schoolofhardNox

This year is a good year beach wise for finding older coins. It takes a couple of storms to remove sand as well as very windy days to remove some more sand, little by little. Most recent hunts, I have averaged around 50 coins I think. I lucked out and bought the GPX used for around $2500.00. The bad part is I spent almost that much again on Minelab and after market coils 🙄 It would pay for itself if I would stop buying coils 😄 Solid nickel rings probably don't even exist, but that is what it looked like to me. It probably is white gold, but is a bit weathered looking. Nickel, even shaped like that ring, probably should read a bit above 8 on the Nox I would guess, but I bet it would be close. I think nickels read 12 or 13? Thanks about the photographing. I figure some people may want to see what New England beaches have trash wise. It also shows you that, if you dig it all, this is what you can expect junk wise. Not sure on the S/S hex nut. It looks tapered, so maybe some kind of pin for some machinery they may use on the park grounds next to the beach. But I also saw a windshield wiper in the water as well, that I threw out. It is kind of a trashy beach in some parts.

Went to a different, flat beach for a change of pace. I was going to wrap the GPX in plastic and go into the water a bit but found out my Detech coil needs to be weighed down in order to not float. Not a big deal, as it is a great coil and my favorite. I will know better next time and will weigh it down. Because of how flat the beach is, I expected and was granted, lots of bits of aluminum 😆. The number of coins was in line with how things seen to go for me on my area beaches. Found a bit of silver as well. Also found a ring which is either nickel or white gold. It is not as clean as I would expect gold to be, but maybe it is a lower karat. Just somehow reminds me of how some clad quarters look when they are tumbled a lot, coming out looking clean and not that red/green/brown look. Reads a solid 8 on the Nox. I still feel there should be some deep gold and silver there due to the deep coins and deep lead that is still left behind. Also, the number of pull tabs could have been gold rings as well. I do have to say one thing about the GPX line. They are very durable machines. I just hope the GPX 6000 is as durable. My 5000 has done a lot of deep woods hunting as well as the beach hunts. Things do go wrong with it (like the cam locks), but it always powers up and performs well. So, nothing earth shattering, but a decent day at the beach.

I'm one of those....never found a gold coin, but have plenty of colonial coins. The only gold I hear of being found in NE are usually $2.50 or $5.00 gold, mostly into the 1900's. I'd trade a couple of Fugio's or a Nova for one of those older gold coins.

Sorry about that, I was including Barbers in the conversation as well as Seated. But yes, I find more CC than S coins. The CC's are usually very worn and if I remember correctly are usually 1875. I don't have a lot of them maybe 3 of them. Come to think of it, even in the Lincoln wheat series, I rarely find S mint marks prior to the 40's.

Would love to know what others have found as well. In lower NE, I occasionally get CC, O, and D mint marks. I rank them in order of most to least being: P, D, O, CC, S.

I don't mind talking to some people, but it's the ones that you can't get rid of that get to me 😄 I can't detect if you keep talking to me and I have to remove my headphones every 2 seconds. Mini rant over 😶

I agree with what a lot of people have posted. I did some reading on it and I'm always a believer in using your mind to help heal. As others have said, Steven Hawking (and probably others we don't hear about) live a long time with it. I think you have already acknowledged and come to terms with it, and now can hopefully move past it and continue to gain strength and keep mentally active. No one knows how long anyone of us have, so every day is precious. Stay strong. Take the good days when they are there, rest on the bad days. Maybe there will be some new drug trials coming up soon. You have a lot of us in your corner, rooting for you.

Went out Thursday for a beach hunt at the usual place. It was a very busy week, and I was looking forward to some stress release, hopefully digging for some remaining silver. Kind of a random in how I was going to run my day, but I new I wanted to dig some large iron to see if it hid anything great. Just a couple of silvers for the effort and the usual clad with a couple of exceptions. I did get a nice gold wedding band with the initials of both people in it and a 52 (I am assuming the year they got married). What was odd though was the only other inscription on the ring, which was P11. I am thinking it stands for 11 Karat plum gold. That would be an odd Karat value. I had to wander around a bit more than usual and now the silver just trickles in. No heavy concentrations that I can see. I am going to try and get out Monday and do a long flat exposed beach if I can. Wrap that GPX nice and tight in heavy plastic and see if I can get some deep clad. It gives me a chance to try out my new scoop some more. I think I have only used it twice since I bought it. This is a fairly clean beach, so it is going to be a real test for the GPX. If I can score a lot of targets, then I know there is still a lot out there on those types of beaches. We will see. Hope the weather holds up and does not get too warm out there…. I like solitude 🙂

😄 Ironically, I just saw Keith and he told us the story. I hunt with him occasionally when he helps out on our projects. He detected with me on Friday at Mason's Island. He is a great guy and he worked real hard to find that box. To get that box inside a house in the position it was in, shows how good and smart of a detectorist he really is. Also, he was fairly close my neck of the woods. Only a couple towns over. Small world.

