Tom_in_CA

What do you think is the advantage over the Deus ? Ie.: Goes deeper ? Un-masks around/through iron better ? Or ... ?

Chris, you are just knocking them out of the ball-park lately. And those buckles have become the "cat's meow" of desired/collectible finds , in collector circles lately. They, & the gun, are just dripping with history and are so cool to find. Congratz !

If that's the accurate ID, then .... must be a souvenir pocket piece modern loss. I doubt it's a period piece. Hey, a guy in Monterey, CA , during an old-town demolition scrape project, found a Roman coin that he got dated to something like 100 AD. He assumed it was probably brought back to the USA, as a souvenir, by a returning soldier. Believe it or not, coin-collecting (and the habit of picking up souvenirs) is not a new trait. People have gathered nostalgic nicknacks, since time immortal. As as odd as it sounds, it's possible that they then get lost at some fumblefingers location somewhere else.

I've read lots of show & tell posts, coming from Poland. So it's can't be illegal there. As in ... some sort of "border to border" law. So whatever you're alluding to must be someone who was in a distinct singular off-limits place. Not that "all md'ing in Poland is a no-no" There's been attempts made (you can find them on the net) to create compendiums for all the countries of Europe. Where you can simply look up any country there in Alphabetic order. Genius idea, eh ? But oddly, even those countries with "dire sounding verbiage", have hobbyists. Even dealers in the major cities, etc.... Being the devil's advocate, I asked one of the guys, from one of those countries with "dire sounding language", : "How do you do it ?" And I linked him to the web-link. He said that what those links/lists don't take into account, is that whatever laws they're citing are for public land. And have no bearing on private land. So farmer Bob can do WHATEVER THE HECK HE WANTS on his own land. Or .... quite frankly, ... the guy told me that they're typically so-far back in the forests, that .... well .... there's no one around to care, in the first place. 🙄 An example would be like this : If you were to call some USA bureaucrats and archies here, and ask "Is it ok to metal detect in the USA ? ", you might get told "no". Because perhaps they're couching their answer in terms of ARPA (which, BTW, only applies to fed land. Not "all public land"). So you might, in fact, find someone here who thinks all md'ing in the USA is a no-no. See ? It just depends on who you ask, what they envision, and how you phrase the question. Thus I put little stock into these compendiums. Sometimes you have to read between the lines. And the rare flukes of someone getting roughed up, can be isolated flukes of someone who wasn't practicing an ounce of common sense.

Oh, golly, are you saying that's stealing the thunder from underneath the merc. dime I just found ? 🧐

GB-amateur , as the others have said: Excellent post ! It is a common observation that gold-nugget hunting is more profitable. From a daily "melt value" perspective (given a skilled hunter, in each venue, that knows what he's doing). And let's be honest : Even if you factor in key-date old coins, that the odds are: It's rare that any old seated coin (even the key date S and CC mints !) will merit you $1k. And a cool collectible buckle or button might net you $1k. And so forth. Contrast to the guys who have strictly drifted to gold nugget md'ing: It can have much higher dollar values for their accumulative value. Than ANY coin/relic guy could have had in the same period. This is why many Sacramento area hunters, back when the nugget-specialty niche of the hobby first took off, tended to "leave coins/relics behind", and focused STRICTLY on nuggets forever more thereafter. It became an addiction unto itself. I know we can debate: "What about the coins that were found, that were worth $10k ?" Well , gee, so too : "What about the nuggets that were found that were worth $10k ?" But at the end of the day, we all can't deny that if money were the only driving factor, and skill-levels-were-accounted for, then: Nuggets seem to be more profitable. HOWEVER, as Raphis-Dan and others point out, there is NO substitution for the thrill of the history (strategy, skill, story, etc...) that the old coin or relic presents. A nugget is strictly a monetary object. But a coin or relic holds a story. Not sure if that's making any sense. This is all-so-timely for me. Since: My wife and I are looking at taking our central coast insane real estate market nest egg, (since I'm not on the ugly side of 60), and thinking of G.R. area real estate living. And as such, I'm pondering learning the nugget hunting aspect/side of our hobby. Great post GB-amateur !

