Raphis

I’ve been clicking the DP url on my phone regularly throughout the day for nearly 3 weeks now only to have that dreaded page come up and say the site is down/needs fixing....saw some feedback reporting on a couple other forums about this site and figured this wouldn’t be resolved until Steve gets back from his summer long detecting trip.....This morning, however, was a breath of fresh air seeing the site back up 👐🤗👏.  Welcome back Detector Prospector....Thanks Steve!!! 

As much hunting as I have done in nearly 40 years of detecting, I have never hunted a bonafide ghost town site (and never hunted in NV or AZ before). Go figure.  Thanks for sharing your trip out West with us.  👍🏼

Thanks for the replies, guys! HardNox, that walker is my 3rd (I can remember) that I found clipped...Well, one walker I found some years back fooled me...It looked like it was chopped in half, but I knew it couldn’t have been a lawnmower that did it.  The half walker turned out to be part of an old time magic trick, where the magician bites the coin and half of it (with jagged, zigzagged edges) is removed from the whole coin...I could never find the other half of the trick coin, but it was a genuine walker half.

1 hour ago, dogodog said:

Passing up on those 8-9 signals will get you on the gold ring wish list. Thin 14k usually hits in that range. Hope you can cool off and get to diggin some more!!!!

Thanks for the reply!  You’re right about those ring ID’s. I just don’t have the time to dig all those signals at a super trashy park.    At the beach I dig almost everything that beeps on my PI machine.  

8 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Which brings up a painful point for which I suspect you have several examples -- key or semi-key date+mintmark coins that have suffered this fate.  That would sadden me considerably.

I don’t think I will sadden you...because I can’t recall ever finding a chopped/clipped semi/key date silver coin before.  I’ve only ever found 2 or 3 barber dimes that had been chopped....most are mercs/Rosies/Washingtons/walkers/wheats...I found an SLQ that was clipped, but it was a “slicky” (no date).   I’m certain I have found a clipped early teen semi-key wheatie (‘09S-‘15S) before, but I have dozens of those unclipped  ☺️

I can’t tell you how many 1916 S Mercs I have found here in so cal, but it’s dozens...and not a single “D”...😫.  But it sure does give you a great adrenaline rush when you see a 1916 date before turning it over to see the mintmark. 
 

Nice recovery of your teen and oldest Merc!! 👍🏼

3 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

If you'd photographed that marble alone I'd swear it was a bowling ball. 😀 Great finds, that ring is really nice! 👍

Ha! Yes, it does resemble many of the fancy, colorful balls used in the PBA these days! Thanks for the reply!

1 hour ago, kac said:

Cut coins like that are probably from the reel style mower and not modern rotary is my guess.

That is a good run.

You are spot on with your synopsis, kac! 👍🏼
Here’s a pic of a similar style mower I’ve seen used at our local parks here..However, with the large, extensive drought we’re having here, the parks are not getting watered , and super dry conditions are the norm now...that means a lot less grass growth, and the normal frequency of mowing will likely be curtailed!  Thanks for the reply!

6 hours ago, Tom_in_CA said:

Raphis - Dan, it's good to see you posting ! 

Thanks Tom!  👍🏼

3 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

I'm surprised at how many of the coins were cut by mowers.   Not only must their blades have been sharp (my mower damaged coins tend to just be bent or dinged) but the sheer numbers are unexpected, IMO.  Do you think a change in dTID (from the missing material) caused previous detectorists to ignore these?  Also, do the two clipped dime pieces mate or is that just a coincidental illusion?

Oh, and nice sunbaker!

Thanks for the reply GB.  This park I hunted is only one of countless parks I hunt here in So Cal with clipped coinage.  Here on the west coast, our parks are cut once every week throughout the year.  We don’t have dormant grass.  It grows all year long.  And KAC was spot on with his synopsis.  Very large, Reel style lawn mowers are used in these parks weekly.  I’ll upload a picture of a similar large reel style lawnmower used in many of the larger parks here. This lawnmower, coupled with its frequency of use, and the large scale gopher problems pushing old dirt (not to mention older metal targets) to the surface does create numerous clipped coins.  
 

The two clipped  rosies I found in my pic were not a match, but I have found two halves of the same Rosie at this park years ago (both pieces were 5 ft from each other).  Twice, I found 3 pieces of the same silver Washington quarter.  I probably have found the largest collection of chopped silver/wheaties in the US 😅.  
 

