GB_Amateur

Good stuff. 1883 was the first year of the Liberty = V- nickel, and there were two varieties. Originally the word 'Cents' was not at the bottom of the reverse and clever/larcenous alterers were coating them in gold and passing them off as $5 gold pieces. Interestingly, the "no cents" version was 1/3 as common (in terms of mintage) as the "with cents" version and yet it is less valuable. This is an interesting but common occurrence in coinage -- when a newly designed coin is first minted, everyone (well, not quite) wants to save one as a 'collectors item', which is the curse as far as value. When everyone saves one, none of them is worth squat. When no one saves them, just the opposite. (Another example are the 1976 bicentennials, which were glommed onto and are one of the most common coins in high grade -- and worth no more than face value. And it's not just coins that suffer this fate. However there are exceptions such as the 1916 Standing Liberty Quarter and the 1916-D Mercury dime. Don't throw those in your bullion silver pile!!) If your two V-nickels had just waited a couple years you'd really have some rarities. The 1885 and 1886 are the keys to the series (if you ignore the infamous 1913, five of which were minted for friends of the mint director, now worth over $1 million each). After the 1884/85's, the 1912-S is next in rarity/value so you western US coin hunters should keep your eyes open for that one.

I can see you've been busy. Well done! And thanks for posting your settings. What are the three coins(?) on the right of the 2nd to last row? Also, what are the eight coins(?) above the three Buffalo nickels?

I know a lot of people like to run the gain really high, particularly when hunting native gold, but at least for my F75 (black model with DST) I did quite well coin hunting with gain of 60, and even ran it down to 50 at the suggestion of an experienced/accomplished F75 user. I'm not saying don't run it high, but definitely don't feel like you've severely limited your search zone by turning it down.

Apparently there was serious broadband interference. I have no idea what that would be but it kinda sounds like jamming. Any military base nearby?

I've had less EMI issues with the 1.75 software. However, as you say, EMI is variable even for fixed sites (I've returned to three sites where I've had EMI problems with the 1.5 software) so it's not easy to determine what is the cause or what is the solution. I'm not going on record saying I definitely notice a difference (improvement in my case so far), either. I've run about 165 hours with the 1.5 version and about 15 hours (not enough) with the 1.75 software. I definitely need to collect more data. Also, I've never had EMI problems with 15 kHz nor 20 kHz. 5 kHz, yes, everytime I have problems in multi mode I can't run 5 kHz. Once I couldn't run 40 kHz and a couple times I got EMI noise at 10 kHz.

Pretty impressive that he made those observations 16 years ago (maybe even earlier with his expertise with the Fisher CZ family). Those of us who have just moved over to simultaneous multifrequency are learning (and appreciating) those advantages. The "handle EMI better" part has me scratching my head a bit. What I've found with the Minelab Equinox (and I experience this a majority of the time in my local urban hunting) is that I have to run at a gain of 18 +/- to quiet down the Equinox. The frequency micro-adjust feature when in multifrequency doesn't really help if there is significant EMI. I usually try and manually do the micro-adjustment but even that has marginal improvement. Of course a gain of 18 is pretty darn sensitive, so if that will quiet things down I'm fine. Once I couldn't even get a gain of 15 to ignore EMI. However, at worst I can choose a single frequency (effectively taking advantage of the detector being a selectable frequency machine as well) and find a fixed frequency (almost always 15 kHz and 20 kHz and sometimes 10 kHz) that lets me run at gains in the 20's. I don't know if this is what Tom was getting at, but it's a huge plus. With a single frequency detector, even though you might not experience EMI problems as often, when it happens your options are limited to turning down the gain, and in extreme cases you have to go so far down that it renders the detector nearly worthless.

Better than 12 inches deep! ? Seriously, those are the more difficult ones for me both in terms of fooling me and worse, causing me to dig deep. The modulation, both in the search mode and with the pinpoint mode plus the object size indication in the pinpoint mode usually give away close, large objects. When in doubt I raise the coil and see how high I must go to lose the signal. But I do agree that some kind of overload indication (if it doesn't cost performance in other ways) would save quite a bit of wasted hunting time. Maybe there are other (reliable) tricks that help identify those deep, large objects but I haven't found one.

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/what-are-clad-coins-768418 A clad coin is a coin that has multiple layers of metal in it; most current U.S. clad coins consist of an inner core of pure copper, with outer layers of a silver-colored nickel-copper alloy. When you look at the edge of a clad coin you see a copper ring, but that is actually just the edge of a solid copper inner layer -- the core. Think of three pancakes stacked on top of each other, the inner one being pure copper and the outer two being alloys of 75% copper and 25% nickel.

