Tom_in_CA

I would fan out in all directions (from the ground-zero of a visible chimney), with my machine set to allow me to hear nails. Ie.: as a low tone that I'm going to elect to pass, but at least I can get a feel for the target spread. And as long as I'm still hearing iron (albeit rejected), that tells me I'm still in the sphere of human habitation/influence. And as long as there's still iron, then there can be conductive targets too. Perhaps the chimney indicates a lone structure, of a single individual(s). Or perhaps it meant other were closeby (tent-city), yet didn't happen to have chimneys on their hobbles. All you can do is wander around. If the sounds go "sterile" (no iron grunts), then you'll know you've wandered outside the sphere of human habitation/influence.

This reads like how the UK posts (who have 2000 yrs. more history than us) sounds. Where any/all fields have eventual finds. Great play-by-play.

sweet

Huh ? In the USA you can make $$ too. It's called "ebay". So it's not only the UK guys that "have a chance of getting a finder's fee". In fact, the system is better here, because you get to call-the-shots on whether you want to keep it, or sell it, and at what price. So I don't see how the UK system is somehow better. We can sell our stuff here as well, or elect to keep it, with no govt. intrusion.

You're right ! If Chris finds one more, there might be an "unfortunate accident" there at his house, eh ? We wouldn't want any accidents to happen, NOW WOULD WE ? 😲

If you do, you're going to make several of us CA guys sick. We're going to come plant a GPS device on your vehicle. (Pay no attention to the suspicious person you saw in your driveway last night ! 😝 )

There's no need to slab or have them graded, if you are just keeping them for your own collection. But if you want to have the "stellar" seal of merit (even if only in your own collection), then yes: You can send off that private mint gold coin for slabbing. There's coin dealers that can walk you through that process (and their memberships with the grading agencies afford them the grading hoops to jump through. Eg.: requires membership, shipping, a cost per coin that a dealer gets at a discount, vs a new member with only a single coin-to-grade, etc...). Google PCGS (that's one of the two grading agencies), and I'm sure the instruction info. is there. But unless you intend to do a lot of repeat business with them, then a singular grade/slab, with the cost of initial membership, etc..., you might be better off just entrusting it to a coin-collector, who already wheels/deals in these deals. Once they've given it a verified grade, then you are golden if you ever go to sell. No one can banter you down on their opinion of grade, blah blah. And even if you don't sell, you'll have the satisfaction of now knowing for-sure that it's worth such & such.

Nope. Not on my watch anyhow. Cal Cobra knows it's my turn now, to find the next gold coin between us. Right Brian ? 🤣 I know 3 guys that found them : Here's one of them : https://coins.ha.com/itm/territorial-gold/1851-5-shultz-and-co-five-dollar-ms62-ngc-k-1-r7/a/1204-5439.s Another private mint CA gold coin was found near Salinas (worth only about $3k). And another private mint gold coin found at a park turf demolition in Santa Rosa years ago (not a super rare one, so perhaps $5k to $7k ?). Strangely, 2 identical private mint gold coins came from that Santa Rosa demolition scrape, but I didn't know the other hunter.

On coastal CA (our zone) this is no doubt true. I've only found 2 LC's (in CA), yet found 16 gold coins. And this statistic of more GC's than LC's seem to hold up in other CA hunter's tallies. It might go more even (or favor LC's ?) in the G.R. sites. Since that was attracting a lot of people from back east to head to CA. Not sure. Contrast to the east coast where guy can get 100 LC's before they EVER have a chance at a gold coin.

Oh my gosh. I am sick sick sick. Is this the site that gave up the other buckles and the seated quarter , that you posted on 2/15 ? And now a gold coin (private mint no less) and a large cent ?? Sheesk, are you SURE your wife won't allow you to invite others to your site ?? After all, I'm way overdue for my 17th gold coin ! 🤣 And even though I've seen two CA private mint gold coins turn up within my circle of friends, I've never found a private mint gold coin myself. Your heart bleeds for me, right ? All of my 16 have been boring USA mints 🤪 C'mon dude, the beers on me. You're only 2 hours away. We'll hog-swap site tips ! I'll scotch tape a zinc penny to the bottom of my coil to handicap myself. Ok ? 😆

And if you're interested in selling, drop me a line.

