Geologyhound

I honestly don’t know. Someone on another website thought it might be the top of a drain plug for a sink. That wouldn’t explain the odd hole punch notch out of one side. But it would explain the size, shape, nonferrous nature, and why it looks like it broke off of a post.

I do not know if this is a separate issue from silencer, but I had custom program settings on a spreadsheet and plugged them into V1.0. The next hunt, the D2 was very silent – too silent. There was no iron to be heard. I had to increase the iron volume by several notches before I started hearing iron (which was everywhere). I haven’t had the opportunity to get back out and see if threshold would work properly. Ideally I would like to “hear“ iron as a drop off in the threshold rather than a separate positive tone. But the threshold used to operate as a series of beating tones rather than a continuous smooth hum. If they fixed that in V 1.0 I will be happier.

I would say it was worth the crawl!

This is a difficult site. I also just updated my D2 to the new version and haven’t had a chance to iron out all the differences to make it respond like it used to. Whenever I get a good signal I go to pinpoint and find out the target is several feet long by a half a foot to several feet wide. There seems to be a lot of deep large can slaw (greater than 12 to 14 inches). So even the “small” targets turn out to be larger trash at depth. The second time I went (new software version) I didn’t find a single thing worth finding - not even a coin and this is a modern park (but not well frequented). I think I found one pulltab and I was happy to find it… I am thinking maybe I need to drop my sensitivity a lot and see if that can eliminate the deeper large targets. I also may need to ignore the pinpoint function and go with the size of the target from the discriminating sweep. Maybe some of those “good“ signals were actually good targets on top of larger metal pieces. One thing is for sure – I can’t go digging 3 to 4 ft diameter holes in the park, and probably couldn’t chisel my way past the gravel layer if I could. Tough going with a trowel.

Don’t know what this is. It’s heavy like lead and not magnetic. The front is covered with a brass plate shaped over the back like the plastic cover of a modern pin badge. The back has a square-ish raised area like it was sheared off a mount of some sort. Cleaning the dirt off the back exposes some whitish areas, so it may be hardened lead as it does not scratch with my finger nail. No apparent detail on the front, just appears to be smooth. Shape-wise, it almost looks like some sort of reflector. Any ideas?

You have come to the right place! Look up Rattlehead’s threads on “My thoughts on the XP Deus 2...” and “My thoughts on the Minelab Manticore...” for a good discussion of both those units. Some of the D2 discussion may be a little dated because the version 1.0 update just came out.

Welcome to the forum from southwest Ohio!

Don’t know if this will help or not - Trademarks on Base-Metal Tableware https://sha.org/assets/documents/Trademarks on Base-Metal Tableware.pdf I don’t know know what to call the symbol, so it may take a while to scroll through the list.

Welcome from Southwest Ohio, formerly southwest Oregon!

Thank you all! I will have to head back to that park and see if I can pull a little bit more out of the trash.

Well, that would make it one of the oldest things I have found! This is a new location for me. Since it is a park, I am only using a trowel. I kept digging down 12-14 inches chasing eighties to low 90s with my D2. Those all ended with a hard pack gravel layer and a big chunk of pop can. So I figured the whole area had been dozed and I wasn’t going to find anything old. Nothing there in the 1898 topo, but residences in the vicinity. This was a solid 81 to 82, and was only about 4 inches down. I couldn’t tell what it was when I found it, and figured it must be new. But, as with all unknowns it went into my good pouch. It wasn’t until I got home and started cleaning it up that I had an inkling as to what it might be. So I guess it must’ve been luck of the draw with how the dozers re-distributed the old soil profile.

Found this today in a short afternoon hunt. There is a crown in the top half and it says London in the bottom half. With a magnifying glass I can see small letters along the top near the rim that say “DOUBLE GILT“. The back is blank. That makes me think it’s the front of a button. But I have no idea from what or how old. I also don’t know what the pock mark in the middle on the front means. Any ideas? Thank you very much!

Easier/faster on/off without it constantly getting hung up accidentally changing programs. I would also like the ability to run the pinpointer and have the coil active at the same time.

