GB_Amateur

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!

Really? That seems like one more reason to send it in for repair/replacement. I wouldn't trade my TRX for any pinpointer that I'm aware of, but not because of its depth (which for a coin in the ground is about 2 inch limit for dime or penny; that's in gain 3 out of 4).

So (1/2 penny) * (472.29 modern pounds / ancient pound) * [1 ancient pound/(240 pennies)] = 1 modern pound (approx.) equivalent value?

Always glad to have new blood on the forum, and being from Indiana (N,S,E,W?) is a bonus. ? Clearly you are a fast learner. I think that's pretty much true no matter where you are in the US. You always have to find the sites where people have lost coins and where no one else (with skill and a good detector) has searched. Fortunately those private sites are still plentiful -- the key is getting permission and that takes a bit of courage. You seem to have that. Keep is informed as to your progress, and welcome.

Beauty, Andy! You seem to be an enthusiastic, motivated person by nature and I bet this really gets you're detecting blood flowing. ? Next up, gold coin?

Nice one. Your soils seem to be pretty benign if this is how it came out of the ground (after rinsing). I'm also remembering the V-nickel you showed a couple days ago. You said you cranked up the gain to 23-24. How deep was this Indian Head? If I could just hunt fairgrounds the rest of my life I'd be happy. ? Appears you are far from the first to have a dectector over this site but it's still producing. I bet there are more goodies there. Speaking of rain, unlike you we've been pretty dry the last ~3 weeks but that appears to be changing just in time for the weekend -- we're in the bullseye of the remnants of that tropical storm. I'm just hoping that softens the ground and greens the grass so I can cut clean plugs.

When I get a double blip it means something is very close to the bottom of the coil (within maybe an inch). When searching in grass it's usually right there hidden under the blades. You might try an air test getting the object close to the coil, and 'swing' it from one side to the other, not just at coil center.

That flour token looks like an unusual find. Too bad the V-nickel wasn't 1 or 2 years older, but still a nice recovery. Was it in that good of condition when you found it or have you had to work on it with steel wool, etc.? You guys have been getting hit pretty hard with the thunderstorms. Hope there are still a couple months of nice weather before it snows....

Silver halves of any date+MM are unusual finds. Well done, and keep it up!

That's an excellent macro photo. What is the camera brand and model number?

Stop! Looks fantastic.

Ok, next time you find a 1 ounce bit I'll offer you 10 times that much. ? I agree that it's the thrill of the chase that excites me, as long as I get rewarded once in a while. Gold can be found with a $450 detector, a $900 one, a $2500 one, a $7000 one. Everyone has his/her threshold when it comes to how much to spend for that fun. And some people find enough to supplement their income or even (rarely) to make it their primary source. Does the price determine the likelihood of finding gold, or more to the point the amount of gold? Likely, but sometimes there are better things to do with that money. On this I think we all agree although sometimes it seems like responders to questions of "which detector should I buy" don't take this into account. Not a problem on this thread, though. Now go out and have that fun! I'm planning on some this weekend.

Jin's 4500 seems to be doing OK on the small stuff. Yes, I realize some detectors can find even smaller gold than his 0.06 grammer, as JW (among others) has shown many times. A couple things to remember (just in case you don't already know): a) 0.06 g is aproximately equivalent to 1 grain. (Closer is 0.065 g = 1 grain.) b) 0.06 g of pure gold right now is worth about $2.33 (based upon $1204/toz spot).

Many (probably most) of the silver coins we find have value because of their silver content, not because of their collector value. There is a fairly easy rule of thumb to get that value, because of the uniformity of both content (90% silver as you mention) and coin weight. Fortunately for us (and 'them' too), a silver half dollar (50 cents face value) has the same weight as two silver quarters (50c face) and five silver dimes (also 50c face). The silver content of a dollar's worth of 90% silver US coins is very close (actually slightly less) than 0.7 troy ounces. I just looked up the silver spot price -- it's $14.82/toz. I'm going to call that $15 so I can do the arithmetic more easily. 0.7*15 is $10.50. So a silver dime containing one tenth that much silver has a value today of approximately $1.05. Since I rounded up for both factors let's just call it $1.00 even. (Oh, and your just found quarter is worth $2.50!) There are some obvious problems here. The biggest one is wear. Most coins we find aren't fresh from the mint so some silver has been lost through wear. Simply weighing the coin accurately will correct for this. (Your quarter doesn't look to badly worn so probably just a couple percent loss is my guess.) The second problem is that there are exceptions to the weight rule I outlined above. A silver dollar (also 90% silver) weighs more than two silver halves. (And most silver dollars, unless in crappy condition, have some minor collector value above bullion just because of their stature/desirability.) Another issue are the silver War Nickels. If I recall they contain about 2/3 as much silver as a silver dime, but I could be off several percent there. There are other exceptions, particularly for coins struck prior to the Civil War. The collector value ('numismatic value') of coins we find does sometimes exceed the bullion value, and we've seen quite a few examples of that here on this forum. But in general that's not the case and the reason is that the thing that makes these special cases valuable is their scarcity/rarity, and they were scarce when they were dropped all those many years ago meaning it's more likley that the common date+MM (bullion value only) are the ones we find.

True up until recently when they put a mint in West Point, NY (home of the US Military Academy) and coins minted there also have no mint mark. However, now many coins minted in Philly have the 'P' mintmark. It used to be an easy indicator but not anymore. As far as "incidentally happens alot", if you mean you're more likely to find an un-mintmarked US coin than one with a mintmark, that depends a lot on where the coin is found and its date. For a long time (on the order of a century) the Philadelphia mint produced the majority of coins, but by the 1940's Denver was cranking out its share much of the time. "Where" has to do with distribution and diffusion. For example, the western US has/had mints in San Francisco (-S) and Carson City (-CC) so its more likely to find coins with those mintmarks in the West. P.S. Excellent find! I've logged 400 hours in the last 3 years and have found just one silver quarter in that time window. That's going to change soon (fingers crossed). ?

I think it just depends upon your ground minerals. Low mineralization -- you don't need it.

If buying now, how do you know you're getting the 2nd version? Is it simply trusting the dealer to know when you ask? (Guess that argues for finding a knowledgeable dealer, and then sticking with him/her.)