schoolofhardNox

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

Yikes, 56 coins in one day, rings and things. Great job! Guess the GPX will pay for itself. 😁

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 😄

33 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

How common are (solid) nickel rings?  And what TID would you expect for those?  (Hint:  aren't some Canadian coins solid nickel?)  Does nickel turn a person's finger a nasty color?  I'm voting for white gold, particularly because that's going to make you considerably more pleased.

You do an excellent job sorting and photographing all your finds (good and bad).  That's greatly appreciated.

Random question:  what is a stainless steel hex-head bolt doing on a beach??

Nice work, as always!

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.

10 minutes ago, Tom_in_CA said:

School-of-nox :  The answer to this is simple :  We refuse to let our key date S mint coins cross over the Mississippi.  Tsk tsk.  Occasionally one slips over .  If that happens, kindly mail it back to me  😘

 

And yes, gold coins are most often always found in the western states.   If you want to start another post on that, there's been several reasons why this phenomenon exists, that we can discuss.   But I know lot of guys here with a gold coin to their name.  Some of which rarely find seateds, never find reales, etc.... Ie.: they're "tame" hunters.  And I know several other guys with two, three, or four gold coins so far here.  And a couple with 10 or more gold coins (although that's rare).  

 

Contrast to the EAST coast, where there are HARDCORE HUNTERS (with scores of LCs, colonials, reales, seateds, busts, etc...) yet have NEVER found a gold coin.  Or have found only 1, etc....   

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.

4 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

So you've found more -CC mintmarked coins than -S?

Since these mints had different periods of operation it's a bit hard to compare.  In particular the Denver and Carson City mints didn't overlap and Denver and New Orleans was only for a very short time (Denver's first coins were minted in 1906 and New Olrleans's last in 1909).

I don't have numbers but when I collected coins as a youngster going through bank rolls and pocket change (of my adult relatives since I didn't have much spending experience 😁) it was particularly hard to find -S mintmarked coins in general.  However, part of that is because San Francisco typically didn't mint as many coins as Philly in particular and in later years, Denver.  An added complication is that in some years not all mints even produced coins and in those cases it was typically the branch mints that didn't (compared to the main mint in Philadelphia).  So it's a complex deconvolution problem to figure out reasons for the distributions we notice.

None of that is meant to discourage your data reporting nor your wish to know what other have experienced.  My limited finds of early 20th Century coins (pre-clad era) here in my stomping grounds seems consistent with what I noticed back when I was collecting in the 1960's -- i.e. -S mintmarked coins are clearly the exception.  I've found only a couple pre-Barbers (one Shield nickel and one 2-cent piece) and only a few Barber dimes so my data is sparse, regardless, and praticallly non-existant prior to ~1900.

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.

1 minute ago, F350Platinum said:

Great hunt. You never cease to impress with that GPX. Everything from relics to gold.

When I was in Savannah, I really enjoyed interacting with people for the most part. The beach was packed, and a lot of people talked to me. I showed quite a few people the benefits of beach detecting for them.

But that's because I live in a secluded area, and my nearest neighbor is a half mile from me. I don't see many people.

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 🙂

On 4/22/2021 at 8:42 PM, F350Platinum said:

Wow, why would someone call a detectorist from over 100 miles away? Groton is a long way from western MA. 

They shoulda called @schoolofhardNox

😀

😄 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!

2 hours ago, Skullgolddiver said:

You are a Warrior!

Truly inspiring pictures for me, so usually badly looking for erosion and gold stuff, that I've lost the Joy To Simply dig and tune a PI.

I ended an hour ago to dismantle and re-assemble my TDI Bh with less coil cable and can't wait to dive again the next week with less lockdown restrictions.

All the best!

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.

3 hours ago, rvpopeye said:

You're probably right about needing Wheaties (or spinach ) but , I'm sure all I'd need is a minute or two......I have a new invention , I call it a Levitation Whistle , I only have to blow it and all the targets come up to within 2" of the surface ...It's true I tell ya !😁

Don't tell anybody , OK ?

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.

10 hours ago, Raphis said:

Many times, I dig a few scoops of sand out of the hole, and the signal vanishes.....but I have to just trust I heard the ultra deep target before I started digging (trust it wasn’t a false signal from salt/black sand deposit).  My elliptical coil really comes in handy for those signals because I can point the toe of the coil down in the hole once I have dug deep enough and hope I hear the target getting more audible.  

I dig in wet, low tide sand and in dry, hard packed sand....digging deep holes in wet, saturated sand obviously causes your deep hole to begin to cave in on the sides....even digging in loose, dry sand, which turns into slightly moist compacted sand will create a cave in of the hole the deeper you dig....this causes one to have to widen the hole just to prevent cave-ins....I’m a short guy (5’7” on a good day), and I wish my legs were longer on some of the holes I dig because I struggle to keep my left leg on top of the surface while extending my right leg down in the hole to push down on the scoop to remove more sand.  Many times, I just jump down in the hole (when it gets really deep) and push down on my scoop with both feet. 😅

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.

