GB_Amateur

Welcome, RobNC! Thanks for reporting your background. Sounds like you are a seasoned coin and relic hunter. Yes, some of us have to work extra hard to regain trust after selfish, irresponsible detectorists precede us. Regarding EMI, I suspect the manufacturers are trying, but it's a moving target as you point out. Also, as you likely know, the more sensitive the detector the more likely to pick up EMI on its higher gain settings. I have quite a bit of EMI problems but most of the time I've been able to hunt by turning down the gain. Also, selectable frequency detectors give us options to find a quiet frequency and that has worked well for me with my Minelab Equinox on occasions I've not been satisfied with turning down the gain. I look forward to your future posts.

The way the sun's rays alternate between straight and wiggly reminds me of Inti, the Incan Sun God; here's an example: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/inca-sun-god-inti-may-uruguayan-1010293492 It appears there has been a lot of artistic license taken in reproducing this image. Maybe your find is one of them. Also the face reminds me of man-in-the-moon images: https://www.pinterest.com/llchell/images-man-in-the-moon/ Maybe what you found is someone's depiction of a solar eclipse.

I'm gonna quit going on-and-on about this find someday, but not today! Take a look at this recent auction result: https://www.pcgs.com/auctionprices/item/1918-7-s-25c/5726/708416142091251220 Compare the stars on the shield and especially the date. A lot depends upon how your coin cleans up, but if well then yours blows away this one in terms of attractiveness. Your coin has such a strong date.

Smart man, and even more patient and disciplined. Lots of people rub the heck out of the coin in the field and then rationalize "I knew it wasn't going to be worth much...." This is an example where they would have been wrong, wrong, wrong, and very costly. You did well and you deserve whatever it turns out to be worth, whether you keep it, sell it, whatever. I'm still in awe that you found this coin. If someone told me s/he read a post on a website that someone found a 1918/17-S quarter in this condition while metal detecting I wouldn't have believed them.

Holy ____! I'd be shaking if I found an 1918/17-S Standing Liberty. Not that it means anything, but that is my favorite 'error' coin of all time. Take a look at the VF-35 graded coin here. https://www.pcgs.com/photograde/#/SLQe/Grades It's an 8/7. Look at the weakness on the 'ER' of 'QUARTER DOLLAR'. That's likely a die weakness which helps authenticate your coin, not that there is much doubt with how strong the overdate is. I'm not going to try and grade this from your photos, but it's safe to say if you sell it you can buy any modern production MD short of the GPZ7000 (ok, probably not a GPX5000, either, but I'm not feeling sorry for you 😁). BTW, in terms of rarity this probably isn't close to being up there with the 1850's and 1860's -S mintmarked quarters that have been shown here in the last few weeks. But in terms of value it's probably well above those. This is a good example of demand. Lots of collectors out there want an 18/17-S Standing Liberty. "Find of a lifetime" may be turning into a cliche'. But consider this -- you might be the only person ever to find one of these with a metal detector. I don't know what else I can say, except be proud and enjoy!

Welcome, TY! Could you tell us a bit more about yourself, what your experiences are, what fields(s) of detecting interests you, what state you live in, etc?

What you've emphasized and illustrated is that beach hunting is very different than dry land coin & jewelry hunting. The persistant erosion effects of the surf expose and hide the time constrained layers of drops. This is not something typically encountered on dry land coin/jewelry/relic sites, except for the extreme cases of reworking the soil by scrapes and backfill which sporadically (on the order of decades) occur with development. (Exception occurs in farm fields with their annual tilling, although that is more consistent in both time and space.) I don't know how to rank beach hunting vs. nugget hunting in terms of complexity (one is temporal = time variable and the other spatial = location variable) but both have subtlties that reward the experienced, observant detectorist. I appreciate the explanation and understanding that you and other beach hunters share.

I can see that from the photo. I counted 27 clad dimes alone and might have missed a one or two and that's in two hours. Clearly you're a fast recoverer. Are you just focussing on the nickel and copper/silver signals and ignoring foil, pulltab, and zinc? Nice Merc. Even worn ones are classy looking. Did it have a mintmark?

Great hunt! It appears your silver coin to total coin ratio is high as well. I'm assuming your first pic shows all the junk coins. How many Wheaties, or are those too difficult to find/identify after being in salt water so long?

Just to clarify, this refers to non-destructive testing with X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy. 😁 Some pawn shops and coin shops have these devices. They aren't cheap ($5k entry level?) and thus the shop may charge a fee for doing a measurement.

Nice finds! I assume 0.575 is 14 Kt, or close (14/24 = 0.583). But 0.375 would be 9 Kt. Is that a European standard? Do European Jewelers use decimal purity labeling instead of Kt (fractional) purity labeling?

Pretty sure the mint buys the sheet metal and then cuts them into planchets (discs). At least that is what they were doing back during the war. That is one theory, and a good one. But there are other hypotheses. For example, can being in the ground leach out enough molydenum to raise the TID? What we really need is someone to show that an uncirculated Warnick has a high (in the 20's on an Equinox) TID. Then I'm convinced it has nothing to do with the coin having been in the ground.

Do you know the voltages that these two detectors operate at? Could that be part of the explanation? Also, the Nugget Finder Sadie has a lofty reputation (and some of that comes from you, JW!). Could there be enough difference in coils to explain some of the difference in performance?

Hope I'm not getting too far off topic.... Did you ask the Coiltek guy if they're working on (closed) elipticals for the Equinox? (Please, please.)

Couldn't agree with that more. I think they post the seminar schedule on the GPAA facebook page. Make sure to go to any presented by Kevin Hoagland, Mike Pung, Bill Southern. Mike will be hawking his equipment (Gold Cube, Banjo Pan) when he's not lecturing. Don't be shy in introducing yourself to Kevin and Mike (they aren't even close to being shy as you'll find out)! BTW, although the show is on both Saturday and Sunday, the lectures are typically Saturday only.