schoolofhardNox

15 minutes ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

Looks like a fun time! Nice saves on the Silver! Love finding it........

I'm guessing, did Jim get a chance with the AQ? I have to apologize to him, I was suppose to send him some settings...

Thanks Joe. Yep you won't be getting a Christmas card from Jim this year 😄 He was fine. I showed him the basics (since that's all I know🤔), but since he has a lot of water experience and PI experience, he made whatever adjustments he needed. He was nice enough to give the AQ a full dunk for about 3 or 4 hours, so it finally hit some water instead of the land hunting it was used to. I wanted to try my GPX at a different setting  and his beach was a great choice. But I bet that water was COLDDDDDDDDD 🥶

Went out to 2 different beaches for a mix of GPX and AQ hunting. Tony repaired my headphones for the AQ and also made me a spare set , along with 2 short cables, so I could zip tie the short cable to the machine, and so I would not break the M8 connector. The short cable also converts the M8 to an M12, a more robust connector going to the headphones. So, for the first AQ hunt in a while, I chose my “spot” to see if I could find any low conductors where the GPX had previously run the 18” DD coil. I did not find any coins in that area, but did find little bits of melted copper and lead. So, I ventured out a bit and found the silver Washington quarter,Mercury dime and all the rest of the other coins.  I Later met up with a forum member - Jim in ma, at one of his spots. Thanks for the invite up there. 👍 I used the GPX to see if I could replicate the depth and coin count that I have had previously at my silver beach. This beach was smaller in the dry sand area, but the EMI was considerably less. The sand structure was different too, as I did not hit a clay layer or any of the other layers I was used to. But the principle was the same, and I did score a decent number of coins including the Mercury,  silver war nickel & .925 ring. All in all, it was a fun time out.

My guess is 70's/ 80's

1 minute ago, F350Platinum said:

That is interesting! I wonder now how much I have been missing in the farms because of the deep negative numbers. 🤔 Probably a good thing, there will be more for me this fall.

Rest assured I will dig everything where I'm going. High potential for historic items in one place. Just not sure about large holes... I don't think there will be black sand.

I've never had a problem with EMI. The only time I have ever heard it here is when I am over a buried power line, that is common here. Kind of a good thing! I keep my cellphone in my back pocket and only hear it when I am taking a photo of my find.

Thanks for your replies! You have a great toolbox there.

I haven't had that negative number problem at farm fields, just this one beach. I would still rely on the EQ doing its discriminating in that scenario. There is a boatload of iron in fields. It would not make sense to dig every nail in the field.  I would actually go in two tone to make it easier on my ears and lower the recovery speed to 4. That's where I would start.

Also think 1,000,000. There was a stretch of time when 1,000,000 was a big number and if you achieved it, you could retire. So they capitalized on that thought. Today, a million does not hold the same wow factor as it once did. So that token could be from the depression days up to the 60's or so. Just a guess using the number provided.

8 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Thanks! That's going to be interesting to me my first time on the beach. Part of the area I'll be hunting may contain some history as well as coins/jewelry but I have a 600, so no gold modes. 🤔 The negative numbers are intriguing. When you say random hole, do you just stop and dig or does something give you a clue, like multiple ID's on a sweep? I've done that before when the Equinox throws a symphony at me, and as I recall I haven't regretted doing it. How different are the gold modes?

I am sure I'll dig it all but some finesse may help. 

The gold modes have saved me when the EMI was too much for the EQ. But not having them is not a deal breaker. The machine set up with the stock settings is the way to go for a while, until you get used to digging deep targets. Dig, dig and dig even if the target says it's junk. That is how you learn. The random holes were just that, random.... sort of. 😄  I knew there were a lot of targets in this small section and I knew that they were deep and I knew that the machines were struggling to hear them, so I just dug a 15"x15" hole about 10"deep. Then used the pinpointer to see if anything registered. I also used the Equinox in pinpoint to see if there was anything way deeper than 10". Most times I would get 1-2 targets, some coins, some iron. Other times I get zero. I always buried the holes back up and made sure they were packed solid. Don't want to lose permission to hunt. The negative numbers are a common thing that happens to machines when they reach their limit on a deep target. Also when they are interfered with by EMI or very challenging soil compositions. At this spot both EMI and layered black sand, made targets that should read 26 read 12 or some that were deeper were classified as iron at -8. When I saw -8, I knew that a couple of more scoops would make that iron turn to non iron.  The gold modes to some people can be annoying with a zip zip sound instead of the usual signal you get.

