if anyone is intending to do any kind of refining to join a refining forum on line. Not only are there life threatening chemical combinations that can be fatal, but there are components that contain beryllium, that are very toxic. Also other conditions that may happen inadvertently when you are refining for one metal but there may be others present that may cause you harm. I don't want to stray off topic too much, but DM me if anyone needs more information and on what forum to join. As for the article, there has been more interests lately into using amino acids and other more natural ways to leach metals from components, as well as crushed rock. The article still needed nitric and hydrochloric acids to put the metals into solution. Interesting read, but not to the level where it would be practical to use....yet. Most people over estimate the amount of gold in electronics. You need a lot more separated components that one might think. I won't refine mine until I have a lot of gold bearing items. The cost of chemicals makes it difficult to refine on a small scale. But you can do it just for fun or to have a tiny bead of gold to show. Here is how I store mine until I can break down the boards for refining.

That's what I tell my wife all the time...I have the most junk in town 😂 She just rolls her eyes 🙄

Yeah, I was slackin'. I will do better next time. 😄 Those pennies just get in the way. At least they could be wheaties for crying out loud. Other people find way better stuff than me 🤔 What you complaining about, you got three finds more than you had before. 😇 Thanks, What I really got from the Atlantico was a very sore body today. 😅 The AQ did well on the tough sand. It falses just like the GPX if your coil control is bad or you go too fast. But it did hit that tiny ring and that is one of the things that I though would come in handy. I just envisioned it in the wet sand and not where I was using it. But it will always be used there before or after the GPX is used. Between the two, I'm hoping to cover those types of areas well.

Nice series of gold rings. Sometimes it pays to think outside of the box. Treasure is where you find it and not always where we think it should be.

Those are pretty 😍. Most of us have no chance of finding a 20 cent coin. Those are sweet.

Beach hunt # 22 is done. This was supposed to be a low tide hunt, so I brought the Manticore, AQ and the GPX. I started with the GPX since low tide was not for a while. I decided to try the other end of the beach hoping it would be similar to this side, which has been extremely good to me. It was not. 😔 I don’t know why that side of the beach does not get wrecked when storms pass, but it seems unaffected after a storm. So, I hour wasted. I returned to the good side and wanted to go over an area I did previously. They had bulldozed that section flat while trying to repair damages done. I quickly found a copper penny and a silver Washington. Did about 20 minutes there but told myself I have to get the AQ and start doing that low tide. I changed detectors and headed down the beach, quickly realizing all that upper sand that was removed never made it out far enough into the ocean. Low tide was still sanded in. Now what? 🙄 I guess in my usual manner of not using machines the way they were designed for, I headed up to the black/purple sand area. I hunted this area hard with the GPX but remembered a couple of nickels that barely read on the machine. The combination of that sand and a clay bottom within 6-10” made detecting hard there. But first the new area I just got silver at with the GPX. I started finding coins immediately and pulled a bunch of silver and clad along with having some nice conversations with the state workers, which were trying to repair some damage nearby. After I exhausted that area, I really wanted to try the areas I hit hard where the nickels read terribly (they sound squiggly, like a wire would). Not a lot there, but I did notice I was getting some small lead and some thinner brass items. Then I got a decent hit, and out pops a small ring sitting on the clay with about 7” of sand over it. It had a stone in it that kind of looked good, but the band was encased in that tough reddish/ brown sand. Sort of like the color of rusted iron. I wiped a part of the band, and it cleaned up enough to see gold. I was 50/50 on it being gold. It turned out to be a 10K small diamond(?) ring, size 5 ½. So not using the AQ quite like Alexandre designed it for (sorry about that)😅, but it is my first gold with the AQ, I ultrasonic cleaned it, but it needs more work. The totals are in: 136 ish coins, 11 which are silver, a silver ring and earring and possibly some kind of clock pendant and the 10K ring. Some other neat relics include some religious medals, a pocket watch, and some junk jewelry. One lone Buffalo nickel to satisfy my need to not dig a zillion nickels without a Buffalo. Another fun hunt and a chance to try the AQ in tough sand conditions.

Next time you talk with him, tell him I need the next generation unit to beat the GPX 5000 on deep beach coins 😅 No hurry, if he can get me one by next week that would be fine 😂. It is nice to see someone willing to get a quality PI to the market and hopefully reset the current pricing system.