Likewise. I get down on my left knee and pull the pinpointer from my left side while the detector is sitting on the ground to my right. My right leg blocks the pinpointer from connecting. I have to turn it off, hold it over the remote and turn it on again. I am half of the mind to operate the pinpointer in standalone mode. This is because I would prefer the main coil still be active while I’m pinpointing. With my old detector I would always take scoops out with a plastic cup wave them over the coil and if there’s nothing there it goes on the towel. it takes more time to nose all around the cup with the pinpointer, and I still sometimes miss the target is in the cup. Once the target is in the cup, it’s easy to get by 50% reduction and a quick wave over the main coil. But, turning the pinpointer off and on each time I want to wave the cup is a pain. I also wish there was a way to switch the pinpointer from side sensitive nose sensitive. It’s nice to have the wider field when you’re trying to find where the target is in the hole. But if there are multiple metal items in one hole, it can sometimes be difficult to pin point when you keep picking up a signal from the side. The delay in turning the MI six on and off is also sometimes tricky. I don’t know what I’ve done but occasionally it has gone into some different mode and refuses to connect and refuses to turn off. So I sit there and fiddle with it for a couple of minutes until it finally turns off so I can turn it back on again so it will connect. For all of the issues, I feel it is still a better pinpointer than my 25 (-ish) year old Bullseye…

I wondered about that. All the online references say the 65 coins are cupronickel cladded - there was no mention of the silver cladding in the websites I checked. I recently dug a 65 dime and quarter at the same site that I thought were silver when I pulled them out. But they were both clad. I was wondering if they were some sort of clad error, but with two shiny coins and no reference to silver cladding, I figured that somehow both were recently lost.

It brings a new meaning to the term disposable income…😁

Couldn’t see it that well on the picture. But, I am guessing they are Roman numerals. Could it be an X? If so it would be 16 (XVI).

I believe the back says Young Smith & Co New York. They were manufacturing buttons during the Civil War. Looking for more info...

Sometimes it is difficult to discern the difference between scratching and breaking - especially when you have multiple minerals and/or grains/crystals held together in a semi-open framework or loose cementation. But, with the capability of scratching glass, as Valens Legacy noted, you do have quartz. Google Kentucky geodes. Some of them can be quite pretty inside. You can crack them with a hammer, but I prefer cutting with a rock saw.

The bedrock in that area is primarily Mississippian age limestone formations with a capping sandstone member all overlaid with Quaternary alluvium. Surficially, your stone has the appearance of a desert rose (selenite or barite). While there are apparently gypsum and anhydrite beds in the St. Louis Limestone which could be the source for selenite crystals, western Kentucky is not the right environment for the formation of desert roses. However, the area around Muldraugh Dome is known for geodes. Quartz geodes up to a third of a foot in diameter are common. The Kentucky Geological Survey does say selenite and barite geodes are possible. So, try to scratch it with your fingernail. If it scratches with your fingernail then it very likely is selenite. If you can’t scratch it with your fingernail but you can scratch it with a copper penny (not zinc so use a penny before 1982) and it feels relatively heavy than it is probably barite. If it won’t scratch with a copper penny, but the stone will scratch glass, then is a quartz geode.

Maybe it needs a new battery...

Look at preamp gain. I generally am only able to bump that by a couple notches before my XLT starts getting very twitchy. You can also look at mixed mode. That will give you the depth of the all metal mode and the discriminatory response of the AC mode when a target is within a depth range which can be discriminated. Otherwise you will hear the DC mode tell you there’s a target and no corresponding tone from the discriminating circuit may mean it is too deep to discriminate. In such instances, definitely check in pinpoint mode to see if the targets are larger than a point source. Also, slow down and overlap your sweeps by at least 50% because the shape of the detected area is a cone which narrows with depth.

It even came with a key! Unfortunately even if I can get it to turn on I don’t think I would be able to fit in it... 🤣

Do you have any pictures you can post?

Well, in my case, I went ahead and got a newer detector (just recently - still learning). But I’m not planning on getting rid of my Spectrum XLT which I’ve had for about 25 years. My kids are old enough they want to go detecting now. So they have been taking out the XLT. I might have to get the screen fixed though, several of the lines are dead. However since the XLT can use regular batteries, the XLT might outlive my new detector’s built-in rechargeable. I also have a sneaking suspicion that the XLT might have an edge over my new detector under certain conditions - a suspicion I will have to put to the test the next time we go back to a couple sites.