Tom_in_CA

On 5/19/2020 at 3:01 PM, Dances With Doves said:

You earned all those coins.  Have you ever heard of anyone ever finding a fractional California gold coin.That would be a tough  target. That would be a coin for the nox to find in park2 or field 2 modes or the gold modes. 

I have heard of several CA private mint coins being found .  But I don't recall any fractionals off the top of my head.  

great post !

Cool story Bashin.   Thanx for sharing.  If it turns out to put a bad guy behind bars, or has some info. on it to solve a crime, then :  Good on you for your  part ! 

7 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Good point.  The only down side being available direct only from AU so you have to add in the shipping cost and  a lack of iron rejection from what I can tell (correct me if I'm wrong QED experts) which is a nice feature to have when hunting in nail and farm junk infested relic sites (vs. Prospecting) which is what I assume is the OP's intended use.

Bingo, I was having nightmares even reading about using these various PI's for relic sites.  

When I was the Virginia relic shootout at Dec. 2018, I saw several guys with high powered machines like the 4500.  And granted, they can cut "any soil".  And granted, they can get a coin to nearly 2 ft. deep, blah blah.    But let me tell ya something:  We didn't see those guys ANYWHERE near the sites where structures had been.   Ie.: there were a half dozen sites where old homes had been, that are nothing now but a giant swath of iron, with crockery and glass bits all over, etc.....   Those hunters with standard machines, which had disc., were able to pull some keepers from these areas (coins, buttons, etc.....).   But the pulse nugget machine guys were no where to be found.  

So sometimes  you have to be "careful  what you wish for".  The devil can be in the details.

Congratz on the semi-key date barber dime.   Looks like that after some spit and tin-foil, that could turn out to be worth some $$

Paul, I always look forward to your guys's mouthwatering reports.   Great pix, great play-by-plays, great coins, etc....  Thanx for taking us along !   You certainly deserve those gems, because I know you work hard for them.  Congratz !

Good story.  Good play-by-play.  Love the green patina on those IH's.

Two large cents and a half-dime  in a single hunt.   Sheesk, that's good !

42 minutes ago, dogodog said:

... Circa. somewhere around 200 to 260 AD. I can't imagine how great a feeling it is to ...

Yes.  But correct me if I'm wrong, but :  In Europe, that's like you or I finding wheaties.   Right ?    😕

I  would also point out that there's a lot  of fabulous videos (typically coming from overseas Russia area) that do indeed show amazing feats and depths on coins, or various circumstances.    But the devil is always in the details.   For example, I can make a very tantalizing video, if I wanted, of a gpx 4500 or gpz 7000 that  can be shown to get a quarter to nearly 2 ft. deep.    Eh ?   And it would be hard to argue with video evidence, right ?    And  that's easily a foot deeper than standard coin machines on a quarter, right ?    So who could argue with that type of extreme depth, eh ?   The  worked out parks will 'come alive again' , right ?

But as you would easily know :  The devil would be in the details :   There is no way in heck that the gpx 4500 or gpz 7000 is  something you're going to take the park, or school or ghost town, etc.......    You will quickly get a "dose of reality", and reach for your standard discriminator machine  .

4 hours ago, Kioti said:

Bricks are not soil, let alone anything like mineralized aussie soil. 

........

Those videos prove nothing, in fact I just found them inconclusive and the beeping annoying. 

^ ^ this ^ ^

Reminds me of a dealer demo. I saw one time, back in the late 1980s or very early 1990s, of someone showing off a device called the "iron  eliminator" .    And in his audience table demonstration, he attempted to show that it was not hampered by ground minerals, by taking a bag full of super mineralized sand .  So mineralized that I think a magnet would even stick to it.   And he puts a coin on the other side of the bag, and demonstrates that his device *still* gets the coin.    The audience was spell-bound.   Until a wise  person in the audience pointed out that all he had merely done was tune the machine to  *JUST* that singular bag/sample.  Such that anything out of *THAT* norm would ....sure ..... cause a beep.  But that's not the real world were the moment your coil goes a few more feet in any direction, then presto, it's no longer the same ground.

ssheeesskk.  And to think us USA hunters "knock ourselves silly" to find a coin from the 1800s.   Doh !  🥵

As you and others have noticed:  The road was recently graded.   I realize that you & RJ still think it's a "period loss", by virtue of .... perhaps .... it had been buried, and then brought-to-the-surface by the heavy-equipment blade. 

I suppose that's possible.  However, .... I notice you're still waiting for a gun ID buff to chime in, on the ID.   If it turns out to be modern then .... it's just a modern loss.   But even if it's old, then be aware that people still have old  guns in use, even to this day.   For example, when I was a kid, my neighbor was still hunting with his grandfather's turn-of-century rifle.  

I work in road construction, and also do a  lot of demolition hunting (ie.: "following bulldozers" when they're in old-town districts).   And to me, that gun seems like something that'd only been there a few years, dropped perhaps after the last road-blade dozer had gone through there.  I might be wrong, but .... just sayin' ....

And for clarification sake:   One of the "$5's" that I counted (in my "eight") was actually an 1829 British Sovereign gold coin.   Found at an east-to-west migration stopping spot .  It is the equivalent of a USA $5 gold.  And was found in the context of gold-rush era east-to-west migration spot finds.  Ie.: Mexican reales, super-early seateds, etc.....

