GB_Amateur

That's a decent price for the original model. (TDI Pro was the newer continuation of the "big box" models and it seems to be highly prized if Ebay prices realized are any indication.) The -SL and -SPP are lighter. Part of that is that they run on standard batteries, but as a result their voltage (and resulting sensitivity) is lower than the big box unless you DIY battery mod (see active thread). Someone else than I can better answer your question about overlap with GPX-4800. Yes, pretty sure mono coils that work on GPX's also work on all TDI's. However that's not true for all GPX compatible DD coils. Apparently it's a trial-and-error fit. That is a good buy based upon Ebay prices realized, assuming it's in full working order, with coil.

Add my name to the list who have missed his presence. Simon, please let him know we appreciate his posts (and instruction) and look forward to more. But if the pic you show is representative of his recent finds I suspect he's quite busy swinging his detector. Your weather is turning for the better (winter almost over)? Or are you like the Aussies and Arizonans who prefer to hunt in winter?

Here's a previous thread where Rick Kempf illustrates and discusses the torque problem of a straight shaft:

I recall your extensive tests from a couple years ago. I used MS-Excel to summarize your results. That thread is here: Your posts back then prompted to me to search for (and find, for a good price) a used Sadie. I've never regretted it for a second. Glad to finally get to say "thank you" and glad you're becoming more active in posting to this forum. Your input is invaluable.

Nice triple play! How deep were the coins?

I can't answer your question, but thanks for the story. Reminds me of pawn shops -- everything they have is worth an arm and a leg. Your stuff? Peanuts. Maybe you already mentioned this, but are their any (real) Native Americans you can communicate with? They might be up on this kind of thing.

Presumably the other two were North Carolina and Georgia, and this was prior to the gold rushes of the (far) West. California (i.e. the state we know today) was still part of Mexico. 😀

I understand your PoV, but why not provide both (female) connectors and let the user choose. FT did it (although not for every model detector). I guess by providing options, though, you don't make money selling $45 adapters.

Can you estimate the number hits per swing that were less than +9?

While we're pitchin' a bitch, I'm going to put in my 2 cents. I wasn't an electronics engineer/tech but my work involved using lots of their services. One thing I learned is that every non-soldered connection (and even some of them) can fail. The more you string together the more likely it is to experience a failure. Minelab has for quite a while (at least since the Gold Monster 1000 release, and I complained then) felt that going with the 3.5 mm jack system was preferred. Why?????? At that time (and still now with one recent exception, see below), the quality aftermarket headphones have the 1/4 inch male plug. So if that is your choice you have to use an adapter. That's an extra connection to fail. I can't say anything about Minelab's overpriced adapter but I've suffered from poor quality mating of connectors, even before the Equinox, with the Deteknix (renamed 'Quest' to hide the fact they got caught counterfeiting the Teknetics T2). First Texas had what I consider a good idea when they included both 3.5 mm and 1/4" female connectors on the Greek Series (Tek Omega, etc.) and Fisher/Tek Gold Bug family. The pure RF route (M80 wireless headphones of the Equinox, for example) does alleviate the multiple failure points, but your choice of headphones is limited. The WM-08 module (my preference) requires *2* connections for me to use my favorite aftermarket headphones. To be fair, when I go with my Sony corded earbuds (in the hot months) with 3.5 mm plug I'm down to one. Buy why not do like FT and give me both to choose from? This problem isn't unique to Minelab. I recently replaced my Deteknix T/R system (similar issue, but worse since it required 2 adapters meaning 4 connections!) with the Garrett Z-link (https://www.garrett.com/hobbysite/hbby_z-lynk_en.aspx) but even they could have done better. The detector-to-transmitter connection, which could be hardwired, actually has two adapters, one for the proprietary waterproof AT connection and one for the industry 'standard' (I wish) 1/4". They could have made two versions rather than requiring an adapter. And the receiver module with just the 1/4 inch female jack takes care of me but not those whose headphones have the 3/5 mm male, including some that Garrett themselves market(!). Recently Detector Pro (https://detectorpro.com/gray-ghost-gold-series-for-minelab-gold-monster/) released a new model headphone with 3.5 mm male plug. (According to their blurb, they also enhanced the output to improve picking up weak signals.) But that just means buying yet another set of headphones, and ones that may not fit my head and/or hearing.

Apologies if I'm barking up the wrong tree, but given the responses others have gotten from Minelab USA, are you sure you dialed the correct number? Did the answering machine recording acknowledge you had reached Minelab?

Could you give a little more explanation? Those appear to be 3.7V batteries. Is the circuit board some kind of voltage regulator (switching regulator) that steps up the voltage? And the switching circuit doesn't introduce EMI?

I watched a couple seasons of Bering Sea Gold and couldn't take it anymore. I watched a lot more seasons of Gold Rush but eventually stopped doing that for the same reasons. The world has too many a__holes as it is and glorifying them on TV is worse than disgusting. Clearly the TV producers/etc. feel that conflict gets more viewers than informative, civil activities. A sad state if that's truly the case. Fortunately there still are treasure shows where the protagonists treat fellow humans with respect.