Great post & great pix as usual. And I love how you are sure to post the junk pix as well. Just so it's not like the bass-fishing channel, where "every cast is a lunker" 😆 To show the good, the bad, and the ugly. You worked for your rewards 🙂

Nice.

Us west coast guys are green with envy about your east coast colonials and LC's. That's for sure. Our consolation is we have a fighting chance at a gold coin, and ... yes .... a high percentage of S mints. Was just doing a country picnic site a few weeks ago, and got a 1901 quarter. My buddies and thought "we're about to have a heart-attack", since the 1901 s quarter is a BIG BUCKS quarter. And seeing as how we were only an hour from SF, I was already counting my chickens before they were hatched. Alas, it was only an "O" mint. AAaarrggghhhh When we're in a spot giving up 1910, '11, '12, '13, '14, & '15 wheaties, they are almost invariably all S mints.

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....

Yes. We dig more pre-Mexican independence reales (ie.: pre 1822) than Mexican reales (post 1822), here in CA. I've always figured that was because Spain had heavily bankrolled the push north into Alta CA. But by the time of the Mexican independence, there was already the beginnings of little towns here, other nationalities settling, missions and presidios were in decline, etc... Quite frankly, Mexico simply didn't take very good care of Alta CA. Alta CA was seen as self-sufficient by that time. Like when CA gained her independence from Mexico, hardly a shot was fired, for example.

Fun story . Thanx ! And yes: I've heard of md'rs who, because they/we "have the mindset", have been able to find stuff, just by eyeballing, that others just don't "connect the dots" or see on. Great read !

What ?? You mean the southern CA turfed parks and beaches aren't brimming with bust coins ? On the east coast, they're in every sand box. But here in CA: Ya gotta start doing the Indiana Jones relicky sites of CA to get them . 🤣

nice.

I know I keep joking about "moving to the Sierra foothills" in answer to the md'ing show & tell. And thus moving in on such md'ing pursuits. Yet, I'm at the age (60 now, on central CA real estate holdings) , where my wife & I are actually eyeing locations along the historic Hwy 49 corridor. Because: Correct me if I'm wrong, but that corridor is becoming an increasingly popular area for empty nesters and retirees ? But as I say: Pay no attention to the mysterious man in the trench-coat seen milling around with the GPS tracking device @ your front driveway. haha

Welcome to the harsh-cruel-reality of the Deus. Although it's touted as the "cat's meow" in iron ridden sites, yet .... it is indeed *weak* on flat tin iron type objects. Items that other standard discriminators effortlessly pass. The Deus faithful will say that there's audio clues that can tell the difference. But I'm still dubious of one detail : Will any such audio clues *only work* when there is a "clear line of sight" to the target ? Ie.: non masked ? If so, then ... gee, so too can standard machines likewise get a "clean signal" on an un-obstructed signal ? But, like you ..... I'm still learning it.

Haha, good to hear from you Dan. Glad you're out and about ! Your deep- turf cherry picking skills are the stuff of legend. I still say you're a robot, and not human ! Since you have so much experience with that balls-to-the-walls nugget machine, getting insanely deep beach coins, I say you should take that to some of those junky Los Angeles /So. CA turfed parks. I mean, go figure : You can't argue with 1.5 ft. on a dime, now can you ? Hence, what could *possibly* go wrong ? If it works at the beach, then ... by golly ... what are you waiting for ? Doh ! 😘 Hey, I dunno if you remember the young fellow that you were kind enough to show the ropes to, years ago: "Michael" from Laguna Beach. You got him hooked. He's been getting seateds and reales lately. He never got much into turf, and drifted instead to relicky pursuits. He's a fun character to hunt with ! So thanks for showing him some ropes.

I remember that beach ! Those were great reports to follow. If I recall, it was a dry-sand zone, where no one else had ever harvested beyond a foot or whatever. So you went in with the balls-to-the-walls nugget machine, and were getting coins below the "mere mortal " levels 😅 Do you ever return to that beach to try that anymore ?

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

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 ? 😔

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" ?

