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Anxiety With A Great Coin !!!!
Raphis replied to dogodog's topic in Metal Detecting For Coins & Relics
Great coin find! šš¼ Iāve always had good results putting my crusty/caked dirty copper items in bubbling hot hydrogen peroxide. I certainly canāt take credit for this technique. (Iāve seen this ācopper enhancementā technique used on old coppers by countless treasure hunters on various detecting forums for over a decade..... The technique is to place a small pyrex cup filled with a 1/2ā of hydrogen peroxide in the microwave until you see it start to bubble/boil. Remove the cup from the microwave and immediately place the coin in the peroxide (and watch it bubble/fizz). A lot of tough, caked on dirt/crud will start to come off into the peroxide. It will sizzle for quite some time (minutes). Iāll repeat the same above steps after 3-4 minutes (or until the fizzing is barely noticeable) for the other side of the coin with fresh peroxide. This process does not mess with the color/patina of the coin... Youāre correct about oil darkening the surface of copper....and once you put oil on the coin, thereās no reversing the effect......and I definitely agree with you about avoid placing water on the coin.....water does remove quite a bit of ādetailā, and depending on the mineral content in the water, it can really cause the surface of the copper to become more prone to rapid oxidation. -
Life Is Good And Some Silver
Raphis replied to dogodog's topic in Metal Detecting For Coins & Relics
A silver quarter trifecta is a rare day indeed! š Your sterling flower ring is very familiar to me...I have found over a dozen of that design here on the west coast over a 10 year period. Major Congrats! šš¼- 15 replies
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My Greatest Coin Spill Of All Times
Raphis replied to relic ray's topic in Metal Detecting For Coins & Relics
Itās crazy what can be buried under the ground...last year my Dad found 52 quarters (all clad) in one hole. Some of the coins were stuck together with pieces of decayed bank wrapper on them. -
Great videos/tests! Here in the US, Iād pass up all shallow 21/22 IDās in our local parks...Thereās an abundance of those idās, which are mostly pennies and other larger aluminum trash...Theyād have to be whispery for me to dig them (for a possible early wheat or Indian penny), unless Iām dealing with disturbed/turned over ground, trenching, or gopher action. All our dollar coins ID in the 30ās on the Vanq/Eqx. When I used my Explorer SE, it would be a mortal sin to run it in auto sensitivity (especially for a deep coin hunter), simply because you never knew what the true sensitivity of your machine would be after the machine automatically reduced the sens for quiet operation. Itās been many years since I used a CTX, but do you know the ārealā sensitivity the machine goes to when in auto sens (or auto +1 or +2)?
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Farmhouse/rv Park Wrap Up
Raphis replied to F350Platinum's topic in Metal Detecting For Coins & Relics
Cool, old coin thatās got plenty of character even though you canāt see much detail....looks like it was punched with a square nail....nice wheels too!! šš¼ -
Memorial Weekend Contest, Win A Minelab GPX 6000 Dream
Raphis replied to Gerry in Idaho's topic in Detector Prospector Forum
51/50 I believe you meant to say...š¤£š Cool contest!! šš¼ -
Final Hunt On My Silver Beach For A While
Raphis replied to schoolofhardNox's topic in Metal Detecting For Coins & Relics
Haha...it does suck getting old. I can relate to your hand wanting to close itself shut. š. Your push for 200 reminded me of my push for 800 silver coins back in 2015...I came up a little short, but I ended up with way more than I thought I would get, and that year turned out to be my most productive ever. Congrats on a great beach season! šš¼ -
Boy, Tom, I wish someone could enlighten you for once!! šš¤£. Years ago, I clearly recall not a single hunter could pry that whites DFX of yours from your clenched fists, until you got spanked at a certain Nor Cal park by an Explorer hunter....only then did you change your mindset in a matter of a day! š Iād imagine though, you canāt compare apples to oranges (DFX vs Explorer) back then for deep turf silver....but the Nox is no slouch to an Explorer. Thatās a fact! Youāre still hanging on to your Explorer because you canāt live without your Sunray inline probe! š¤
