Valens Legacy

Fantastic hunt and some nice finds, keep up the great work! Good luck on your next hunt.

Gerry I enjoyed your story and it reminded me of something that I had also lost. Needless to say it isn't nice when one has to go back and find things that one looses. I don't think age has anything to do with loosing an item, but it does have everything with going back to find it. I know of people that are younger than me that would have just thrown their hands up and say Oh Well Dad will buy me another. That is not the way I was raised or taught, but sadly that is the way the younger generation is being brought up. Glad you found the pick and great finds.

Nice finds and wish you more luck when it turns summer, that way you can stay a little warmer.

JCR, Welcome once more and I find that this is the best forum on the internet. The people here is always nice and has answers for almost anything, except how to make perfect chocolate chip cookies. Other than that you have everything you could ever want from a forum.

Beautiful hunting, and wish you more luck in the future.

Welcome Steve I am sure we could learn a few things form you, Good luck and happy hunting.

My grandfather had a system similar to what you are wanting to build. His had the 1/4 mesh under the expanded so that it would catch the larger nuggets along with the smaller pieces. He had the 2 pieces separated with a couple of washers to create better catch for the small nuggets. I remember having to take it apart to do a cleanup and saw a bunch of gold of all sizes. He always said think outside the box and try everything to make it work the way you want it. I still try that today. If he still has the old sluice I will send you some pictures if I can locate it.

They are the ones that have made an offer on the jar, as it is the only one that still has it's original lid. I never thought about the jar as being a weapon of mass destruction, but you just might be onto something with that.

Today we found out that the jar in which the coins are from is more rare than the coins themselves. There were only about 1,000 of the jars made before they made a glass bottle for their new oil and started that line of product. They only made lamp oil for about a year before getting into the machine oils which built the company into what it is today. We will not be getting rid of the stinky old jar just yet. I will be taking more pictures soon and as long as my stomach can tolerate it. The wind has to blow away from the house before grandmother will let me uncover it.

Great job on finding the gold and I am looking forward to watching all the videos. Glad to see that it is not some big company finding the gold, but one of us common people that is getting lucky. I am out of likes or I would have given you one.

TR As I have learned about hunting is dig everything! I have only found a few coins since I have started with my grandfathers detector, but I am learning some of the sounds that make. I know I have a couple of good coins that I have found, and yes some junk does stink at times. With that said keep at it as you are getting close to the gold that you seek from finding the small stuff you are showing. Welcome and good luck.

C.J. Welcome to the most friendly and informative bunch of people on the internet. I am new to all this and have read a lot from these great people, they really have the best advice for every thing detector. I know that I could never have found anything without their help. Looking forward to your finds and videos.

So are you saying this would bring back a lot of good memories? If so please send me your address so I can get rid of this stuff, I mean so you can enjoy every memory over again.

Thanks for the suggestion and I have used acetone several times and know a little about the affects on the skin. I talked to a couple of people today and they want no part of it at this time sue to the smell. I have tried denatured alcohol once before on some copper and it really did nothing that I really noticed to remove grease or oil. That is where the smell is coming from. Right now I am using the Odoban to remove the odor first as it is not harming the coin. Odoban kills the odor is a lot of funeral homes use it to remove the smell of human decay. When they go to a home where a body has been for several days, they will spray the Odoban on anything with the smell and it removes it. Sometimes it takes a few tries to remove all the odor, but it works. I may have to leave it in a cup of Odoban overnight to remove the smell completely. Thank you for all your help and advice as I do appreciate it.

That smell is like a pack of skunks run over in the middle of the road in 100 degree weather, and you just had to walk through it. I have washed my hands at least 50 times and they still smell.

I could send the bottle to you for a smell to see what you think it is, but I think the USPS would have me arrested. The markings had a company by the name of NYE or something like that, I think that is who started the company. They are still in business I think and are out of the New England area.

There is a few Alaska transplants in this area and my grandmother called one of them. She came by and knew what the smell was as she had ran into it before. Also on the bottom of the jar it had an oil company name and the type of oil printed on the glass. So now I have to save the old stinky jar, but I am going to seal it with something.

The coin still feels like it still has oil on it, and I need to let my lungs clear out before attempting to do any more. There are 3 more coins left to clean, and they are the 2 larger silver coins with just a single gold one. When I get brave enough I will tackle them and take some pictures to post.

One of grandmothers neighbors is 97 years old and told her that her grand parents would send British currency to relatives on a regular basis. She also said that it was common currency before the Civil War here. Thought you would like to know.

Fantastic hunting and hope that you have many more hunts like that. Would you please share the GPS numbers for me so maybe I can get my detector adjusted to the area.

I knew that it had a bad smell to it and decided to take it outside, if I would have done that to the kitchen grandmother said she would have burned the house down. I think the oil preserved the coin nicely, but it sure does stink.

GB_Amateur, I took that idea and tried it outside, BIG MISTAKE, come to find out it was whale oil. That stuff has the whole neighborhood still stinking, and I hope that we will be able to someday use the barbecue grill again. I was using the side burner on the lowest setting to soften everything to remove the coins when the smell overcame us. Grandmother went into the house and to the bathroom to remove her lunch the same direction it went down, my wife could not make it into the house and barely made it to the yard. I finally removed the jar from the burner and sat it down near the back fence about 200 feet from the house. Our neighbor called the police thinking that we were making some kind of drugs, and when they arrived they asked for a gas mask and a hazmat team. I only had time to remove a single coin from the jar, before they showed up. I then was trying to clean the coin to show them that there was some type of mistake about why they were called out. Before they were able to get to the jar I had the coin rinsed with water, sprayed with Odoban, and checked the date. I called out to the police and Hazmat team to show them what was in the jar and to keep them from destroying it's history. Since the oil was now a liquid, I was able to pour it out into another container to seperate the contents from the jar. The other coins are going to have to be cleaned before I can take a picture, because I am still sick to my stomach, and post. The whale oil from the jar is over 150 years old and stinks to high heaven, you can have it if you want. I don't know if it would be legal to mail it to you as it could be considered a weapon of mass destruction if inhaled. The coin itself smells, but not as much as it did before I sprayed it with Odoban, and was very clean looking when removed from it's tomb. I think who ever placed these coins in the jar knew that nobody in their right mind would ever touch the jar after smelling it. I told grandmother that I would pay the fine for the disturbence of peace that I got from the police, so I hope the coins are worth it. I think this should be it's own thread so maybe if someone else finds a jar with whale oil in it, don't heat it up like I did. Caleb

Great hunt with good results, I am learning my grandfathers 800 and still have a lot to learn. Some day I will hit the coast with it's beaches, but for now I need to learn what I am doing. Good luck on your next hunt.

My neighbor has the same setup as you because he often goes out into the middle of nowhere to hunt gold and silver. He added a second set, but lighter set, of spring shocks to handle the off road camping. Something to think about as he says it saved him a lot of trouble when one spring broke on him.

Looks like a very nice hunt and wish you more luck on your next outing.