GB_Amateur

I said that from memory but thought I'd better check the numbers. Redbook says "not quite." Here are the order and mintages (for Roosies): 1955 (plain) -- 12.8 million 1949-S -- 13.5 million 1955-D -- 14.0 million 1955-S -- 18.5 million 1954-S -- 22.0 million 1949-D -- 26.0 million 1946-S -- 27.9 million So the 1949-S snuck in there at 2nd place. Note the 1955 (plain) is the only one of the top seven from the Philadelphia mint. That is typical for first half of 20th century US coinage -- more coins minted in Philly than either branch mint. (Starting in the 1950's the Denver mint replaced Philly as the most proficient.) Even during the 19th century the Philadelphia and New Orleans mints were typically far more productive than San Francisco and Carson City (not to mention gold coins from Charlotte and Dahlonega). This is why the Western detectorists have an edge, IMO, in finding valuable coins. The East coast has the oldest coins but typically not the rarest.

I thought I could see the 3rd digit (5) but not the 4th. Although Roosevelt dimes have been minted for 74 years now, you can safely ignore anything in the clad era (1965 onward) as being collectible. Thus only 19 years have any chance of scarcity. For circulated coins (what we find with our detectors) anyway, all three of the 1955's are the scarcest, and the Philly minted ones tops in the series. It tends to be unusual that a Philadelphia minted coin beats the branch mints, at least in the last 100 years. 1955 was an unusual year in that every denomination had at least one scarce coin: 1955-S penny, 1955 nickel, all three dimes, 1955-D quarter, and 1955 half dollar. Come to think of it, that would be one heck of a collection of metal detector finds -- one of every minted 1955 coin. I bet you could count on two hands the number of detectorists who could claim finding that sequence. Neat story about your niece and nephew being excited with your hunting. Reminds me of when my uncles got me into coin collecting at the age of 6. And half dollars -- those bring back memories. I can't recall the last time I got one in change, but probably 25+ years ago. Silver halves, now it's 50 years and counting. Thanks for posting and sharing. If we can't be out finding treasure ourselves at least we can enjoy what others are recovering.

Nice! Looks like you were discriminating high since I don't see any nickels. You do realize that not all Warnicks are up in the 20's? (Ok, couldn't help myself. ?) Really nice looking Franklin; I'm envious. The large cent appears to be in pretty good shape given that it's been in the ground for the better part of 2 centuries. Any of the Wheaties have dates+MM worth mentioning? What are the dates+MM on the silver dimes -- I couldn't quite make them out. I'll guess 21-D and 55 (plain). I'm an optimist!

You're skipping larger silver jewelry as well, but I understand the tradeoffs when you're after gold. Interestingly I almost missed a silver ring a couple weeks back because the TID on my Equinox was too high -- 35-36! I get (large, deep) iron signals in the 38-39 range sometimes and was initially thinking I was experiencing something similar. But after a fraction of a second of thought, I wasn't going to ignore a signal like that, if nothing else just to appease my curiosity. And my curiosity was rewarded. ?

Quite the precious metal trove for a one day hunt! I'm envious of that Walker. I still haven't found a silver half dollar. I LoL'ed when you included that nearly gone Zincoln in your photos. Apparently the saltwater speeds up the deterioration process -- a fate the wretched things deserve. How and how much did you clean the coins?

Welcome, Busho! You're in a garden spot for natural gold, and I guess the (mining) relics come along for the ride. I look forward to your posts of upcoming finds.

I've seen this kind of adjustment on alarm clocks (as in the above image). If you Google search "antique alarm clock back" you will see many more. It would be surprising for this to be on a pocket watch unless it were under a 'door', else you would likely unintentionally slide the lever when taking it in and out of your pocket. It's small for the (entire) back of an alarm clock but it could have been attached to the (larger) back plate, I suppose. Interesting find but it's seen better days. ? I have no idea of its age. Sure appears to have been in the ground a long time. WAG is that it is from the hotel era.

