GB_Amateur

Were you able to separate the two quarters from each other? Chemical or physical induced bonding between the 5 cent piece (25% Ni, 75% Cu) and one of the 25 centers (90% Ag, 10% Cu) seems plausible. But why would the two quarters of identical composition stick togehter? 'Cold welding'? Have you determined if the corrosion is a surface effect, possibly repairable, or actual deeper damage that permanently disfigures the coins?

The reason I doubt what occurred was a meteorite starting a fire is that rocks (space or otherwise) tend to be poor conductors of heat. When a stony meteoroid gets hot, it's the outer surface that heats up, not the interior. The associated ablative action is similar to heat shields placed on spacecraft designed to re-enter the atmosphere. Keep the heat on a surface; don't let it propogate to the sensitive interior. According to this article, iron meteorites make up 5.7% of witnessed meteorite falls, but are more likely to survive due to their conductive composition. Could the source of the fire been an iron meteorite? A piece of metal (e.g. from a satellite with its orbit so degraded it gets dragged back into the atmosphere)? If metallic the entire chunk gets hot. Does it cool enough in the lower part of the atmosphere when it slows down? IDK. (Same question applies to iron meteorites.) But as Jason mentioned, stony meteorites are not only cool, some have ice on them, from frozen condensation in the cold atmosphere after they've been slowed to terminal velocity. Another possibility that should not be ignored (more research at the site should help) -- random coincidence -- also mentioned in Jason's post that started this thread. TV news (well, lots of other sources, too) often accentuate the unusual/exciting and ignore mundane causes. Likewise eyewitnesses often also project their hopes into their reports, distorting whatever evidence can be derirved from them.

I see others haven't had this problem; neither have I using the Z-Lynk T/R pair with the Fisher F75 and White's TDI/SPP. If there is some kind of handshake going on between transmitter and receiver..., but why would that be affected by which detector or which headphones are being used?? Might be worth asking Garrett. I'm with you, both with my dissatisfaction of the ML80's mushy audio and with strongly wanting to use my favorite headphones (Sunray Pro Golds). At worst I'll have the option of plugging those directly into the control unit ("wired" mode) but I hope there will be some other satisfactory solution. Recall back when there was a pole here about what audio output method Equinox users preferred? The WM08 got about 10% score. There's your answer as to why no proprietary option is being provided. But I'm optimistic the fast, modern Bluetooth the Manticore uses will have a good selection of options.

How sure? Is it the right thickness for an authentic coin of this type/period/etc.? That's one dead giveaway if not. (Of course you'll know more when the Eurpopeans here answer.) I have a reproduction from the middle ages that shows the mold line on the edge -- game token or child's toy. I've found enough out-of-place items to never rule anything out before I make sure. My (authentic) Civil War relics are a good examples. No battles fought with over 100 miles from where I found them, and no assemledge of soldiers, either. (Likely mementos brought back from the war and eventually lost or tossed.) Masonic penny from the California motherload country -- 2000+ miles away? (Possibly lost by a collector who traded for it, or a mourner tossing it out after a funeral, etc.) Hope it's genuine.... Interesting but sad find, that coin sandwich. Nickel probably 1885. I'm sure one quarter is a 1916 and the other a 1918/17-S. 😁 Oh, I seem to recall you've already found the latter. (!! It was one of you NCal detectorists.) If that's the case I'll gladly accept the reject.

Reminds me of the permanent sign I've seen in some restaurants: Free Lunch! Tomorrow.

You might want to check out this website. Among other things they publish an annual Calendar (should be able to download by clicking the appropriate year along the right hand margin). You can see at the top of the page there are four meteor showers currently active. Afterthought: Meteorites are rarely from comets. Meteor showers (what I linked) are caused by the earth passing through the orbit of a comet. Comet debris gets sublimated, etc. before reaching the ground.

No one is asking if it could be space junk (broken up satellite re-entry)?

Have you seen phrunts photos of his detecting garb? Barely above freezing in the mountain morning and he's wearing short sleeve shirt and shorts. He would be hot right before dawn on the coldest day of the year in Orlando. And nowhere to (snow) ski???? Might as well send him to the penal colonies of French Guiana.

Until you get your hands on a Manticore? Nice finds for both of you, and count me as one who would be over the moon finding a 1858-O half in that condition.

I get the iron box part. But you claim soil disturbance on a small scale will reveal itself on a magnetometer?

I think we'd take that sentence more seriously if the subject were ANYONE else. Everything you said after that just went in one ear and out the other.

Sending subliminal messages again, Steve? What does that 1/4 oz nugget look like in the first photo (upper left corner)?

