Glenn in CO

Very nice find! That's on my bucket list. WTG!

When using our VLF detectors the depth it they would achieve was limited. When using our cultivator type rakes we could get more depth in the area we were searching, but the steep angle of the tailing piles would eventually have the over burden from above slide down into the area we were searching. So my Dad came up with an idea to use a "slip scraper" and use the winch on a ATV to move over burden in areas that were no longer producing . We would dig a trench and detect the sides and then rake the dirt that was created from the trench. Doing that technique we were back on the gold again. This was on private property and the altitude, extreme steep terrain didn't allow any heavy type of equipment to be used. Here are some pictures of gold we found with the dirt and mud washed off. The large one in the center of the picture is a 85+ gram crystalline gold specimen. Here are some more pictures of specimens up close after being cleaned.

Here are a few pictures of the area we hunt. The area is large in size and the different types of wire and leaf gold specimens are found on specific tailing piles and hydraulic areas. The area is at 11,000+ft. in altitude and the terrain is extremely steep in most areas. The following picture is my wife (lower left) and one our friends detecting tailing piles. We use a cultivator type rake with a strong magnet for our digger tool. The area has moderate mineralization with some areas that have abundance of hot rocks. A Vlf type of detector is used mostly because of the number of ferrous targets that are encountered. We also find pieces of blasting caps, sometimes ones that had not exploded and bird shot from people target practicing. This a picture of a nugget that was found on a tailing pile and you can see some of the gold peeking through. This next picture is an area that was hydraulic and I found a 22.3 gram nugget. This is another area that was hydraulic and where I found my very first nugget metal detecting. The nugget didn't have the wow factor as others we have found, but it was a special moment for me finding that first elusive nugget. More to come..........

I talked to Reg's brother at the club meeting last Thursday and Reg is not doing too well. Reg had one his leg's amputated last year and now is in the hospital with possible cancer tumor on the liver. Any prayers for a good outcome would be appreciated.

You can find at Walmart in the hardware/plumbing section.

It's amazing that some of these wire gold specimens stay intact with no host rock to hold them together. You wonder sometimes if the specimen was a part of a larger piece.

If you are talking about the last picture in your post, no I would not clean that one., The first picture I would use some Whink if you want to brighten the gold up a little bit or leave as is. The second picture is not focus enough to determine if cleaning any of the specimens would be a good idea.

Very nice course gold specimens DigsAlot. Be careful if you decide to clean the gold quartz specimen, it may fall apart on you. Myself I like it the way it is.

I and my wife have found different types of crystalline wire gold specimens and here are a couple unique ones: Notice the diamond shape crystal with gold wire coming out each end.

Very nice specimen Gerry, did you find as is or did you clean it? Thanks! for sharing.

If your specimen has quartz I would try Whink that has a small concentration of hydrofluoric acid for somewhat more aggressive cleaning of the gold, removing iron oxides and dissolving some of the quartz. If you use these two methods it will take time to see any satisfactory results, so be patience. If you have some hydrofluoric acid in a higher concentration (48% strength or more) you will have faster results and would need to monitor closely so you don't destroy the specimen. But be extremely careful when using any type of hydrofluoric acid in any form, the acid is deadly and I mean deadly, you better know what you are doing! Finally soak the specimen in baking soda if you use any of the cleaning methods above. There are other methods that can be used to also give a wow look, but I would need to studying the specimen first hand on what would be the best course of action to take. The specimens that we find has shale as the host rock and I can use other types of acids to clean them.

JW, That is very nice specimen. Big or small specimens like that have a lot of character. If you found that panning maybe you were close to the source. Thanks! for sharing.

Chris Davis who wrote the article is using a XP Deus now and I'm not sure in 2015 if he was using an XP. Of course the Equinox wasn't around in 2015. Both clubs now have more XP and Equinox users, in which I've recently acquired a XP Deus.