I have the 6" and it's a very good coil, but the main thing I use it for is hunting (small) natural gold. Even in trashy areas the 11" is my preference for its better coverage. With small coils I always leave feeling I haven't gotten good coverage, even in a small area. For me it's just more difficult to overlap my sweeps with a small, lightweight coil. But I understand your need for a small coil with the situation you face. However, with all those detectors listed on your sidebar, don't you have one with a small coil? (Or was this just rehearsal for rationalizing your purchase when your wife finds out? ?)

"Be the first to know when the ground breaks,..." (from the webpage linked above) Or just monitor detectorprospector.com and be tied for second. I'm fine with that.

Thanks, Steve. I found another link: https://www.prospectingaustralia.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?id=13934 which is actually referenced in your 2015 post. This one has basically the same info but includes a bit more detail on an actual garage mod. I just ordered from Amazon what I think is the right wiring and plug. It comes Wednesday and if it fits I'll post the product link here.

At one time I bookmarked or downloaded photo and text instructions on modifying the TDI/SPP to effectively turn it into a TDI/SL. I can't seem to find it. Anyone here know the link(s)?

Hope you get to keep all coin finds. Looks like quite an opportunity.

Pretty sure the answer is 'yes'. But I'm not going to try it right now since I have everything set just right! ?

? Made you look! OK, there is a dectecting story behind this, and actually more typical finds below. The theme is that sometimes you're out detecting and find things you weren't expecting, and even things your detector might not see (or could see but wasn't needed). Two weeks ago I was out a new site (park). Someone I was walking past asked me if I had found any mushrooms. "No, but then I wasn't looking for them, either." So I go back this week, detecting again, and while peering down at the ground while swinging my detector, there plain as day was this morel. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morchella) Actually, around here they sell for around $25/lb when fresh. So in those units it's worth a bit more than a US silver dime (but I'd rather have found one of those). My wife fried it up for me -- two small bites after all the water was out of it. Pretty tasty nonetheless. This sorta reminds me of another hunt I had a couple weeks ago, this one to a school built in 1959. I was thinking "that's about 10 years for silver coins to have been dropped" so I was hopeful for those or maybe some Wheat pennies. Less than 30 minutes after starting a survey hunt (the school grounds are many acres in size) I got a high but inconsistent tone. Looking down I could see some silver, and dropping to my knees started pulling out a chain with a pendant, then seeing more silver, another chain and two rings. About a foot away I saw something white that turned out to be a porcelain elephant, likely part of some kind of jewelry box. Why was all this jewelry (every piece marked '925') laying on top of the ground in a schoolyard?? We can only speculate. I did dig another sterling silver ring (on the right in the pic below) about 6 inches deep in another part of the schoolyard later that same day. Although I've been back two more times and found lots of clad, nickels, and copper Memorials I still don't have a single old coin from this site. And I haven't found any more jewelry, either.

AFAIK, the only meaningful thing on the screen when in pinpoint mode is the speedometer ring. Depth and ID are unreliable. Sound is a different story. The amplitude, sharpness, extent of the sound give indications of the size/depth relationship. When the Equinox was released there were a lot of complaints (from US users, anyway) regarding the depth bars. When the software update came out, things improved, but they are still only a guide. Many detectorists (and not just Equinox detectorists) ignore depth indicators since other techniques serve them better.

As opposed to the stock 8"x9" concentric? DD's (which Tesoro like's to call 'Widescan') are better in higher mineralization. Solid coils do better over uneven surfaces (especially rocky soil/terrain). I assume 'up north' means in the Appalachians, which (typical of mountains) are going to have higher mineralizations than flat land. All of this points toward using the widescan coil over the concentric. Pretty sure the Tejon's all-metal mode is non-motion (similar to pinpoint mode on many detectors). That means you'll need to manually adjust the threshold (as opposed to Self Ajdusting Threshold or 'SAT' of motion all metal). Re-adusting the threshold and manually adjusting the ground balance was characteristic of early gold detectors. For example I'm pretty sure the Garrett Groundhog (15 kHz VLF) found decent gold back in the late 70's and into the 80's. It will probably be a challenge to find the smaller bits that modern mid- to high frequency VLF's can do with their advanced circuitry, but as always you have to use the best equipment available at the time. If you'll be hunting in creeks, you also have the chance of finding old coins as a bonus. Good luck on your trip!

