GB_Amateur

I assume you're referring to me.... I didn't realize I was so important as to generate my own search party. Now you're going to give me a big head. Thanks, guys. I've been slow to post since starting to read a day or two after it came back up. And I'm getting pretty far behind in my reading, too. Personally I didn't mind the site being down for a couple weeks plus, just so I could focus on other things. (I can't seem to force myself away from the site when its up -- kind of addicting.) I have only detected a couple times since getting back from my western trip at the end of June. Between the rain, the heat+humidity, and those things causing the grass to grow before my eyes, the detecting conditions haven't been great. But worse is that I don't have a good site to hunt at the moment like I did last year. I have a potentially promising park but I've gotten mixed messages as to how old it is. I've found that detecting when I'm not fired up to do so isn't the best use of my time, nor is it good for my detecting psyche. Regarding numismatics, I broke down and bought the latest (2022, 75th Anniversary edition) Guidebook of US Coins (aka 'Redbook'). It's the sixth different edition in my collection, sixth I've bought myself (1965 was my first, likely from 12th birthday $), but it's been 21 years since I got my last one. It arrived 5 hours ago so some good bedtime reading tonight! Sorry I haven't commented on anybody's finds. I'll get back in high gear over the next few days.

They didn't start out that way. The new Gold Bug family and the T2 & F75 were developed after Tom Walsh bought and merged the three orignal companies. I have a different hypothesis. First Texas appeared to have tried to go in a couple directions: keep the legacy lines for entry-level and mid-level customers and swing for the fences to develop high-end products for the aficianados. There doesn't appear to have been any middle ground (such as upgrading the inards of the existing products as Jeff talks about). Remember the CZX (or whatever it was called)? They had (past tense, is it still present tense?) what appeared to be a load of experienced engineers to carry this plan out. For some reason (which we'll probably never know, even if they do) that high-end path ran off the rails. And what we have is the result. Will they get the train back on the track before it's too late?? IMO they need more than a crack water PI. It's going to be tough to compete with Minelab in the dry-land PI space. Even a low-priced unit will likely just spur ML to lower the price on one or more of its products. Wasn't that what they did with the Vanquish (aka: low end Equinox) when it became clear that Garrett was going to produce an affordable, modern simultaneous multi-frequency IB/VLF?

My answer: not very many, and way fewer today. You're old-school, Mike. (I consider that a compliment, BTW.) I find it interesting when people like F350platinum talk about brick-and-mortar specialized dealers. They are dying faster than the Brood-X cicadas (gone now) which came out of the ground here in the mid-Eastern USA earlier this summer. As an example, I was in Colorado in June, looking forward to visiting Gold'N Detectors in Golden (just up the foothills from Denver) which had supplied me in the past with small, hard-to-get items such as books (they had a huge collection to browse) and coil covers, literally many shelves of different brands and sizes. I walked in the door to find an antiseptic room, open in the middle (except for the money-handling station) and a few detectors hung on the walls. The previous owner had died and the owner before her had been running the store, but he was past retirement age.... Apparently the heirs sold it to a nearby (Colorado Springs) company that does most of their business online. I don't mean this mention to be a diss of that company but it ain't what it used to be and it sure wasn't anything I'm interested in. The person behind the desk was nice enough but I didn't get the impression he knew a lot about detectors. He seemed to realize quickly (probably because I was the 10 thousandth person to come in with that look on his/her face) that he wasn't going to make a sale. He made a couple suggestions which didn't help, not surprlsingly. Here's a question to think about: how long has Walmart had detectors on shelves? In the "old days" you had to either buy in a specialized store (or maybe a coin shop) or through mail order. We also had magazines that did reviews and had articles showing detectorists finding valuables with a particular detector -- silent advertising. I'm glad we still have Gerry, and he likes to talk (and give useful advice) over the phone, but how many Gerrys are out there? It's a long way from Indiana to Idaho, even if they're close to each other in my Rand McNally road atlas (another product on life-support?). First Texas has taken advantage of the changing sales climate. They aren't alone in that, for sure. I think kac asked a good question and I'm pretty sure we know the answer -- a huge percentage of detector sales (I'm tossing in my entry at 90%) are first time buyers, not readers of niche forums. If you want a profit you'd better be selling where those people are buying. While I'm on my soapbox, I'll throw out one more issue. This morning our tree expert came around to give us advice on a dying tree. He mentioned that he used to have 11 employees, he'd like to have 7, but all he has is 4 because he can't find people who can do the work. Most hires (which he tries hard to vet) either aren't reliable or can't handle the hard work. The USA has evolved into chair-sitters in more ways than one. Engineers? Well, they are a special class of chair-sitter but engineering takes hard work, lots of education and training, the right attitude, etc. I seem to recall First Texas Engineering Director Carl Moreland posting here that there's always an open chair there awaiting a good detector engineer. Criticizing companies from a distance seems to be open season here, and has been for as long as I've been a member. (Full discosure -- I'm a participant.) But one thing is true in 99.9% of those posts -- we don't really know what is going on inside these companies, and it might not be a fact that they are simply getting fat and lazy resting on their laurels as we often conclude.