I've tried hunting in 50 tone but there's just too much information coming through for my brain to process. However, hunting in 5 tones and then switching to 50 tones when I want to check out a target would probably work well for me. I wish the user profile button were easier to access, though.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alloy An alloy is a combination of metals or of a metal and another element. Alloys are defined by a metallic bonding character.[1] An alloy may be a solid solution of metal elements (a single phase) or a mixture of metallic phases (two or more solutions). Unfortunately I've seen confusion occasionally as to what an alloy actually is. My simpler explanation than above is that alloys are metals which are mixed and uniformly distributed at the atomic level. For example, US coin silver is 90% silver and 10% copper but the atoms of silver and copper are intermixed at the submicroscopic level. Now what about a US clad coin? That is a sandwich of a copper core and two outer layers of alloyed copper+nickel (same alloy as is used in US 5 cent coins). It's not an alloy per se, but rather a macroscopic combination of two metals. The European coins which have an inner disc surrounded by an outer ring are another example of a mixed metal object which isn't an alloy. Let's say you have a steel (an alloy, BTW) screw with a brass (another alloy) washer and a stainless steel (yet another alloy) nut all fastened together. The Equinox is capable of giving you signals for all three -- steel, brass, stainless -- when they are all connected together. But if you have a silver coin it won't give you separate TID's for the copper part and the silver part of the alloy, but rather a single ID for that particular alloy. (Of course we shouldn't forget that size also plays a roll in the TID, so a US silver quarter which is the exact same composition as the silver dime has a different TID.) The bottom line is that the separation capabilities of the Eqx can sometimes distinguish different metals which are close to each other at the macroscopic level but not at the microscopic level (true alloy). One last point which is interesting and which all US coin hunters are aware of: clad coins only give a single TID (for its size). Even more puzzling (to me) is that it's the copper core which gives the TID, or at least the signal is consistent with that. On the Eqx a US 'nickel' 5 cent (75% copper, 25% nickel) has a TID of 12-13. The smaller clad dime (copper core, nickel outer layers with same composition as the US nickel) gives a TID around 26. A US memorial penny pre-1982 (alloy of 95% copper, 5% zinc), which is slightly larger than the dime reads almost the same as the dime -- TID around 25-26. So the detector appears to ignore the outer nickel-alloy layers of the clad dime and give a TID consistent with just the copper core. (Likely what is going on is more complicated than what I just described.) I've never found a European bi-metallic coin but from what I've read here it apparently also gives only a single TID (analogous to our US clad coins) as opposed to multiple TID's similar to the above example of screw+washer+nut. So maybe the actual geometry matters?

I haven't noticed a difference for large targets that would overload other detectors (such as the Fisher F75). Yes, for the Eqx you have to learn to recognize those large targets without an overload type response. But after that does it help finding nearby small, non-ferrous? I don't know. In my experience you have to get very far away from the large (overload) target to find any meaningful signals, and that's the way it has been for my other detectors, too. Do you mean that the signal itself is broad -- covers broad range of TID's, or just that the actual signal for a known, consistent TID (for example, US dime) is shifted? A dime shows up around 26 in clean ground. If you see a (jumpy) 23 when iron is nearby you have to allow for the fact that it might be a partially masked dime?

I can give one reason, at least to my ear -- pure non-ferrous sound, in my experience, means a non-ferrous object is either close to the surface or far from ferrous objects. Iron, being the most common metallic element and being a very useful metal in terms of versatility, particularly strength, has been used for centuries in vast amounts. Virtually every site where a structure (building, fence, etc.) has been located is inundated with buried iron. Having said that, it seems that some here have a way of distinguishing between larger iron (which gives both high conductor signals and low conductor hints) and separate high conductor + nearby small iron. If that can be done then your recommendation can be implemented. Likely it depends upon the size of the objects and the separation distance, even with a trained ear.

Victorinox is the official 'Swiss Army' brand. There are many cheapo counterfeits out there. I never leave home without my authentic one and they last forever (until you lose it, which I've done more than once -- one confiscated at the gate entrance to an NFL game when I forgot to leave it in the car ?). No nickels?? Are you using the ML CTX 3030? With the ML Eqx 800 I find as many (5 cent) nickels as clad dimes. Yes, there are nickel falsies like certain sized can slaw, pencil ferrules, and broken off beaver tail pulltabs. Worst are the aluminum punchouts associated with square tabs (neither of which was designed to be removed from the can -- which is the most annoying thing). I dare anyone to tell me they can consistently distinguish those from nickels with an Eqx. Nice haul, Norm, but I like your pictures of silver a lot better. ?

