Dances With Doves

12 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

OK, I said I would post a silver, so here goes, though I have found some smaller than this, cut or trimmed hammered. I found this 16th century Elizabeth 1st hammered on my last trip to the U.K., and if asked to pick a favorite silver find this is in the running. It is small, paper thin, and sharp detail. I am told Elizabeth was not well loved by many, who went out of their way to rub her face out on the coins. Many are found where that appears to be the case. This one has very little wear, and so it is a favorite find. Weight 0.54 gram

Hi Steve.That is a awesome  find.The variety of finds  you can find in Europe is mind boggling.Would you say you enjoyed hunting the fields in England  as much you do nugget  hunting. If  Greece had in  England's treasure laws that could get some winter tourists there to hunt the fields.Summer is way to hot there to do it then.  

In 2009 i would still water hunt a lot plus went for turf gold more.I also tried to find silver with the xterra with the coils  that  I had which helped in bringing my silver total for that year down to 50 by not being as good and me  going for the  challenge in trying to get silver with it.I would get 12 Barber coins this year.My  explorer stock coil would break early in this  year and I would use the 7'' coil for most of my  Explorer hunts.I did find in a private farm field that use to have a old 1 room school house a silver  Constable badge that had the town written in script.What a find. It is probably from the 1870 and is a town where my buddy would have ancestors (Dutch).It is no longer a town by that name. in 2009 i would get 50 indians including 15 in 1 day. 

In 2008  I would buy a Tesoro  tiger shark and a x-terra  70. I paid 798  for the x-terra in  November and got a carrying case and a  5by 10 18kz. coil plus  a 9'' 3kz coil for that price which =$400 in  extra coils . I would still water hunt a lot and do good there.I would find 113 silver coins that year with a record for me of  14 in 1 day  after a buddy from a different town brought us to a certain park   .He though him and his buddy had   pretty much had cleaned it out.I would find 12 barber coins that year. The Xterra would get 3 silver at the end of the  year.The explorer found most of them.The explorer was much better in most situations on silver compared to the  xterra and the 9'' 7 kz. stock coil.This  xterra was a good machine if you learned how to use  it and where to use it with it's different combos.I would get 81 Indians in 2008.

1 minute ago, GB_Amateur said:

An interesting clue there  Why almost all dimes?

I  wonder if that was the cost to use the beach house to change.

In 2007  I  would still water hunt a lot but this year we traveled out of town a lot to  Buffalo and a eastern Finger lake town. I  would end up with 107 silver coins this year with the infinium getting about 10 again in the water and out of it.I found 27 Barbers this year because  of the out of town  trips.I would get 175   Indians with a few 10 plus days on them out of town.At this point I am over the 1000 coin mark the way Tom described.

 In 2006   I  would spend a lot of time water hunting and got 79 silver coins but only 6 barber coins.The infinium got about 10 silver coins with a few in the water.This is the year we found the cache and the main clusters of them.  They were on land and in the nearby      shallow pond along the shore.  My total for the cache was 542 that were all dimes  except for 2  quarters and 1  war nickel.  I did real good on the gold in the water too. Total silver with the cache=621.Makes up for the low Barber count. in 2006  I would find 63 indians.

In 2005  I would dip below the 100   silver mark with 80 coins.I would get 18 barber coins.  I would try water hunting in june in Lake ontario  for  a week with no luck. I would hunt a park in a other town with a buddy on a hot  august day and he would get 2 gold in the turf.He motivated me and and next  day on a calm and clear lake ontario  I would get a big gold ring within 15 minutes and  I was hooked plus I  had a bigger   scoop.I would get a 100 gram 10k rapper medal plus a 3/4 ounce 24 k chain with medallion after this.I would mostly hunt in the water after this      .The gold made  up for the loss in silver.The infinium even got 2 silver coins in a  finger Lake plus a few on the dry sand using the Steve H method by digging the low-hi hits.In 2005 I would get 38 indians.  

In 2004  I found 106 silver coins and this would be the last full year that I did not water hunt.I would buy a Garrett Infinium early in 2005.My Barber coin total would drop to 19.I would get 133 indians in 2004.

