GB_Amateur

I assume that was tongue-in-cheek: "goose egg silver count for year" meaning 2021. But glad to hear you have detectable conditions since your snow will be coming (tonight?). I've been quite fortunate the last 2 or 3 winters because the ground either hasn't frozen, or if it did it thawed quickly. May not be that lucky this year. When we get rain (to thaw the ground) that is followed by sub-freezing nightime temps leading to a refreeze. Weather this coming week looks detectable but it's going to depend upon the ground. I don't currently have a site where I feel comfortable with either a shovel or a pick except for some parking lots and paths which are crushed stone or gravel. If I get the itch I may break out the pick and hit those. I know there are detectable high conductors there as I've done some spot checking. So far (just a few holes dug) it's all been modern coins. Maybe worth firing up the TDI but I'll try the Equinox in gold mode before that.

I tried finding my previous (2019) summary report and New Year's resolutions but failed. Well, I have the data (from my logs) and I roughly remember my goals -- find some new detecting spots. I left my old heavily searched (by me) schools and parks alone this year and returned to a couple I had barely detected plus one I had never detected. 90% of my year's detecting was spent on this last (previously undetected by me) site. All three yielded silver coins. Not surprisingly I spent most of my year in the one that seemed to be the best producer. I finally retired for good in February (I'd been 50% for the previous 1 1/2 years) and it did lead to more hours in the field, but not large multiples (311 hrs vs. my previous best of 263 hrs). My most noticeable increase in raw numbers was almost doubling my "other old coins" finds, those being pennies before Lincolns, denominations no longer minted (e.g. 2 cent), 5 cent pieces before Jeffersons plus the silver Warnicks, and all higher denominations prior to 1965 -- i.e. the silver years. I keep a separate category for Wheat pennies. My other old coin count (still modest compared to many here, some of you reporting 100 or more for the year) was 43 (previous record 22). I found 103 Wheaties along the way (previous record 90). Most of the increase in the 'others' was from nickels across the board (especially Buffies and Warnicks). Here's a photo of my last 6 month's 'other old coins': No rare or even semi-key date+mintmarks there. Both Indian Head Pennies are from the early 20th century (very common). I can't read the dates on the very badly worn V-nickel and two of the three Buffies (other is 1920 plain). The Jeffie (lower right) doesn't count as "other old coins" but is included because it's a fairly low mintage 1950 plain (not to be confused with the lowest mintage of the series which also came out that year, with Denver mintmark). The silver charm(?), at least I think it's silver, is not marked but I think it's some kind of artisan silver piece -- rather crudely made as you can see. Surprisingly I got very little silver jewelry this year since I dig everything about 20 on the Equinox (i.e. above Zinc pennies). I didn't buy a single detector this during 2020, only a couple coils (both for the Fisher F75). I feel like I learned a lot about using the Equinox but nowhere near everything I'd like to know and apply. Oh, one of the IHP's was found with the Tesoro Vaquero. (Only 9 hrs or about 3% of the year was spent hunting with anything except the Eqx and almost all of it with the 11" coil.) I used to buy a new (or used) detector every 8 or 9 months. The risk (and I paid for it) is not ever really learning one properly before I shelved it for the greener grass on the other side of the hill. I'm not making that mistake with the Equinox. For 2021, my goals/resolutions are the same, but to a higher magnitude. I'm going to find some local old, forgotten sites thru research and at least make an attempt to get permissions (if they are private, which is likely). The pandemic did hinder me a bit in 2020 with no detecting trips out of my local area. I have three promising permissions on hold (a 19th Century picnic/swimming hole, a 19th Century church site, and an 18th Century New England homestead -- none of these has ever been detected according to their owners). I missed getting out west for natural gold searching and ghosttowning. I should at least get to Colorado late spring or early summer for both and maybe Nevada (fingers crossed) again this year. While the weather is uncooperative for detecting I'll do more backyard testing and (finally) learn how to clean my now 294 Wheaties, many with dates currently hiding under the infamous green scale. (Maybe some semi-keys among them -- I hope, I hope.) If I can figure out how to pan in my (heated) workshop without making a mess I'll do some of that on uncooperative winter days as well. I do have some unpanned promising material and don't mind practicing with pseudo-gold (lead flakes), either. I hope all of you're pleased with your 2020 efforts and especially hope you harbor high aspirations for 2021. Happy New Year!