If I were you, I'd cash in on that  😄 Ask for silver, gold and military relics 😉 Never seen one like that before. Looks rather new from the patina. maybe a game piece?

10 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Man that GPX is a monster! Great haul.

Any idea what you found with the Equinox vs. the GPX?

In certain situations the GPX is hard to beat. In heavy iron, it will make you quit detecting 😄 I wanted to use the Equinox for pinpointing basically. It does not like this beach's sand mix and does not ID or respond to targets very well. The coins I found were already out of the hole before they read as coins. I dug a random hole (in this target rich area) and used it to find the targets. In the hole, some dimes read -8 up to +15, out of the hole they bounced from 18 to 26 to 35. EMI and the mix of thin layers of black and purple sand drive the Equinox nuts. I ran gold 1 mode. I could only use the EQ this way since there are a decent amount of targets. On the rest of the normal sections of the beach, if you dig random holes you get nothing. Surprisingly, the targets the EQ found included 3/4's of what you see, including half the silver dimes and the Barber half. It was used for most of the hunt. The GPX cleaned up the deep dimes in the area directly below where the EQ was used.

7 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Great finds again, just wondering if you moved over a little bit like I suggested and if there was an old structure in the middle.

Anyways glad you found some goodies.

Good luck on your next outing.

Thanks. I'm sure I used up all my luck though 😄 I think you have me mixed up with jim in ma.  He posted a beach hunt and you wondered if there was a structure near by. But any beach through the ages has things set up that we have no clue existed. Boardwalks, snack areas, kids sections, events, etc... all gone to history. In my case though, I think I am getting to layers that have been there for 50-80 years undisturbed. I have in the course of 4+ years,  found these silver areas at least 4 or 5 times. I must be up to 400 ish silvers from there.  You have to grab them when they are available.

6 hours ago, Joe D. said:

   Great write up, and great job setting up your detectors to do such a great job! That is definitely an art, and a feel for your machines, that I have yet to rise to!! That amount of focus and dedication to work an area is equally impressive! Looking forward to more!👍👍

Thanks Joe. It is an art I guess. Some of the gold guys have fine tuned their senses to hear subtle tone differences that make them hugely successful. I have not those abilities. 🙄 I think of myself as an opportunists, hitting areas that only a deep machine can barely hit. Just beep and dig. Because the beach has removed all the light trash, it's an easier task then if the area is loaded with aluminum and bottle caps. That is why I pound the area as long as it is available. It's not very often that they come up and even rarer that they stay long enough to get most of what is there. Find an area on your beach that has something about it that is different and stay a while before moving on.  I will be on the move for another spot next time.

4 hours ago, mn90403 said:

It is always difficult to leave a good spot and look for new but it has to happen when results lessen.  This spot was certainly a good go but maybe it gives you ideas about other places with more or less targets.

It's been fun watching you get these goodies.

Mitchel

Thanks Mitchel, I'm well over due to move on 😄. I've basically run out of real estate. There is another small section I want to try and hit. There are also other sections where I got deep clad (1970's / 1980's), but the chance for silver is way less, so I left those for another day.  There is also another beach I have my eyes on, so we'll see. Beaches change so rapidly from day to day, that another section close by could open up at any time. If I lived there I could check it regularly. That is why I stuck with it for so long. Time to get back to searching for whatever I can get.

I did not think I would get a chance to get out this week, but since yesterday opened up for me, I decided to hit my favorite spot. I had a couple of ideas on how I would work this same area, but in reality, it required a bit of trial and error to get these results.  It was supposed to rain part of the day, so I figured I would use the Equinox for the morning. I wanted to get as close to the iron areas as possible, so I decided on the 6” coil. If the rain stopped, I would use the GPX with the 18” DD coil to get those deep dimes, in the other section of this spot. It worked, but I had to make a lot of adjustments to get each machine to do what I thought I wanted it to do. I think I have done all I can in this spot to get whatever remains within reach of my machines.  If there is more there, I do not know how to get to it. Surprises of the day were the Barber half, Barber dime, and a decent amount of silver. It took a lot of digging, more than just the number of targets shown.  The 18” coil is a brute to swing, Lucky you have to swing it very slow to get the good stuff. I am not sure where the next stop will be, but it probably will not be anything like this place has been. Who knows, Tony just fixed my AQ headphones and made me one of his as a spare, so maybe some gold hunting is in the cards. A relic hunt may be in the works for next week also, looking for Native artifacts. I have to hit the woods before the yellow jackets and ticks wake up. 🤬 As always, it's good to get out in the fresh air and enjoy the day!

