GB_Amateur

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies so far, and hopefully more will come in. But the only thing I'm really getting out of this can be summed up in what Chase said. I've got to give it more of an opportunity than I have so far. Kind of interesting because I previously mentioned that with the delay in the release of optional coils I was forced to learn how to use an 11" coil for the first time. If I had gotten the Eqx 600 (which doesn't allow customized tone breaks) instead of the 800 I would have been forced to learn 50 tones. Now I must pretend I can't customize the tone breaks and see where 50 tones leads. Learning to use a detector is almost as much fun as finding stuff with it. ?

"What are you listening for?" is too general. (Wish there were a video lesson showing how 50 tones are interpreted.) Here are a couple more specific: 1) What tone clue will cause you to look at the screen? 2) What tone patterns cause you to dig? 3) How good is your tone resolution? Specifically, when you hear a tone, what is the range (+/-) of TID's that you can consistently discern by ear? What are other properties of 50 tones that you key on?

Nice Merc! Congrats on persevering through the trash to find that silver. You're on your way now.

That's a great find! Imagine how many bank rolls of dimes you would have had to search in the early 1960's (before silver coins were Hoovered out of circulation) to get that. Although I'm suspicious of the low survival estimate reports by PCGS, even if they're wrong by a factor of 10 it still means they aren't in the hands of collectors and that doesn't leave many 'places' for them to be. We know where they are globally (i.e. in the ground). BTW, I failed to mention how impressive your MS-60 grade from PCGS for a coin that you found in the ground. (I wouldn't get it regraded if I were you. ?) You must have quite a collection of coins recovered to have so many rare finds. Good stuff and I look forward to your next discovery.

While out yesterday with the Equinox and new 15 in. coil (thanks, Gerry), I ran into an issue. First off, I shortened the shaft to accomodate the increased weight of the larger coil compared to stock 11 in. That led to me needing to look closer to my feet just to watch the coil (for coil control, etc.). After less than 30 minutes detecting not only did I have a lot of neck pain but also deterioration of eyesight. After resting I lengthened to shaft back to my usual position and the problem went away. However, this led to me wondering if there might be a solution for having to look (down) frequently at the screen to see the target ID (or even to tune). The idea I had isn't even half-baked so keep in mind it might be a complete non-starter, but here it is: combine an endoscope (see example below) with Google Glass to project the image of the screen onto eyeglasses. Would it work? https://www.amazon.com/Endoscope-TSAAGAN-Inspection-Semi-Rigid-Smartphone/dp/B07KFM2V5K/ref=sr_1_13?keywords=endoscope&qid=1551290686&s=electronics&sr=1-13

More like US 5 cent ('nickel') coin ID which is 12-13 typically. 95% Copper alloy US pennies are 25-26. Density (weight divided by volume) is the more appropriate measurement. Specific gravity is a form of density and easier to determine. But titanium's density is 4.5 g/cm^3 compared to silver's 10.5 g/cm^3, so actually silver is quite a bit denser than titanium. It's titanium's strength to density ratio that leads to it being a valuable (relative to other commonly found metals) and useful material.

It's interesting what motivates detectorists -- there are so many possibilities. Like you, I get excited with the date+MM opportunities, realities, and sheer anticipation. For me that came from being introduced to coin collecting by my family (mother and uncles) when I was 6 years old. I never lost the thrill of the find. I've wondered about that myself. However, there are some things going for us. One is that when these coins were lost there weren't coin collectors (or at least not many) cherry picking the scarce and rare dates. Secondly (and this is just wild speculation), when you try and answer the question "where did all the minted coins go?" the answer seems to be weighted towards 'lost'. Thirdly, and this is where you Western US detectorists have some edge, is that coins weren't uniformly distributed after being minted. They tend towards regional distribution. The scarcer coins tend (but of course not always) to be from the San Francisco and Carson City mints, at least compared to Philadelphia and New Orleans. Early Denver coins were more scarce than later when they eventually surpassed Philadelphia. You can even go so far as to say that scarce -S and -CC issues were common in certain locales because that is where they were selectively sent and circulated. I don't know how many Lincoln cents I've searched in my lifetime, both from pocket change and bank rolls. WAG is over 100,000. But the scarcest Lincoln I've (yet) found was last summer in the back yard of a house built in the 1950's -- a 1924-D. I've found less than 200 Wheaties (less than 1000 cents total) metal detecting so far. Yes, it could be randomness but I think it's more than that. I know that find pales in comparison to some of yours, but be careful to look over your shoulder because I'm not giving up. ? Ok, enough rambling. It's over 40 F and sunny with no wind. There's a rare coin out there waiting for me and maybe today is my day!

