Zincoln

While i also take special care of my low mintage silver coins and appreciate and retain them....this whole thing is conjured up by you and me. Coins that come out of the ground with 'vintage' wear and scratches or even bag marks from the mint are great. This is original patina. However, god forbid those of us that find them put little micro scratches on them or remove tarnish. This is all just a mechanism driven by the coin collecting world to drive price tiers and differentiation (no different than any other business tiering scheme or mechanism). When did this start becoming a thing in the coin collecting world - 80's, 90's? You can send your coin to a grading company for preservation (light cleaning) and that is perfectly acceptable. Don't do the same thing yourself though. Your coin will now be damaged. But if you paid an expert, all is well. Let the coin sit and develop a patina (silver oxidization) for several decades and most will have the appearance of vintage aging...with some exceptions. For those common coins that I find, i hit them all with a baking soda past because i like the appearance in the binder. As they are effectively junk silver, it doesn't matter in any material way. The vast majority, if graded, would yield an environmental damage label right, wrong, or otherwise. My take is have fun, enjoy the hobby. Do what makes you happy. I might cringe if you further damage a $300 coin, but that is your issue, not mine. I spend my time detecting and minimal time worrying about other people and their actions. Kinda not my business. One man's alternative take....

Now, Rich, you need to start saving up for a backhoe to be able to get to the bottom of these cavernous holes😁 I know it's not your first silver dollar, but it certainly cannot get old when they show up! I know you put aside your tried and true detector(s) to give the Manticore a shot, and glad to see it has paid off for you. Looking forward to many more 'photo shoots' in your near future! Zincoln

Very nice. Can't believe how nicely it cleaned up. First pic looked just like dirty brass....and then! Presume that is a Star of David depicted. Well done, Zincoln

Thank you VL. Much appreciated. I too am hoping for some nice diamonds. Lots of gold rings w/ little diamonds and semi precious stones....but no engagement lunkers yet!

I doubt these badges have any value as they are in various states of decay.....but if anyone wants them and does restoration work to recover them....they aren't doing me any good. Zincoln

Today I was hunting a neighbors old farm house. I had previously found about 50 pieces of costume jewelry and one silver ring. Seems someone's jewelry box was dumped out in the back yard. Spread out almost like it was thrown and left a debris field. Funny thing was these Sterling cuffs were down an inch or two, and one was still stuck through the material they were housed in when in a box. Fancy looking fellas. Too bad the pivot on the end to keep them in place rusted (the pin/spring). Suppose a jeweler could fix them if one was inclined. 9.5g of Sterling. Not a bad hole! Zincoln

Think we may have been looking at this wrong. Now I'm leaning to an Asian symbol character. Didn't want to pay for the app to see if its a Chinese symbol. Not savvy enough on the other Asian languages to hazard to guess, but it most certainly does have that look about it. Possibly rotated 90 deg.

Yeah, i guess that would cure a kid! Back then they just scared the &^$# out of them. Now, who knows.

I'm with you JCR. Think it went on apparel or possibly leather. Kinda thinking a hat badge of some sort. Found a 1920-30 era Western Union hat badge here and a 1930's Schwinn World head badge as well last year. Could have been part of a decorative brooch or ladies sash buckle. Have found both of those items in this place as well. Definitely a curiosity, but no matches yet.

Got out today for a few hours to an old park and hit the steep slopes and brush. This park was once an amusement park starting at the turn of the 20th century. Starting w/ the Cache. Had some really good signals that sounded like a coin spill, but after the first item popped out, I knew I was in for something different. Seems a kids must have stolen auto badges and buried them all in the same hole in the woods of the park. 60's Bel Air, circa 57 Tbird, 66 Ford Fairlane or Galaxy, an Impala, Mercedes and VWs. Not exactly what I was imagining, but it was interesting. Then on to the coins and relics. Found a nice 1902s barber dime, and an interesting key. Durand steel lockers. Seems this is circa 1915 which fits to the site. Have also found coat room tags here as they had a dance hall and various other activities. I think it's interesting that the style of key they used 100 years ago is back in vogue today to ensure uniqueness. Last item is a what's-it. seems to be a badge off of something - bicycle, clothes? Anyone recognize it? It is not silver. HH, Zincoln

Congrats on the gold PI. Love that deep yellow/orange of the high K material. I don't understand the phone thing either....find several a year myself hunting dry land. Zincoln

Had to be a heartbreak to find it crushed.....but gold is gold! I'll look again, but made a healthy circle around the target and dug everything but iron. Suppose i could dig the iron too. Watch guts will impact the signal....and not sure which will win out or how far down the VDI ranges might be pulled.