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If ML had made the CTX as light to swing as the Equinox, Iād probably pay $1200 for a new CTX. I guess you could say Iām a deep silver slayer!! šš¤Iāve been hunting old, trashy parks in my locale for more than a decade with an Explorer SE, and the past year with a NOX 800. After digging over 5000 silver coins with my Explorer, Iām here to say I wish I had an Equinox 10 years ago! āŗļø The Nox is a silver slayer!! It finds deeper coinage and co-located deep targets in moderate mineralized soils more efficiently than my Explorer ever could. Last year a buddy of mine and I went to a park weāve been to about 20 prior times over the past 8 years (he hunts with an E-Trac, and I had hunted this park with my Explorer those years). This was my first time hunting this park with my Nox 800. That dayās hunt was so telling!! I ended up with 13 deep (7-10+ā) silver coins, and nearly 30 wheats. My friend ended up with 3 silver...We both were in shock! The park is not very big, so this was not new ground weāve never hunted before. Iāve since been hunting many of the heavily pillaged parks with my Nox that I used to hunt with my Explorer and finding numerous deep and/or partially masked old coinage. I did get a chance to hunt with a CTX for a week at a few old parks many years ago, and I did very well with it upon my first hunt! I read the whole manual thru and thru back then before using the machine... Itās a great machine for deep silver, as many others have mentioned, but itās too heavy (compared to a Nox), even though it has better balance than an Explorer (but I donāt use arm cuff straps for swinging my machine and prefer a slightly more toe heavy machine) especially if one hunts for 6-10 hrs (my typical hunt day for many years). I read that article Simon linked above (comparing the Nox 800 with a CTX), and cut/pasted an excerpt of the article below...He doesnāt elaborate why he feels the IB feature/filter on the Nox causes a loss of depth, but Iām sure this could be (or already has been ??) debated by the heavy hitters on this forum. āThe Equinox 800 has incredible capability in handling heavy mineralization and identifying iron. In fact, Minelab came out with an Iron Bias discrimination feature on the Equinox which allows you to better reveal whether an iffy target is iron or not. However, using the iron bias features comes at a cost -- loss of depth. I do not want to declare the iron bias features obsolete, however, I have found no situation in which I need them. ā
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Thatās a great beach hunt, Mitchel. Those coins definitely havenāt seen much moisture all these years. Iām assuming the sand youāre hunting to find those oldies has a hard pack layer (the deeper you dig, as opposed to soft, fluffy sand). Those silver coins you found remind me so much of my dry sand hunts at a specific stretch of beach, where I dug over 600 silver in 2 years there. I surmised there should undoubtedly be similar conditions at other beaches as the beach I was hunting. I would dig every solid, smooth signal with my PI machine (my Explorer couldnāt attain the depths I was finding some of the coinage and other artifacts, so I always used my PI). I wore out a couple of solid stainless scoops over a two year period, but it was so worth the effort. Some food for thought....there were times I thought I had meticulously gridded sections/stretches of dry sand after finding a decent amount of silver/wheats/artifacts, and Iād swear there couldnāt possibly be anything else to find in this particular spot if I hunted it another day.....but Iād go back, and to my surprise, I would find more oldies....I was using a large coil on my PI too (17x13ā). It doesnāt take much to miss a deep coin.....if the surface of the sand is heavily uneven, with pits, and divots, those conditions will mask deeper coinage. If the surface gets more leveled/even, your chances for finding the deepies increases.
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Hey GB, could you elaborate a little on the kind of site will you be requiring a magnetic rake for a stronger pull out West here? Are you going to be raking blankets of iron? You did mention hiking/backpacking, but a device like you bought is new to me...Iāve seen plenty of beach hunters and prospectors/meteorite hunters attach magnets on a beach scoop or a pick, but never heard of a magnetic rake.