Gerry in Idaho suggested that I post some Colorado Picasso's that I and my wife have found. We have been very fortunate to detect any area for many years that has produced crystalline wire and gold specimens. The other added plus it's a scenic area to enjoy while detecting. We started prospecting in the mid-1980's in this area and started using metal detectors in 1990. Each and every year from 1990 we have found gold, but the last few years it is getting tougher to find. Most of the gold that we find needs to be prepped (cleaned) to reveal it's beauty. This first specimen pictured shows how it looked before I cleaned it and then the final result which and take countless hours using different methods. I will post other specimens later on, so here goes: Look close and you will see diamond shape crystals embedded on the leaf forms on the specimen: Do you have a Picasso you would like to share?

Steve, this information was compiled in 2015 by Chris Davis who is a club member of the PPAL Club (Colorado Springs area) and now the president of the Eureka Club (Denver area) it was in the PPAL July 2016 newsletter. I know their has been a lot new detectors introduced between then and now, but I thought you might find interesting. PPAL/Eureka! Demographic Survey – 2015 Chris Davis Demographic and suggestion surveys were run on both the Pike’s Peak Adventure League (PPAL) and the Eureka! Treasure Hunter’s Club (Eureka!) for the year of 2015. PPAL is based in Colorado Springs and reports a paid membership of 65 during 2015. The Eureka! Club is located in Littleton and has 150 members. I am a member of both Pike’s Peak and Eureka! and can tell you from personal experience, they are both great clubs. Responses were received from 54% of the Pike’s Peak folks, and 39% of the Eureka! members. As with most surveys, there was room for error involved in this one. Of course, the more respondents, the better the information. Many respondents did not answer all questions. I could not assume, just because nothing was in the blank, the answer was “0” or “No”. If no information was submitted on a particular topic, it was excluded from calculation. Inadvertently, I asked several questions of one club, but not on the other. Never-the-less, all-in-all, I think we got some interesting and useful information. I discovered both clubs had a very good sense of humor. For example, for “Sex”, 3 PPAL members listed “Yes”, while Eureka! only had 2 “Yes” and 1 “Seldom”. As you might expect, there were similarities and differences between the clubs. According to the data: -The Male-Female Ratio and Age Composition of both clubs are similar. It appears most detectorists in the clubs are mature (older), averaging around 58 years of age. Half were retired. -PPAL members report twice as many years of metal detecting experience as Eureka! members. -The average PPAL member has been in the club twice as long as that of Eureka! members. -The Detectorists own an average of 3 to 4 machines. One PPAL member reported owning 14 machines. One Eureka! member said he/she owned 18 machines. -While a wide variety of detectors were used, it appears the most popular machine used by PPAL was the Garrett AT Pro. Eureka! members preferred the White’s MXT by a wide margin. -Eighty percent of both clubs used Garrett pinpointers. White’s fell in at 10-15%. -Both clubs averaged finding one gold ring, 3 silver rings and 3 silver coins per member during 2015. The 2 clubs reported finding a total of 93 gold rings and 236 silver rings last year. -Eureka! members attended more club hunts (6) than PPAL (2), but Eureka! held twice as many hunts, and the PPAL hunts were often multi-day affairs. -PPAL members report making approximately 3 hunts a month. Eureka! hunters averaged 4. -The data seems to confirm PPAL has more of an emphasis on Relic Hunting, while Eureka! being in the big city, focuses more on Coin and Jewelry Hunting. Most members of both clubs hunt parks. Eureka! hunts parks the most (92%), while 74% of PPAL hunts parks. On the flip side, 76% of PPAL hunt Private Property, while only 49% of Eureka! hunt private lands. -Eighty-odd percent of both clubs regularly read their Newsletters. -All suggestions and comments have been submitted to the Officers for consideration. A breakdown of the data, averages and ranges is listed below: PPAL Eureka! Total Club Paid Membership: 65 150 Total Responses: 35 (54%) 59 (39%) Demographic Survey Continued Age 60 (39-88) 56 (16-82) Sex M (75%) F (25%) M (70%) F (30%) Retired or Working Working (50%), Retired (50%) Years Detecting 19 (0-61) 9 (0-48) Years Club Membership 10 (0-43) 5 (0-31) Ever in Other MD Clubs No (64%), Yes (36%) No (95%), Yes ( 5%) Number of MDs 3.9 (1-14) 130* machines 2.8 (0-18) 142* *Husband/Wife teams probably double counted machines What Activities Are Folks Participating In? -Coin/Jewelry Hunting 97% 95% -Relic Hunting 89% 64% -Prospecting 49% 36% -Bottle Hunting 40% 12% What do Folks Say They Do Most? -Coin/Jewelry Hunting 61% 92% -Relic Hunting 29% 8% -Prospecting 7% -Bottle Hunting 4% Machine Used Coin/Jewelry Relic Water Coin/Jewelry Relic Water Fisher F-75 1 Fisher CZ-21 1 Minelab (no model) 1 1 Minelab Explorer 1 1 Minelab ETRAC 2 1 1 1 Minelab CTX 1 2 1 Minelab Excalibur 1 1 Minelab Sovereign 1 1 1? Garrett (no model) 1 1 1 4 3 Garrett AT Pro 7 4 2 4 3 4 Garrett Ace 150 1 Garrett Ace 250 1 1 Garrett Ace 350 3 1 Garrett AT Gold 2 2 1 1 1 Garrett Sea Hunter 1 White’s (no model) 4 4 2 2 2 1 White’s XLT 2 1 6 1 White’s MXT 1 1 17 12 4 White’s V3i 3 2 4 2 White’s DFX 1 5 4 White’s Surf Master 2 1 White’s Beach Hunter 1 Makro Racer 2 2 Teknetics 1 1 Demographic Survey Continued Machine Used Coin/Jewelry Relic Water Coin/Jewelry Relic Water Tesoro Shark 1 Bounty Hunter 1 Radio Shack 1 1 XP Deus 1 1 5 4 Pinpointers Garrett 81% Garrett (80%) White’s 10% White’s (15%) 3 Misc. 3 Misc. Gold Rings Career 5.5 (0-50) 176 total 7.2 (0-100+) 371 total Gold Rings 2015 1.0 (0-15) 33 total 1.1 (0-18) 60 total Gold Coins Career 2 total 6 total Silver Rings Career 11 (0-50) 240 total 27 (0-200+) 1,046 total Silver Rings 2015 3.1 (0-30) 103 total 2.5 (0-20) 133 total Silver Coins 2015 12.5 (0-200+) 399* total 4.7 (0-100+) 222* *2 PPAL individuals listed 200+ and 100 silver coins found in 2015. 1 Eurkea individual listed 100+. May have been quoting lifetime recovery, rather than 2015, possibly included planted coins. That, or they need to invite me over for a hunt. If drop the fliers we have: 3.3 (0-25) 99 total 2.7 (0-20) 122 total # Club Hunts Attended 2.0 (0-6) 5.9 (0-12) # Hunts per Month 2.7 (0-10) 4.0 (2-23) Where Are People Hunting? -City Parks/Schools 74% 92% -State Parks 35% 27% -Private Property 76% 49% -Other 35% (NF 5, BLM 4, etc) Where Do People Hunt The Most? -City Parks/Schools 92% -State Parks 0 -Private Property 8% Read the Newsletter? Yes 88%, No 12% Yes 81%, No 19%