On the east coast I am running about the same 50/50 for pre 1850 silver (Capped Bust / Seated) vs Reales. What is really hard is Draped Bust silver in my area. On the lower coast they find them occasionally, but interior wise I haven't found one yet. The most common Spanish I have found is in the 1770's - 1790's Carlous varieties. Occasionally the 1800's stuff comes up. What we drool over from the western part of the country is the "S" mintage coins, the gold coins, gold nuggets and the meteorites.

Nice. Bust coins don't come up very often. Gold coin too previously? You got a great spot there.

Congrats on the '62D half. Great job cleaning it up too. Halves always come up unexpectedly. No Aluminum can this time!

Thanks. On this beach the regulars hunt for gold as well. Gold is rare for me to get here on dry land. So I concentrate for silver and sometimes something gold shows up 🙂 Don't waste your time on digging like me, keep hunting for gold under water!!! All the best to you on your next hunt!

Great finds! old and new gold. Well done.

My guess would still be slag. If you are on Facebook, there are many forums for rock identification. Mostly when I see a similar item there, most call it slag.

Don't worry, we are on the internet. Your secret is safe.

Great finds! When our beaches have some good erosion, we usually get chains, and gold rings. You were smart to go back to a chain area and see if there are more. That 14K ring is gorgeous.

The signal vanishes sometimes with the GPX too, usually if I don't take enough of sand away. I make sure it repeats just enough to peak my interests and then I dig a decent depth hole, at least 8" or more. If it's real then the signal should scream. That is where a spade does better than my scoop. But I'm on dry sand. I've done the wet slopes and it always caves in once you go past the water line. With a scoop, I can see where you would lose the signal. But you know it was there, so it is there. I wish they would scrape a trench for me. 😄 In the old days you could probably convince someone to do that during the off season. Throw a 20 at him and a six pack and your golden. 😆 Nowadays, he would be fired and you would be banned from the beach. If I could bribe nature I would. Nobody does it better than a good old fashion Nor'easter. It's just a matter of location and opportunity. Good spots are getting harder to come by, so you have to be more creative in trying new ones. I have hunted cellar holes for about 10 + years before I did beaches. Before that I did parks, schools, picnic groves, etc.. Every time out, I looked for sections that others might not go into. I hiked a lot 🙄 I have over a hundreds large coppers, seated half dimes, trimes, some bust dimes, etc... all from cellar holes. Research is the key. You could be driving by an old field that may have been a carnival site 100 years ago. You just never know. Come on down, I'll put that GPX on you and turn you loose 😄 Just eat your Wheaties before you get here. That rig is heavy.