Yes, Fisher makes 3 DD coils for these detectors: 5 inch round (the stock coil on the Gold Bug and Gold Bug Pro), 5inX10in elliptical (stock coil on the F19), and 7inX11in eliptical (stock coil on the Gold Bug DP). All 3 work on both models and on the Teknetics G2 and G2+. All of these fall into the general class of "all purpose detectors" meaning they are good for coins, relics, jewelry, and at least OK for natural gold. Typically all purpose detectors have optional searchcoils available because the particular use of the detector can be enhanced or optimized by the coil choice.

I was looking for this kind of table that showed hardness of metals but didn't find one. I see you did. In the process I found there are many scales and sometimes the units don't match up. For example, Wikipedia lists hardness (Vickers and Brinell scales) for tungsten in MPa (Mega-Pascal) which is a unit of pressure. Your conversion table between Rockwells and Brinell has different units (which is what I was finding, too.) What I found curious with Mark's results was that he couldn't scratch the object with a knife or razor blade but then the Rockwell C hardness was only 33. That is well below knife steel (I think). That would be consistent with your concern that there is typically a large uncertainty around measurements.

Correct. Their relatives (Teknetics Greek Family, Fisher F5) which all operate around 7.8 kHz can take both concentric and DD. Also, the Greek Family DD's work on the Gold Bugs and vice versa, but not the concentrics. That's the general rule. Apparently some individual Gold Bugs have worked with the Tek Greek concentrics, but those are (rare?) exceptions. I've tried it with mine and no dice. I don't know if F5 coils work on other models.

Yes, the Teknetics Patriot with 7"x11" DD coil at $399 new, including shipping, is a better deal, IMO. BTW, the Fisher F75 and Teknetics T2 aren't quite the same detector, but they are related. For example, the coils are not interchangeable and concentric coils aren't available for the T2. But performance-wise they are close, from what I've read. All F75 coils will work on the Patriot -- another reason it's such a good buy. I also agree that only 2 tones for the Gold Bug family is less than ideal for coin hunting. There are so many good, affordable detectors right now that small things can swing the decision.

Read this thread (and see pic in first post of page 2). That might help.

Nice relics! Quick Google search found this. You might want to 'dig deeper': http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist11/pacificpostal.html

That's a simple question without a simple answer. Many things: ground mineralization, electromagnetic intereferece (EMI), depth of target, purity of alloy, size of target, size of searchcoil, etc. affect the detector response to jewelry, including rings. Park 1 mode, default settings is a good place to start. TID's can be anywhere from +1 to +20 (and I wouldn't rule out lower or higher in rare cases). Rings tend to give a consistent TID, regardless of approach angle, but nearby trash can negate that consisency. Relative to coins, jewelry is a tougher read. Jewelry detectorists tend to dig a lot of trash because jewelry reads like trash (in terms of TID). If you are serious about finding jewelry, start digging everything with positive TID and refine your search criteria from there. Oh, and welcome to the forum!