The tID of that small, clipped piece of Rosie was a 19-20, and it was 5-6” deep.  I will always dig those targets in our parks with lots of gopher action and a history of clipped coins.  

12 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Well done.  Showing how it is done going back to your old parks.

14 hours ago, JCR said:

That's a great weekend for sure.

11 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Great hunting for you on these hot days.

Glad to see you recover those items for sure.

6 hours ago, rvpopeye said:

Sounds and looks well worth the effort !

Thanks, guys! Appreciate the replies! 👍🏼

Hello Friends,

I just wanted to share with you a couple short (3 hr) hunts I had last week.  The weather here in LA county has been stifling, but luckily my limited hunt time these days is a welcomed sight...hunt in the morning and leave around noon.

My first hunt last week was at a few parks that my buddies and I have hunted countless times over the years.  This day only one of the parks produced silver, but it was a silver none of my buddies have found at this park before: a Walker Half.  I ended the short hunt with 8 wheaties and the Walker. 

This past Sunday, I met a buddy at another heavily pillaged park.  This park has produced many old 30's-50's era coins (a % of these are lawnmower clipped), and high counts of clad quarters. One of my buddies found over 60 quarters at this park one day a couple years ago.  After finding a couple clipped Rosies within the first hour, I dug a merc with a ‘40 Jefferson in the hole.  I then was swinging my coil in a mostly dirt turf area, and just as I swung my coil in front of me, I noticed a glimmer of gold laying in the dirt.  The small ring is 14k, 2.32 grams, with a sapphire colored stone, and 10 diamond chips.  The ring ID’d as an 8 on my Nox.  I never would have dug ID’s that low at a trashy park, so I’m thankful I was able to spot it laying in the dirt.  It straightened out perfectly on my mandrel.  My buddy and I detected on for another hour before the humidity blasted both of us.  I finished my hunt with the gold ring, 3 Rosies, 1 merc, 12 wheats, 25 quarters, and a Washington dollar coin. The marble (maybe a dyed agate marble??) I found in my pic was peeking out of a dirt spot and is coincidentally the same color as the center stone in the ring I found. Go figure! 😉

Thanks for looking! Good luck to everyone!

HH,

Raphis (Dan)

4 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Are you referring to pure hydrogen peroxide or a solution of peroxide dissolved in water?

Just the regular, easy to get at any drug store, peroxide. 

17 hours ago, cuniagau said:

Dan,

Good to see you back in the field and posting those shinnys again!  Are you using the stock 11 inch coil or the 15 x 12 inch?  

Joe

Hello Joe.  Gosh, it sure has been a long while since we last chatted.  My free time is limited these days, but when I’m able to get out for a few hrs, I’m either fishing or detecting.  I don’t have a 15x12 coil for the Nox.  I’d use one if I was beach detecting with my Nox, but I have never used my Nox at the beach...I’d rather use my TDI Pro.  It has been many months since I have been able to go beach hunting.  The 11” coil is perfect for me in the super trashy parks I detect.  Years ago, I used a 13” coil for my Explorer and did well with it (found a gold coin), but it started falsing in wet grass after a year of swinging it.

7 hours ago, Tom_in_CA said:

Which is why your Nox 800 will kick my Exp. II's b#tt.   So c'mon on !   There's a bachelor pad duplex unit that you can crash out in here.  Let's do a test  🙂

I guess you didn’t read my entire opening post writeup.....maybe you were blinded by the silver? 🤣😆.  I’d love to meet up with you for a few days of hard hunting and watching you just shake your head in bewilderment, but I can only leave my house for 3 hrs at any given time, due to family members that I help take care of.  It sucks getting old/senile, but I’m sure most would be grateful to have someone else take care of them in the later stages of life.

You’ve got some cool finds there!!  Love the old dog tag...my oldest dog tag is 1909.  Nice watch FOB too!  I’ll take an educated guess and say that ring you found is gold filled...I have found quite a few gold filled rings from the beach that resemble your ring....the way it has been put together in layers (I can see the seams).

Congrats again! 