It seems so far for the price that people think it is a above average detector.

 That small gold is impressive skookum.Did you every try the 40kz. on the Nox to try to find those inner ring fly poop specks.  

On 1/28/2021 at 7:35 AM, Tom_in_CA said:

I've been at it since I was in 8th grade, which was about 1976.   I wish I'd kept track of all the silver coins I'd found, so I could chime in on your question 🤪

I would not count caches (yes, even spilled ones) into the total.  If you're talking of singular fumble-finger-losses, then a cache or broke-open-cache is not in the same category.   Jamflicker & Dan ("Raphis") are finding them one-fumble-finger loss at a time.   I too, decades ago, got into  a location where jars of silver coins had apparently broken open by a farm plow.  And spread out into a field and barn area.   Such that sometimes you'd get 5 or 10 silver coins all fused together.   That's different than the 1-at-a-time that Dan and Jam do, as you know.

Also, there's different niches.   Ie.: While that might be the most merc's from turfed So. CA parks (or ANY USA parks in-a-given-year), yet there's other niches.   Like notice they find few, if any, seateds.   And there's guys that have no desire to knock themselves silly for  roosies and mercs in junky turf cherry-picking.  And might only end the year with 10 or 12 silver coins.  Yet every one of them will be a seated.   So as you can see :  Different niche categories of skill. 

Hi Tom. What was  your total from your spilled cache on silver about?

My silver count would drop to 142   in 2003   but I would get 216 Indians.I would get 32 Barber coins and we  met up with the Minelab explorer Guru Mike  Moutray   and we took him to a spot since he was not from around here.That day i found 2 $2.5 dollar gold coins in 1 hole with both 1909 dates.He found the most coins though including his first 3 cent silver.The week before I scored a 1895-o key date barber dime and for the icing on the cake a Seated half in December. One of my favorite years ever.

How would you rate it's performance for the places and way you like to hunt so far at a scale of 0-10  ?  10 being the highest.  

We have to remember they  probably pay Minelab a cut for  every coil which =higher price. Coitech offered 15 inch orange coils for the x-terra for a high price.Minelab then offered the same coil in black after some time at a much cheaper  price. It could happen hear too  after some time.   

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Good advice.

That vanquish 7by 10 coil would have made a great water hunting coil for the nox.It would have good coverage,good depth and it would cut through the water better then the 11''.It would also be  lighter for those hunting the  dry sand where a lighter machine means less pain with ample coverage still available.

27 minutes ago, Raphis said:

When I bought my Explorer SE back in 2007, that machine came stock with what Minelab called their 11” (or maybe it was 10” ?) Slimline coil.....that coil was a “piece of crap” compared to the Explorer II’s 1050 coil. When I ordered a 1050 coil for my Explorer, it was a big upgrade....more stability and depth and less falsing on mineralized ground on turf and sand/salt environments....I believe Minelab admitted later on that those slimline coils had design flaws....I don’t remember the following timeline exactly, but when ML released the Etrac with their new Pro coil (or shortly before), they immediately replaced the slimline coils on the original Explorer SE’s and renamed the machine an SE Pro.  When the Pro coils became available, I upgraded my 1050 coil for the new Pro coil and that was the coil I hunted with for the proceeding years I used my SE...The Pro coil was a great ML coil, and miles better than their original slimline coil for the Explorer SE series.

Hi Raphis.Are you able to keep up with your buddy  Jamflicker and his FBS machine vs. your Nox.He seems  to be doing  good and has more years on that machine?

Hi Steve.Do you know how many   people in Africa use a metal detector in   Africa for their lively hood. 

In 2002  I  would have my record year for silver at 244 coins.  I would get 168  Indians and 1073 wheat   penny's. I would get a  Civil war   belt plate and many 3  ringed bullets in this Northern town.I would also get my first draped bust large cent which was dated  1800.I ended up with 38 Barber coins and got my first bust dime that was  to  worn to get a  date. I also got a mint 50 cent silver from  a country  in   South America with a 1917 date.I had about 10  seated dimes that year. At this point in time clad hopper was still using his Garrett 2500 and I only hunted a couple of times with him at club hunts at this point(main hunting   partner now).He would get his explorer 2 in  May 2003 and would clobber silver the next 17 years  with this machine.I would guess at this point he is under 100 silver for his career .  