Yes, the F19 is the Gold Bug Pro with a few extra bells and whistles. I have one and really like it, although it's taken a back seat to my Minelab Equinox 800. Several reports of the GB-Pro performance are here on this website, for example: Note that Phrunt has experienced a big improvement with the Detech Ultimate 13 inch coil compared to the stock coils. Of course that's another $170.... But that would likely really help hunting deep relics at battleground sites. Don't ignore the used market for coils but especially for detectors. I've seen some very good buys on the Gold Bug family (and that includes the Teknetics G2 which is equivalent to the GB-Pro and the G2+, equivalent to the F19).

Looks like 'UNION HDW' (Union Hardware Company)? Bottom to right of year: 'SIMER...'? I like oldmancoyote1's guess(?) that it's a railroad tie date spike, although I've never seen one that looked like this.

Just recently heard this here (in another thread). What I'd like to have answered: so there hasn't been water in the ground touching the coin for the past several decades while the coin was just sitting there? Ok, I'm getting off-topic. Probably I should start a new thread with this as the title.

Quite the skill you have with that pen, Lanny! And you keep us hanging in anticipation of the next installment. Thanks.

(Pure) molybdenum (Mo) is very close to silver in specific gravity (10.3 vs. 10.5). Pure tungsten (W) is up there with gold (both 19.3). Mo and W are in the same vertical column on the periodic table meaning they share some chemical and physical properties. Both are quite hard and have high melting points. Tungsten (often alloyed) has a lot of industrial uses. Molydenum not as many AFAIK. What you have is likely some kind of alloy, which makes identifying it more difficult. Still fun in my book. ?

Too bad they left off the fact that it had a -D (Dahlongega, GA) mintmark. I understand most readers wouldn't know what that meant, but another sentence or two would reveal its rarity and add even more to the amazement. Very well written story, otherwise.

That snowball seems to be growing. Just ordered one from Gerry that carrier says arrives Friday. Weekend doesn't look great weatherwise but Monday and Tuesday do. Can't wait to take it to my hunted test sites and see what it will turn up. If I find a Barber dime as nice as yours I'll make sure to get excited. ?

Sorry to hear about the weather, CC. Getting on a long road trip with a few days built in to hunt and you only got 1 decent day. But you made the most of it! Thanks for the well done video. I was going to razz you about being almost disappointed at finding a 1900 Barber dime (and from the end of the video the condition looked near top of the scale) but then you found those two (rather low mintage) -S mint Seated dimes -- beauties! I can see why 1900 seemed new. ? Glad you were careful not to scratch any of your coin finds. The 1868-S looks particularly sharp (low wear) ==> extra valuable. How deep was the Barber dime? From the view of the hole and the amount of dirt removed it appeared to be quite deep on the video.

You need to get the following book (by the Geotech founders): https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Metal-Detector-George-Overton/dp/0985834218/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1550599062&sr=8-1&keywords=inside+the+metal+detector.+by+george+overton+and+carl+moreland It includes DiY detectors, but it's much more than that. As far as analog detectors, they already exist since that was the technology in use in the early years (prior to the 90's, anyway). You can find all of them on Ebay to your heart's content. Although not all purely analog, the Tesoro detectors are the 21st Century version (throwback) of the early analog detectors. This isn't meant to discourage you from building your own analog metal detector. Just giving you options & research material.

VLF's are induction balance detectors. IB is general; VLF originally meant specifically 3kHz to 30 kHz IB detector, but it's gotten sloppy since then. As a result you can think of IB and VLF as synonyms in today's metal detecting world. If you really like building things, then you can have fun building a detector. If you really like detecting then you're probably better off buying one (used or new).

I'll go one further. I'd like to see the latencies in ms, not in some marketing/engineering jargon like "low latency". Chase says : That's the kind of detail I appreciate. And it makes me wonder why some people are running off selling their WM-08 module. I used the WM-80 headset a few times but once I tried the WM-08 attached to my favorite headphones (winter) or my favorite wired earbuds (summer) I've never gone back. (No, I'm not selling the WM-80's, so don't ask. ?)