GB_Amateur

Here in the USA the new prices are ~$4k and $6k so ratio is 2/3, not 1/2. Maybe that South African dealer is discounting his 5000's, trying to liquidate perceived overstock, or possibly putting a premium on the 6000 because of high demand. Meanwhile, here the SDC2300 is going for ~$3.3k making me think the SA prices reflect a bit of both strategies (dumping 5000's while jacking up the price on the 6000). Then again, maybe their wholesale prices (i.e. dealer cost) are differently proportioned than here.

Ironic it closed in the 1970's, apparently before the record gold (and silver) price, and has never been reopened. The (couple of) records Jeff was thumbing through didn't show much gold, but significant silver and some base metals. Obviously this was a very large operation with lots of employees. A snapshot of the past. Thanks, Mitchel! I couldn't find where he mentioned the location (likely intentional) but since he lives in Las Vegas, probably near there.

I saw a NatGeo Channel TV show about this within the past couple weeks. For those not familiar you can (always 😏) get good info on Wikipedia as to what the TV news left off. This particular ship was found very close to Spain (taken from the linked Wikipedia page): and not from near the USA coast. Also, according the show (if I can trust my memory) the gold wasn't looted from South Americans but rather apparently was a payment intended for Napolean for 'protection' so that he wouldn't invade Spain(!). (Warning: I don't see that mentioned in the Wikipedia article so maybe this speculation is questionable, at best. The Wikipedia article says that Peru, in 1804 still a Spanish colony, disputed ownership but the courts rejected that.) None of this, IMO, gives Spain 100% ownership after a treasure salvage project found it. However, I do wonder (and didn't see it in the TV show) if the salvors knew they were breaking some law (specific to Spain or maybe international) when they found and then recovered it. To really get an idea of how treasure search and salvage missions get complicated (and dangerous!), read the captivating 1998 book Ship Full of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder, which covers in detail the research, search, and recovery of the SS Central America off the North Carolina coast. For example, taking time to contact a government to negotiate a deal which Mitchel wondered about might not have worked in that case. (Hint: they were competing with others who weren't bothered by 'principles' regarding tactics -- e.g. spying on the location of the salvage ship.)

I'm not in great position to answer your question. However, after 1000+ hours of Minelab Equinox operation, including using the pinpoint function with more than half of the targets investigated, I still find it puzzling and even occasionally frustrating. I'm glad you brought this up and I'm going to sit back and read replies before chiming it. (I'm talking about replies which directly address the question; less interested in those that argue for other pinpoint methods even though those are 'tools' that should be in everyone's 'toolbox'.)

I feel like I've had a similar experience. I know some do the factory reset fairly often. Once I get my detector set the way I like it I tend to go forever without changing anything but Noise Cancel channel, Ground Balance setting, and gain, and I only change those when I notice they need to be adjusted. (BTW, I'm talking about local hunting of parks and schools. Special situations like private permissions, ghost towns, and native gold detecting are different beasts and then I tune accordingly.) I don't hunt in factory preset modes. It takes me quite a while (maybe as much as an hour) to adjust to my favorite settings after I do a reset. But I've stayed with those custom settings long enough that I no longer have to go through and record everything before I do the reset, so at least that part doesn't take up my time. Thanks for the reminder -- I'm going to do a factory reset this weekend as it's been a few months since my last.

Of course not what 1515Art witnessed, but still a very bright event which wasn't easily distinguishable as a (large!) piece of space junk. As if natural aerial & astro phenomena weren't difficult enough to identify, now we have to deal with the orbital garbage trucks emptying into our precious 'landfill'....

For all the verbal crap dumped on First Texas (IMO, some deserved, some not) over both the AQ, other detectors, and the company in general) it's nice to see someone with a ton of experience with one of their detectors singing its praises. As always, thanks for your posts (with associated great eye candy!) and especially your objectivity.