Suggestion (to all posters of photos): include something to show scale. In your case I see a background brick so for those of us here in North America -- probably a standard size. But other parts of the world may have different standards (or no standards at all). Rulers that have both metric and SAE (e.g. inches) units are best. Some people use common USA coins for scale which the rest of the world has a chance of recognizing.... Interesting pieces you've shown. Are they attracted to a magnet? Do they show signs of having been broken/cut or is that their manufactured length? I'm stumped.

Skullgolddiver, glad you're back posting and hopefully in the water. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" in more ways than one. 😃

I'm not a gardener which leads to this question. Is potting soil just natural earth that has been dug up and put in a bag? Or is it specially prepared organic material selected to 'feed' plants? If the former then I agree, but the latter (depending upon if natural soil is included) may not contain the ferromagnetic minerals that affect real life detecting. It's pretty easy to just bag some dirt from the backyard. I've done that with ZipLock freezer bags. You can fill them so that they have a more/less consistent thickness. Mine are quart volume and when filled, sit flat with a thickness of approximately 1 inch. Then I stack them.

Welcome to the forum (and retirement), Bucketist! I began part 1 five years ago and part 2 really kicked in Feb. 2020. Stay positive; stay active. (I see you are well on your way to both.) Enjoy your travels and share some photos (finds, scenery, etc.) when you get a chance.

Well, I don't know about the storage size but the number of them is moderate compared to many who post photos here. I like your enthusiasm and "get your hands dirty" effort. "Well begun is half done" and you're past the 'well begun' stage already. My main suggestion is to get a (prototype) unit up and running in the field and save the nicities for later. (That may be your plan already.) Air tests are known to be ideal and you likely will find differences with in-ground targets that lead to modifications. So far the performance appears promising. I look forward to your progress reports.

Welcome, Germanrazor. I look forward to you sharing your experiences with your new Simplex. It has in general received positive reviews so I suspect you will be pleased with its performance. Will you use it in or around water? Regardless, it should produce good finds.

That's what I've been running lately (Park 1 or Field 1) thanks to Raphis's suggestion. Really like those settings here in our moderate mineralization. It handles trash pretty well, as long as not rapid fire machine-gun hits. I've found a couple of those makeup compacts although my recollection of the ones I've found is that they are small and round. I tend to not dig if I get the coil 16 or so inches above the target and still have a clear signal. Sounds like yours wasn't quite that strong so I'm not sure if I would have dug or not. 32-36 VDI is difficult to walk away from. 😎 Silver dimes always make me happy. You've discovered a site similar to some I've found -- school or park that was previously used for something else. Those can be rewarding as you've discovered. I wonder if your lower recovery speed and higher gain is what allowed you to squeeze out these targets that eluded you and your Eqx previously. They have for me.

Welcome, hugepossum! That's a scary looking avitar, except to Australians. They have (indoor) house pets meaner looking than that. Another Midwestern detectorist. You have lots of history there to explore and old (some valuable) coins to find. I look forward to the chronicles of your adventures.

When you're done doing that, he can teach me.

IMO, you didn't miss much. The Grand Canyon (view from the south rim, which is all 90+% ever do) can be seen just as well in pictures. The real experience is to hike down to the river, camp overnight or longer, and back out. Even better is a raft trip in and out, but that takes many days and a lot more $. I'm partial to Zion National Park in SW Utah. Unfortunately the lower part along the Virgin River is closed to all but their tourist buses. Having said that, it's still a fantastic experience, IMO. Bryce Canyon National Park is nearby and has its own unique and spectacular views. Yosemite NP in the California Sierras is quite the natural experience if you ignore the zillions of people you are surrounded by. I was fortunate to travel the Western USA for 6 months, alone, in the winter of 1979-80 before overcrowding forced the Park Service to add severe restrictions on where and how to see these natural wonders. I literally spent the nights in campgrounds with no other humans -- zero. I walked across the Landscape Arch (the most picturesque, famous, and longest arch outside of China) at Arches NP. When I returned in the late 90's you weren't allowed within half a mile of it. Overpopulation is ruining your Great Barrier Reef and a lot more of the natural world along with it. 😪

Here's a recent (~month old) thread on the subject:

Gee, you sure know how to hurt a guy. 😏 Seriously, though, thanks for the video and still photos. Looks like you have some back-breaking work to do to clean the gold. Possibly if you edit your original post and remove the [img] and [/img] from those two lines we can click on them and see the still photos. (I'm viewing this in Firefox on a computer. Maybe your device has those tags hidden....) I just cut out the 'meat' and pasted into my browser to see those two still photos.