Also : Greg is one of two dealers in CA who thinks they can tell aluminum apart from gold . With certain machines. Not sure if he's now including the TDI in this claim. But if you challenge them to "show this ability" in actual field tests, you will hear the sound of crickets. Here's the trick of the mind they are falling for : If you wave a few gold rings, and a few tabs and foil wads, in front of a detector in an air test, THEN YES: Each one will give a "different sound". So at first blush, it might *seem* that a person can tell "aluminum apart from gold". Right ? But no : What this fails to realize is that SO TOO does every gold ring sound different from each other. And SO TOO does every random aluminum blob or tab-type sound different from each other. Any attempt to alert them to this mind trick falls on deaf ears. So you have the poor buyers, who have seen this air-test-parlor trick. Who are convinced that if they "ascend to this master sage level", that they can somehow tell aluminum apart from gold. Mind you, no one's asking to leave "all the gold behind" and dig "only gold". Heck, most of us would be happy if the odds were 50 to 1, or 100 to 1, etc.... So when you try to pin these guys down on what the ratios would be (assuming their claims are true ) in junky urban parks, you begin to realize that this nothing more than random eventual odds. Or simple ring-enhancement programs of sorts.

Greg M. will NOT be able to use a TDI, or any pulse, and pull more old coins from park-turf-hunting. I have dueled with him before. He's a nice guy, and a known reputable dealer. But no .... he would not be able to use a pulse to out-do a standard machine in the turf , with anyone who is of an on-par level. If someone wanted to compare machines with him, they would need to be *very careful* on stating what "successful" means, ahead of time. To me, it means: most old coins . But if someone wants to lower his disc. and strip-mine, and gets on a V-nickel or something, that the other guy (who was cherry-picking) would have passed, then.... that needs to be stated ahead of time. So that BOTH of them can lower their disc. If my desire were for gold rings, then I wouldn't be strip-mining junky urban turfed parks. I'd simply go to the beach. I know that some people think that by entering into a 'strip-mine' mindset, that they'll have the "best of all worlds". But it never works like that for junky urban turfed park hunting. At the end of the day, the person who was strip-mining will have a pouch full of junk, clad, a possible wheatie or two, and a .... yes ..... V nickel. Because he spent all his time digging non-old-coin-signals. While the other guy has 10 or 15 wheaties, a few silvers, and ... yes ... no V-nickels. Ok, you tell me : Who got the most oldies ? See ? So the objective will need to be stated ahead of time.

But if you're referring to the fellow who thinks he can tell aluminum apart from gold, then ... no ... his technique is to "strip-mine". And then ... sure anyone who strip-mines turf will, yes, eventually get a ring or a V-nickel that the cherry-picker (who was angling for deep high conductors) will miss. This is a given. So the goal would need to be pre-stated. If it's "who comes in with the most old silver at the end of the day", then THAT is the test I'm curious about. Not "who can strip-mine and get a nickel or tinsel thin chain", etc..... If that were my objective, then sure: I'd enter into relic mindset, and then I too can strip-mine.

No. There is no Whites dealer in the Bay area using a TDI in park-turf, and being "very successful", that I know of. You're not talking about the clown that thinks he can tell aluminum apart from gold ? With "sounds and tones", are you ? If so, his claims go silent in a heartbeat (and you hear the sounds of crickets), when you invite him out to the nearest blighted urban park. And say "show me how much gold you can get, while passing any amount of aluminum". And if you ask him for ratios of gold vs aluminum when his supposed "art of differentiation" is applied: It becomes immediately apparent that he's just doing random odds. Or old-fashioned ring enhancement strategy. And is NOT "telling aluminum apart from gold". Did you mean that guy ? I know of no one in CA using the TDI for turf . And when you say "successful", are you talking about gold jewelry ? If so, sure, you can't beat a TDI for ability @ low conductors. But ... heck ... since when did ANY machine lack for low conductors in junky turf ? You can turn down the disc. knob on ANY machine, and "fill your apron" full of low conductors , non-stop, in CA parks. Or did you mean "successful" as in deep old silver ? If so, I know of no one in CA who is "successful with the TDI" for that. If you know who this fellow is, I would love to meet and compare over flagged signals with him.