IMO, the biggest value of the Monte's Nail Board Test (MNBT) is being a standard anyone can build to Monte's specifications and then test detectors (with different settings as in the video above or comparing different detectors). Being a standard, the results can be compared across the globe; it's not simply a test only repeatable by one person. It does have usage as a pre-hunt tool but like every test setup, it has specific orientations of good and bad targets which don't usually mimic the complete real world situation. The latter can only be done rigorously one way -- go into the field and detect! If you read Monte's monograph, he 'stumbled' (my word) upon a distribution of nails and coin(s) in a ghost town and copied that. From my limited experience in desert ghost towns, targets and trash tend to be on or near the surface. So the MNBT is pretty realistic in those situations. As far as iron (& alloys) vs. aluminum (& alloys), that's a more complicated subject due to iron having both magnetic and conductive properties (either/or, and often both) vs. aluminum being purely conductive.

You answered your own question. Prior to the formal establishment of the USA in 1788 (when the Constitution was ratified by a sufficient number of former Colonies, subsequently called 'States'), there was a mis-mash of coinage from various sources within individual states, some of which mimicked the British system (as illustrated by the coin in PimentoUK's initial post in this thread) and some copying the Spanish system.

Pretty cool! They made three denominations, all rare: 3 pence, 6 pence, and shilling (12 pence) -- this last being what was reported in the article as a recent discovery. The 3 pence is the most valuable as only one survivor is currently known to exist. I'm sure kac is on the lookout for all three of these during his detecting adventures. 😄 The first USA silver dollar minted (after ratification of the Constitution), in 1794, also has a strong British side story. It also is a true American rarity even more highly sought and valued. Two of the four finest know examples of this rarity were discovered in England in the 1960's. As here, the owners of those had no clue that they had any extra value. The nicer of those two sold for $5 million in 2015.

Nice eclectic collection of finds. I doubt that a calibration weight would have an attachment ring such as that shown. I thought it might be some kind of charm for a bracelet (those used to be super popular with children) but at ~12 g. it seems too heavy for that. I'm stumped. That cross in the last photo is an Ankh which has been used by various groups (religious, fraternal, etc.) over the centuries.

Welcome, Michael! I take it you are busy winterizing things there in MN, getting ready to head West for a few months. Hope you enjoy both the upcoming weather and especially the detecting & prospecting!

If someone says something in a (recorded, made public) interview or posts something on social media, it's already out in the open -- no permission needed. I understand why something said in a private conversation would require permission, though.

You put those sentences in quotes. I'm curious as to whom specifically you are quoting.

Good deal. The color in the photo made me think more was done. The chemicals in the soil must have resulted in that. It's as nice of condition of an IHP just coming out of the ground (only subjected to a water rinse) that I've ever seen. Mine are always green and usually scaled. Yours is a beaut! (I wouldn't do anything more, but that's me....)

I'm pretty sure Coiltek made this coil for water use. Besides the downward force of gravity, a coil in the water is subject to an upward buoyant force (see Archimedes' Principle) which is proportional to the internal volume of the coil. (Think about the extreme of a closed coil vs. an open coil of the same diameter and windings -- definitely prefer the open coil when water detecting!) Not only does a heavier coil help offset the buoyant (upward) force but it also provides inertia against water currents from waves, undertoe, etc. The downside is that the coil still needs to be swung by the detectorist so more effort is required in that respect, not to discount the fluid dynamic drag the water provides, requiring even more effort. Now you know why Popeye the Detector Man had such huge forearms and ate so much spinach. In an air test the Coiltek 9"x14" coil should perform about equally to the 11" stock in terms of max detection distance. (I say that based upon a relationship I determined experimentally and posted here a while back, that the depth in air is proportional to the square root of the product of the length of the coil's two axes.) As Abenson points out, in the field the effects of ground mineralization, even moderate amounts, will lead to performance degradation and that may not (and probably doesn't) track according to this simple relationship.

Impressive results under any conditions, but particularly in thick vegetation. That IHP sure didn't see much time in circulation. Might even have graded out in the AU range but looks like it's been cleaned....

Ever wonder why there is a bad relationship between detectorists and archaeologists? Now you know the answer. Thanks, dipsh_t.

Just one word: perseverence!