You've given some mixed messages in your posts. You start out bashing the TDI/BH for its weight and then seem interested in a CTX 3030 which is even heavier. You want gold but don't want to dig non-ferrous trash. I've never heard of a detector that can distinguish between gold and lead or gold and aluminum. Will there ever be one, and if so will it be coming soon? "Maybe, and I doubt it" are my two answers to those two questions, respectively. Possibly others disagree; I've been wrong before. Joe Beachnut (who, BTW, does see "the huge draw" for the AQ and has proven his view with many hours in the water) gave a subtle but noteworthy piece of advice -- the detectorist plays a big role.

There have been many threads here that discuss the TDI's, and especially mods for the TDI/SL. I recall some comments that not all TDI/SL (including the SPP variant) could be juiced up by simply adding more voltage. Those concerns claimed the date-of-manufacture was a tipoff to whether or not a higher voltage would help. (I don't know if those claims were solid/verified, though.) Reg Sniff was the expert outside of White's but unfortunately (in many more ways than just this) he's no longer around. The only issue with using GPX coils (including aftermarket/3rd party versions) on the TDI's that I'm aware of is that sometimes the DD's don't work well on at least some TDI's (whether it's model dependent or just individual unit variation dependent, I don't remember). But the monos (AFAIK) work great.

I think that two part Cartier find is the detectorprospector story of the year. IMO it's OK to change labels. "Find of a lifetime" can be "Find of my lifetime up to this point." And who says you aren't allowed more than one Find of a Lifetime? Further, if you really like what you do then even if you knew you'd never again reach such a lofty accomplishment you can still continue to enjoy the ride. But the fact is, as you guys have been discussing, you don't know what's in the next hole. That's what keeps me coming back. I look forward to your continued reports. I don't think you've found the last of the good stuff. 😉

Great find and you just never know what is going to be in the bottom of that hole! Well done with your perseverance, finding the two nails and keeping checking. Foreign silver coins were commonly circulated in the USA up intil 1857 when a new law stopped that. You said the park goes back to the 1840's so this likely was lost in the first 10 or so years of the park's existence. Just think (you likely already have...) what else might be down there at the 10 inch level.... I bet you can't wait for spring thaw.

Any silver half dollar is an excellent find in my book. (5 years of strike outs for me -- maybe 2021.) Does it have a mintmark? Unusual that the Philadelphia (no mintmark) is the lowest mintage of that year with -S (San Francisco) the highest. The -O mintmark version (New Orleans mint) is in the middle. Given the condition the value probably doesn't depend upon the mintmark, but still fun to see where it's from.

I think Jerry heard ya, DwD.

Well, the ring looks nice but I see a crack. Did that affect the eddy current and make it ID on the low side? Those coins look pretty rough (as you mentioned). Have they been stewing in water -- lake, creek, etc.? Excellent results for any time of year, and particularly during winter weather.

Welcome (back), Deimos! We have at least one other detectorist from your area (he lives near the North Sea shore of Germany). It's good that you have an open mind. That's a big help when detecting -- it seems we are constantly revising our view of the areas we detect as we make more finds. I look forward to sharing insights.

Good to know, Gerry (and thanks for showing me the ropes at Rye Patch in Nov 2018 -- I need to return). My statement was too general. I was really thinking about human-made treasure, not nature's. As I (and others) have said before, people don't (intentionally) drop their valuables and keep their trash. Way more do just the opposite. I've heard about coin sites where the trash has been cleaned out by detectorists along with the shallow coins, leaving only deep coins (and some deep trash). I've never experienced that, which I consider a good thing. Yes, they've left me most of the trash but also more of the treasure. And as I dig up the trash I'm pretty sure they won't be coming back because they think they've already cleaned the place out of goodies. Would I rather they had never preceded me? Absolutely, but I can't control that. Well, I can look for sites no one has yet found.... (That will be among 2021's New Year's Resolutions.)

Interesting! Thanks for that tidbit of information.

I think we were writing simultaneously. 😁 I thought about naming a few people who I figured might have found a Zed coin and you were one of them, but I think singling out some (at the exclusion of others) often discourages responses from those not explicitly recognized. So thanks for your example (and for confirming my expectation).