When Dave Johnson speaks, people listen: Common sources of electrical interference include: overhead electric power lines, underground power lines, other metal detectors, telephone lines carrying electronic data, computer systems, electric fences, old CRT-based televisions, cell phones, thunderstorms, fluorescent lights, metal vapor lamps, military aircraft with electronic warfare countermeasures turned on, electric motors, VLF military communications systems, and automobile ignition systems. It will sometimes be the case at home, in the showroom, or in an urban environment that there are several different sources of electrical interference present simultaneously. I count 16 sources he mentions and note he says 'include' so he's not covering all. The proliferation of sources is the first problem. Different standards around the world is another (e.g. 50 Hz vs. 60 Hz AC transmission frequency for electricity distribution). Then there's the 'moving target' problem where new technologies and applications add more sources. I predict that if you took a good detector engineer to a typical site he could (possibly only after hundreds of hours of R&D) build a detector that would deal with that local EMI and still work well. Doing that for all possible sites?? This is the problem they are actually presented with. (I did say 'typical'. Your transmitter tower on top of the fire station -- that might not be solvable.) You may want to read Dave's full article. I just reread it. 13 years later it's unfortunately still relevant. And he has an answer to your direct question which you won't like: ...The battle will never be won because metal detectors are by their nature designed to detect magnetic fields, and electric current always produces magnetic fields.

Contact the Lagina brothers and see if they'll help. You might just get onto the show Beyond Oak Island. 😁 OK, time to get serious. Some questions for you to ask both her and yourself: 1) how much would a Hershey bar sized 99.9% gold bar cost? 2) how many of those would he likely have buried? 3) what size hole (cross section) would he need to dig to bury those? 4) what tool would he use to do that? 5) how deep would that tool reach? My answer to #4 & #5 (after surmising the ballpark answers to 1-3): a post hole digger, less than 4 ft and more likely 2 to 3 ft deep. I like the 2 box suggestions, and Garrett claims theirs to be capable of finding the smallest items (relative to the competition), such as a canning jar zinc lid. So even if it's not in a metal container (that would be really nice), there's a chance of picking it up. I once reported here searching for a coupld buried sawed-off shotguns. I used a White's TDI/SPP with 12" coil. I wasn't very experienced with it which should explain at least some of my headaches, but it picked up way too much small metal and I was digging too much of that. (This is where experience would have helped...). The TM808 and its variations (sold by White's but they bought the design and rights from another company who made them previously -- don't remember its name) is also good because it has ground balancing. The popular Fisher Gemini series doesn't. Cache hunting is a lot about mentally putting yourself in the place of the person who buried it. And as others have warned, 3rd party claimants often have the 'facts' misrepresented. Heck, just ask anyone who has ever been asked to detect a gold ring by someone who lost it. "I was right there when it fell off...."

Glad you posted this, Steve. Please don't take seriously the apparent pushback on another thread regarding using this metal detector to detect metal besides the shiny yellow kind. I think probably my favorite informative article you've written to date is the one about using the White's TDI to find coins. I still reread that about once per year. (But I still haven't tried it myself. I need to find a spot where I won't feel guilty digging deep holes; the IB/VLF's have already found most of the shallower stuff. Well, that's my excuse, anyway.) And that's a nice looking century old coin. The fact it was possibly dropped by a gold miner trying to eek out a living with just manual tools and the sweat of his brow -- even better.

I wonder if they can afford another publicity nightmare (maybe too strong of a word?) like what's happened with the GPX6000. Even if the Manticore *only* has as much trouble as the Equinox they are going to be worse off. And with Nokta, XP, and Garrett starting to impinge upon 'their' turf while being More/Less upfront with customers, there's a threat their run as 'the best in the business' could be in jeopardy. Mark Lurie sure was aware that the Equinox's weaknesses are common (unpopular) knowledge and emphasized that its shortcomings would not be repeated. I'm counting on him and the rest of the design+engineer+manufacture members that they've taken those problems (and the ones that beset the 6k) seriously. But I'm not trying to pull the limelight away from this thread's topic (even if phrunt was 😁). There's a huge difference between spending $1000 for a detector that has minor to moderate problems and $6000 for an instrument with major ones.

That I don't know. Iron will deteriorate in air -- I've seen that myself with an old axehead I found in the California forest, likely dropped/tossed by a lumberjack in the late 1890's. When treasure wreck salvagers bring up relics (and probably silver coins), they keep them in saltwater until they can be properly stabilized. But copper and its alloys from the (non-salt) ground? I would guess not. I wish we had a chemist member here.... I think your toothpick method will help. Angled incident light can show details that face-on viewing doesn't. (You likely know this already. Others who read these pages may not.) Compare what you can see of the date with photos online. That helps refute or confirm. And as always, have fun investigating!