After 3 years of posts on this subject we finally get some objective evidence! ("Picture's worth a thousand words.") We don't know if this illustration is common to all of the breakage, but it might be a smoking gun. Absolutely this should not happen. However, does it happen because of flaws in dimensional tolerances (possibly), flaws in the washer's durometer (hardness) tolerance or selection (possibly) or from overtightening of the coil bolt (possibly)? And answering that is the first part although maybe the most important. For example, are people overtightening the bolt because otherwise the coil moves too easily? That would indicate a mechanical design shortcoming more so than user error. I'm not much of horn tooter when it comes to Minelab attitudes and policies, in case you haven't noticed. However, convicting them of the coil breakage doesn't strike me as right, yet (and that's after 3+ years of problem reports).

First off, I compliment you on having the wisdom to take Gerry's 'short course' with his crack crew of assistants, and kudos getting ready to take it a second time. I've said it repeatedly here -- it was well worth the time and expense for me. Your purchase actions mimic mine, although even more accelerated. I returned (from a 35 year hiatus) to detecting in 2015 and in the first 2 years I bought four detectors, then before the third year was up I got swept up by the ML Equinox craze and got #5. Lost along the way was actually learning the subtlties and nuances of those four detectors. I heard sounds; I saw a screen full of pixels; and I found some good things (with the accompanying pile of trash). Next! As a result, I ended up starting to use the Equinox thinking I knew more than I did (Oh, BTW, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" ) and had (...have -- i.e. still do) a steeper learning curve than many. If I could start over, one or two of those first four would have given me a better head start when I got the Eqx. ("Hindsight is 2020...") Your three detectors are complementary (do-it-all ML Equinox, salt water specialist ML Excalibur, native gold finding PI, the ML GPX6000) but there are still many techniques common to two and even all three. You have your work cut out for you, but the tools are in hand. Enjoy the ride!

Reminds me of the Garrett ad before the release of the AT/Max as well as several recent Minelab ads. Do all these companies use the same (lame, IMO) ad agency? OK, some of the Minelab ads in particular as well as Garrett's Apex ads were even lamer than this. Tease, tease, tease on their part. Wait, wait, wait on ours.

DIG5050 got you off to a good start and others have taken it from there. I will summarize a few things already said with minor corrections. 1) If the ring isn't there anymore there is nothing you can do about that and you'll never no. So just ignore that possibility, at least until you no longer have access to this site and decide to drown your sorrows. The ring is there; go find it! 2) I would use one detector, the one you are the most comfortable and confident with. All three should be able to find it. 3) If possible, mow the grass before searching. That extra inch being able to get the coil closer to the ground could pay off. 4) I would forget the area you've excavated. It's very unlikely that it's in that exact rectangle and if it is, it's probably out of your ability to find it. (If you do get others to come help, it wouldn't hurt for one of them to go over that area, though. A dfifferent detector and particularly a different detectorist might pick up on something you missed.) 5) Unless you have an exact version of the ring, don't concentrate your digital Target ID range too tightly or setting your discrimination threshold too high for the Tesoro. (I'm not familiar with the Garrett.) 6) Definitely go over any area (assuming you have time) from different directions. Some gold detectorists actually cover an area from 4(!) directions -- each 45 degrees or in other words up/back, left/right, and both diagonals. All of the above assumes you have time for it. If time doesn't allow, prioritize by picking one detector, searching away from your previous excavated spot, and covering from 2 directions. BTW, I don't recall you stating the metal content of the ring nor the year it was lost. The metal content (and even if 'gold', what was the concentration, i.e. karat specification?). Stay confident you are doing things correctly and will find it. ("Power of Positive Thinking") And enjoy the ride!

Leaning increasingly towards a lapel pin. The R with a circle (standing for 'Registered Trade Mark'?) is interesting and narrows it down some. Has anyone tried to put it into that artificial intelligence engine on the internet that finds matches? (Obviously I haven't since I don't even remember the name of it. 🥴)

There are two things that this thread drives home, at least for me. The first is that we all have our preferences, more specifically targets we want to make sure not to miss and those that we don't mind if we (occasionally?) miss. We all hunt in different soils with different histories. The second point is that the ML Equinox has so many 'knobs to turn' that it's really many different detectors in one package. So each of us can set it to cater to his/her preferences, soil conditions, drop history,.... (The list is much longer but the highlighted apply most directly to this thread.)