Chris, glad to hear that you've bought the book. It's guys like that who do a lot for our hobby, and deserve support. Whenever compendiums like that are made, it actually spurs the interest among buyers and sellers and hunters. And in this day and age of the internet, it's hard to make $ off going through all the effort of compiling such info into a book. Since, let's be honest, people will eventually get it digital somehow, which lowers book sales (one unfortunate aspect of the net, to any would-be-authors). So thanks for getting his book, he deserves it. Now go find some more so you can look up your future prizes ! And a shout out to anyone else @ finding G.R. buckles like this : Get Max' book too !

Sorry, I don't know why my 2nd picture is upside down 😞

Yup. The off-center shield is the tell-tale bust dime. Congratz ! Not easy to find Bust coins in CA Your buckle is rare and valuable. Here you go, thanx to Max Bell's great book: Here's the description of your buckle @ the 6th picture down :

I like ball buttons , @ the middle right of your first photo !

Doh ! My bad. I saw "V3" and assumed he was talking about the Whites.

Huh ? "Enhancements" ? " Advantages" ? If these advantages are what you're after, then why are you looking at the Whites V3, in the first place ? I don't understand 😞

I love that gilt button that simply says "Gilt" on the back. Those are the absolute earliest of gilt buttons, where it almost seems the lettering was hand scrimshawed into it. They just drip with history. Good show !

Cal-Reg, a couple of things : 1) If you google "Ghost towns" + "CA", then ... sure ... you're going to get hits like Bodie, and other such colorful *obvious-to-the-history-books" type tourist trap spots. 2) Then ... sure... none of them are going to be "MD friendly". 3) But you have to realize that these are only the ones/types that are a) still standing b) colorful tourist traps 4) But there are HUNDREDS of little burgs that faded to nothing, and are nothing more than a vacant cow pasture, and not a tourist-trap sensitive monument. These can be singular stage stops, trading posts, short-lived miner tent cities, etc....

What ?? Did you just find that gold coin ?? That's the holy grail hole-in-one for every md'r ! Nice going dude !

Good show. Good pix. Good play-by-play. Sheesk, these east-coast posts are starting to look like the British posts ! 🤪

Yes, he is a legend for deep-turf cherry picking. And is currently swearing by the Nox (over his prior SE pro). HOWEVER: He runs around hunting with an Etrac user (which is commensurate with an Exp. II). And they keep even with each other's tallies. They can each equally hear and "call" each other's flagged targets. Hence, no, the Nox is not beating an Explorer in turf. But yes, I'd love to duel with Raphis sometime again. Because EVERY COTTON PICKING TIME I say I spanked a Nox user up here in the turf, then a Nox-faithful is always quick to rationalize : "They must not be experienced enough" blah blah. But if Raphis (who is an acknowledge deep-turf-pro) were to come up short, then this would finally, once-for-all end that debate. Because no one can dispute his prowess. Unfortunately, he's in Southern CA, and I'm ~5 hr. north of him.

Dances: It's been so long now, since my short trial with the Nox (I got a very early release, d/t we'd been on the waiting list, since the very beginning ). But at the time I tried it, there was ALREADY beginning to be inputs from well-known well-respected voices . Ie.: I could avail myself of pro/con discussion even at that time. So ... yes ... I would have tried all the tricks. Which I assume would also have been the "50 tones". The full tones would have been only natural, since that's the way I've used my explorer, after all. About the ONLY control I didn't spend too long with trying, was the recovery speed. I had opted for a tad-higher recovery speed (since I run my Explorer on "fast", and it doesn't have a depth compromise on the Explorer). So I had assumed I wasn't sacrificing depth on the Nox, so-long-as I listened carefully for faster "beeps". But I learned later on, that the Nox isn't that way. There IS INDEED a depth loss when going faster recovery. And a depth BENEFIT (albeit with the drawbacks) when going to slower speeds. So for my "balls to the walls" depth and TID needs of turf hunting (where cherry picking and depth is the order of the day), then the Nox disappointed me. But that might have been because I didn't opt for slower recovery speeds. Which could have improved depth and TID (with the inherent drawback of less separation though). I have since hunted with experienced Nox users, and ... no .... they can't trump my Explorer in the turf. Yes they excel better in iron-ridden conditions, but not in turf, IMHO .

Hey there Dances : I got the Deus just for ghost-townsy iron-ridden sites. Ie.: a specialty machine. For all other sites (like this that is not that badly iron-ridden), I am intending to keep using my Exp. II. I know some guys use their Deus for ALL their hunting. But so far .... I'm not there yet.

Good to hear from you El ! I was swinging the machine Brian refers to ask the "Dino 2k tank". The Exp. II. See how evil and mean he is ? 😝