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Once Again At My Favorite Beach - GPX 5000
Raphis replied to schoolofhardNox's topic in Metal Detecting For Coins & Relics
Sounds like you have your 5000 dialed in for hunting your beaches. šš¼ There has been some talk in the prospecting forum about hunting the beaches with the new GPX 6000. The 6000 seems much more simplistic, and doesnāt have iron reject or timings (canāt delineate between high/low conductors on a 6000 like you can on the earlier GPX machines ??). I saw you express some interest in possibly seeing how a 6000 would perform as a beach machine...it seems like you will lose your conductor delineation ability. Iām thinking the 6000 would perform like a super-charged TDI Pro (with the Ground Balance set off), allowing you to āangleā for specific deep targets based only on target response (i.e. shape of the sound (smooth, double blip, single blip, etc). Do you have any additional/contrasting thoughts on this subject youād like to share?? EDIT: after rereading Steve Hās review/experience with his 6000, he did talk about the following tone delineations: āThe tone tricks still work, with most small gold going high tone, and most big gold (meaning cans) going low tone. If you have nothing but sub-gram gold, it is unlikely a low tone signal is gold.ā I wonder if the cutoff point between high/low conductors (as you described earlier) on your 5000 (zinc penny range ??) would be similar on the 6000....(just food for thought...Iām just trying to hypothesize a beach scenario utilizing a 6000). -
Once Again At My Favorite Beach - GPX 5000
Raphis replied to schoolofhardNox's topic in Metal Detecting For Coins & Relics
Ahhhh, thatās a critical āAngleā to attain in oneās back pocket of tricks for both Prospectors and beach hunters using PIās......It separates the boys from the men! š -
Once Again At My Favorite Beach - GPX 5000
Raphis replied to schoolofhardNox's topic in Metal Detecting For Coins & Relics
I have a TDI Pro...it has the low, all, high switch settings, but those are only applicable when the ground balance is enabled...I easily lose 4ā to 6ā of depth if I turn on ground balance on the TDI Pro. Yes, I have to swing very slowly in wet or mineralized sand to keep the threshold more stable, but that extra depth is key for having a chance at the older finds when thereās no erosion present. Iāve never used a Minelab PI before , but if you donāt have any loss of depth and are still able to hear high/low, low/high conductivities, thatās the catās meow!! šš¼šš¼ I believe a Garrett ATX can give similar conductive delineation of target response with no loss of depth also. -
Once Again At My Favorite Beach - GPX 5000
Raphis replied to schoolofhardNox's topic in Metal Detecting For Coins & Relics
Great hunt, HardNOX! šš¼ It reminds me of my beach hunts with my Whites TDI. My digging technique is much different than yours, but Iād imagine my sand strata is quite a bit different than yours. Could you elaborate a little on how you describe above of your ability to decide to concentrate on digging lower conductors with your 5000 for a while, then switch to digging higher conductors? Does the GPX have this ability without loss of depth?? I do have this ability to differentiate between higher and lower conductors to some extent (if I ground balance my TDI), but I would be greatly limiting my depth capability with my PI by enabling ground balance on the TDI, so I donāt hunt in GB mode. -
Good link to your older thread, Mitchel. Similar to the way conditions change at a beach, conditions at the same turf site will change also. Ground moisture and grass height (gopher activity also) will affect target responses (especially the deeper targets)...So even if a thāer is practicing thorough/persistent/smart ground coverage, there will be numerous deep targets that will be passed over on certain days/weeks/months at your hunt site...In other words, Mother Nature (even the frequency/timing of the lawn being mowed āŗļø) play a huge part in your ability to recover the deeper/older turf targets on any given day.....all the more reason to never give up on a site, simply because it didnāt produce very much for you after a few hunts.
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Hey Dances, I wonder how many persons are willing to pay 3c per copper penny right now? Since a US penny is legal tender, I doubt any metal scrapping business would accept US pennies....Iāve got about 30,000 common wheat pennies (all detected coins). One of my buddies was selling his wheat pennies on another detecting forum (1000 pennies + a semi key date wheat included)...he was getting 3 cents a coin a year or two ago selling them this way.
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Since Iāve been hunting trashy turf sites for a few decades, Iāll elaborate my thoughts on this subject. The most important aspect for covering ground at a trashy site is the āspeedā which you cover the ground. Youāve got to swing your coil at a sloth pace...doing this, youāll most likely end up overlapping your swings, and not unintentionally lifting up your coil off the ground on the ends of your swing path, which is critical! Even if one does hunt at a sloth pace, when you think youāve covered a site 100%, you need to go back again another 50-75 times š. Sites with years of ferrous/non-ferrous strata take many years to strip mine the older targets (most of these types of sites never get completely hunted out). Many thāers give up at a site way too soon (their patience wears thin or their keeper finds are too few/far between to justify hunting the site further). The typical site I hunt has been hunted by countless thāers over decades (a common condition that exists for populous, old inner city turf across the country), so thereās really nothing earth shattering about the conditions, except that a tremendous amount of patience/persistence/perseverance is required to consistently produce finds from these sites, while many others who donāt possess those traits will move on to greener pastures.
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Iām not a prospector, but I read this section of DP often....maybe I will expand my horizons (after over 35 years of coin/jewelry/beach/turf thāing)....I do own a PI machine (Whites TDI Pro for beach detecting). I really like what Steve has done with this sub forum, providing a āfireside chatā feel where top experts in prospecting from around the world can express their opinions on the latest/greatest of prospecting machines. Donāt need to change a thing here! Itās up to Steve anyway to share/lay out his vision of DP, and itās one of the best....itās the only forum on the Net that Iām regularly contributing to theses days.(after being a member of 5 different forums in the past 14 years).