54 minutes ago, Tom_in_CA said:

Well well well.   I wish you could see the look on my Nox 800 buddy, if he read the reply you're giving here.   Ie.: that it was just his " .... intolerance and lack of capability ", eh ?   🧐     So when are you coming up this way to do some dueling , eh ?  I'm willing to duel with a robot (after all some humans have beat computers at chess, eh ?)

 

And also, what do  you say to a *certain* Etrac user, who has compared flagged signals, that says that there's not a single deep flagged signal you show him , that he can't equally hear/call, and vice-versa ?   Wouldn't this mean that the Etrac, in the hands of the right user, is an equal adversary in deep-junky-park-turf ?

There were actually some targets he could not ascertain with his E-Trac, but that was quite some time ago, when I first bought my Nox.  The signals I dug yesterday, I would not have dug many months ago.  This spot I detected yesterday morning has been pounded by me (Explorer), my buddy (E-Trac), a couple of capable  CTX hunters, and just about everyone else with a machine in LA county. 🤣. Heck, I missed the 3 merc pocket spill the week before at this spot and only found the 2 Rosie spill within 5 ft of the Mercs. So, if the experienced, seasoned hunters can miss the truly obscure, elusive targets, what about all the weekend warrior hunters?? These targets don’t exist to them...they see these targets as spurious noise (EMI and/or ground minerals).  Also, there were a few simple settings/mods on the Nox that could make/break ones ability to even hear a deeper, elusive copper/silver target.  Just because thousands of hunters buy a Nox, it’s not a given that all of those hunters will locate the same deeply buried, masked targets in EMI ridden sites...it’s the hunter who knows his machine and is used to hunting in those conditions for countless hrs that will make the elusive finds.....pretty simple logic, Tom!  

57 minutes ago, Kaolin washer said:

Now dig nice holes, so you can keep up the finds

15 minutes ago, dogodog said:

Great job Raphis, I love the merc's. Nice to see your doing quite well. Wish you more luck next time out.

Thanks, guys! 👍🏼

1 hour ago, GB_Amateur said:

Have you tried consecutive noise cancels?  My experience is that when I do this I get a different channel most of the time, anyway.  Yes, sometimes the noise cancel procedure will take me from a noisy channel to a quiet one, but that ideal situation is rare.  Most of the time it takes me from a noisy channel to an equally noisy channel or a quiet channel to an equally quiet channel.  I think it's due to narrow band sources being easy for the detector to notice and avoid but broad band -- well, that's why they call it 'broad'.

Somewhere along the line in this forum I posted a histogram of channels created from about 50 consecutive noise cancel steps in my back yard (which is EMI noisy due to being close to my house and its wifi, etc.)  There was a rather broad peak in that experiment so it was working, but not like many people think it does.

If I'm really being persnickity I will manually go through all 19 channels and choose the one I find the quietest, but that may not be any better than just letting the detector 'brain' do it for me.

BTW, for those who use notch discrimination, I think it's best to noise cancel with all TID channels notched 'in' (by toggling the Horseshoe button to show all TID channels dark boxed) and then switching to your favorite notch pattern.  I don't know for sure that this leads to a 'better' noise cancel, though.  Just kinda seems to make sense.  Personally the only time I don't have all TID channels 'on' is when I'm detecting for native gold and the ground has lots of -9, -8,... hot rocks on the surface.

I typically wouldn’t do consecutive noise cancels...I pretty much trust the noise cancelling algorithm built into the Nox.  It’s soooo much faster than the noise cancel on my Explorer.  Along those same lines, I don’t bother manually changing the noise channel (up or down), however I used to do that on my Explorer because I didn’t like waiting for the machine to do a whole NC cycle.  
 

“I’m doubting you gain anything by putting your machine in all metal before doing a NC.  I believe the audio is the only thing you don’t hear when you notch respective ID’s...you still see the actual ID number on the screen, even though it is notched out, which means the received data from the coil is still being internally processed by the Nox...you simply don’t hear it. “

^
ll
Correction to my above statement:  The ID does “not” show up on the screen for Notched out ID’s when the coil is swung over a notched piece of metal.  But I’m still uncertain whether you gain anything by making sure you go into all metal before noise cancelling. I don’t hunt with notching, but I do lower volume/tone for ID’s -9 thru 11 when trashy park hunting.  If I had the ability in 50 tones to hear the nickel signals at full volume and still be able to lower volume and tone on 15-17 ID’s, I’d do that....I think I can do that when in 5 tones (5 bins) but then I lose the ability to hear the difference between a quarter and a dime tonal wise (unless I look down on the screen to attain an ID)...I’m a “tone first” hunter...