A year ago I m/l stumbled upon an 18th Century saloon/brothel/hotel and livery stable in a mining area of the Colorado Rockies. There was sheet metal ('tin') everywhere. I was hunting with the Fisher Gold Bug Pro, 5x10 in^2 coil. That scrap metal was hitting in the low 80's (copper penny / dime zone) consistently. I filled a gold pan with it. I now have 160 hours with the Minelab Equinox. Does it hit high (TID) on large iron/steel? Yes. Does it give some hint of iron? Sometimes, especially when the edges are rusted. Unfortunately so do nails near good (e.g. coin) targets. In my limited experience the Eqx is very good at unmasking, but it isn't perfect (and I'm not expecting it to be). Friday I had an inconsistent 24+ signal which was belching negative numbers (iron) along with it. When I took a 90 degree angle of attack reading, the non-ferrous target disappeared completely. I pinpointed a strong ferrous signal nearby (iron rod simlar to a 16d nail), removed it, and then swept the spot again. Clean coin signal from all angles produced a 5 inch deep Wheat penny. The difference between the Eqx and other detectors I've used is that it will often give hints that good non-ferrous target is available when ferrous is nearby. It's not perfect, but the longer I use it the more it speaks my language (or should I say "I understand its language"). Sheet metal is way worse than nails, as Steve H. and others have emphasized. But there may be sweet music amongst those grunts and that's what I'm listening for.

I would take Dave's suggestion and do the specific gravity test before deciding on an irreversible (destructive) route. If there's a reasonable amount of gold, you might have a better (that is, more profitable) approach to take than turning this into dust. More info is almost always helpful.

Obviously your long hours and great attitude are producing. Thanks for sharing the pics -- gives us motivation! What detector and settings are you using? Are you mainly honing in on the nickel zone and above Zincoln zones? I see some rings there -- are those silver, TID'ing up with the copper pennies, etc.? I'm one of the nickel hunters, too. I can live with the junk targets (at my sites mostly 'right' sized can slaw and on school yards, pencil ferrules) that show up in the nickel TID region -- just goes with the territory. Oh, and you might take your "work your butt off literally" discovery to the infomercial folks out there in SoCal. ?

It sounds like what you (and a few others) are experiencing is a caution to all of us -- open up our discrimination (any type, particularly the brain discriminator) from what we've learned previously and recalibrate.

I commend XLOOX for giving objective details of his tests. It seems he is displaying the tradeoff between run time and sensitivity. His Li-ion solution provides an average of 15V (and its associated higher sensitivity) for 2.7 hours of runtime. That is compared to Eneloop Pro NiMH at average 10 V for 6 hr and White's NiMH pack, also average 10 V but 4.5 hr runtime. Users must decide if they want longer run time or higher senstivity. You get both if you carry extra battery packs (==> extra weight and cost). I doubt any of this is new qualitatively, but I appreciate XLOOX for putting quantitative measurements on these concepts.

Is it possible to find (e.g. government archived) LIDAR pics of that area? I don't know how likely it is for vegitation to overgrow tailing piles in that climate, but if such happened I expect LIDAR would reveal them.

Nice workmanship on all your homemade parts. White's should hire you. ? Since you need the extra weight to avoid buoancy can you add even more batteries?

You're putting six of these in series? Unless I'm mistaken this would be 6 x 3.7V = 22.2 V nominal, and probably as much as 24 V when fully charged. Pretty sure White's (e.g. Tom B. here on this sight, but also I've read elsewhere) warn about using more than 18V or so when powering the TDI.

I don't think the photo gives enough info, but you likely can find that info yourself. Some questions to ask: 1) Is this a gold producing area? (I assume, based upon the intro, you already know this.) 2) Is this a commercially viable fishing spot? 3) Would the governing wildlife organization even (in 1970's) allow damming a creek to enhance harvesting fish? Would they allow today? If they did in the past would they require the dam be removed when the permit expires. (You could also ask this question if a dam was built for precious metals recovery.) 4) Is the location sufficiently remote (or was it in the 1970's) to require dog sled access and provide secrecy/privacy for the miner in question? There may be some other clues I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable to decipher, such as: "If you were going to dam up this creek for gold recovery, is this the right spot for the dam?" GL with your quest!

37 g is worth about $15.50 US just silver content. That's about five of JW's nuggets! ?

I was wondering what happened to you, Tim. I had visions of much worse fates, such as: just lost interest. ? Welcome back! Good luck reading all the threads you've missed.

Welcome, John! You may be a newbie here, but obviously you're a veteran of the endeavor. We'll be glad you learn from your experience.

There are a lot of posts with good information but every once in a while one comes along that is so densely packed that it's worth bookmarking for repeated reading. Steve, you've created another one of those. Thanks!