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Hi GB......Yes, a successful hunterās settings could be a good starting point for other thāers who have the same machine and are willing to try any suggestions that are offered to them....likewise, thereās always a multitude of forumites willing to help another thāer out with detector issues....Thatās what a moderately high % of detecting forumsā content is about...trying to minimize the learning curve of a machine.....Yet, no matter how much online help is given to some thāers, for various reasons, the help given doesnāt āsink inā with the thāer.....itās like the old adage, āA picture is worth 1000 wordsā.....itās the time out in the field; comparing signals with other hunters who have the same machine as you; itās the trial and error of settings at sites in your own hunt area....itās breaking old/bad habits from previous machine experience....these are the most important prerequisites a thāer will need to acquire to be more confident/successful. These traits take time to acquire...thereās no quick fix....some (ānaturally giftedā ??) are able to acquire these traits much quicker (days/weeks) while others take much longer, (weeks/months)....Then there are some that need more time to acquire the necessary skills (beyond detector settings), but unfortunately give up too soon (too difficult), while others persist on (never say die attitude). A thāers emotion/passion for the hobby, along with a willingness to never give up will lead them to a more productive/confident experience with whatever machine(s) has brought them ārepeatedā success during a multitude of hunts.
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I remember the OP of this thread (he used the same username years ago on our local California forum (Kinzlis CA forum). He was just learning his new CTX for beach hunting back then, and made similar quirky posts on that forum, trying to gain knowledge...Iām not mentioning this as a negative to the OP, but I believe this is his way of trying to learn a new machine....donāt think itās the best way though, but he has been consistent/persistent all these years (in his own way). Along these same lines of āproper detector settingsā for a particular site, I canāt even estimate how many times over the years I would receive a private msg from various forumites after I made an old coin post about what my settings on my machine were.....Someone elseās Detector settings may not be the correct settings for your ground/hunting environment. Many just want an āeasier wayā or a path of least resistance in becoming successful in their endeavor to be a highly confident/successful treasure hunter ...itās a typical human trait....we canāt knock anyone for wanting an easier way to success, but in reality, not many endeavors in life come that easy......In order to find elusive targets (or sometimes any diggable/keeper target), especially in trash (Ferrous/non-ferrous), heavily mineralized ground conditions, or areas with moderate, varying EMI, will take more than āproperā machine settings....in other words, machine settings are only one part of the equation for success. So many times, I would share my machineās settings with various members across the country, but that typically wouldnāt lead to an increase in their keeper finds. Coil control/speed, a very good ear for actual targets in noisy environments (noise tolerance), along with spending many hrs out in the field trialing/erring various settings along with other acquired detecting skills for most challenging sites is the only way to become a better hunter whoās brimming with the confidence of finding keeper targets, even before arriving at their hunting site. Iāve seen many hunters never able to become comfortable with a new machine for various reasons they cannot fathom, and go back to their trusty machine theyāve grown used to for many years. Sometimes a new machine will just click with a new user, other times it wonāt.
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How Many Silver Dimes In A Gold Nugget?
Raphis replied to GB_Amateur's topic in Detector Prospector Forum
Interesting perspectives on gold/silver value ratios. It was never about how much dollar value I could find while detecting....for me, it was truly about the challenge of finding older/deeper targets from previously heavily detected parks/beaches that no one else has been able to find (including the targets that have eluded me in previous hunts). This goal (mission statement) drove me to finding over 6000 silver coins and over 30,000 wheat pennies since 2007 (beach/turf combined). Most likely, this mission statement evolved because of my location to countless older, silver coin era sites, coupled with the fact that I always wanted to better/challenge myself at whatever I thoroughly enjoyed doing! My gold jewelry finds, for the most part, were all incidentals in the turf (at the beach I dig mostly smooth sounding targets), but my gold finds (a little over 1.5 lbs of mixed karat values) far surpassed the value of my silver finds (including my sterling jewelry finds). I had more satisfaction, though, in finding the elusive silver coinage, but Iād also admit that all of my gold ring finds that I found in ultra deep wet/dry sand (at the fringe of detection with a PI machine) were just as satisfying (and more physically demanding). It was always more priceless to me to meet up with my local hunt buddies (I enjoy solo hunting also) and share in the camaraderie of the day in search of those elusive, deep, partially masked old coins/artifacts from heavily hunted sites...however, I never turned down a shallow gift from the gophers š¤£. -
Hello Mitchel. Congrats on your dry sand silver half. šš¼ I vaguely remember your username from years ago (maybe on a different forum ??....itās been a while). I hunt mostly turf, and detected my local beaches for many a year south of you. HH, Dan