Another rare (140k mintage) coin for you. Too bad about the condition but still an excellent find. Thanks for recording the video. Always glad to see/hear how a detector responds in the wild.

Is there a reason the QED hasn't been mentioned? I feel like that omission is the elephant in the room.

Good question. Even better answer (as in ~25 tr oz).

The White's Sierra Pulse Pro (SPP) was a special limited version detector. It was initially labeled the "GMT Super Pulse" and exclusively(?) distributed by Associated Group of the United Arab Emirates to the African market. When they didn't sell well, Jimmy Sierra was offered and subsequently sold them through limited White's dealerships in the western US (and directly through his website?). The SPP is simply a standard White's TDI/SL (still on the market) with a couple controls removed: the variable adjustment for pulse delay (nominally 10 microseconds to 25 microseconds on the SL, locked at 10 microseconds on the SPP) and without the conductivity switch found on the SL model. All the TDI's have a simple type of discrimination -- low conductor vs high conductor -- and the switch on the SL allows you to choose either one or to hear both. With the SPP you just hear both tones and let your brain discern between high and low. (There is some noise reduction advantage choosing high/low as oppose to both.) Oh, one other difference is the coils which came with each detector. Coil choice of the TDI has never been a problem since besides White's selection, aftermarket coils (Miner John, Razorback, MInelab, Nugget Finder, Coiltek) abound.

I have no idea, but given the weight difference (5.4 g for the Henning vs. 5.0 g for legal tender), that would be a good first pass. Since most never made it to circulation it would be a longshot, but then so are many of the rare finds posted here. I'd settle for a 1939-D myself. ?

I'm still kicking myself for not bidding on the ATX you modified and ended up selling on Ebay (with multiple coils) for ~$1k. I hope we're not seeing at Garrett what happens way too often (e.g. Tesoro) where a business is handed down to the next generation and subsequently run into the ground. Charles Garrett wasn't your typical detector designer/manufacturer/marketer, but still. His son had plenty of years to learn. Maybe he'll surprise us yet, but so far I'm not impressed. I've been hopeful that First Texas would step up, given all their design and engineering experience, including Carl Moreland who played a major roll in the White's TDI line. And let's not forget that Minelab, who has held such a stranglehold on the PI market, is certainly capable of making lightweight, affordable detectors as they proved with the Equinox. Steve, there are a lot of us who share your frustration.

Welcome, Lone Star Digger! Glad to hear you've found some time to renew this fascinating hobby. You've made a wise choice with the Equinox. Keep us in the loop with your upcoming finds.

Are you referring to the the White's NiMH pack? I have an R&B Li-ion pack which I just measured at 12.35 V. (I think when fully charged it is closer to 12.5 V.) One thing to keep in mind regarding all batteries (rechargeable and single-use) is that the stated voltage is a nominal value, and the initial (fully charged) value usually lasts only a short time. There is a plateau (approximately constant) value which occurs for most of the battery's life which is typically a fair amount below the initial full charge. Most of the time (marketing trickery?) the plateau voltage is below the advertised/stated voltage. Most modern electronics (including most metal detectors) use voltage regulation circuitry which converts the supplied voltage to a fixed value, regardless of the actual supply voltage, within limits. The White's TDI/SL is apparently a rare exception to this practice.

From A Guidebook of Buffalo and Jefferson Nickels by Q. David Bowers: Production of regular-alloy nickels took place at the Philadelphia and Denver mints through the end of the summer (1942). On October 8, 1942, the silver-content began to be used, after which through the end of the year, the Philadelphia and San Francisco mints producted the new coins. The wartime silver alloy was continued in use past the end of World War II, until December 1945. From 1943 through 1945, coinage was effected at all three mints. (and later) In 1946 the regular alloy was resumed, and it has been continued ever since. So, the answer is 'no', at least by intent. This doesn't rule out occasional (rare) errors where the wrong alloy or wrong planchet (e.g. a penny planchet being struck with 5 cent dies) resulted in anomolous production.