Glenn in CO

Thanks for sharing your story and photos.

Here’s a Chevrolet bowtie mounted on the radiator on my 1928 Chevrolet.

These two websites have a variety of different types of gold nuggets, specimens and paydirt. You can get a idea of what different types of gold nuggets and specimens are going for:

https://goldnuggetsforsale.com/

https://goldnuggetsales.com/

That's a great way to start out the new year, very nice specimens. WTG! 👍

WTG! Great way to start the new year and with a new coil. 👍👍👍

Copyright 2004, I and my wife were contributors to this book.

Copyright 1991

Nice way to end the year! Congrats on another outstanding find. 👍

Wife's wedding ring:

My wedding ring:

Jeweler placed one of my leaf gold specimens I found in a old ring setting I had:

8 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

Thanks for agreeing with me and showing proof Glenn.  It takes a lot of time in the field with many detectors to learn these things and most folks will not do that.  Yes I agree with you, the Axiom does not see/hear some invisible gold, but at the same time it also will find more of the invisible types than many of the older PI's.

As for a PI being able to do as well as a VLF for such gold?  I really don't see how they can do it as the technologies used are so different.  Maybe if a manufacture were to build a VLF within a PI so you can switch back and forth.  Wonder how much that detector would cost us?  Well f it was Minelab selling it, I recon $10K.  If it's someone else, say like Garrett, I would expect them to be more reasonable. $5000.

Love seeing your finds my friend and sorry I never made it up there this year, maybe 2024?

Yes it's a hard pill to swallow when someone with a sub $1000 detector can find a $1000+ piece of gold and a $5000 or $8500 machine can't even make a peep on it.  I've pissed off a few folks in the 3 days training sessions we offer, by showing such.  They just assume the more money you spend the more gold you find.  We Staff and I provide Knowledge and some of it is stuff many dealers don't even know about or have seen.  What you do with the knowledge (being pissed or happy you learned that about your detector) is up to you.  My training shows and explains what kind of gold your detector is best at and I also want you to know the kinds of gold and hunts it's not so good at.  That way you are not wasting time in the field with a detector that is not good for the task.

Why so many folks don't research out a good reputable dealer who's actually in the field showing success, to help them make a detector purchase, instead just order on Amazon and then wonder why they have not found any gold....is beyond me. 

You're one of the wise ones my friend.

Gerry you are one of the very few dealers left that have the knowledge and offer training anyone that wants learn gold prospecting. Hopefully you are still young enough to provide this service and education for many years to come. I know when I started detecting for gold nuggets and know there was something at the time of what you had to offer, I would gladly invested the time and money to make the learning curve less frustrating and being more productive out in the field.

This is the second time in the past 30+ years in hunting the same area for gold specimens that I and my wife did not go. My wife had a hip replacement two years ago and turning 70 she has decided the almost vertical tailing piles are not the place for her to be. We have been detecting ghost towns this past summer and enjoying finding coins and relics that they have to offer. We will have to see how 2024 shakes out for gold prospecting.

Here's another wiregold specimen that I recently cleaned with some host rock left intact:

6 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

- Very important and not mentioned by most.  Invisible gold - It's out there in way more places than most realize, but you don't know as your detector can't see it.  Many older PI detectors and even a couple current models can not see or will respond to such gold.  I have numerous multi ounces pieces a VLF responds to and bigger detectors can't or do it but not as well at a depth as the VLF.

This is so true in the area I and my wife prospect for gold specimens on tailing piles here in Colorado. We have tried many different types of PI detectors in the past on none will detect the gold specimens we find with a VLF detector. We were hoping the Garrett Axiom would be able to detect this type of gold and this last spring met with Rusty Curry with Garrett to see if the Axiom offered some promise. Unfortunately the Axiom wasn't able to detect the gold specimens, even using the different types of coils they had to offer. We are hoping someday a PI detector will be produced by somebody that can detect these type of gold specimens, as there are certain areas where we are plagued with hot rocks and minerialzation and a VLF detector is basically useless.

Here is a .67 Gram wiregold specimen that a PI detector will not detect:

6 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Check the edge of the plate to see if you can make out what the letter print looks like.  It could also be something besides a Greek alphabet letter.