2 hours ago, Tom_in_CA said:

Raphis Dan :   It's not fair to compare your finds to anyone else's here.   Since you're not human.  You're a robot.   So it's not fair to compare our finds with you .  Tsk tsk.

If you ever want to get north to central coast, I've got some spots where I am perpetually kicking the butts of nox 800 users.  But .... they're not robots like you.  Would love to duel with a proficient robot user !   🤣

Thanks for the reply, Salinas Tom (I think 🤣).  I was posting my finds for so many years across 4 different forums, and forumites expected to see 10-30 silvers on each post I created.  When I posted 2 or 3 silvers, guys thought I had a terrible hunt.

The Nox is very proficient at finding those hard to decipher, deep, masked targets, even in areas riddled with EMI....but you have to be immune/extremely comfortable with extraneous background noise caused by EMI...this doesn’t come very easy to many hunters. Some of the settings available to Nox hunters help to a certain degree, but then it’s all up to the user and his tolerances/capabilities.

My Explorer is collecting dust...haven’t even turned it on since purchasing the Nox last year.  My confidence with the machine is sky high...no matter where or whoever I hunt with. 💪🏼😆

4 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

You continue to amaze with your finds in 'hunted out' parks.  Beautiful Mercs!

Were you running your usual Recovery Speed = 4?  I ask because of the chirps since I associate shorter tones with higher recovery speeds for desirable targets.  Yes, I get chirps with lower (4&5) recovery speeds but not (AFAIK) for desirable targets.  Or was it the EMI that altered the quality of your hit tones?  Listenting through EMI is painful, but apparently worth it.

Thanks, GB! Yes, Recovery speed of 4 all the time for every park I hunt. Most every keeper, old target yesterday that I unearthed was very elusive (8-9 out of 10, with 1 being the easiest target to hear).  I went out with two buddies yesterday, who both swing Nox 800’s.  One of my buddies likes to stick close to me like glue, in hopes I can locate an elusive target, and I can tell him to come over to listen to it.  My other buddy mostly goes off on his own and hunts at his own pace and settings he prefers.  Well the buddy that sticks to me like glue heard only 2 out of the 5 or 6 targets I called him over to hear.  I didn’t have a lot of time to look at his Nox settings to see what the differences were between our machines.  The EMI at this park has a profound effect at signal clarity and duration.  I was noise cancelling and ground balancing often.  Most every time I noise cancelled, the machine would go to a different channel, and likewise with the ground balance...I saw ground balance numbers from 3 to 53 yesterday.  I was constantly re-listening to all my elusive targets after doing a NC and GB....and some of the times doing this helped give the faint/chirpy signal more clarity.  My “glue” buddy was really scratching his head yesterday after not being able to hear one of my targets and showing him a deep, green patina wheat penny in my hand a couple minutes later.

12 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Bet that Merc pocket spill happened in '44 or '45 based on the similar great condition of those '44 Mercs and because there were two of them in the spill.

Great finds and thanks for sharing the detailed back story.  Good stuff!

I’m certain you’re right (this time 😂).  Thanks for all you do on this forum, and stepping up to help Steve out...much appreciated!! 👍🏼

10 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Very nice hunt and glad you found some nice items. Good luck on your next outing.

Thank you!  Good luck to you too!

5 hours ago, schoolofhardNox said:

He showed me that every old park I ever hunted in our area still had deeper coins and silver. I didn't believe it until I hunted with him. It was an eye opener. Just think of what key and semi key date coins are waiting to get unearth. An '09 S Indian wouldn't hurt 😄 Good luck on your next hunt there.

 

 

 

 

I used to keep a database of all the parks I found silver at in my area (cataloging all my silver finds) for the past 14 years.  The list is quite extensive, and is over one hundred. Having the Nox 800 to use in my old parks has brought to the surface many elusive, deep oldies that I never would have found with my Explorer SE.  The recovery speed of the Explorer is a bit too slow to be able to get the deeper targets when they’re mixed with trash targets.  Plus, I can’t lower volume/tone on the lowest of conductors with my SE like I can on the Nox.  That’s a key feature to help enhance the deeper higher conductors while squelching the tone/volume of the lower targets in super trashy parks.  Funny you should mention an ‘09 S Indian...I have found one, and it’s in pretty good condition.  I didn’t  find it from the park I hunted yesterday...but it was a nearby park in the city. Thanks for the reply!