Silver and gold.... You can't beat that! Great hunt and a good return of good vs bad targets.

2 hours ago, Jim in ma said:

 unfortunately it is a kids beach and most of the rings are junk but they did lose coins.

I would have guessed that would be a good thing, but maybe not. I picture the mom getting into the water and losing her ring. The age of those silvers would mean no stainless steel, titanium, or aluminum rings should be found. There has got to be some gold lurking there. Use the Ouija board for help 😄

Nice. The silvers come out decent looking. Killing it on the jewelry.

2 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

I lived in the Northeast (New England) most of my life, in cities and suburbs.

 

😀 I do miss Brimfield Flea market tho.

You were right in my back yard. I'm just a couple towns over from it and only been to Brimfield flea market once or twice. 😄 I avoid it due to the fact that I would always find something to buy. My house can't take any more weight! Don't be sad that responses don't happen quickly. You never know when people will read your post or if they even see it at all. Time is always limited and I sometimes read posts for the first time that were months old. As for advice on beach hunting..... you've had some good advice already, so I will try and not repeat much. For me, all of my detecting life, I have always relied on two things: 1) My inner voice that says go there, no matter how improbable the area may be. 2) On a beach I dig it all, unless there are some newly exposed areas. In that case I use a discriminator to get the easy targets. Most of the last 8 or 9 hunts, I dug everything. If you are healthy enough, use it as exercise. If you are not healthy enough, use a discriminator and dig wisely. But either way use beach detecting to enjoy yourself. I never tell myself I have to find gold or silver. I wish it, but don't put any pressure on myself. But when I do find it, I get really, really focused 😬      😄

I think they also call the depression one, Vaseline glass. Some are even radioactive (uranium,) and glow under (I'm assuming) a black light. Google images of Vaseline glass and you can see them glow. Nice piece.

Great finds! It's amazing what turns up when some sand is removed. I'd go right back over that same area again, now that a lot of targets have been removed.

10 hours ago, kac said:

Grooved on one side could be so the rope holds it in place. I don't think they had ISO standards back then...

Very cool

Yeah 😄 How dare them have no standards. That's what makes me lean toward Adze. They only need one side grooved for that. Google the heck out of Axes and adze, using images and see which one it fits better as.

Could be natural tin or zinc, still in it's rock form. Cool find.

Super find. Judging from those dates, I'm thinking the Indians were early dates too, possibly even a Flying Eagle in the bunch. In tough soils, targets hide easily. Use that pinpointer in the hole even if the Nox does not register anything. Open holes can trick a detector sometimes. Hope there is more there for you.

The thing that stands out is that your piece is only grooved on one side? Or is it grooved on both sides? There are groups on Facebook that you could look over their finds, probably without joining (hopefully) and see what they have found. Maybe there is something similar posted there. Keep looking at that spot you found that at. Where there is one artifact, there are usually more.

Here's a picture of how an Adze would look like.

Looks like white metal which is usually mostly zinc. Think car hood ornaments and fake hood grills on the cars from the 70's. The way your piece looks corrosion wise, I would say zinc based and sometimes also referred to as pot metal.

11 hours ago, Mark Gillespie said:

Nice haul, the salt water is very harsh on the silver coins.  I found a mercury many years ago.  It looked similar to your but was caked with something black that would never come off.  Nice finds.

Silver coins take a beating from the salt water environment. Silver usually bonds with Chlorine or Sulfur. Hydrogen, Bromide and Oxygen also play their parts. I'm guessing the thick, black, granular stuff we call "Oreo cookies" may be horn silver (silver chloride). I think that is the simple version, but it usually is a combination of things. All I know is that the caked on black "cookies" are hard to break off. When you do get the coin out, it has lost a lot of its original thickness and converts a lot of silver to, I think the chloride state AgCl.  Someone who knows the chemistry may be able to confirm or correct this and explain it correctly. I often wanted to try bringing a vile of diluted ammonia to remove some of the corrosion or to at least stop the oxygen and sulfur in the air from continuing the corrosion process. I know when I dig beach silver that is a milky white/gray color, if it is exposed to the air it turns that black color which I'm thinking is silver sulfide mostly. 

It might even be an Adze too. Either one would be great!

Well you got lead, so if there was gold you would have hit it.  What is that coin target in the middle of the picture?? Looks interesting

4 minutes ago, Jonathan Porter said:

Still gagged 😔 

Somebody rescue JP and get that gag off of him. Poor fella 😄 Tell them that's "unjust punishment" .