In 2001 winter was tough here in  Rochester and  I did not get my first silver until march 9.That year I found my first 3 cent  piece(2 in  1 hole  ) my first   Spanish silver and my only Morgan dollar plus first seated half dime.I ended up with 211  silver coins that year.My Barber count went down to  30  but  I did find a 1901-s dime.I also found my first  Carson city dime that year.I was happy hitting 200 but  other explorer hunters started around here and they were good and they would take a good chunk of silver.I  would become friends with most of them.In 2001  I had 222 indians which should be  my  record for a year.

I started out the year 2000 with almost 10  hunts in  January with a few wheaties in this overgrown hill old camp that was between a pond and a creek.I found a  Canadian Large cent and a few wheaties     here with the Bandito and then the snow came in heavy and shut it down.At this time I got an early run Explorer before the ran out  of them because of demand and this lasted a few month  for that machine. I can say that having this type of machine at this time made a newbie like me look   good.The first time at  this camp  I found a Barber dime and Merc. and I was just going for solid signals.I did not know what a good iffy signal was yet.I had 6  silver in my first        4 hunts which including my first Barber Quarter too.  I had in that year  190 silver coins and got my first beach and turf gold .The turf gold was a about 6  gram 24k medallion. I had    many    old silvers that were older>Barbers,seated or old Canadian.I had a total of 57 Barber coins with a 1895 and  1897-o Barber  dime found within the first month of me using the Explorer  with a 1895-s coming  at the end of the year.Thank you minelab for offering this machine at  that time. All my old coins  show what those other machines  missed and made a  newbie look good.I hunted a lot that year and was not a water hunting yet.I did hunt the    dry sand about 20 times and spent time   at a school because  it was  very close and they tore up the back.Barbers were very scarce at this school.In 2000 I found a 160 indians

 I used a 5by8 on my At gold and that coil would swing very nice in the water and the area we hunt  is a half mile by about 400 yards area that you can walk out a good  distance  when the water is low.It would swing much better then the Nox 11 coil.I imagine the coiltech 5 by 10 will do the same.

f2-0 for coins and f2-7 when the   bottle caps get numerous in my finger lake when  I am hunting gold.

 I dug out my records and went back to the beginning.The first hunt of my career was  on  June 20 1999 with a bandito 2 umax I bought from Wilson metal detectors.I did not get my  first     silver for almost 20  hunts and that was with parks still loaded     with them.I did not know how to hunt for them plus picked the   wrong spots at first. I also was hunting the beach a lot so that did not help.I was able to get a feel for hunting coins with  that machine and picked spots  where    the coins  were shallower. I ended up with  19 silver for that  half year of hunting which  I  did often.I did get 2 Standing Liberty quarters though. I found 6 indians in 1999 including 1 15 minutes after it got dark on dec.31 to end the   century.I found 4 barber coins this year.

In 2017  I found only 53  silver coins.The  explorer 2 in the turf and the At gold    in  the water found most of them with the x-terra 70 with the 7.5 kz concentric getting  only 2 of those.The x-terra 70 in my area did not do well with that stock  coil in most situations.My 10.5'' 7.5 kz coil broke the year before on that machine and that coil  on that  machine  improved it's performance more  then any combo that I ever used for coins. This is a instance where a coil made all the difference. This was the least amount of time that  I  ever  hunted by far.At least  50% less then year before. I only had 8  Indians in 2017. In 2017 i found 2 barber coins and they were found on the same day. 

The new  15'' coil in 4kz. might be a  very deep combo in good dirt.I remember one person  saying he got  more depth on silver with his  15''  3kz. coil for his x-terra then he got with the 13by17'' coil for his Ctx.I had a  faulty 13'' nel tornado in 7.5 kz for only 2 weeks and it got me the   deepest   wheatie  I ever dug in the turf  with my x-terra 70  . I heard that the Mars  coils were also very deep  for the X-terra.