GB_Amateur

You guys are saying what I've been thinking. There's an old saying "don't cut off your nose to spite your face", but there's also self respect involved. I don't like dealing with companies that treat their customers like pawns. I also don't like companies mistreating my friends, and that's what I consider most of you here. What they did to their GPZ7000 customers is particularly disgusting. McDonalds had Minelab's attitude (we'll do things our way and convince you with advertising that it's what you want), and, as Chase mentioned, so has Apple. I quit going to McDonalds when I got out of college (1976). I bought an Apple II Plus in 1981. Haven't been back since. As you can see my lack of support hasn't hurt those two giants, but it does make me feel better about myself. And I've done just fine with fast food and computers, so no need feel sorry for me. 😉

Still doesn't add up. Eastern Europeans not only make good coils, they sell them cheaper than the manufacturers. Labor costs? Well, Minelab already builds at least some of their detectors (e.g. Equinox) in Southeast Asia. Only as long as we rats submissively follow the Pied Piper.

In 1973/74 the US mint considered changing the composition of the penny to aluminum alloy. Here's a detailed history of that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_aluminum_cent A few were distributed to congresspersons, and although the mint demanded (requested?) the return of all those specimens, some were never returned and no litigation ever occurred. (You can get away with a lot if you're a priveledged member of the US Federal Government.) Apparently the mint still has a claim to those missing cents and recently (see above article) they confiscated a rogue specimen, although apparently it wasn't one of those distributed to Congress. Something similar occurred in 1933 with a $20 gold piece: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_double_eagle and eventually the statute of limitations ran out (probably not the correct legal term) as those few survivors are now freely traded and easily worth in the high seven figures ($). When the aluminum cent ownership is finally decriminalized I expect those to bring huge auction prices (although probably not quite competitive with the 1933 Double Eagle). Oh, and when in 1982 they finally got around to changing the US cent composition, we were rewarded with the Stinkin' Zincoln. What a commendable result. Edit: Actually only one 1933 $20 gold piece is allowed to be owned outside the US Government, and it has quite a checkered history as detailed in the above linked Wikipedia article. 10 more are in the US government's possession and could possibly be released in the future but I think that requires a change in law so don't hold your breath. Pretty interesting wikipedia article as geof_junk notes.

Although the amount of gold was different in the early US gold coinage (up until 1834) the standard became very close to 15 g of gold in the Eagle ($10 gold piece) and proportionally higher/lower for other denominations. That's a bit under 1/2 ozt per $10 face value. So if Sovereigns are similar round number fractions of ozt then your observation makes sense.

Originally I was impressed by Newton saying this, until I read more about him and found out he wasn't particularly modest afterall. Well, nobody's perfect. For the advancement of mankind, the choice between a vain Newton and a modest person of lesser accomplishment is an easy call. I wish these government mints would give more thought when making their alloys, although I guess if you're not going to use a precious metal then we can just expect coins coming out of the ground to be ugly. (Aluminum is probably an exception to that, though.) At least it doesn't have an iron core (like recent Canadian issues) nor a combination of galvanically active metals (like our US Stinkin' Zincolns).

You're really doing well lately! If it weren't for Phrunt hunting that unsearched carnival grounds you'd be running in 1st place. 😁 Any chance that 1900 Barber has an -O mintmark? The condition looks strong and an -O mintmark would make it worth quite a bit more than silver content value.

What were the TID's you were seeing with the nails? It looks like some of them don't have heads. Do you think they were cut off, or actually made that way? Also the fraction that appear straight seems pretty high. Was there any sign of a fire? If not maybe a nail spill (ala 'coin spill') is responsible for a bunch of these. There's gotta be more good stuff at that site. Don't give up on it!

Welcome, Najindi! When you stop learning you stop living. Enjoy the ride!