You're killing it on the Spanish recently. Way to go. A nice, perfect looking cut silver. 😍

I use an empty vitamin bottle that I cut a slot in the top, that I use for dropping my coins and other good stuff in while I hunt. This time it was completely full of coins. That has never happened before. I must admit, you get used to all those squats after a while. I always think I am going to hurt more than I actually do. It kind of feels good, pushing the knees, legs, arms, etc. If your one silver is lonely, you can send it here 😅

Beach hunt # 21 and the adventure continues. Same beach for about 8 hours. I extended the search to almost the end of this half of the beach. I could probably spend another day going over that whole area again, to see what I missed. There are definitely targets in between the areas that I hunted. I had so many hits, I just had to let some go. I almost cried when I finally got my first Buffalo nickel. 😂 How many Jeffersons can one person dig before he gets a Buffalo. The targets were nonstop for most of the day, until I hit an area that was not affected by all of the past storms. At that point, the coin targets dried up. A ton of clad, lots of nickels and 19 silvers. Finally, one gold ring surfaced, along with a gold wire probably from some kind of earring. I think the coin total was 229, along with the normal junk targets and an unusually high spoon count. I’m going to try and get back next week sometime to see if the other side of the beach has any erosion. I never looked on that side to see if something similar happened there as well. I’m very grateful to be able to hunt with no competition present, and very favorable sand movement. Usually, I fight to get 1 or 2 silvers. Recently, I have been blessed with way more than that. This is the best hobby in the world! 🥰

Hopefully more silvers to come if I get out tomorrow 🤭 The pros out there hit this beach and every other one in the area. But they know there is no gold where I was hunting. They read the beach and kept to the gold bearing areas. No one strayed because the other guy would take their spot. I heard there were at times 8-10 guys combing the beach. I can tell they never ventured up my way because of my nickel count and the other small non ferrous stuff I found. They would have to dig those or miss gold. Unless we have another big storm, I don't see my areas being covered over anytime soon. Everything I was digging was from just below the sand to a maximum of 10 inches. So even if it gets sanded in, I should still be able to get more coins. Tomorrow should be the test as I'll be hitting another area. If that produces, then I can say a good chunk of that beach was evenly washed away. I agree, it's mostly all from that 70's- early 80's era. Just recent enough to get a ton of clad, but also early enough to get some stray silver.

Beach hunt # 20 was of course back to the same beach. Finding out that the rest of the beach has the same potential as previously has me going back whenever I can break away. It’s not often that conditions remain the same, and you can get a bunch of coins and a very nice amount of silver. Apparently, I have been drawing a lot of power from my batteries, as each pack only lasted around 4 hours, before I got that warning sound no one wants to hear. The problem I had with my battery reading the last time had to be an error on my part 🙄 as it seemed to charge ok. If it was completely dead with almost no readings, I doubt it would have charged at all. Both packs now charge to 8.2V, probably what old batteries should charge to. As for the hunt, I couldn’t ask for a better day. Most likely a record coin haul at (I think) 165 coins, 16 of which were silver, possibly silver crosses and what’s left of an earring. Also, possible gold, as it does not stick to a magnet and looking at the rolled edge, I see only gold with no corrosion. Older coins include a Liberty V nickel and a Barber dime. I must admit, after I get off the beach I’m pretty dirty, with wet sand all over me. I must a sight to see 😄 Even the beach dogs stay away from me. The sand is very damp and tends to harden more than usual. I had to scrape it off my pin pointer. I’ll be back again, as I still have one long section to get through and lots of other areas to test. Hopefully the weather stays warm enough to dig.

Awesome. Great shape too. Around here, oyster shells can be Native American middens. It may take a bunch of hunts considering the large area you have to cover, but the rewards are better than most places have. Anytime you get into a 1600's area, the sky is the limit.

The high tides are breaking down banks like never before. The low tides are normal but productive. There seems to be a lot of movement both from demolishing banks and from the sea throwing back old coins from within. It must be scooping up quite a bit of sand just prior to the shore. Gold rings were plentiful in certain areas. Docks and boardwalks that are normally not visible were exposed more than ever. If you were one of the first to get there, you were getting some pretty old coins. Shield nickels, seated, and gold rings in decent quantity. I talked with a few guys well after the rush and they said everyone had at least 2 gold rings, other more than that. I'll make two t-shirts - rvpopeye for president - and ban schoolofhardNox from our beaches. And you should see a doctor about that twitchy finger that keeps hitting that like button.

Thanks. The Ray bans are a nice gift. I would have never bought a pair, so that's one of the perks of detecting I guess. 4 Buffalos this last hunt. This section was a gift for sure. It's been kinda dry lately. I'm going back as soon as I can get some time off.

Yep, it's been an unexpected silver streak. 🫠 I check the dates and MM that are readable, but not the really encrusted ones. I'm not going to do electrolysis on them until I get too old and can't hunt anymore. It will give me something exciting to do. As for weather, I'll detect as long as it get above 20 degrees and isn't snowing or very windy. Preferably 30 and above is good. I just layer up. I agree, same scenario on the Mercury/Roosevelt. It's funny how things work out sometimes.