15 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

Tom,  You certainly have the upper hand on GC's than most of us.  Just for info to know their denominations, could you tell us how many of what?  I found an 1852 $2.50 with Explorer and an 1903 $5 found with Explorer-II detectors.  Wondering if most folks finds the smaller or larger ones?  Also, if you don't mind mentioning what detector did you find this one with?  

You are correct, as in the amount of them found.  Most of my clients have only found 1 and a few scored 2.  The daddy/daughter duo found over 10 at one site, but I count that as a Cache since they were all found same day in about a 20 foot area.

Detail on your Eagle is Stunning, so hats off to you.

Gerry, as with Andy I say :   It is an honor to get an input/reply from an industry/hobby-respected voice like yourself .  To answer your questions :

Two $20s, three $10's, eight $5's, one $2.50, and two $1's.

And no, the "larger vs smaller" (as if TID/selective -ness , ie.: cherry-picking disc have anything to do with it) are not a factor at all.  Instead, the total factor is:  Location location location.

This one was found with a Minelab Explorer II

Yes I do not count caches (or "scattered caches" ) as the same type find.  For purposes of gold-coins-found.   In the same way that people don't generally count gold coins in jewelry (in bezles) as "gold coins" .  And count them as "jewelry" instead.   

16 hours ago, Andy Sabisch said:

Superb coin there . . . . definitely shows you know your equipment and how to find the sites that hold the targets you are looking to find.  Congratulations . . . . . now get out there and find 4 more to make a nice even number . . . 20 has a nice ring to it!  😁

Andy, it is an honor to get feedback from a respected industry/hobby leader/voice.       Yes,  you're not the first person to say that I need to shoot for 20 !   First gold coin was found in very late 1994.  So that makes for about 1 gold coin every 1.6 yrs average now, eh ?     I'll be reaching 20 GC's by the time I retire at 65-ish , haha

16 minutes ago, Cal_Cobra said:

Huh?  Not sure what your bone is here? 

Ooops, sorry, I didn't put enough smiley-laugh icon emojis there.   That was meant to be a joke.  

sweet !

41 minutes ago, Cal_Cobra said:

Tom's coin was quite a surprise, and comes with quite a funny story to boot!  I really should've stopped by that rock pile, ironically how many times have we walked right past that rock pile?

Brian, why don't you just come on out and admit that you screwed up .  Eh ?  😝  And besides, you got the last 2 gold coins in our "back-pocket sites".  So:  It was my turn anyhow, eh ?   🤣 

4 hours ago, Mark Gillespie said:

Fantastic coin.  I've never found one and wonder just how I would react.

It's all about location. Don't be looking for a gold coin in a school yard.

Yup.  I know we all love to talk about and compare tech toys.   But at the end of the day, the better coins are usually always a function of :  Location location location.   This one was actually shallow, for example.  I think it was even in a gopher  hole mound, practically on top ! 

1 hour ago, Elbert said:

Outstanding find Tom. Congrats. Can't wait to again see your displays. I imagine they have increased since the last time I viewed them.

El

El, you are welcome to come to Monterey any time.   It's been awhile since you've seen my trays.  They're all in blue-print style drawer/cabinets.   Where each pullout is stocked with shadow boxes, of various themes and locations.    Bring the wife over, and Sheila & I will take ya to dinner here.

1 hour ago, strick said:

Nice work...seen the post first on the the FB forum...Got the chance to hunt with Brian once..he knows his stuff..maybe a vid coming out on this find? 

strick

Yes, Brian is fun to hunt with.  Hard to beat his passion.  Knows how to appreciate the history, the targets & the challenges.    Not one of those types who let the machine rot in the closet.   Good researcher too.

Of the two period coins we got on this hunt, neither was captured live on video dig.  Just Murphy's law I suppose.   We DID capture a bunch of digs (taking turns to film each other, in the certain zone where zero new targets exist).   But as Murphy's law would have it, those all turned out to be things like toe-taps, buckle "keepers", metal slag, etc.....    Which all would have made for "filler" material, surrounding a coin dig or two.  But alas, .... the coin digs weren't captured.

If Brian wants to make a video, I still have 13 clips of filler material.  Then  the 2 coins can just be still-shots, eh ?

alaskaseeker, coil-power, thanx for looking and helping us relish our finds.  👍

And happa54:  How do you know we weren't south of the Santa Barbara line ?   🤣

9 hours ago, Kickindirt said:

dang man thats a lot of gold coins congrats!. I've got a lot of catching up to do. Im still at only 1 lol. Were u using the explorer II im guessing?

Yes.   Using the Minelab Explorer II

Hey there GB-amateur :  Yes, one of your Philly mints snuck across the Mississippi river, to CA .  I feel SSeeeooo bad 😞    I will eat a 2nd jelly donut tomorrow morning for penance.  ok?   Then will you absolve my conscience of all guilt ?  🥵

No, none of my 16 gold coins were CC mint.  But I was hunting with a buddy, back in the late 1990s, who got a rare CC $5 gold (I forget what year) only ~20 yards away from me.  At the time, I think we valued it at 8 to 10k value.  I'm sure it's more now.   I also saw a private mint CA gold found right near me.  Moffat, if I recall.  In each of those 2 cases, both those guys were at sites that I took them to.   (ie.: my research, my permissions, etc....)

thanx guys for the "high-5's".  Especially coming from some  of the most respected names and figures of our hobby/industry !

nice !