Summertime I hunt with (inexpensive) ear buds. I've just switched back to full over-ear headphones. Friday I decided to go with the Sunray Pro Golds (through WM-08 with the Equinox) and I was hearing sounds I haven't heard for a while, maybe ever. And I mean good sounds. Pro Golds are the best headphones I own (and I own half a dozen over-ear sets) at blocking out the background noise. It's really noticeable. When you're out in the quiet country (with not much wind) a lot of headphones work fine but when you're in a noisy municapal area it really helps to have the best. There may be others as good or even better than the Pro Golds for blocking out noise, but I haven't found them. There is a potential downside to this and that's the discomfort from tight fitting headphones. I did OK in 3 hours on Friday but in the past I've had trouble on longer hunts. Part of the trick is to get the headphones positioned exactly right where they aren't trapping any part of the ear, are properly centered, headband in a comfortable position, eyeglass arms not trapped in the wrong place, etc. Of course setting the sound volume is important, too, but there are multiple ways to do that, at least with some detectors, and the Pro Golds have individual ear attenuation adjustment pots.

Make sure to mark the location of the pot before you turn it. This messed up Phrunt when he bought a used Teknetics T2 that had a similar 'adjustment' -- the seller had not recorded the original position. I would use a scriber myself rather than a marker -- more precise and won't wash off or fade.

Welcome, Buckeye Tag1260! The Tesoros have produced a lot over the years and are still doing that. Please post some pics of your finds as you go along.

In the US they are sold (nearly exclusively) by a company named Predator: https://www.predatortools.com/. The box mine came in was autographed by George Lesche. His daughter runs the company, I think. Pretty sure he sold the rights to the now universally named 'Lesche' digger to someone else, but could be wrong on that, too.

Keep an eye out when you're on a ridge. I've heard of a Texan named Chuck who will talk your ear off.

Excellent representation and graphics, but I don't think Ben Bernanke -- Chairman of Board of Governors of US Federal Reserve System (2006-14) -- is still in that helicopter. 🙂 They probably thought they were starting from a really small piece of gold (1 g, maybe that's the smallest refined gold standard size?) but for some of us that dwarfs the largest native pieces we've found. 😢

What about replacing the 1/4 in. plug with a 3.5 mm? And is there mesh (i.e. coaxial) shielding on the cables?

They may have discontinued the Classics. Take a look at their webpage: https://www.sunraydetector.com/ They only have six products: three coils "for the Minelab Explorer S, XS, II, SE, SE Pro, E-Trac, Safari & Quattro", a rain jacket, and the two versions of the Pro Golds. Their icon for Fisher shows the M-Scope logo. When I bought my Pro Golds three years ago, the warranty address (on a small slip of paper inside the packaging) was in Alabama. Their website gives the impression not a lot is going on there, nor has in quite some time. Maybe the Classics still for sale are just old inventory. Ever since the ML Gold Monster 1000 came out I've been complaining about detectors not having a 1/4" jack. Most of those complaints are met with (note: I'm taking poetic license) "you're a dinosaur. The world is using 3.5 mm or even wireless. 1/4 in. is so 20th Century". Well they got that right, I am. 😁 Surprisingly(?) of all the aftermarket headphone makers more/less exclusively for metal detectors, the only one I've noticed that makes a model with 3.5 mm plug is Gray Ghost (Detector Pro). We talk about detector giants (relative term) going out of business. Well, maybe it's happening with some of the accessory companies, too. They're a lot smaller and possibly less likely to be able to sustain the changes of a semi-fluid market. IMO the 'modern' headphones aren't nearly as comfortable nor as good at sound blocking, but that's a dinosaur talking.

No, they won’t nor will many other detector headphones. That’s why I recommend the CTX version of the Pro Gold... it’s why they make them, to work on Minelab detectors where the older version did not. Thanks for the note I guess maybe I was not clear on that. (This response from Steve H.) Thanks, Chase. Maybe the thread you linked is the reason for my confusion. As I read it now it's still not clear what people were saying. What does it mean "will not work correctly"? Also, what is "older version Pro Golds"? I bought mine sometime in 2016. Ironically originally I ordered the CTX version (when I didn't have a CTX) and realized I made a mistake, contacting the seller who modified my order. Maybe I hadn't make a mistake afterall. Anyway, connecting my set directly to to the Eqx is the first time I've noticed their incompatibility with any detector, and using the WM-08 solves *that* problem. I agree that if you're going to buy a set of Pro Golds now you should get the CTX version. But I have plenty enough headphones that I'm more concerned about making the ones I already have work. What I'm 100% in agreement with is that under the right conditions the Pro Golds are great headphones.