For 2019 it was my best year for Indian Heads, Barbers, Mercury's and Roosevelt's. Best Barbers were a 1908 O and 1908S, found with a White's TDI: Best Gold find was my crystalline wire gold specimen, found with a White's Goldmaster: For tokens I found a couple of Stringtown, Colorado tokens, 12 1/2 cents in trade and a Good for 1 Drink, found with a Makro Kruzer:

This is my favorite for the year a crystalline wire gold specimen.

WOW! Love to know the story of how those coins got there. Someone needs to invent a time machine.

Look forward to the new products you will be introducing in 2020. Thanks for a great 2019!

Very nice specimen, it's amazing what the miner's missed. Thanks for sharing!

What an outstanding wire good specimen, congrats to the finder and thanks for sharing!

I just sold mine on eBay two months ago. It was upgraded to a V3i but was labeled Vision like yours. Spent the last part of 2019 selling detectors I don't use and buying new ones. Didn't realize what I was missing until I tried something different. Look forward to 2020 and learning something new.

WTG Lunk! Very nice specimen, congrats on a great find!

Very nice gold specimens and apparently they got your adrenaline going when you found them.👍

Very cool ring that was found 2016: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7691793/Amateur-metal-detectorist-finds-gold-Medieval-ring-tipped-fetch-50-000-auction.html