Hello Friends,

Since joining this forum last year, I really haven’t posted any of my finds, aside from a few pics here and there.   I’ve lost a lot of my free time this year due to taking care of family members, so a 3 hr hunt is my upper limit.  When I’m able to hunt with my Nox 800, I’ve been pleased with my results.  For the past few weekends, I have met up with some buddies to hunt one of our old (135 yr old) parks in our locale.  This park has been pillaged for so many years by so many hunters, it’s amazing that we can continue to find older targets at the 7-9+” range.  This park is loaded with non-ferrous (and ferrous) trash targets; it’s your typical, century plus, blighted inner city park that poses additional EMI challenges that can really impede your ability to hear targets.  The EMI at this park has worsened since I started hunting it back in 2007.  Over this time, I have dug well over 200 silver, close to 1000 wheat pennies (at least 50 of these wheats were the early teen “S” mint semi-keys) , a large handful of Indians (3 of these were 1908 S mint), some V’s/Buffaloes, tokens, and other interesting relics from this park alone.

 A few weeks ago was my first hunt at this park in quite some time.  I ended up finding 7 wheats and an 1892 Indian penny for a 2 hr hunt.  Last week I returned to a different section of the park and dug a pocket spill of 2 Rosies and a wheat penny, a 3rd Rosie, and 13 more wheat pennies.  This morning, I met a couple of my buddies at the same park and had more success.  My first dug target turned out to be a pocket spill of 3 mercs. I couldn’t believe it...out of a thousand plugs over a 14 year period of detecting this park, I can’t ever recall digging 3 mercs in one hole...the mercs were down about 7 inches, but my Nox produced only a tiny “high chirp” sound due to the EMI messing with the signal.  I could only hear this chirp from one direction too. The ID of the chirp was in the high 30’s.

After finding just a couple wheats over the next hr, I then dug the sterling bracelet at 7”, which also produced a short/choppy high chirp.  The ground at this park is like digging thru bricks this time of year (we are in a drought here and many of our blighted parks are not getting watered). I decided to start walking to my car (while keeping my machine on) to say goodbye to my other buddy, who ended up with a goose egg for oldies today.  About 30 ft from my car, I dug two faint signals (jumpy ID’s between 21-31) that the EMI was really messing with.  I circled these targets so many times while wiggling my coil over the signals with different cadences, and finally decided to dig both of them to see what I was hearing...the first signal turned out to be a Rosie, my 5th silver of the 3 hr hunt. The 2nd signal was the button, which after a quick google search seems to be a WW1 German Imperial Prussian Crown Tunic button.  (If this button is something different, please don’t hesitate to share any of your expertise).

I really don’t think I could have hunted any longer today, even if I had more time.  The heat/humidity paired with the hard ground wiped me out.

Pictured are my finds from this morning’s hunt.

HH,

Raphis

1 hour ago, Chase Goldman said:

Also, the dimensions/weight on numista have to be off as the density would have to be nearly 4 times that of gold

I don’t see anything abnormal with the listed diameter of the token (25 mm) and it’s width (1.5 mm).  The token is nearly the same size as a US Quarter, which weighs 5.6 grams, is slightly over 24 mm diameter, and 1.75 mm thickness....maybe I’m missing something.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/exonumia191694.html
 

Looks like the token has been categorized by “Numista” website....as an unclassified miscellaneous token...it has a high “rarity” index amongst numista members.

Here’s a couple more Indians:

4 hours ago, dogodog said:

Raphis, Can you post a before and after pic with the peroxide treatment? Would love to see the results. I'm always looking for ways to clean my coins in a non destructive way.

2 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

I'd like to see that too.

This may not be the utmost best example, but observe the 3 Indian pennies in the pics...One pic is before cleaning with peroxide; the other is after the peroxide bath.  I may or may not have used a bamboo toothpick after the peroxide bath to remove any really stubborn dirt/clay.  I also don’t remember how many times I repeated the peroxide bath on the 3 indians.  I do remember placing all of them in the Pyrex cup at once, with ample space between them.