GB_Amateur

Simon, does the photo show your finds on New Years Day with the Tek T2? I'm guessing someone was pretty snockered to lose a 10 spot note.

Isn't that what our site (detectorprospector.com) is all about?

I've wondered myself about the location of the eddy currents in metal objects. But one piece of evidence we have to show it's not right on the surface -- clad coins. The fact that they show high conductivity (characteristic of copper and thus their cores) indicates it's not purely a surface effect. So my conclusion is that what you are seeing is deeper than some surface layer/scale/etc.

How do you determine these values? (I can see the graphs, but please explain how the graphs lead you to these values.)

Watched episode 1 last night -- disappointed but not surprised. It reminds me of Josh Gates in Expedition Unknown, but without Josh's humor. Appears they at least negotiated with White's to give them detectors, whether or not they are getting paid to use/show them on air. TM808, MX-Sport, and MXT (or is it V3i/VX3?). I'll give it another chance next week. At least it's not all about backstabbing conflict like some of the gold mining shows have turned into.

If you're referring to my (not so?) subtle comment, my point wasn't that they were fiction, it's just that most 'true' treasure stories are based upon fact but the details get twisted over the years with anecdotal additions. Those magazines kept me riveted from the day they arrived in my mailbox until I had them thoroughly devoured. And the ads kept me salivating over all the detectors I couldn't afford.

D-Tex Professional from 1968? That vs. the Equinox is like comparing a Tin Lizzie to a 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee! I can second Chase's warning to not overdo the sensitivity (gain) setting. I'd say 75% of my 240 hours with the Equinox have been running gain of 18 or 19. Too high of a gain is more costly than too low with most high quality detectors. Don't worry about boring us. We've all been where you are and seeing someone excited about our hobby makes us all feel good.

Steve, have you ever measured the weight of the oddball Warnicks? In paricular the ones with Aluminum might show a significantly different weight than the norm (of course not guaranteed). Obviously other factors (especially wear) will affect the weight. If you find an anomalous weight I would be willing to weigh all of my 'normal' ones and produce a mass spectrum for comparison sake. If you ever get around to having another XRF analysis (and if it's not too expensive to add some more specimens), ask them to XRF the other side of the coin (assuming they didn't already do that, averaging the two results...). Also include a standard copper-nickel sample. It would also be good to include a second normal Warnick to see what kind of variations show up. All of this also helps show the uncertainty of the readings. (One of my pet peaves of XRF analysis is that the few I've seen don't have an uncertainty associated with the values.) As far as some of the comments on that Dankowski forum thread, I doubt the mint has any knowledge about this anymore. Even if the planchets are the culprits, someone then might have known but that doesn't mean they recorded or reported it. Further, as most know, the staffing of many organizations (companies, government agencies, etc.) changed during the war as people were re-assigned to positions which were thought to most advance the war effort. Either the mint employees who did quality control or more likely the people (private company employees?) who were in charge of metal composition may have been less expert than one would expect. Consider the mint denying that 1943 copper cents were made. Yes, there was no official mintage and likely the higher ups (who responded to queries about the anomalies) were unaware, but it did happen. Most are familiar with the 'Red Book' but Whitman has an entire series of a couple dozen "A Guide Book to..." publications (https://whitman.com/store/Inventory/Browse/Whitman-Books) which go way more into detail on the individual series. I've been picking up used ones (some earlier editions) for quite cheap on the internet. I recently got the Buffalo+Jefferson Nickel book and looked for composition variations of Warnicks. Nothing that really helps your study, but there was a writeup regarding the motivation, experimentation, and eventual decision on what became the standard Cu-Ag-Mn values. (I also have the Flying Eagle + Indian Head book and the Lincoln Cent book, the latter of which actually does talk about intended variations in the penny composition. But that's a topic for another thread.)

Finished air testing the 160 Warnick TID's with the Minelab Equinox 800. I used the 11 inch coil, set up a 'platform' (all plastic) ~3.5 inches above the coil to facilitate repeatable tests with no rotation. I ran in Park 1, gain of 16, recovery speed = 5, iron bias = 0. I used my standard custom 5 tones which includes a nickel zone of 12-13, so I can hear 11's and 14's (different tones) separated from the 12-13. I also watched the screen to see the ID's there, too. I moved the coins back and forth across the DD intersection zone at a rate of a couple cycles per second, several cycles for each coin. I did this directly over the center of the coil (attach point) but also about an inch towards the toe and an inch toward the heel of the coil. The 160 nickels were all found in pocket change in the 1960's through the 1970's (and maybe a few from later decades). Most were found in central Indiana. All display the unattractive dark gray patina characteristic of Warnicks well circulated in commerce. Really nothing too exciting here. Most centered on 13 with both 12's and 14's (but these latter in the minority of the chirps). About a dozen showed no 14's but did have some 11's. Two or three stayed exclusively in 12-13. About half dozen coins never showed a 12 and were 13-14 range consistently. I checked the dates and mintmarks of the outliers and saw no pattern. Ditto any wear or coloration differences. One possible clue for Steve's study came when I decided to test the 6 nickels I found (buried) with my Eqx during 2018. Five were consistent with the most common signals shown by the above tests. However, one would occasionally show a TID of 15. I don't remember any of the 160 non-MD find nickels showing a 15 but can't say for certain it never happened. As many of you have experienced, Warnicks that come out of the ground tend not to show the dark gray patina but rather have a cleaner, whiter appearance. The one Warnick that touched 15 had a reverse that was the cleanest of all six, but its obverse had some black scale staining (darker than the non-dug Warnicks). I don't know if this appearance is connected with the 15 reading or not. Sorry, Steve. I would have liked to have found one of the high TID coins both to add to your case but also to just own one myself. But hopefully these new data will somehow be useful in your quest to get an answer to this intriguing mystery.

Are you getting him confused with 'Long John Latham' who published True Treasure and Treasure World? I subscribed to those back in the 1970's. Their stories were intoxicating, and some were even true. 😁

Great find, but how the heck did it get to New Zealand? Restoration is always a questionable practice before you find out what something is worth and who may want it. If a museum in the UK would like to have it, for example, they might prefer it be "as found". Suppose they know the reason it was on the coast of NZ. It might carry more meaning if it shows that it was dropped during exercises, etc. I'd hold off until you know more. Glad to hear the Tesoro Lobo Supertraq is still making good finds, particularly something outside of its intended use. Dare I say "another detector that Dave Johnson had a hand in producing"?

I recognize these guys from a cancelled show about searching for gold in Greenland (was it Ice Cold Gold?). You never know about these and you don't want to get your hopes up, but I'm going to check it out. https://www.travelchannel.com/shows/lost-gold

You've got some beautiful country up there to hunt. The finds are a bonus. Although not particularly scarce, I like that 1954-S penny, the second to last year they minted in SF until resuming in 1968. Glad to see the MXT (another Dave Johnson creation) still holding its own, approaching 2 decades in operation.

Living in Reno you have a lot of relic, coin, and natural gold sites nearby with treasure within your detectors' capabilities. I'm looking forward to you posting your finds. Welcome!

With those detectors and club memberships you are already starting on the right feet. Glad to see more Hoosiers join the ranks at DetectorProspector.com. You have a lot of historic sites up there to detect. Go get 'em!