KAC - yeah, i find a fair amount of gold, and a lot of small gold rings up near 0 on the whites machines and 35-50 with the Deus. I like how the Deus scale generally has gold above foil, while the White scale often has it intermingled. Testing chains, I'm just left flat with poor or iron signals regardless. I don't run Disc on my machines typically. I just change the audio frequency to a low range, and on the V3i where i can control stereo audio, i turn the volume down in that ear to minimize it. I hear it all, but can skip over the iron tones. Admittedly, if the chains ring up in the iron VDI range, then I'm likely to pass them up. Zero or above on a White's machine gets dug, and 30 or above on the Deus. I do recognize this could result in a miss, but have to draw the line somewhere. Square and bent nails, fence staples, screws, bolts and various other iron objects still put out some squeaks and get dug some of the time. One thing i didn't check with the chain in the hole was turning the operating frequency on the Deus up as high as it will go. Certainly helps on gold, but doesn't help on depth. Think it was running 17kHz when i found this....but may have been 11. Smaller coils help too, but as we know, we are limited to the 9" coil on the Deus (and i don't have the high frequency coil). HH, Zincoln

No doubt Joel, the number is a lot. All the testing I've done over the years shows its really hard to detect chains with VLF machines(sans the clasps), unless running prospecting modes. And I don't have enough years left in my life to dig targets in that mode in the turf. Most of the time when I'm doing playgrounds, I'm looking for those near zero (iron break) signals that might be chains, but even when laying them on the ground and testing them its hard to get consistent beeps with much of any depth at all and seemingly nearly impossible w/o the clasp - least in my experience w/ my equipment. If anyone has the secret sauce for chains with a VLF machines, I'm all ears! Brian

Just wow! Quite a pile. Bet your legs are in shape. That represents a LOT of deep knee bends...not to mention all the junk that hit the trash!!

Chains are a funny and frustrating thing. Never have found many. Almost always the clasp is tell. Not that you can't get a beep, but when the signals are poor or borderline iron (or not detectable at depth) and mixed in a sea of signals, they don't yell dig me. At least not among the countless pieces of foil. Congrats on the diamond. I'm sure that was a very pleasant find!

Better lucky than good, right Strick! I almost felt guilty😁

Fortunately, this hillside was steep enough that I'm sure no mower has ever ventured there. But yeah, what a mess a rototiller would have made.

Went hunting a late 1880s to 1920 era park. Had hopes of finding an old dime, or at least an IHP or Wheat I'd missed. A few hours into the hunt, I was digging anything that might possibly be a good deep target. Popped a plug about 6 inches deep, and found an old rusty screw. Darn it. But, right next to it I caught a glimmer. Wiped the dirt away, and there was a bright gold chain. Ran the detector over the chain, and nothing. I detected garbage, but found a gold chain by coincidence. After I separated it from various roots and freed it, it was anywhere from about 5-7 inches deep, but laid out in a line, so very little to hit on with a VLF machine. Found examples online w/ the clasp from the Victorian era used to hold fine pocket watches. This one has a mark that is nearly gone, and not discernable on the clasp. Test holds 18k acid completely, and 22k very slowly eats away at it. 14.44g! Someone had a very bad day 100 years ago. Suffice to say that i checked around the area thoroughly. All metal, various frequencies, etc....in hopes of the watch. But no avail! Made my day. Even left home this morning imagining finding a gold pocket watch....but didn't expect the chain:-) All the best, Zincoln

Gregg - I save those epic moments just for you. Lots of endless hours of nothing in between! I recall more than a few butt kickings from you along the way. That Red Racer and Core certainly put more than a few seated dimes and tokens in your binder, on days when I was left to 'admire' your finds.

If going on a boondoggle, pick one up off of ebay for $125 to $250....then at least it didn't cost ya $5000+/-. Seems others already experienced that and are selling at 2.5-5% of list. Let's face it. If it were that easy, why on earth would anyone sell the tech? Why not keep it and keep the worlds treasures to ones self? Good will to mankind? Why aren't these things as common as cell phones...or minelabs, or whites, or???? With a regular metal detector, you have to put in real effort to locate targets, decipher targets, cover a LOT of ground, etc. Doubt you'd find 'tech' like this in a diamond mine...even thought they are purported to find diamonds. During the gold rush, the best way to become wealthy was to set up shop and mine the miners. Not that all miners failed, but the most did financially. LRD's seem just another way to mine the miners. I've dug holes before and found things that the detector didn't hit, so hey, did enough holes and sometimes you find something. I'm sure there are LRL fans out there who disagree. Best of luck to them. Hope you find your treasure and happiness.

Ugh.....just a 1700s EU token and a seated half. Killing me. Been chasing that seated half for 10 years. Never considered such a token. Glad you guys are still pulling the goods from your sites. As we all know, they are never hunted out. Agree w/ you Brian, on the large cents out west. Finally got one in ID to match my gold coin. Probably will find another gold before another largy. Kinda silly. Tom - you've had your share of gold. More large cents or gold coins? Zincoln (the other Brian)

Strick - your spill appears to have gone through a fire/heat event. Too bad they are so badly fused. Bet you see some bubbling on the quarter under a scope. Guess it's a unique kind of find....but I'm sure you'd prefer they were separate. No idea on the Euro coin....will be fun to see what the experts say. ZIncoln

Rich, Nice pile in a short period of time! Maybe that last hunt of the season will produce gold! Here's to hoping for Spring:-) Zincoln

Strick - what is the piece w/ the Waterbury mark? Nothing that just jumps out to me. Zincoln