What, the truck stop didn't have snake guards to match those slippers? Well done turning lemons into lemonade. I suspect most "in your shoes" would have just figured it wasn't their day and high-tailed it home.

Nice! It's seen some use (and slight damage) but it appears you found it before major corrosion set it. Maybe not what you were looking for (well, not a coin or piece of jewelry, anyway) but still has at least utilitarian value.

Is the pocket knife a Case?

Ah, so another member here whose site name I recognize but hadn't put the face with the name until now. Good having discussions at dinner with you and your wife and I enjoyed the interactions when you came out on Saturday to the GT we were camped at and detecting. I hope we meet up again at another hunt (and that goes for all the others, too).

I don't know that I can help, but one thing I learned the hard way -- make sure your ears are completely inside the muffs, not partially under them. Also, if you wear eyeglasses (like I do) figure a solution which doesn't have the eyeglass arms uncomfortably trapped and forced into your head. A little adjustment can go a long way. But not all headphones fit equally well on everyone. You may just be in a situation where you are incompatible with those Gray Ghosts. I wouldn't conclude that until you've delved deeper (as you are doing), though.

How far above the coins are you positioning/swinging the coil? How far apart are the coins when you do these tests? Do you have all dTID channels accepted or are your discriminating against the lowest (iron) channels? (Annoyingly, IMO, when initially turned on the ML Equinox defaults to discrimination settings rather than all channels accepted -- what Minelab refer to as 'all-metal'. They could make everyone happy and have it remember which way it was set when last turned off.... The 'horseshoe' button toggles between notched out and wide open.) I would expect the 90+% iron composition of all denominations below $1 to ID in the iron range, but I've not experienced detecting modern Canadian coins, only the historic versions. From a detectorist's viewpoint it's disappointing that governments contribute to the amount of (masking) iron trash in the ground, as if we don't already have enough of that to deal with.

Gerry, I want to see a big chunk in your mouth, not a bunch of dinks. Don't get me wrong, I like dinks as well as the next guy. But you've set the bar high for yourself with those Oreo Cookie, etc. nugget photos and I know you've got some more hidden in the ground somewhere in your prime detecting spots. Let's see the GPX6000 lift a loaded barbell. We all know (from other reports) it can handle the hand weights.

It was on the candidates list. Since this month-long trip included detecting for natural gold I also brought a PI. I don't have a trailer nor a roof mount storage container so everything (including a futon mattress for sleeping) has to go inside my Jeep Compass. Three detectors is already pushing it. I don't have a small coil for the Vaquero. (Monte has indicated the stock 8"x9" concentric has good separation, but it still seems like the wrong choice in so much trash, and small coils fit better in and between the vegetation.) The F75 is a decent backup for the Equinox in gold bearing areas (in case the Equinox conks out, etc.) as well as a decent backup in park hunting, etc. Besides the 4"x6" conc. I also brought the Mars 5"x10" (Sniper) DD. Thus the F75 made the cut ahead of the Vaquero. But, yes, with a small coil it should be a good performer in that trashy ghost town desert environment.