Or maybe gold? I don't mean to be insensitive to the plight of those in the path of Hurricane Dorian, but none of us can do anything about the weather (in the short term, anyway). I'm wondering what the expectation is for beach hunting after the hurricane hits the shore in the coming days. I realize its path and strength are uncertain, but the chances of it missing Florida completely seems to be small, and we all know there are many targets (modern and ancient) along the Atlantic coast.

Let me guess -- that other ring in the photo is tungsten-carbide. 😢 I think recently (however you want to define that) they've been putting full names in class rings. (Mine just has my initials, but it's merely sterling). Hope you find the lucky (formerly unlucky) owner. And if you can't I'm glad for you, too!

I assume you're referring to this national news story from the early 80's: https://www.apnews.com/c3028337e7d88ef7b80ac6deaf8dd9c4

The US Interstate Highway System is a net plus, but when it comes to sightseeing the slower US and state highways are much superior. When I'm on vacation with my wife I try and use the latter as much as I can. When I come out west to hunt for gold it's a lot harder to do that. For example, a trip to Nevada is 7 days round trip just driving (on the interstates) so a 2-week trip (including both weekends) is only 9 days in the wild. Colorado is much better in that regard (only 4 days round trip) but I need to figure out where I have a chance finding gold with a metal detector there. I agree with Lacky -- your post has given me incentive to take more pictures.

Great story, Gerry. But that was his side of it. I can see you were using a White's Golmaster 24k, but what settings, coil, etc.? Did you key in on a signal strength, conductivity range, gain setting,...? How accurate was the location he predicted? How long did it take to find? Did you get any other targets that looked good? Did he give any compensation (cash or otherwise -- I like to ask grateful recipients if they know of any properties I can search, such of those of older relatives -- i.e. permissions are more desired/valuable than simple cash, IMO). Obviously your business's reputation and personal satisfaction were rewards in themselves.

The article relates a story from 1877 near Osceola, NV. A drifter prospector (was there any other kind?) named Charles Keisel, working legally on a consortium (of which he was not a part) claim, found a nugget which when melted down contained "at least" $6000 in gold. Assuming $20/ozt that would be 300+ ounces. According to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osceola,_Nevada there is still small scale mining in that area, but the town is now abandoned. Osceola is ESE of Ely, a couple miles from US-50 ("The Loneliest Road in America", coined by Life Magazine in 1986) and only ~20 miles from the Utah border.

Excellent conclusion. Two (old) lipstick tubes close to each other is a good indication of a clothesline, although not a guarantee. I've done well under clotheslines. Most of my old coin and relic finds have been from parks which were formed in the last 50 years but were homesteads prior to that. This includes one Mexican War button (mid 1840's), one Civil War button and a CW cartridge box plate. I've just recently been searching another park which had an 1892 built home torn down in 1969. Still haven't found the sweet spot on that one but I'm not discouraged.

Those folks aren't here. Brings to life the "needle in a haystack" analogy. Well done.

From the linked article: The chosen location for Detectival 2019 will be near to the Historic Medieval Market towns of Burford & Charlbury in Oxfordshire on the edge of the Beautiful Cotswolds. We have almost 1000 acres to search, 600 of which is brand new undetected land. The site is near to the historic Cotswolds villages of Langley, Fulbrook, Milton Under Wychwood, Ascott under wychwood, Leafield & Shipton Under Wychwood. That's in England, west of London and south of Birmingham.

Those magazine illustrators really were skillful at their task, getting us to fantasize over the possibilities. Just another lost art in today's internet/social-media/cellphone/selfie photo-dominated age. Here's a slightly later issue (vol. 3, #3) from 1971. Remind anyone of Northern Nevada desert (or Southern Nevada, Northern Arizona, SE California,....? And the back cover: From the accompanying article (written by the infamous Bill Mahan, founder of D-Tex): The total count was 202x silver dollars, 79x $20 gold pieces, 53x $10 gold pieces, 43x $5 gold pieces, 2x $2.50 gold pieces. Mint dates range from 1850-1881. The detector Charles had borrowed form his dad was an old 1966 model D-Tex Standard.... He barely had a signal. It was (later) found that the battery was down to less than 4 volts. It was purly accidental that he detected anything at all. Any detectorist's bucket lister includes a gold coin. How about a cache of 177? Imagine the world-wide media attention such a 6-7 figure find would garner today.

Good stuff. I think all the ones I've found are Type B. I assume the terminal dates of use are only approximate. My uncle (a home builder) not only reused wood from demolitions but also nails, having lived through the great depression when almost nothing of any usefulness was thrown away. I wish I had asked him if he ever (re)used square nails. Also, if he had somehow come upon a keg of virgin square nails I have a feeling he would have found a way to use them. I found revealing these two similar statements from the two articles: Cut nails are still made today, however, with the type B method. These are commonly used for fastening hardwood flooring and for various other specialty uses. Machinery was developed to produce cut nails in the 1900's, and they are still used in flooring and concrete applications, where holding power is paramount, and power nailing tools are standard. Machine made cut nails are also made for use in reproduction or hobbyist replica furniture, but they are so perfect and identical that it is usually easy to see that they are new. From the second excerpt, it appears that the square nails in current use can easily be distinguished from the antique varieties. I certainly hope that is the case.

Most square nails I find here in Indiana are severly rusted (globs of rust stuck to them) but recogizable. Sometimes, though, they are pristine other than their dark color. I suspect different nails have different treatments and also different alloy compositions. Interesting find.