Hi Raphis, It sounds like you were close to the water, or in the water for the holes to start filling up. I would never survive doing that. On my beach I have to use a short spade, due to the packed rocks. I did buy a nice Xtreme scoop but I'm saving it for the nicer, rock-less sand. I only used a TDI for a little bit on the projects I am on. It was a TDI SL, so I don't have enough experience on it to give you a good opinion. But GB off, if possible, is always a better choice from what I hear. It sounds like you know your machine well, so if you had it running good, you should get excellent depth on it. The only way I can compare it from here, is that I get a nice, (quiet) solid, repeatable signal from a silver dime at 15" It's usually a two way signal for the most part. From 16-18" it is a semi-repeatable signal, unstable at times, and not always reading well both directions. After 18" it is a cross between EMI and ground noise, just barely repeating enough of times to make you not walk away. I usually take a foot of sand away and it should read loudly if it is a real signal. So if your machine can copy what I do, or do even better, then you are getting comparable (or better) depth than I am. As for locals hunting with the TDI on beaches, they will never tell anyone about it. Competition steals you finds!😄 Thanks. Our beaches are fairly old and luckily, the level that the old coins sit at has always surpassed the new technology coming out.... until recently. Without the GPX (or probably any good PI), I would be posting just a few clad and zincs Technology and a beach that is cooperating is the key👍 My beach is fairly long. I have hit 3 areas that have produced over 100 silvers each in the last 4 years or so. Also, a couple of small areas that have produced dozens of silvers. If the whole beach is capable of having the deep layers, it's just waiting for nature to remove enough sand in the right areas for me to have access to them. You just have to keep an eye out for those openings. I'll be back at that same clad area next week to see if the dozer didn't get to it, and if it still has more to give. Take it while you can. 🙂 The ratio is skewed in a way. I always try and guess the target before I dig. I was averaging about 80% correct on iron id. So a 20% failure - mostly on short, heavy iron or small deep iron. The shallow iron breaks up the audio, so it's easy. The deep wires and long pieces show up by coil control (sizing). But I dig them all to get rid of them in the good areas. It's naturally easier to ID iron when they are spaced apart. I did pretty good calling the coins (about 90%), by sizing and softness of signal. The rest of the targets give odd signals which can be either deep iron or odd shapes (like crosses, studs, etc). If I wanted to discriminate by guessing, I would dig a lot less iron, but would lose some coins as well - generally dimes and in better areas that would be silver!

Thanks. The lack of zinc just shows that the ocean has cleansed whatever remained after all the detectors have swept the area, (after hours) during the beach season. They usually take a blind eye to detecting after the life guards go home. So the locals come out and look for the gold in and out of the water. As for the huge number of coins? Some say it is due to storms surging things back on to the shore. I'm not completely on board with that, as the coins are laying fairly close to the clay layer. I'm thinking storms and wind have removed enough sand for me to just be able to hear these targets. The GPX is heavy especially if I try the 18" coil on it. The 12 1/2" coil is all I can handle on a regular basis. A 14" coil would be perfect for depth I would think. 🤔 The weather is not usually an issue with me, as long as I am constantly moving and digging. The wind can sand blast your skin and eyes though. Helps rejuvenate those dead cells 😄. I'm pretty sure that I am the riff-raff on the beach 😆

Thanks. One of the nicest designs on American coins, along with the Standing Liberty quarter, Mercury dime, Buffalo nickel and Indian Head cent. My favorite series as far as beauty goes. But I do love the Flying Eagle cent as well. Thank You. It's adjacent to my favorite spot. Yep that dozer could have been put to better use in my opinion 😄 Thank God for mother nature to level the playing field for us beach goers. I will try harder to get you more items, I have been slacking 😉 Thanks. I love finding any big silver. I think this is around #8 for this season from there. Another 16 or 17 from previous seasons. This is the only beach where I have found this many silver half dollars. It's the reason I don't travel away from this place too many times.

I had a chance to meet up with Jim in ma for a beach hunt. Always nice to detect with a fellow forum member. 🙂 Hit me favorite beach for about 6 hours and had to adjust my thinking, since the bulldozers had mostly buried my silver area. Thanks Guys! 😡 So, I moved over to the clad section to at least get to dig some coins. The ratio of silver to clad leans heavily towards the clad. But there was some silver to be found, including the big silver. 71 coins in all (including silvers). Oddly enough, there was not a single zinc to ruin my day. ❤️ Average depth of targets was about 14”. Some different finds of the day were 2 round ball, one being a 69 caliber, the pistol brooch, a chain which looks too thin to be a pull for a light, but still may be. If it ends up testing positive for silver, then it is a neat design for a piece of jewelry. It was really nice to get out, and I was pleasantly surprised that it did not rain as predicted. Today we are covered with a bit more snow than the dusting I thought we were supposed to get. New England weather! 🙄

You never quit. You must be fun at home 😆

No offense Tom, but the GB posted this so he could get advice from PI guys for a certain situational hunt. You hijacked this thread so you could push your views on how PI guys are incorrect about this or that. Who cares! Start your own post on it. You come across as pushy when you don't win the argument. I'm surprised Steve let this off topic go so long.

I get this feeling that the R hub is older. I don't know why 😄 It just looks teens or twenties to me. So I figured I would Google defunct car companies and Wikipedia had this list. I had no Idea that there were this many manufacturers out there. Shockingly, even one of those from Holyoke, MA where I once lived. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_automobile_manufacturers_of_the_United_States