8 hours ago, Joe D. said:

    Yes, those 🤬 bulldozers!! Got them on two of the beaches right now, adding more trash ladened "sand" in a useless, and expensive attempt to stop Mother Nature for the coastal elite!           End of rant!😁

   Congrats on the slew of items, and the company! You and others here, always cheer me up, with your great old finds! I even like some of your junk! Still alot of history their to be had! I hope it continues to produce for you!!

   Is there any chance that one of Dozer operators can scrape you  a temporary, flat, two foot trench about 100-200 ft long, at the end of the day! He can cover it back the next morning!! If your up for an allnighter!!😂

Good luck next time out!!👍👍

   

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.

6 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

As always you show everyone else here just how good you and your equipment are in tune with each other.

I wish I could find that many coins in a week, I do find that much trash each time I go out and one of these days I know I too will find a half as good as yours.

Good luck on your next hunt.

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.

2 hours ago, rvpopeye said:

Cut it out ! 

You're making me look bad........😛

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.

4 hours ago, Raphis said:

Congrats on your GPX finds from your beach!!  I hunted my beaches for a few years with a TDI Pro and a 17x13 Nugget Finder coil, and slaughtered the deep silver, along with a decent number of gold rings....It was so tough digging those deep holes that tend to fill back in the deeper you dig.  I had 3 reinforced beach scoops made years ago by Chuck from Sunspot scoops.  I totally destroyed one after 8 months of digging in hard packed sand for 15-20+” targets.
 

I surmise my TDI Pro (GB Off) with the larger 17x13” coil would penetrate slightly deeper in the sand than a GPX with 12.5” coil would, but not 100% convinced...I had thought of buying a used 4000/4500 a year ago to test depth against my TDI pro, but it never materialized. I bought my TDI Pro for $950 (used only once before by previous owner) back in 2014, and it has paid for itself many times over.  
 

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, if you or any of the locals in your area have hunted with a TDI Pro before.

HH,

Dan

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!😄

3 hours ago, Tiftaaft said:

I have only found one of each (Walker and Standing), and they happened to be nestled right next to each other in the hole.  The quarter sized ring visible on the Walker.  My two favorite designs as well! 

I am constantly amazed at the amount of silver you pull off the beach.  I will continue to live vicariously through your amazing beach hunts.

I have a feeling this is your year GBA!

 

 

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. 🙂

2 hours ago, Tom_in_CA said:

Great pictures school-of-hard-nox.    And judging from the amount of ferrous targets to coins, the ratio wasn't too punishing, eh ?

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!

1 hour ago, GB_Amateur said:

Do you have an interpretation for that other than randomness?

You sure do produce with that (heavy) PI.  And every time I see a WL Half I feel both joy (for the finder) and a bit of pain (for me since it's my favorite all-time USA coin design, even more than the St. Gaudens $20).  There's one out there with my name on it but as yet I haven't figured out where it is....

Good stuff, as always, and I doubt these 30's degree days bother you much after what you went through during the winter months.  Besides, it keeps the riff-raff out of your way. 

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 😆

2 hours ago, Tiftaaft said:

Great hunt !  Beauty of a half!

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.

39 minutes ago, rvpopeye said:

That's quite a haul for not being your fave search area !  

It's raining up here...except it just included a 50% mix of huge flakes for 30 seconds then back to just rain.37*. Maybe our NewEngland weather will bring a hurricane to scoop out the dozer "damage" to your good spot so you can post pics of more than the few items you dug up this time..Skuh kuh kuh kuh kuh😉annnnnnnnd it's snowing again !

 

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 😉 

29 minutes ago, Elbert said:

The walker is one of my favorites. Congrats on the hunt.....Lot of digging.

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! 🙄

1 minute ago, Tom_in_CA said:

Correct.   And that was :  For park turf.   As you will see on his opening post question to the thread.  Thus yes : We are right-on-subject.  Of pro-con discussion for that situational type of hunt objective.  Right  ?   😔

You never quit. You must be fun at home 😆

5 minutes ago, Tom_in_CA said:

There is no doubt that a PI will get coins that a VLF is "not going to hit on".   That does not need to be "read and re-read"  It is undisputed.  The question is :  Can that ability be parlayed into junky park turf hunting ?  Or is "The devil in the details" ?

 

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.

7 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Thanks! The R object is a lug nut, so far research says they were marked right and left at one time. It is chrome plated, the photo isn't all that great. I'm also thinking "Rambler" for those of y'all who remember those fine rust buckets. 😀

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