Since you are in an area that was settled 3 1/2 centuries ago, just imagine all that might have been there / gone on in those early years that you will never find documentation for. I know you like history (so do I) but if digging too deep rocks the boat, are you going to gain anything? Fact is you are uncovering (pun?) the history yourself. In my area the USGS maps only go back to around the turn of the century and the aerial photos to the 1950's. You are already good (and getting better) at determining the human habitat locations with your detector. That one button seems to have an impressive amount of gilding. Is it recent (I doubt it)? Extra thick gold layer compared to typical? I know you are careful cleaning your finds. Is this your first USA Large Cent? I've come to realize (with a bit of 'reserach' as well as plain old experience) that of the copper alloys, pure copper (our Large Cents and Half Cents) are the most vulnerable to ground chemicals. Next worse are brass (zinc alloyed with the copper, but no tin). Best(?) among your high copper content USA coins are those that contain tin (by definition -- bronze). Those copper alloys with nickel may be even better than bronze, although they can take a beating, too. The bronze composition is why our Indian Heads come out better than a lot of our Lincolns even though they are older. Back to your Large Cent, be extremely careful with it. I screwed up using water and a tooth brush on my first (and still only) LC. The details can literally be destroyed by something as simple as that. (kac has brought this up more than once so credit to him.) You've come a long way in the couple years you've been detecting and showing your finds here (and your presentation is always top notch).

I'd be curious if a circularly symmetric target (in one axis) will still give a tight dTID plot when that axis is askew of vertical. An example is a coin on edge. Again, I have a (educated?) guess but without any experience seeing conductivity vs. ferrous content (ferrocity? 😁) I'm not going to muddy the airwaves with speculation. From both Minelab's response to PSPR and Lawrie's interpretation in the videos, though, I think it's fair to say that sometimes the assymetry on the plot indicates an assymetric target, but neither the cause nor the effect is guaranteed. We'll know more in a few months.... 🤞

I like that kind of accountability challenge! An hour or so ago I posted on a ML Manticore thread the Manticore Christmas ad in the most recent Gold Prospectors magazine. Here's the back cover of that same issue with one of your recent mates. I suspect both images are somewhere on the internet (Facebook?) and maybe have been there for awhile. Doesn't seem that long ago (couple months?) when all this was understandably top secret. Good times ahead, even if not everyone will be satisfied with the actual release dates. "...You can't please all of the people all of the time." (Attributed to English Middle Ages poet John Lydgate.)

Are you saying or implying that there will be an aftermarket 3rd party product made for the masses that works just like the WM08 on the Equinox? I.e. you can then use your favorite old-tech headphones? I sure hope that's the case as it will save one piece of hardware (e.g. Garrett Z-Lynk transmitter plugged into the Mantiore output jack) for those of us loyal to our current headphones.

On Halloween I give each trick-or-treater multiples. I should give you an extra thumbs up. 👍 Given the potential value, I would be careful cleaning it up. Any cleaned coin is worth less than one with typical circulation patina (with otherwise similar wear) and this one probably needs it. But if it were me I'd research cleaning methods carefully and test them on other (m/l valueless) nickels in similar condition before I touched this one. I'm a neophyte when it comes to photo enhancing, but I played around with (rotating, cropping, sharpening?) the image you posted: I think this shows the date a bit better, but that might be an illusion. I think this website, given a limit on storage, reduces the size (and resolution) of photos uploaded. For example, the file I uploaded (above) was 87 kB on my computer. When I subsequently downloaded it the size was 25 kB. I suspect your original was in the megabyte size range. (I may be all wrong in my interpretation.)

Reading Mitchel's detailed chronicle I wondered about the dangers. I've heard of rogue waves in the open ocean. Do those kind of things ever catch beach goers (including detectorists) unexpectedly in an otherwise calm sea? Mitchel, your report leaves me with mixed feelings -- all those 'good' targets in near ideal detecting conditions and hardly any real loot to show for it. Well, these are the kinds of days that make us appreciate the few when we hit a grand slam. You get an A+ for perseverance.

I have my opinion, but IMO better to hear from someone who knows the Minelab's FBS family. @steveg has been very helpful explaining that for us Manticore hopefuls. Maybe we can wake him up 😁 and get some details. That's not to discourage other knowledgeable responses, though.

Obviously aimed at the Northern Hemisphere but maybe they have an Australis version, too. Seems a bit risky to make it look like (all/most?) orders will be filled in time for Christmas. If you ever want to get the public riled up, just have a product in high demand for which Christmas orders can't be filled! Now, metal detectorists -- maybe not so risky since they are always a patient group.... 🤔