Thanks for catching that, and I've now corrected it. From what I saw (not everyone displayed their finds), Gregg had the most keepers, by far. He definitely subscribes to your {small coil, slow sweep, dig all} advice. (And he swings the N/M CoRe, too, which you know but others may not.) Mentioning Utah Rich's finds, he did spot a beautiful obsidian arrow head with his keen eyes. Gregg mentioned more than once that surface finds ("sunbakers") show up in these desert towns and it helps to keep your eyes (as well as ears) open when detecting. Another technique I need to pick up. Yes, for sure. I sorted out most of the iron in the hotel room (not counting what I collected and carefully piled up at the sites themselves). There are a few iron (/alloy) items in the photos, but I only kept what I found interesting. Even square nails are super common around the Midwest -- my home base. Railroad spikes? How many does a person need in his/her collection?

I was fortunate to be able to attend the 13th Welcome to Hunt Outing (WTHO) in Northeast Nevada (Wells locale) this past month. A bit of background (from what I know, which may not be totally accurate): Monte Berry began these in 2015, taking people to ghost towns that he had been detecting for decades. As you can see from the numbers there have been about two per year, most at a handful of sites in Elko County, NV (the extreme Northeast county of the state), but a couple were other states such as Oregon and Utah. Unfortunately due to his recent move from Oregon to Texas, Monte was unable to attend but he turned the reigns over to a quite qualified (and I say that now from experience) Oregon Gregg (member here). This year four ghost towns were on the rotation. I'm not going to list their names since I don't know if this is public knowledge, nor do I know for sure who owns them, etc. (I know that one is on private property but not sure about the others.) The four have several things in common. GT1 is the oldest and was a railroad town back when the USA and its territories were first tied together by the TransContinental RR in the late 1860's. GT2 was also built on the RR around the turn of the century. GT3 was a real estate development (speculation) started around 1910. GT4 was another RR town which was also established around the same time -- late in the first decade of the 20th Century. I'll give a bit more info as a go through my itinerary. One other thing these four towns have in common, and likely in common with thousands of Western ghost towns -- they grew voraciously in their first few years (meaning 5 years or less) and then started declining. The decline took longer (20-30 years, ballpark) as there always seem to be a few individuals who get comfortable enough they don't want to move on and rebuild. But "boom and bust" really does a good job of describing these and many others in the Western USA. Day 1 (Tuesday 8 June). I arrived a day early compared to the initial start date and Oregon Gregg and Utah Rich (another member here) had been around doing preliminary investigating and detecting since the weekend. They invited me to meet them just of I-80 at an exit near GT1 and GT2. I followed Gregg to those while Rich took a different route. After showing me GT2 Gregg said that he and Rich would be detecting GT1 that day so I followed him there. I spent 6 consecutive hours in the near Soltice baking sun getting a feel for that site, the oldest and from what I've heard, most productive as far as old coins of the four in this year's rotation. I was swinging the Fisher F75 w/4"x6" concentric coil and getting lots of non-ferrous (as well as some ferrous) hits. Most of what I was recovering was in the first 3 inches of the surface which Gregg told me is typical. I spent most of my time between the foundation of a hotel and the railroad (still in operation), hoping that was a path used frequently by tired, careless travelers. Here's a photo of my 'finds': Don't get too excited. I'm new at this Ghost Town detecting and still learning (at the elementary level). I've arranged things in five columns. Leftmost are mostly utilitarian copper & alloy items -- plumbing pieces, electrical fixtures, copper wire. The top of column 2 are melted "sand cast" lead pieces, most of which were found close to the RR tracks. Fires were very common back then (just ask San Francisco) and possibly these occurred during one of those. But I learned that lots of metal (especially raw forms) fell from RR cars so maybe that is their origin. Lower part of 2nd column are various other misc. metal (unknown composition) pieces. The third column is the most interesting (note, 'most interesting' is relative ). Bottom left is what others in the group thought might have come off a cast iron stove. It has the word 'July' imprinted in block letters. Above it is a broken rose headed spike. Directly above that is a leather piece with a circular brass disk embedded in it. A piece of horse tack or possibly something worn by a human? Above that is some kind of suspender buckle, I think. (This gets an asterisk since Gregg noticed it sitting on top of the ground and tossed it to me.) Top disk appears to be the back of a watch/timepiece. Fourth column is the usual bullets, casings, and one cartridge. At the very top is a copper scrap which I think was likely a jacket (of a large bullet!). Last column is misc. bits that I haven't ID'ed. Most of the attendees spent nearly their full time at this GT1, hoping for old coins, I guess. The above was my only day there. Several of us met at the Iron Skillet restaurant at the Petro Truck Stop in Wells for dinner that evening. This is the standard meeting spot each dinnertime for anyone who wants to jaw between mouthfulls of chicken fried steak, etc. Days 2&3 (Wed-Thu). Utah Rich was kind enough to take a few of us to GT3 on Wednesday morning. This is the most unique of the four towns since it was a Real Estate development (boondoggle) that didn't make it. The carrot for attracting residents was the building of a large reservoir which could then be used for irrigation. Problem is that those living downstream didn't take kindly to their water source being cut off and won in the courts. Although a town was laid out which was planned to house 25,000 residents (how's that for optimism?), in reality fewer than 1000 ever took up residence, and that number likely included many who lived on farms nearby, not in the town itself. Still, there was a fancy hotel, historic schoolhouse, "entertainment center", church, and several homes built as well as a railroad spur. When the downstream residents put a stop to the utopian dam the gig was up and in less than 2 years the population topped out and quickly started declining. Here's a photo of my finds for those two days (first day with above F75 setup and second day with ML Equinox and 6" DD): Highlights include the only old coin (Wheatie) I found over the five days in NE Nevada (more on that later), a Model-T hubcap (likely from the 1920's, but I haven't got it dated for sure), and right above it another Ford embossed (but unknown) part. As you hear about every detecting site (regardless of type of detecting) -- some say this town is hunted out. The ring shaped item with three mounting holes (near the left edge of the photo) came up a clean 28-30 on the Equinox, which is solid in the silver zone between dime and quarter. Who rejects digging that? It's actually a brass closet rod hangar (and, yes, I was disappointed). Regarding weather, the second of these two days was the windiest day I've ever detected, with sustained wins 20-30 mph and gusts over 40 mph, all day long. The temp only got up to about 60 F (15 C) and I wore a sweatshirt and denim jacket most of the day. This was only a week before the Western USA's first heat wave (highs over 100F = 38C in most of Western 1/4 - 1/3 of the Continental USA). I didn't complain about the cool temps even before I had to deal with that! Great sleeping weather as I was 'camping' in the back of my Jeep Compass. Days 4-5 (Friday-Saturday) -- I got in a bit of early morning detecting at GT3 (note: I mentioned in an earlier post here that I successfuly used my magetic rake to clear both dead vegetation and iron bits before detecting a spot I had covered previously). Then we broke camp and moved to GT4, another railroad town from the early part of the 20th Century. Here's the haul from that one: The large chunk at upper left is some kind of RR scrap. Tiny (jewelry) ring on left and rusty denim button at at bottom will be detailed shortly. Note the (German) Hohner harmonica housing piece at lower left. You can't see it in this photo but it had a lot of marking, including dates of awards from the 1920's. I don't know if the reed in the upper right is from it, but I think I found it several hundred meters away, so likely not. Now for a closeup of the most interesting finds from GT3 & GT4: Top two items are from old clothing -- left is a Lee button (likely off blue jeans) with their slogan "can't bust 'em" which an internet search reveals was first used in the 1940's, so this was likely from a railroad worker and not a town resident of GT4. The small brass/bronze rivet (from GT3) says "L.S. & Co S.F." for Levi Straus & Company, San Francisco. Again the internet clued me in that this particular rivet (the saying started earlier, BTW) is from early in the 20th Century. The middle two items didn't photo as well as I'd liked. RH is the Ford embossed broken piece of metal from GT3. Left is my only ghost town coin (not counting a very disappointing Zincoln -- damn railroad workers, or should I blame previous detectoris?). After hearing and reading so many stories here at detectorprospector.com of -S and -CC (Western mints) mintmarked coins from the 19th and early 20th Century I was optimistic this Wheatie was going to be an early -S minted semi-key. Imagine my disappointment when I got home and was able to see '1919' (no mintmark). That happens to be the highest mintage Lincoln cent minted prior to 1940, a span of 31 years! And it came all the way from Philadelphia!! What a disappointment. Lower left is a 45 caliber steel jacketed WCC 42 cartridge from GT4. Again, an internet search showed that the '42' meant it was made in 1942. The current mystery is a) whether or not it was military issue, and b) why it is steel jacketed lead. I doubt this was dropped recently (look at the patina) but as to whether a GI dropped it on his way to fight Hitler or it has a less romantic story (hunter who bought them by the gross at a surplus store) will probably never be known. Finally, the child's ring found near the train station at GT4. Rang up a solid, consistent 12 (USA nickel TID) on the Equinox with 11" coil, depth in the 2"-3" range. I thought I handled it carefully but it broke, showing strong orange interior (copper) so it's silver plated. The 'stone' looks like glass to me. Still my best find, and recovered near the most frequently hunted spot in that town -- right next to the train depot (now just a foundation). Was I really the first person to get my coil over it? The comaraderie was enjoyable although besides my sister and partner, only Mike from Alaska, Tom from Arizona, and Mike from Utah detected the towns I was in at the times I was in those. Most everyone (22 was the unofficial count, I think) concentrated on the oldest (GT1) town. The round-the-dinner-table discussions were the pleasurable social hour. There were a few old coins found, including a seated dime and a seated quarter. Oregon Gregg found a beautiful and rare trade token, likely worth in the 3 figures. I hope there are more of these WTHO's as I'm ready to move on from 'beginner' and I just know there's an early -S mint coin with my name on it. Thanks to Monte, Gregg, Rich, and all involved.

When I get my Jefferson nickels back home and clean them up a bit, I start by looking at the reverse, RH side of the dome to see if there is a mintmark. Two kinds exist here with no mintmark: prior to 1965 these were from Philly with 'D' (Denver) and 'S' (San Francisco) being the others. 1965-67 there were no mintmarks on any coins, regardless of where they were minted. In 1968 they started putting 'D' and 'S' on the obverse below the date. In 1980 they added the 'P' for Philly, also below the date. So when I see no mintmark on the reverse it doesn't tell me much. When I see a 'D' I'm thinking (well, hoping) I turn it over and see a 1939 date -- my most sought after Jeffy. (If 'S' I'm wishing for 1938. No mintmark -- 1955.) There are others, especially 1950-D, that would be quite pleasing. I don't know how many times I've struck out with that ritual, but not even so much a ground-out yet. (Apologies to those who don't know baseball lingo, but you can probably figure it out from context.) Oh, the things we do to add excitment....

Nope, because the Gold Bug family doesn't work with concentric coils. Occasionally (might be some specific units) people have gotten them to work with concentrics, but the rule is they don't. There's a well linked quote on another forum where Dave Johnson says they don't, then someone says they got theirs to work, and he says "well, OK, tolernaces..." or something to that affect. I tried a distant cousin Teknetics 'Frat Brothers' 5"x9" concentric on my GB-Pro and it seemed to work in bench testing for 5 or 10 minutes, then the detector went bonkers. Even the Teknetics T2 won't accept concentrics while its relative, the Fisher F75, does.

I'm 0 for 2 with silicone and 0 for 1 with PC-11 epoxy. Neither has seemed to really stick (long term) to either the injection molded Eqx 6" skid plate or the polycarbonate. (Note, I'm attaching mine to the skid plate, not the coil itself.) Also I used half the thickness of polycarb that you did (i.e. 1/32" = 0.8 mm). Too flexible? (Pretty sure Steve H. used same thickness as I did.) I have other epoxies that I can try. The PC-11 in particular seemed pretty brittle after this came apart (3rd try). But silicone is just the opposite. How many hours in the field do you have on your silicone+polycarb setup?

You're making it seem like it's a PI. Of course with all the non-nugget hunting you've done with the 5000 I'm sure you are not surprised at this, just reminded. I like it that you are going against the grain (again) and using a detector most would argue is specifically for native gold detecting, in situations that are far from that. Too bad the beaches are loaded with gawkers right now. I'd like to read how it does in your element. Only a couple months away?

That explains the cuts. Here the parks and schools are mowed with horizontal blades which probably don't get sharpened but maybe once a year, and the likelihood of the blade encountering a coin is likely much less, too. Golf courses have the reel-types but we don't get to hunt those ( at least I don't 😞). Which brings up a painful point for which I suspect you have several examples -- key or semi-key date+mintmark coins that have suffered this fate. That would sadden me considerably.

For those not familiar with the Gold Bug family, 40 is the nominal dividing line between ferrous and non-ferrous. (That's true in both modes, All Metal and Discrim.). Nails, wire, etc. That's my guess as to what is sounding off in the video. If a building was torn down, bazillions of nails just get scattered. I wish demolitionists would drag a magnet over the sites but that thought would make them laugh so hard they might just pass out from lack of ability to inhale. I thought the suggestion to clear out the iron was meant for larger pieces. It's typical of many razed building sites, especially western 19th - early 20th century ghost towns, to be littered with sheet metal (from roofs, siding, etc.) Smaller pieces of that will mimic coins, in my experience. But the larger pieces can be figured out just from their extent (especially noticeable in pinpoint mode). I can see clearing those out if time allows, to open up what's underneath. That assumes the property owner (private or public) doesn't mind the loss of vegetation/smoothed ground/etc.

I'm surprised at how many of the coins were cut by mowers. Not only must their blades have been sharp (my mower damaged coins tend to just be bent or dinged) but the sheer numbers are unexpected, IMO. Do you think a change in dTID (from the missing material) caused previous detectorists to ignore these? Also, do the two clipped dime pieces mate or is that just a coincidental illusion? Oh, and nice sunbaker!

Without counting it seems that 3/4 or more of those shown were found in Britain. I wonder if the authors are from there. Obviously they have more metal laden history than North America or Oceania but what about the rest of Eurasia? Also likely a factor is England's policy of requiring finds to be reported (but also compensating, etc. finders and land owners). Imagine all the secret discoveries in the Middle East (for example) that we never hear about....

OK, but what detector? Excellent find! Since that wish paid off quickly, why not hope for a gold coin next?

Two great posts, Monte, and as typical for you, lots of details as to why things work (or don't work, or sort of work but not optimally). Even though I also started metal detecting very early (~1970), other things (aka 'life') caused me to detour for 45 years. As a result I missed a lot of the evolution that you experienced, and it has cost me. (Not to mention all the good targets that were vacuumed up by other detectorists while I slept....) Reading isn't a substitute for swinging, but it helps. When I atteneded the WTHO last month (thanks, again, to you for inviting me and Gregg and others for making me feel welcome, but I was disappointed you couldn't be there) I took your advice from many previous posts in my choice of detector and coil. Although I didn't use it exclusively, the Fisher F75 with 4"x6" concentric was my main tool and it worked very well. BTW, I have built a nail board and tested this combo on it with good success (6 or 7 positive results) but I'm still unsure if I'm performing the test as intended so I haven't publicized that (much). I had planned on bringing it along to WTHO to get some tips but forgot. I still need to sort through and photo my finds from the WTHO. Then I'll make a detailed post here as well as posting photos on your site.

The 'new' Fisher Gold Bug was, true to its name, designed first and foremost as a native gold detector. That is exhibited by its All Metal mode, which is VCO (effectively tone pitch and tone volume indicate strength of target). The discrimination half of the GB's operation was a reluctant afterthought. Part of the consequence is that although there is an adjustable threshold to silence low conductivity targets, it is intimately tied to the 2-tone breakpoint. You can choose where to set the silent threshold or where to set the low-->high tone break, but once you decide on one, the other comes along for the ride. (BTW, this feature was relaxed when Fisher released the sister F19 model. That allows the silent threshold and lo-to-hi tone break to be chosen independently.)

That cross section is much weaker than a circular X-section, FWIK. Elliptical X-section might be a good compromise, but still probably extra and or different material would be required since elliptical isn't a strong as pure circular. Still seems doable, though. Maybe our resident shaft builder ( @steveg ) can weigh in (no pun intended ).