I've read some things here that confused me, and I checked them out today, finding the source of the confusion. Sunray makes two sets of Pro Gold headphones: the 'Originals' and the 'CTX version'. I have the former. I've read that you need the CTX version if you want to use them with the Equinox. (As always, maybe I didn't read the fine print.) When I plug my 'Originals' (via a 1/4" female to 3.5 mm male adapter) into the back side of the control module it's as if they aren't connected at all. Nothing comes through the headphones and the Equinox speaker emits its normal sounds. Presumably this is what has been reported here. However, using the WM-08 wireless module (connected to the headphones with the same adapter) the speaker is bypassed and the sound in the headphones is loud and clear. In fact it is noticeably louder than with the Garrett MS-2 headphones. Although I didn't check my White's ProStars, in the past they performed similarly to the MS-2's. The sound quality doesn't seem quite as clean but the Pro Golds certainly have enough sound quality to work well in the field. I wonder if the volume difference has to do with impedence matching. Anyway, bottom line is don't throw out your Original Pro Golds if you have converted to an Equinox user.

My interpretation of your calculation is a bit different. I would say: "Given what we do find, there's sure a lot of treasure out there!" And it follows that we'll never get it all, so keep looking.

Nice Warnick. I've had people drive by and scream something but I didn't pick up on what they said, nor did I particularly care. It reminds me of back when I played golf. Occasionally someone would drive by and yell at the top of their lungs: "FORE!". Yeh, that was almost as hilarious as it was original. You have a nice set of instruments there (including my favorite handheld pinpointer). Anyone smart enough to recognize the detector you were using wouldn't be so clueless/tactless as to point and laugh. Ignore 'em.

The big downside of using a 6" diameter coil vs. an 11" is ground coverage. I was pretty much addicted to small coils until I got the Eqx 800 and was forced to use the 11" until they released the accessory coils. The target separation is so good on the Eqx that the need (for me) to use the smaller coil in heavy trash was reduced. I mostly use the small coil for natural gold hunting when finding the tiniest pieces is part of the goal, but it's certainly a capable coil in most conditions.

Nice find; too bad about the nick and other dings on the rim. Looks to me like a relatively weak strike that didn't see a huge amount of circulation. I've never paid much attention to this series since it was gone from circulation (with a few exceptions, mostly dateless) before I got into collecting. The 1916 and 1918/7-S are the keys to the series; knew that. I see your find is #3 in value (assuming a fixed, intermediate circulated grade such as F-12) even though both the 1927-D and 1927-S are below 1,000,000. I count 11 of the series with mintages between 1 million and 2 million, your find being one of those. I'm wondering if a reasonably large fraction of the 1923-S were melted or for some reason few were held in collectors hands until it was too late. I'm sure the Whitman Series book on the Standing Liberties will answer this, but I don't have that in my library. Anyway, good find (twice!) and now you get to keep this one.

Glad to hear that. Minelab USA has been good (from what I've read) at addressing customer problems. Just sounds like you got caught in a storm of a parts inventory shortfall. I think I'd settle for the former, but we can always hope.

Looks like a harmonica to me. Here's a website with a good assembly drawing: https://musicianswebstore.com/harmonicas_howitworks.asp I've never found a wood comb, only the (metal) reeds.

Likely your mod did alleviate the problem sufficiently to get the unit cool enough to operate again. However, I suspect those clear plastic loose fitting covers suffer from the greenhouse effect. This is the reason interiors of automobiles build up such high temps in the sun: https://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=1606 Do you use these covers to protect from saltwater spray?