Linotype printing machines were invented in the late 1800's which, along with your KofL pin dates the site's period of activity.  Looks like a fun site.

As you can seen from the photograph I took, I believe it's a spacer as it is very thin. I was hoping it would have some type of letter. What is really amazing is this was found miles from any close town, how did it end up there! The stories it could possibly tell.

14 hours ago, CLH said:

The "gauge" is apparently part of a Greek Alphabet linotype set as seen here:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/265716953488

Thanks for the explanation and photo!

20 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

The "S", "O" and "MA" symbols on the Knights of Labor pin stand for the motto of the order - "Secrecy, Obedience, and Mutual Assistance"

More information from the source here:

https://heartinaheartlessworld.blog/tag/knights-of-labor/

Great finds.

Thanks! Chase for the great information.

21 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Great report and nice finds.

Not sure but that looks like some kind of gauge.  The top part looks like it was used to measure a size, possibly a diameter, of an object than can be slipped through it.  OTOH it does appear to be crudely made and gauges are usually rather precise.

Have you figured out the metallic composition the square token, e.g. from its VDI on the Deus II?

The token reads "84" on the Deus II VDI scale, so it could be be brass or maybe copper.

Recently a group of us made a trip to the mountains in Colorado to search for coins and relics. We have made trips to these same sites in the past and came away with some nice coins, relics and tokens. Some of the sites can test your patience with the amount of iron you encounter lying above and below the surface, but putting in long hours of detecting you are sometimes rewarded with a few keepers. Three of us in the group were using XP Deus II and two were using the original XP Deus and we were able to come away with some nice coins, tokens and interesting relics. One of the tokens I was hoping to find this trip was a token from Bucktown, Colorado, as they are rare and valuable in any condition. The first two days I wasn't finding any thing spectacular compared to the others in the group, but the last day my luck had changed. I was very fortunate to find a "Good for 5 cents in Trade" square token from a proprietor that had a saloon in Bucktown. I check with several sources to see if others had been found and so far this is one of a kind.

Another interesting find was a "Knights of Labor" pin. The pin is 1/2 inches in diameter and still trying to find out what the meaning of the letters S,O and MA are.

Of course you find a "what is it". It measures 1 1/4" x 3/4" made of brass or copper, maybe a gunsight?

A few of the non-ferrous targets that I found.

.

One of the sites we detected on this trip.

3 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

What David showed in one of his comparison videos was that running 1.0 and 0.71 Fast program with both having a silencer setting of 2 gave very different results. Does that mean that 1.0 is worse than 0.71 for target separation? Or does it mean that silencer setting of 2 using version 1.0 is clearly not the same amount of filtering as silencer setting of 2 using 0.71?

Yep, that my question also. Version 1.0 did change the vdi numbers on my custom programs, but that's a minor inconvenience.

Also wondering a my custom programs what else it may have changed.

Video from Iffy Signals shows using stock Fast program and no problem with falsing or target separation.

https://youtu.be/KbilSwb5K8M

Found this item at old coal mining camp in southern Colorado. Just think if it could tell all the stories it heard while miners were playing pool.

Wife and I have been prospecting and nugget hunting in this area since the 1980's. We've been fortunate finding wire and leaf gold specimens.

Metro Tech 220A

AH Pro Backpacker and Pro

12 hours ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

Unfortunately, I can't ID it, but I found something very similar and would also like to know what it is.

 

Might be a Antique Copper Soldering Iron.

I also had the privilege of writing for the magazine. I also miss their Annual Silver and Gold issues which were one of the best at the time. I had a couple photographs (not of me) that made the cover of the magazine. Sure do miss having having a hard copy, hate reading off a tablet or phone. Here are the two issues that the two photographs I had submitted made the cover of the magazine.

Dang! that's a whopper Congrats.👍

WOW! very nice.

Nice gold specimens, thanks for sharing!

Our thankful nugget is not the many gold wire and leaf specimens I and my wife have recovered over 30+ summers here in Colorado but being able to experience all the good and bad times we spent detecting those prize specimens. The memories and stories that we are able share make it seem just as exciting and satisfying as the day we found them.

Here is a recent wire gold specimen I finished cleaning and mother nature was sure in rare form we she created this one: